L-G says contractual staff to get weightage in hiring process
Contractual National Health Mission (NHM) employees on Sunday called off their protest after Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha met them and announced extension of their contract by three months.
Over 1,500 employees were demonstrating for the last four days against termination of their contracts. The L-G visited the Government Medical College (GMC) here and heard their grievances.
The NHM workers sought continuation of their services on the plea that they had done a lot of hard work during the Covid crisis, officials said.
“On my arrival in Jammu on Saturday, we took two important decisions (with regard to NHM contractual employees)…they will be given three-month extension and they will also be given weightage in the recruitment process for various posts in the Health Department,” Sinha told reporters.
One of the NHM employees, who was on a hunger strike, broke it after being offered juice by the L-G. Posts will be advertised soon to fill up different health vacancies, Sinha said.
The L-G said the NHM employees had done hard work during the pandemic and they deserved to be given preference and continue to serve the society.
A spokesperson of the NHM employees said, “The visit of the Lieutenant Governor means a lot for us and we are thankful to him. We have ended our strike.”
Shashi Sudan, Principal, GMC, Jammu, said the contractual employees were engaged for three to six months and accordingly disengaged after completion of their contract period.
“The government is going to fill up vacancies of paramedics through the service selection board and we are hopeful that many of them will get permanent jobs after qualifying the examination,” she said. — PTI