Community health officers stage protest, abstain from NHM work

The district unit of the Community Health Officers Association, Punjab, today organised a protest against the District Monitoring and Evaluation Officer (DMEO), in the Civil Surgeon office complex here. The protestors levelled serious allegations against the DMEO. Community health officers from across the district participated in the demonstration.

As the community health officers working under the National Health Mission (NHM) abstained from work, health services in the district remained paralysed during the day. The Community Health Officers took part in the protest, led by the district president of the organisation, Jasmin Kaur and her assistant Jugraj Kaur. The leaders who addressed the protesters on the occasion were Ravinder Kaur, Jeevanjot Singh, Mandeep Kaur, Davinder Kaur, Sukhpal Kaur and Ramandeep Kaur. The speakers levelled serious allegations of continuous mental harassment by the DMEO and expressed concern over the threat of withholding their salaries.

The leaders of the organisation said that in case the senior officials failed to check such behaviour towards them, the organisation will be forced to intensify its struggle. The DMEO, however, did not respond to calls made on his mobile phone to seek his version.

When contacted in this regard, Civil Surgeon Dr Gurpreet Singh Rai said that he has formed a four-member committee of officials from the department in addition to the complainant community health officers to resolve the matter and further action will be taken as per the report of this committee.