NHM employees suspend strike till Feb 5 after minister’s assurance

After over a month of protest, National Health Mission (NHM) employees on Tuesday suspended their strike till February 5 following the assurance from the government to look into their “core demand of regularization.”
NHM spokesman, Abdul Rouf told Greater Kashmir that yesterday a meeting was held between representatives of NHM employees and higher officials of health department, including Health Minister, in which most of our demands were agreed upon except for regularization.
However, a committee was framed headed by chief secretary to form a “concrete policy for regularization”.
NHM spokesman said that since they have not received any formal order related to the meeting and the demands that were agreed upon so they are only suspending the strike till February 5.
“If we receive a formal response from the government on the meeting in coming days, we will call off our strike completely, else the strike will continue after Feb 5,” he said.
Monday this week, the state’s Health Minister Bali Baghat wrote on his Facebook: “After a two-hour long meeting with NHM employees along with Minister of State Asiya Naqash and Principal Secretary Dr Pawan Kotwal. The protesting NHM have called off their strike.”
The NHM employees had called for strike on 20th December last year, demanding their regularization, among others.
The month-long strike has affected patient care in various district and sub districts hospitals across the state.