1 thousand health workers lost their jobs, were on strike

Raipur: Collectors of three districts have dismissed about 1200 health workers who did not return to duty after the imposition of ESMA yesterday. These include 337 in Korba, 269 in Jagdalpur, 568 in Kanker. There are indications that orders will be issued in some more districts today. On the other hand, health workers will be on strike for the 13th day on Saturday. On the other hand, the opposition to the orders of the Collectors is intensifying. Calling it government’s suppression, the employee leaders have also warned to see it in the elections.

Patron PR Yadav, former state president of the Third Class Employees Union, said that the dismissal of the striking health workers is Hitlership. Condemning this in strong words, the union demands the state government to immediately withdraw the dismissal order and call the representatives of the striking health workers and settle their demands in a democratic manner. This action reminds us of the barbaric action of Ms. Jayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, 35 years ago, who suspended/dismissed four lakh striking employees of Tamil Nadu. State employees from all over the country then protested against the then chief minister Jayalalithaa in solidarity with the sacked employees of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil Nadu government was forced to withdraw its decision.

Yadav said that the Tamil Nadu workers’ strike had such an impact that Jayalalithaa’s AIDMK was badly defeated in the assembly elections. There is no place for dictatorship in a democracy. The striking employees, in accordance with their trade union rights, agitated peacefully for their demands and tried to wake up the slumbering Health Minister and the State Government in a Gandhian manner. Attack on employees should not be accepted by the employees of the state and it is our moral responsibility to give a message of solidarity with the striking employees by protesting against this in all the district tehsil headquarters from Monday and burning the effigies of the collectors.