PATNA: Police on Monday caned contractual auxiliary nurse midwives-rural (
ANM-R) outside Vikas Bhavan, which houses the offices of health department minister and principal secretary.
"Two ANM-R have been seriously injured in the lathicharge while several others were badly beaten," said Bihar State ANM-R Contractual Employee Federation's secretary Sunita Kumari.
Nearly 7,000 contractual ANM-R have been on an indefinite strike since November 3 demanding equal pay for equal work and regularization of service. The state health department officials had assured them on December 13 that their meeting would be arranged with the health minister and principal secretary (health) on December 18 to discuss their demands and reach a decision.
Sunita said two representatives from the Bihar State Non-Gazetted Employees Federation (Gope faction) had gone to meet the state health department officials. "We saw the two representatives being driven somewhere in a car. Their cellphones are also switched off. We believe they have been detained by the police," she said and added they would keep protesting outside the Secretariat until the two representatives were released and their demands met.
