Contractual staff annoyed with Sudhakar

By: Sanjay R Murty / NT

Bengaluru: The State Health Department’s contractual staff have expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the minister Dr K Sudhakar and the top officials in the department have been neglecting their concerns.

The representatives of contractual and outsourced employees of the department say that though several meetings have been convened, they are of no use as implementation is lacking.
Ayanur Manjunath, a BJP MLC, had recently alleged that Minister K Sudhakar was unresponsive to the workers’ demands and had reportedly called him an ‘inefficient minister’.
Vishawaradhya H Y, the President of  Karnataka State Health Contractual and Outsourced Employees’ Association (KSHCOEA) said that the association’s latest demand is to implement what was negotiated in a meeting with the minister in February.

“There was no order that was passed instructing the officials clearly. The pandemic delayed the preparation of the report, and later we had to withdraw our strike in view of Covid-19. The least they can do is to implement what was discussed in the meeting in February,” he said.
The KSHCOEA President also said that the Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), in the past, had issued orders but levied several conditions. “This kind of implementation is useless,” he quipped.  

According to Vishwaradhya, the officials are largely responsible for the non-implementation. “Ministers have changed, but the officials have not. Does this not mean that the hurdle is the attitude of the officials,” he asked.

The health workers have been putting forth a number of demands including regularization for the past three to four years. 

In a letter from KSHCOEA dated May 23, the association has made several demands, like wage hikes, health insurance, and transfer policy. 

It also mentioned that States like Haryana and Kerala have already implemented similar measures for the welfare of their contractual health workers.

News Trail’s repeated attempts to reach out to the officials of the health department and NHM for comment went in vain.