Employees Strike Puts Patients To Hardships
Srinagar: The five-day strike by employees in the Kashmir valley began today affecting the normal working in government offices and hospitals.
The strike call was given by the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC), demanding payment of arrears of sixth Pay Commission, increase in the retirement age from 58 years to 60 years and regularisation of daily wagers, contractual and others working in different government departments.
A news correspondent, who visited different hospitals affiliated with Government Medical College (GMC), saw Out Patient Departments (OPDs) locked because of the strike by paramedical and other staff.
However, the emergency wards were working normally.
Hundreds of patients and their attendants, now aware about the strike, were seen waiting outside the OPDs wards of different Hospitals.
Even some cancer patients who had to undergo surgery in SMHS hospital were asked to go to their home because of strike.
''We were left at the mercy of God as nobody is listening and attending us,'' said the patients admitted in the indoor wards.
''It is not the ministers or bureaucrats who suffered due to strike but the common people who could not pay the fees of doctors in private clinics,'' said the agitated Abdul Rashid who had come from Kupwara to get his wife treated in the SMHS hospital.
He was joined by other patients, waiting outside the OPD, who alleged that ministers and bureaucrats are enjoying the services of specialised doctors in their homes as and when required.
Criticising the government for not making adequate measures for patients who are visiting the hospitals from far flung and remote areas besides from different parts of towns and city, they said the strike by the hospital employees was not justified as it affects common people only.
Similar scenes were also witnessed in other hospitals in the city, including Lala Ded, the only major women's hospital in Kashmir and Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hospital (JLNM) at Rainawari.
The employees of other government departments, including Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD), Power Development Department (PDD), Water Works (WW), Public Health Engineering (PHE), Drainage, Roads and Buildings department also stayed away from work in support of the strike.
All government educational institutions, which reopened only yesterday after about three months of winter vacation, were also closed.
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