Vokkaligara Sangha workers to attend half-day service

The future of 675 employees recruited ‘irregularly’ by the Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha remains in limbo, as the sangha assured their removal to the protesting members. The conflict within the Sangha over the recruitments remains hanging till an executive meeting on June 21.

The protestors — employees, including senior doctors and other staff members of the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and members of the Vokkaligara Sangha Employees Association — had boycotted the OPD (out-patient department) for the past five days. They were agitating against the Vokkaligara Sangha and the administration for recruiting 675 members for the post of data-entry operators and attenders. The association claims that the recruitments violate the rules and are unnecessary.

Even though the protestors continued their strike on Monday, they have agreed to attend the OPD for half a day from Tuesday until the executive meeting on June 21. On Monday, the patients visiting the OPD at KIMS Hospital were affected as only postgraduate students were present to attend to them.

Dr Vinod Kumar A C, president of the association, said that the president of the sangha has agreed to cancel the irregular recruitments since February 2018. “The doctors at KIMS and dental hospital have agreed to attend the OPD only for half a day, till a decision is taken to remove all the irregular appointments. Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha president D N Bette Gowda has assured the striking doctors that he will drop all the irregular appointments,” added Dr Kumar.

Gowda said they will look into the appointments and remove the ones that are against the prescribed rules. “We can take a concrete decision regarding this at the executive committee meeting,” he added.

Due to the financial crisis, the permanent employees were not given their pay.