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Medical staff working under the National Health Mission (NHM) launched a 72-hour strike outside the Sub District Hospital Gandoh on Thursday to protest against the state government's allegedly deducting 2.5 days' worth of salary from their monthly pay.
Displaying posters with their demands, the healthcare workers said that they traditionally received this remuneration for working overtime, expressing deep resentment over the sudden financial cut. The strike was called following an official notice from the Medical Employees Federation of Jammu and Kashmir. "This protest is for the salary of 2.5 days. We used to get the salary for 2.5 days because we did our duty on Sundays, gazetted holidays, and nights," explained one of the protestors. Another demonstrator claimed that there was a pay disparity in the administrative hierarchy, stating, "Our regular staff's salary for 2.5 days should be released... Why are we from NHM not getting equal salary? I request the state government to increase our salary or make us regular." These staff members work to implement NHM, which aims to provide financial and technical support to States / Union Territories (UTs), enabling them to provide accessible, affordable, accountable, and effective healthcare up to District Hospitals (DHs), especially to the poor and vulnerable sections of the population. It aims to bridge the gap in rural healthcare services through improved health infrastructure, augmentation of human resource and improved service delivery in rural areas and has envisaged decentralisation of the programme to the district level to facilitate need-based interventions, improve intra and inter-sectoral convergence, and effective utilisation of resources, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (ANI)
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