Arogyamitras take to streets; demand withdrawal of GO 28

Chandrababu Naidu making more people unemployed after he returned to power, alleges CPM State secretary P Madhu

Vijayawada: Tension prevailed in Vijayawada city on Monday morning after the ousted Arogyamitra employees tried to take out a rally from Tummalapalli Kalakshetram to besiege the Chief Minster’s camp office to highlight their problems.

Protesters on the occasion raised slogans criticising the TDP government and the Chief Minister. However, the city police foiled the protest of Arogya Mitra employees near the rally starting point at Tummalapalli Kalashektram while they were marching towards the CMO.

The Arogyamitras, who came from all the 13 districts in the State, staged protest expressing their anguish over the government’s decision to take new staff. The police arrested more than 600 Arogya Mithras and shifted them to various police stations in the city.

The State government took a decision to implement GO No.28, dated January 21, for recruitment of new staff as Arogya Mithras and to prefer B.Sc (Nursing) students for the posts.

The move was opposed severely by more than 2,300 existing staff who called for a State-wide protest and they had planned to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

“Though we organised a peaceful protest to place our demand before the Chief Minister not to terminate the existing staff and to withdraw GO 28, the police blocked our protest and took our members into custody,” said S Nisha, Arogya Mithra.

Responding over the issue, CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna condemned the arrests of Arogya Mitras who were agitating peacefully on their genuine demands. He demanded that the State government should let the existing health workers continue in their services and to regularise them with higher pay scales.

He said that the Arogya Mitras had pinned their hopes on the TDP government that it will regularise them, but they didn’t know that this government would put an end to their livelihood.