NHM contract staff demand regular jobs

Nurpur, june 2

The National Health Mission (NHM) Contractual Employees Association has urged Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to announce a policy to regularise their jobs on the pattern of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Vikas Matlotia, Kangra district president of the association, said that after their protest in Shimla on February 2, the state government constituted a three-member committee headed by the state’s NHM Director to consider the demand of the employees.

He said that the committee was tasked with proposing the framework of the policy within three months. However, despite convening three meetings, the committee has failed to frame a policy.

“In 2016, the previous Virbhadra Singh government had issued a notification to regularise the NHM employees having eight years of service, but it was implemented only in the IGMC, Shimla, and Tanda medical college, Kangra, depriving hundreds of employees of any service benefits,” he added.

Matlotia said the salaries of these employees were a mere fraction of what the regular employees were getting. “Haryana, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have regularised the services of NHM staff,” he said.