PATIALA: A day after Punjab health minister Brahm Mohindra assured the protesting nurses that their services would be regularised, the nurses have refused to end their strike. However, they took a break on Saturday.Some nurses have decided to join services till March 7, the date given by the health minister to regularise the nursing staff. However, many had refused to join services till the government issues notification for regularisation.On Sunday, the deputy commissioner, SSP Patiala , principal of medical college and hospital and other senior officials held a meeting with the protesting nurses and appealed to them call off their strike and join services, as the patients have been left in a lurch. The nurses claimed that the officials had also warned of action against them under sections of the Emergency Services and Maintenance Act if they did not join the services immediately. Following this, nearly 145 nurses joined services. But the union president, Karamjit Kaur Aulakh, and Baljit Kaur Khalsa, both undergoing treatment after jumping off the top of a government building at Rajindra hospital on February 28, gave a call to continue the strike.The nurses under the banner of Punjab Contractual Nursing and Ancillary Staff Union have been protesting against the state government over their demand of regularisation since February 6. The protestors claimed that the minister had promised to regularise 651 staff nurses, 130 class four employees and 75 ancillary workers working under medical education and research department.Denying that the nurses were threatened, deputy commissioner Kumar Amit said, "It is up to the nurses to join or not. The minister had already given assurance, following which they called off their strike on Saturday. These are essential services and the nurses have been on strike for a month now. The poor patients were forced to go to PGI in Chandigarh and other institutions because of nurses' strike."

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