NTR Vaidya Mitra contractual employees took out a rally from the Kurnool General Hospital here on Saturday and sought alms from passersby near the Collectorate and the Telugu Desam Party office, protesting against their ‘unceremonious removal’ by the government.
Kurnool MLA S.V. Mohan Reddy expressed solidarity to the protesting employees and promised to raise the issue in the ensuing Assembly session.
Indian Medical Association Kurnool district president B. Shankar Sarma and doctors of Kurnool general hospital Mallikarjuna and Ramakrishna Naik termed their ‘abrupt removal’ as ‘undemocratic’.
NTR Vaidya Seva Contractual and Outsourcing Employees Union district president G. Narasimhulu, secretary G. Rajasekhara Reddy and leaders T. Sudhakar Babu, Mohd. Ghouse, Lakshmi Prasanna and others demanded withdrawal of the GO 28. As many as 147 Vaidya Mitra employees and six supervisors were removed in Kurnool district, after putting in eight years of service, they said.
Vizianagaram Correspondent adds: Pressing for the demand that the government must scrap the GO 28, giving mandate to the termination of around 2,000 Arogya Mitras working in the network hospitals and PHCs across the State, the workers boycotted their duties on Saturday and staged a demonstration in front of the Collector’s office here.
Expressing solidarity with the protesters, District Congress Committee (DCC) president Y. Adiraju said that those who had voted the TDP to power had already been disillusioned as the promises “Babu vasthe job vasthundi’ (Job will come, if Babu comes to power) made by the ruling party leaders ahead of the polls had proved to be just a ploy to garner votes.
The promise of providing Rs. 2,000 per month as unemployment allowance to literate youth never realised, he said, accusing Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of cheating the youth.
Terming the removal of Arogya Mitras as undemocratic, the DCC chief demanded their immediate reinstatement.
Meanwhile, NSUI, the students’ wing of the Congress, staged a dharna at Maharajah’s College (Autonomous), seeking action against Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, and University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao in the suicide case of Dalit research scholar V. Rohith.
NSUI district president Kotla Pydi Raju said that ever since the BJP had come to power at the Centre, incidents of caste discrimination and attacks on Dalits had increased.
