Those responsible for securing the biggest medical institution of the state are insecure about their own jobs and wages. This could be fathomed from the security guards of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) as they expressed their dissent over absence of job security and lesser salaries than agreed in front of Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda during the weekly CM Janta Darbar this Wednesday.
A group of security guards, stationed at RIMS by Everest Human Resources Consultant Company, came to the public court with complaints over wages given to them by the agency. “When hired, we were promised a monthly salary of Rs 9,000, but are getting only Rs 4,000,” said one of the security guards.
To top it all, he added, the company is falsely accusing them and can sack them any time. Another group of air-conditioning operators working at RIMS also complained of receiving lesser than promised salaries. “Working for the past eight years, we should have been paid around Rs 10,000 but are paid only Rs 2,300 by the cleaning contractor. This is lesser even compared to unskilled labourers,” said Devendra Kumar Singh, one of the operators. listening to these two groups of plaintiffs Munda stated, “The security guards will not be fired in absence of concrete reasons. The accusations made against them by the agency will be investigated by labour Commissioner, who will visit RIMS to attend to the grievances of the AC operators too.”
One Zeba Zilani came to Janta Darbar with the second case of delay in disbursing scholarships to students. An alumnus of Global Institute of Management, Hyderabad, Zeba was denied her certificates because she was unable to pay her fees. The scholarships for the academic year 2013-14 never reached me, Zeba stated.
“I have been going from pillar to post to get the scholarship amount allotted but never have received a definite date when will this happen. As a result, the certificates for the fourth semester of my course have been issued by the college. Also, college authorities refuse to release the certificates I submitted to them,” she said.
Munda assured her that Welfare Department is already looking into the matter and her case will be dealt with shortly. But even he was not able to promise a definite date when the amount will be released¸ Zeba said.
Meanwhile, many came for getting Indira Awaas allotted to them, and some of them did not even belong to the BPl category. Commenting on this, Munda stated that no decision will be made at Janta Darbar which goes against the determined norms and regulations. Pressure from plaintiffs will not be enough to change this, he added.
Min Amar Kumar Bauri was also supposed to attend the public hearing, but could not stay for long as he had to attend the departmental review meeting with CM Raghubar Das.