SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 24: Retrenched contractual health employees gheraoed civil surgeon’s office on Friday for several hours demanding immediate payment of their five-month pending honorarium.
Agitating contractual health employees alleged that they discharged their assigned responsibility at the risk of their life during the Corona period but the health department removed them from the service without clearing the pending salary payment of five months. So, they would not leave the gherao of the civil surgeon’s office without getting the pending salary.
Over 400 health personnel were recruited in August 2020 on a contract basis for vaccination, testing and collecting Covid-19 samples in the district health department. But their contract was terminated on March 31, 2022, as Covid-19 was controlled. Notably, the health department did not pay their salary due from November 2021 to March 2022.
Vishal Mahto, one of the retrenched health employees charged that his services were taken at Sadar hospital, Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) microbiology laboratory, Covid Centre, PG Covid ward, railway station, Nirsa CHC, Jharkhand- Bengal border, Dhanbad bus stand and different vaccination booths across the district but did not clear the pending salary while terminating the service.
“When civil surgeon did not initiate step for pending payment, we were compelled to the gherao health department and it would continue till due is cleared,” said Mahto.
Another retrenched employee Subodh Rawani said since it was an emergency service they did not take even a single day off from duty in two years (August 2020 to March 2022) and served Covid patients without minding the risk of life but the department did not think twice of over dedication before retrenching.
Jharkhand Medical and Public Health Employees Association Dhanbad district has also supported their agitation and demanded immediate clearance of their pending five months’ salary due. General secretary of the association Sanjut Sahay said that the health department must clear their five months pending salary due and adjust their service as per the requirement as they had rendered their service in an emergency in the interest of the health department.
The agitating employees withdrew the gherao in the late afternoon after civil surgeon Shyam Kishore Kant called him for a talk on Monday.
