GURUGRAM: As many as 1,500 employees of various government departments, including Huda, National Health Mission (NHM) and sanitation workers in the city are on the protest path, demanding hike in pay and better working conditions or protesting the suspension of colleagues.
Nearly 650 workers of NHM, working in the district health department, stayed away from work on Tuesday. Patients approaching district hospitals were referred to other places but ambulance and AYUSH services, handled entirely by the NHM staff, were severely affected.
Demanding "equal pay for equal work", over 650 employees of the district and 12,500 employees of the state are participating in a two-day strike that started on Tuesday. The NHM workers had announced the strike last week. Haryana NHM Employees Association district leader Hariraj said, "Due to the government's indifference, we have taken this step." He said the strike might get prolonged. Tuesday's strike did not shut down health services but did resulted in a lack of staff to tend to patients. Ramavatar, who came to Sohna Hospital for her son's treatment, was referred to General Hospital. "My son is not able to move due to weakness. But we didn't get an ambulance."
"We were prepared to provide services despite lack of staff. Except ambulance services, other facilities were only partially affected. We hope to find a solution to this soon," said Dr Pradeep Sharma, principal medical officer, Gurgaon.
Meanwhile, the strike by employees of Huda against the suspension of five employees of estate office-II entered the 15th day on Tuesday. Huda has not revoked the suspension as demanded by the union and has not given any indication of fulfilling demands of protesting employees. On November 17, Huda chief administrator J Ganeshan suspended five officials of estate office-II, including two junior engineers, Sandeep Lot and Mohammad Ali, and clerks Aman, Amarjet Rana and Rajkumar Dhaka for increasing pendency of work on the online system.
This triggered a strike. The protests started on November 21 and for the past nine days, union members have been on a chain hunger strike. On Tuesday, they decided to widen demands and shifted focus on transfer of Huda's land and assets to GMDA. "We have decided to expand our protest and fight for the survival of Huda as an institution," said Sandeep Lot, president of Huda junior engineer association. "Huda is under debt but it can be revived," said Lot, adding that Huda had properties worth over Rs 24,000 crore in Gurgaon only but the assets were being transferred to GMDA. Last week, nearly 300-400 sanitation workers started a protest, demanding better facilities, better wages and proper job roles under the integrated waste management plan. They have, however, put their protest on hold, after mayor Madhu Azad assured them that their demands would be addressed by the year end. They plan to strike again if this deadline is not met.
Nearly 650 workers of NHM, working in the district health department, stayed away from work on Tuesday. Patients approaching district hospitals were referred to other places but ambulance and AYUSH services, handled entirely by the NHM staff, were severely affected.
Demanding "equal pay for equal work", over 650 employees of the district and 12,500 employees of the state are participating in a two-day strike that started on Tuesday. The NHM workers had announced the strike last week. Haryana NHM Employees Association district leader Hariraj said, "Due to the government's indifference, we have taken this step." He said the strike might get prolonged. Tuesday's strike did not shut down health services but did resulted in a lack of staff to tend to patients. Ramavatar, who came to Sohna Hospital for her son's treatment, was referred to General Hospital. "My son is not able to move due to weakness. But we didn't get an ambulance."
"We were prepared to provide services despite lack of staff. Except ambulance services, other facilities were only partially affected. We hope to find a solution to this soon," said Dr Pradeep Sharma, principal medical officer, Gurgaon.
Meanwhile, the strike by employees of Huda against the suspension of five employees of estate office-II entered the 15th day on Tuesday. Huda has not revoked the suspension as demanded by the union and has not given any indication of fulfilling demands of protesting employees. On November 17, Huda chief administrator J Ganeshan suspended five officials of estate office-II, including two junior engineers, Sandeep Lot and Mohammad Ali, and clerks Aman, Amarjet Rana and Rajkumar Dhaka for increasing pendency of work on the online system.
This triggered a strike. The protests started on November 21 and for the past nine days, union members have been on a chain hunger strike. On Tuesday, they decided to widen demands and shifted focus on transfer of Huda's land and assets to GMDA. "We have decided to expand our protest and fight for the survival of Huda as an institution," said Sandeep Lot, president of Huda junior engineer association. "Huda is under debt but it can be revived," said Lot, adding that Huda had properties worth over Rs 24,000 crore in Gurgaon only but the assets were being transferred to GMDA. Last week, nearly 300-400 sanitation workers started a protest, demanding better facilities, better wages and proper job roles under the integrated waste management plan. They have, however, put their protest on hold, after mayor Madhu Azad assured them that their demands would be addressed by the year end. They plan to strike again if this deadline is not met.
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