BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Wednesday invoked the Orissa Essential Services (Maintenance) Act (ESMA) prohibiting strikes by nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, technicians and other class-III and class-IV employees in the health sector to ensure medical services across the state are not disrupted.
A notification issued by the Home (Special Section) department said the act will apply to contractual employees in services/engagements connected with the maintenance of medical services in government hospitals and dispensaries like district headquarters hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, area hospitals, CHCs, PHCs, municipality hospitals and ESI hospitals.
This apart, staff working in the medical colleges and hospitals run by the government and other autonomous health institutions receiving grant-in-aid from the state government, specifically Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, regional spinal injury centre, jail hospitals and police hospitals will also be covered under the provisions of the act. This is for the second time this year, that ESMA has been invoked in the state. The prohibition was first imposed in April.