JOIN USWith the Congress government cancelling the regularisation orders, issued by the previous BJP government, the fate of around 1,200 ‘C’ Group employees, working under contract in the government medical colleges and hospitals across the state, including Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS), hangs in the balance.
The previous BJP government had taken measures to regularise them, but the Congress government, which succeeded, has withdrawn the order, affecting the workers, who will be soon be reaching their retirement age.
On March 14, 2013, Health and Family Welfare department Under Secretary V Saibaba had issued the orders, regularising non-teaching staff, coming under Group ‘C’. This included librarians, computer operators, technicians, artists, photographers, documentation assistants and also a few ‘D’ group employees. But the BJP lost the Assembly elections, held in the same year.
The Congress party, which came into power, withdrew the orders. The department’s Under Secretary Mehaboon Khan, on October 3, 2013, cancelled the order, citing that there is no provision to regularise workers drawing accrued wages (sanchitha vethana).
Appalled by the decision, the employees have been meeting the authorities concerned, visiting the department office, seeking regularisation of their jobs, since then.
Belagavi session
The employees working at Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences have written a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, explaining about their problems and have requested him to regularise ‘C’ group employees under humanitarian grounds. They have stressed on taking up discussion on the issue during the Belagavi session, scheduled to be held soon.
Markel Devaraj, who is working as an artist at MIMS said, the government, which had regularised the nurses has totally neglected the non-teaching staff. “I have been working for MIMS since 2006. The Congress, which came to power, has cancelled the order to show its hatred towards the BJP. This has jeopardised the lives of the workers. I have crossed 50 years of age, hoping to work as a government servant,” he lamented.
Diwakar, who is working in the Documentation section, questioned when the legal hassles were not a problem to the BJP, how does the Congress cite such issues.