Hyderabad: More than 1,600 nurses, who were recruited as outsourced employees and posted in government hospitals, to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, were shunted out of their jobs without any notice on Tuesday.
The nurses, who have been on protests since then, were on Saturday barricaded from entering Dharna Chowk, to continue their protests.
Incidentally, immediately after getting the termination notice when they went to question the Director of Medical Education, whose office had recruited them, they were detained. The following day they tried to enter Pragathi Bhavan to meet the Chief Minister, but were met with similar treatment. When they took the protest to Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday and Friday, they ended up in the police station.
Undeterred by the setbacks to their protest programmes, they are demanding the government to take them back and that too as permanent employees.
Ajay Ellandula, one of the 1,620 whose sevices were terminated, said, “After giving a letter to the police commissioner seeking permission, we went ahead to gather at Dharna Chowk on Saturday but the police did not allow us to stage the protest.”
Another nurse, Gurram Ruth, said “We demand that the services of all 1,620 nurses should be restored. This time not on an outsource basis but on permanent rolls. There are over 1,800 permanent posts that remain vacant.”
Nurse Perumalla Madhavi said, “Government should consider our case. Our diligence as frontline warriors, and putting our lives in peril, has won appreciation of ministers and higher authorities. We deserve to be treated compassionately.”
