Leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party led by former MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju demanded that the pending salaries of the contract nurses be paid and their services be regularised.
Participating in a dharna organised by the contract nurses, Mr. Raju said that about 500 nurses in the age group of 20 to 23 years were recruited by the State government for Visakhapatnam district, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and pushed into the service of the patients.
They were recruited in August for a consolidated pay of ₹24,000 and were terminated without notice on November 27, under the pretext that COVID graph has fallen.Ramadevi, a contract nurse who was recruited, said that government has not paid the promised salary of ₹24,000 for the last three months.
Expressing solidarity with the nurses, Mr. Vishnu Kumar Raju said that ‘how can the government behave like that’.
“When they needed the service of the young nurses, who joined with the idea that they would be regularised, the authorities concerned used them. And now since the rate of infection has come down, you want to dump them like hot potatoes. Moreover, the government does not even care to pay them their contract wages and almost made them do free service that too in a dangerous situation,” he said. The agitating nurses demanded that their wages be paid and they be regularised and placed in some government hospitals or PHCs or CHCs.
“The government is anyway planning to recruit nurses for PHCs and CHCs, they can as well continue with our service, especially when we proved out mettle during the pandemic,” said Sujatha Palasi, who hails from Paderu.
Mr. Vishnu Kumar Raju warned that if the government failed to take a decision in a week’s time, BJP will launch a state-wide agitation in support of the nurses, as they are facing the same fate in all districts.
