Chandigarh:The General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee and former Union Minister, Kumari Selja said that during the horrific situation of Corona, the BJP government is making those employees sit at home instead of honoring them, who had the courage to save the lives of the people of the state by putting their lives at risk.
The services of most of these employees, who were hired on contract in the health department, have been terminated. They are being forced to decide to besiege the CM's residence on April 4th to get their voices heard by the government.
In a statement released to the media, Kumari Selja said that when the situation in the state started worsening due to Corona, the Health Department had recruited 2,212 employees on contract in July 2020. This included medical and paramedical staff. When everyone was avoiding going near Corona patients, they risked their lives. Some collected Corona samples, while others tested these samples.
Some provided timely medicines to Corona patients, while others delivered food to them. The former Union Minister said that thanks to their hard work, the lives of millions of people were saved, otherwise the death toll in the state could have been even more horrific.
Considering their hard work and service attitude amidst the lack of resources, the state government should have honored them, but the then BJP-JJP alliance government went after them instead and terminated the services of most of them from time to time. Kumari Selja said that because of their struggle and repeated sit-ins and demonstrations, the government had rehired 826 of these employees.
However, despite releasing the budget in October 2023, 190 employees across 22 districts were not given joining. This shows that instead of creating new employment opportunities for the youth, the state government is making even those working on contract sit at home, which is utterly wrong.
The former Union Minister Kumari Selja said that 36 percent of the positions are vacant in the Health Department compared to the approved positions across the state. From district hospitals to health centers, positions for doctors to staff nurses are vacant. There is a lack of specialists to conduct tests in laboratories. Kumari Selja has demanded the state government to immediately issue orders to rehire all the removed Covid workers, considering the poor health services.