SHILLONG:
Around 200 service delivery staff under National Health Mission Meghalaya on Tuesday staged a protest demanding the reversal of the recent notification on rationalisation of pay structure.
Doctors, staff nurses and ANM participated in the protest.
According to one of the employees, Kordorlang Lyngdoh, after the rationalisation the salary of some staff has reduced.
“We believe that this rationalisation was not done in a proper manner and done without proper deliberation,” Lyngdoh said.
He said that when the employees met the Mission Director NHM, Ram Kumar, he told the delegation that he would thoroughly examine the matter and the employees’ qualification would be taken into account.
Later, the employees took out a march from Malki Ground to the office of Director of Health Services in Laitumkhrah.
In Tura too, hundreds of employees working under the National Health Mission in Garo Hills took to the streets.
The employees gathered at the compound of Tura circuit house and had a meeting before marching towards the deputy commissioner’s office to submit a memorandum.
The protesters came from East, South, North, South-West and West Garo Hills districts.
They are demanding that service delivery staff should not get their salaries deducted after rationalisation and want authorities to take into consideration their qualifications and job descriptions at the time of approval of the final draft.
Hundreds of people have been recruited into the NHM across the state in the past couple of years with a fixed salary but with no other facilities. It is only recently that basic pay structures have reportedly been provided but the anger, according to some of the disgruntled employees, has been over the reduced pay structure.
“The basic pay given to service delivery staff is much lower than what they used to get in the previous pay structure. We want the government to change that,” demanded a protester. There is also palpable anger against the upper management staff who are accused of drawing handsome pay and perks while those in the lower ranks who are engaged in daily healthcare services are given just the bare minimum.