Published Dec 21, 2022 | 8:48 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 21, 2022 | 8:48 AM
“In public interest it is necessary and expedient to prohibit strikes at NIMS" said government notification evoking ESMA.(Creative Commons)
On 1 August this year, patients arriving at the prestigious Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad had a harrowing time.
It was the day around 350 non-teaching employees of the hospital went on a strike, demanding payment of Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA), pending since October 2019. Their other demands: Promotion of some 60 people employed in the unskilled category to the skilled category, and 35 casual leaves per annum.
As the strike began, there was no one to man entry counters. Those running the electrical and gas plants abandoned their posts. And paramedical staff who normally ferry patients from one department to the other were nowhere to be seen.
The disruption in services was severe, affecting the thousands who arrive at NIMS every day.
In a bid to prevent a recurrence of a 1 August kind of situation in the hospital, the Telangana government on Tuesday, 20 December, invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) of 1971.
In a notification, state Health Secretary SAM Rizvi, exercising powers conferred under ESMA, banned strikes at the institution for a period of six months beginning 20 December.
“In public interest it is necessary and expedient to prohibit strikes at NIMS. Therefore, in exercise of powers conferred under ESMA, government hereby prohibits strikes in NIMS for a period of six months,” the order stated.
“There are several issues unresolved related to the hospital staff. This kind of a ban on strikes, it is very undemocratic,” a senior resident doctor of NIMS told South First on condition of anonymity.
The doctor said that nursing staff demanding Employees Provident Fund (EPF) were currently protesting for one hour every day and were contemplating a strike.
Last month, senior resident doctors had given notice for the strike to press for an increment in their pay, but had put the plan on hold.
“With this notification, there can be no strike,” the senior resident doctor said.
“The government is planning to build a new hospital block spending thousands of crore of rupees. But there no money to pay employees and doctors. The Telangana government knows that one day the doctors will go on strike and its image will be destroyed as it happened in August. That’s why it has invoked ESMA,” another senior resident of NIMS told South First.
The government had previously banned strikes at the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, TS Genco, and Singareni Collieries, among others.
