Jharkhand: State’s contractual health staff begin hunger strike at 24 dist headquarters

SUBHASH MISHRA

Dhanbad, February 19: As per their pre-announced programme, contractual Multi-Purpose Workers (MPWs) of the state sat on hunger strike at the headquarters of all 24 districts to support the regularization of jobs.

At Ranchi, MPW Jharkhand Association president Pawan Kumar was leading the hunger strike agitation, vice-president Sujit Kumar in Dhanbad, general secretary Mangal Hembram in Saraikela- Kharsawan, Barun Kumar Pal in Jamshedpur, Ajay Kumar Saw in Deoghar.

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State MPW president Pawan Kumar said that after today’s hunger strike, MPWs will hand over a memorandum to civil surgeons in their respective districts tomorrow. “If the government does not take cognisance of our long pending demand, we will gherao Project Bhawan on February 21,”, said Pawan Kumar.

Over 1536 MPws were appointed on a contractual basis in 2008, and they have struggled with regularisation for the last 16 years. “Guruji (Shibu Soren) had appointed us in 2008, and in the 2019 assembly election, Hemant Soren assured us to regularise our job, but after forming a government, he forgot his assurance,” claimed vice-president Sujit Kumar.

MPWs of the state have intensified their agitation since February 16 while working on duty, and this time, they have resolved to continue till the long pending demand is implemented.