BENGALURU: Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, who have placed their demands including better remuneration before the state government, approached Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar on Wednesday seeking his support for their agitation starting from Friday. A delegation of ASHA workers, who are frontline Covid warriors instrumental in door-to-door fever surveys across the state, met Shivakumar at his Sadashivanagar residence to seek the opposition party’s support to their protest and also to pressurise the government.
“Their demands are legitimate and the government should promise them better pay, incentives and a safer work environment. I will write to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa that payment of fair wages to ASHA workers should not be looked at as an additional financial burden. The Congress is firmly behind ASHA workers,” said Shivakumar after meeting the delegation.
The state government has announced Rs 3,000 as incentive for each ASHA worker for their Covid-related work, but thousands of them allege that they cannot access their salaries and incentives because of glitches in the system. Some claimed that the government has delayed releasing the incentive. ASHA workers have demanded a minimum pay of Rs 12,000 per month and safety equipment for daily use.
DKS prays with Ameer-e-Shariat of Karnataka
As part of his initiative to reach out to all religious leaders, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar met Karnataka Ameer-e-Shariat, Maulana Sagheer Ahmed Rashadi, on Wednesday. Accompanied by KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed, Shivakumar met the chief cleric at Arabic College in Nagawara and both prayed for the Covid crisis to end. After the meeting, Shivakumar told the media that he is meeting leaders of all religions after taking charge as KPCC president to indicate that the Congress respects all religions. “There was an attempt to make Covid communal and blame one community for its spread. We will not allow that,” he said.