The Opposition Congress staged a walkout of the House on Friday during the ongoing budget session of the Madhya Pradesh…
Congress party symbol (Photo: Facebook)
The Opposition Congress staged a walkout of the House on Friday during the ongoing budget session of the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly here, alleging that the BJP government in teh state is insensitive and indifferent towards the apathy and genuine demands of contractual health workers in the state, who have been agitating for a long time.
The contractual health workers have been staging protests for their demands, including regularisation in service, increased pay and better working conditions, among others.
Congress MLA Surendra Singh Baghel raised the issue pointing out that 22,800 contractual health workers of the state were on strike for several days pressing for their demands. The MLA said that health services across the state had collapsed due to the ongoing strike.
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He alleged that the state government was apathetic towards the employees’ demands. Baghel urged the state government to take a positive attitude towards the issue and take effective steps to resolve the impasse.
State Health Minister Rustam Singh replied to the Congress MLAs allegations saying that the state government was concerned about the employees’ welfare. Singh said most of the demands of the contractual health workers had been fulfilled.
However, the health minister did not give any assurance about regularising the contractual health workers. He reasoned that regularisation was not an easy thing and required several formalities including examinations and a laid down system of selection into the health service.
The Congress MLAs expressed dissatisfaction over the health minister’s reply and their unhappiness soon turned into anger, as BJP MLA Bahadur Singh Chauhan said in the House that the Congress was trying to politicise the issue of the contractual health workers with an aim to use them as a vote bank.
The enraged Congress MLAs stood at their places and there were heated arguments amidst din in the House. Subsequently, the Opposition Congress MLAs walked out of the house.
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