Patiala, December 2 Irked over nonchalant attitude of the state government towards their demands, members of the Unemployed Multi-purpose Health Workers (Male) Union, Punjab, staged a protest and started an indefinite strike, in front of the Baradari Gardens here today. Protesting health workers raised slogans against the state government and the Health Department for non-fulfillment of their demands. They were demanding jobs and fulfillment of long-pending demands. Addressing members, union leaders claimed that despite over 1,200 sanctioned posts in the department, the government had not advertised new posts since 2016. “Why did the government delay the proposal of advertising around 305 posts of multi-purpose health (MPH) worker, recently?” said protesters. Sukhwinder Singh, a member of the association, said, “The government should immediately advertise vacant posts and fill vacancies. The government health sector is an important health service provider for society, especially, for the poor people.” “Health workers are the backbone of the health service as they are responsible for the proper implementation of various schemes. However, they are ignoring our demands for long,” he added. The protesters also demanded five-year relaxation in the upper age limit for the post on the pattern of neighboring states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh. “If our demands are not taken care of in the coming days we will intensify our protest. It is unfortunate that despite vacancies in the Health Department youth are protesting for jobs,” said a protesting health worker. The protesters said the Congress government had already backtracked from their poll promise because they failed to provide jobs to youth. Members of the association rejected feelers put out by the administration and refused to meet the Patiala Member of Parliament, Preneet Kaur, to raise their demands. The association said they would continue their protest until their demands were met.

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