41 health workers transferred on verbal order!

Yogesh Mishra

Raipur, April 01, 2011

The Directorate Health Services (DHS) has suddenly transferred 41 out of 54 health workers of Mahasamund district to other parts of the state. Terming the transfer a planned conspiracy to render them jobless, these field workers engaged in collecting door-to-door malaria and filaria slides said that they were least interested in joining in other districts. “There are two reasons due to which we do not want to move to other place. First, the order reached to our immediate bosses, i.e. malaria inspectors in verbal, not in written form. Second, we are low paid workers and survival with family in other districts is not possible for us,” they said.

Later, when Central Chronicle contacted one of the five malaria inspectors of Mahasamund district YM Sahu, he too confirmed that he had received verbal order from the District Malaria Officer. When asked the reason of the transfer order in bulk, he expressed his inability to comment on it.

These workers alleged that the DHS adopted partial attitude and retained 13 of their colleagues without following any parameter. They further charged that some of the workers managed to stay back in Mahasamund by bribing the officials.

 “A few among these 13 retained ones do not even match the eligibility criteria of the directorate in terms of educational qualification and experience, still they got preference over the deserved ones,” they said.

The qualification of the field workers ranges from standard Vth passed to post graduates degree holders. They informed that the directorate had started ousting workers having education qualification less than standard VIII.

There are five blocks in Mahasamund district – Saraipali, Basna, Pithora, Bagbahra and Mahasamund where these field workers have been posted.

These workers are semi-skilled daily wagers who receive stipend Rs 4108 per month. Besides collecting door-to-door malaria and filaria slides, they are not only supposed to medicate mosquito nets of the residents, but also are instructed to do the jobs of unskilled labourers intermittently.

Shocked by their transfer, all the 41 health workers reached capital city to meet State Programme Officer Malaria Dr V Jaiprakash at Directorate Health Services (DHS) on Friday. However, when they entered into the cabin of Dr Jaiprakash, the latter refused to talk to them. When they insisted, Dr Jaiprakash said the transfer was part of government’s manpower planning and they too would be incorporated in that procedure in the future. When the workers asked why they were being transferred on the basis of mere verbal order, Dr Jaiprakash shrugged off and bluntly told them to go on pretext of his busy schedule. The workers consistently requested Dr Jaiprakash to heed them indicating that they arrived from distant places. Incidentally, this scribe, who witnessed the entire drama, was perceived as one of the officials of the department by the workers who poured in their grievances before Dr Jaiprakash. Later while interacting with this scribe, these workers alleged that the DHS was exploiting them for the past several years and once they would be back in job after their DHS Raipur visit, their seniors would pose vindictive attitude towards them.