SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 17: The Jharkhand State National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) Contractual Employees Association has strongly protested the felicitation of some selected health staff as Corona Warriors on Independence Day for their outstanding services during the pandemic.
The Association on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner (DC) cum District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) chairman Sandeep Singh demanding a probe into partiality in the selection of ‘ Corona Warrior’ health employees.
Notably, the district administration on the occasion of Independence Day felicitated 25 health employees for their services during the Corona pandemic.
The NRHM employees body has also sent a copy of the memorandum signed by 50 health employees to the chief minister and the health secretary for justice.
“A majority of health staff, who have been felicitated were not genuine Corona Warriors. They never did fieldwork during the pandemic such as Swab testing of people, RT-PCR, TruNat test of suspected Covid patients and contract tracing of people in lanes and villages. Some of them among 25 who had worked only on a computer, were selected as Corona Warrior,” said an NRHM Contractual Employees Association leader.
The Association leaders in a memorandum rued that not a single contractual MPW, ANM, Reproductive Child Health (RCH) employee who was deployed at ICU of Covid hospitals, RT-PCR, RAT, TruNat at railway stations, bus stand, Maithon check post of Jharkhand- Bengal in three shifts risking their lives were totally ignored in the selection of Corona Warrior.
The NRHM employees’ body alleged that a health staff was show caused by the Incident Commander for dereliction of duty. Surprisingly he too was selected as Corona Warrior and felicitated.
“Deputy Commissioner(DC) is new. He has no ground information of who worked what during the Corona pandemic. Some officials picked their choice of employees as Corona Warriors overlooking genuine health workers,” said leaders of NRHM employees body.
