VIJAYAWADA: Contract Paramedical Staff under the Aayush department staged a novel protest at Gandhi Nagar here on Sunday, demanding that the Aayush department pay their outstanding wages of the last seven months. The employees staged a protest imitating beggars to highlight their plight and bring pressure on the officials concerned to pay their wages.
Speaking on the occasion, Aayush Paramedical Staff Association State secretary K Kamal Haasan said that the Aayush department had recruited paramedical staff in 2008-09. From then, the paramedical staff have been serving in the 451 primary health centers in the State. But, the department has stopped sanctioning budget for the salaries of staff since April, he explained.
A majority of the staff have been facing untold hardship due to the inordinate delay in payment of salaries, he said and pointed out that several representations submitted to Minister for Health Kamineni Srinivas and Aayush Commissioner M Revathi did not elicit any concrete response till date.
Around 400 paramedical staff, including compounders and nurses from across the State, participated in the protest.