Protesting NHM employees face batons

Srinagar, Feb 12: Police on Tuesday foiled the protest march of National Health Mission (NHM) employees here.

They have been on strike for the last 27 days, demanding regularization of their services and implementation of Supreme Court guidelines of equal pay for equal wages.

Hundreds of NHM employees including doctors assembled at Pratap Park here, where they have been on strike since it began.

Carrying placards and raising slogans in favour of their demands, they took out a march and proceeded towards Regal Chowk.

They were stopped by the Police near Kothi Bagh Police station. After stiff resistance, police first sprayed chilli gas to disperse them and later resorted to lathicharge and arrested scores of them.

Talking to the Kashmir Monitor, one of the protesters, Bashir Ahmad said that they would continue with their strike, till their demands were met.

“We have been demanding regularization and implementation of Supreme Court (SC) guidelines of equal pay for equal wages. Our demands should be met at an earliest,” he said.

“We can give some more time to the government for the formulation of regularization policy, provided it implements the SC guidelines of equal pay for equal wages in our favour without any delay,” he added.

“We have been working relentlessly, providing our best for the patient care   but the government is doing nothing to address our issues,” said another protester, Mir Imran.

“No social security benefits are being provided to us. For the last three consecutive years, J&K has secured top ranking in the primary health care sector. The mortality rate has come down,” he said.