Chandigarh, May 11
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has strongly condemned the dismissal of striking employees of the National Health Mission (NHM) by the Captain government and said that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had adopted a dictatorial attitude by suppressing the constitutional rights of the employees. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Tuesday, AAP MLA and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Sarvjit Kaur Manuke said that the employees working in government departments, boards, corporations and other institutions have the right in the India Constitution to protest and strike for their demands. She said that the employees of National Health Mission had gone on strike to fulfill their demands under their constitutional right.
Criticizing the Captain government, Manuke said that in the last assembly elections, Captain Amarinder Singh had promised that with the formation of the Congress government, all the employees working in the government agencies on temporary or contract basis would be made permanent. “But today, when the employees of the National Health Mission are demanding permanence and equal pay for equal work, the Captain Amarinder Singh’s government has adopted a dictatorial attitude,” she added. Manuke said the employees of National Health Mission had been at the forefront of the Covid pandemic since last year and these employees were still performing their duties.
The AAP leader further said that Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had always threatened the employees of National Health Mission instead of solving their problems and meeting their demands. “It would have been better if the Health Minister and the Chief Minister had talked to these employees and agreed to their demands to end the strike and get their services in the treatment of Covid victims,” said Manuke. She said that during the last assembly elections, Captain Amarinder Singh and the Congress party had promised in their manifestos to provide jobs to the youth of Punjab and to make temporary or contractual employees permanent. However, more than four years had passed since the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government came to power, but the Captain government had neither given government jobs to the youth nor made the temporary or contractual employees permanent.
“Instead, the Captain government has sacked the employees working in various departments on temporary or contract basis,” said Manuke. She said that the Aam Aadmi Party was with the employees of the National Health Mission and strongly condemned the unscrupulous decision of the Captain government to remove the employees. Manuke said that on the one hand, the Captain government was issuing letters for recruitment of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in the health department and on the other hand, it was removing the employees. She demanded Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to withdraw the unscrupulous order of dismissal of the employees of the National Health Mission and to recruit those employees on priority basis in the posts under the Health Department.
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