BHUBANESWAR: Amid the ongoing nationwide protests by health professionals over the brutal rape and murder of doctor in Kolkata, the Odisha government has invoked the Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Act prohibiting strikes by class-III and class-IV employees in the health sector to ensure medical services are not disrupted.
Sources said ESMA was invoked after the Odisha Nursing Employees Association threatened to go for ceasework agitation on August 27.
A notification issued by the Home (Special Section) department said the Act will apply to nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, technicians and other class-III and class-IV employees in the health sector.
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 also cannot resort to strikes.
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.
The order will remain in force for a period of six months,” the notification stated. The nursing officers across government hospitals in the state have been wearing black badges to press on their 10-point charter of demands. They have threatened to resort to a token strike without affecting patient care and hold a rally in Bhubaneswar on August 23.