KOLKATA: Several ASHA workers were detained on Wednesday while travelling to the state health department headquarters near Kolkata to participate in a march pressing for various demands, including a hike in the minimum monthly honorarium, police said.
The protesting Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), who have been on a ‘cease work’ since December 23, were detained from different districts across the state as a precautionary measure, officials said.
A section of the protesters claimed that police set up barricades outside Sealdah and Howrah railway stations, where ASHA workers had arrived on trains from several districts since early morning. Some protesters were seen squatting on the platforms at these stations.
“We have been prevented from exiting Howrah station since 6.30 am,” an ASHA worker from Paschim Dinajpur alleged.
Several agitators were also detained near Swasthya Bhawan, the health department headquarters, where they had gathered earlier in the day to intensify their protest, a police officer said.
The agitating ASHA workers had earlier marched to Swasthya Bhawan on January 8, followed by another protest demonstration on January 12, seeking a meeting with senior health officials over their long-pending demand for a fixed monthly salary instead of performance-linked incentives.
Their demands include a minimum monthly honorarium of Rs 15,000 and an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh in the event of death on duty.
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in and around Swasthya Bhawan in Salt Lake, near Kolkata, and traffic movement regulated, an official said.
West Bengal Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya on Tuesday advised the protesters against marching to Swasthya Bhawan, citing law and order concerns.