BENGALURU:Hours after holding a press meet against Vokkaliga Sangha President Appaji Gowda, the contractual staff of Kempe Gowda Institute Medical Sciences (KIMS), who were protesting for regularisation of their service, received a shock, as one of the protesting staff was fired.
Praveen Kumar, who spearheaded the agitation, said, “I have been given a letter of termination. The management is doing this to silence the united contractual nurses and computer operators.” He also alleged that Appaji Gowda was partial and had appointed his son Srushuth Gowda in the hospital for a good salary. “But when the contract staff demanded their services be regularised, their requests were ignored,” he said.
On Thursday, services in OPD, were affected in the afternoon as only a few doctors and nurses were there.
Nagaraju, from Nagamangala, whose relative was in the hospital, said, “Many patients come from far and this kind of agitation and poor handling of management will set a bad precedent.”
Former administrator of the hospital, Dr Veeranna, said that the demands that the employees have are genuine and that the present management is not responding to them. “We have never seen such a situation in KIMS before. The management is not pro the employees,” he added.
The administration of this Institute, run by the Vokkaligara Sangha, however, said that the demands of the staff members are beyond justification. Dr Gowda, president, Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha, said that among the demands are also an annual hike in salaries. “The Institute runs on the fee collected. When the admission fee remains constant, how can the salaries be hiked annually?” he asked, adding that the hospital collects Rs 3 crore per month and its expenses cross over Rs 4 crore.