On the second day of Vidhan Sabha session three different protest marches were organised. Around 250 former field employees of 108 ambulance service, nearly 1200 State Junior High School Teachers Association members and about 150 ASHA community health workers rallied raising slogans against the government.
Protesters and the force on duty had quite a tussle at the barricade near Rispana bridge. However with senior police officers including Superintendent of Police (city) Shweta Choubey and Circle Officer (city) Shekhar Suyal present at the site, the protesters agreed to speak with administrative officer present.
State president of teachers association, Vinod Thapa said, “Our basic issue is with the government order, which was issued on May 27, merging the positions of teachers in Junior High School and High School. The decision directly affects the promotion and appointment of 4000 teachers in Uttarakhand.”
He said, “We demand that before the merger of the teachers, directorate of Junior High School and High School should be merged,” he added.
In evening the representatives of teachers association had a meeting with Education secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram.
Regional president of ASHA community workers union, Shiva Dubey said, “Each year our work load is increasing, but there is no increment in our pay. We are the backbone of health department and services here, but still we are not being paid even minimum wages. Our demand is that our salary should be Rs 18,000 excluding the Rs 5,000 bonus we get every year. In case of our death, our families should get and insurance of upto Rs 5 lakh. According to the academic qualification of our members we should also be appointed in Auxillary Nurse Midwifery.”
The former field workers of 108 emergency services reiterated their demand to get reinstated to their earlier posts in the service being managed by a new company now.