BENGALURU: The health workers at a few Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) complained that their salaries were not timely credited, while there is sometimes a backlog of six months. Dr Ashwini RJ from Yemaluru UPHC said, "We don't get a monthly salary. Sometimes in a span of six months, we get salary for one to two months."
ASHA workers' basic salary is Rs 5,000 per month plus incentives. Balakrishnamma (38) an ASHA worker from Vibhutipura PHC said that she is yet to receive the salary of her last three months.
It has become difficult for her to bear monthly expenses like paying house rent, school fees of her daughter etc. Radhamma R (42) another field worker at the PHC complained about the backlog of salaries. "Salaries don't get credited on time, sometimes there is a six-month backlog," he said.
There were two nurses and two ASHA workers designated at the PHC. She explained that they had so much work burden that their own health was deteriorating. Both the nurses were responsible to cover a population of 1.2 lakh, and they are on the field all day travelling from one place to another on their own expenses.
The staff nurses also complained about lack of infrastructure and shortage of staff. Dr Ashwini said they did not have a sterilizing machine, hence the nurse would sterilize all equipment and the whole PHC frequently, besides attending the patients. There was also a position of nurse vacant at the PHC but new nurses were reluctant to join due to trouble with salaries.
Addressing the issue, BBMP chief health officer Dr AS Balasundar said that only the problem is for the last two to three months, and the issue has cropped up because all individual bank accounts for the programmes were recently closed and a single nodal account has been created through which salaries will be transferred.