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Udupi : Karnataka State Senior and Junior Health Assistants (Men & Women) Association ® Bangalore of Udupi District unit has alleged that the health assistant employees are not given basic facilities and are overburdened with the work due to the shortage of workers, said Nithyananda Gowda P.S. unit President of association.

He was speaking to media persons at Udupi on Wednesday, he said that there are 59 Public Health Centers’ and 6 community health centers in the district which are less staffed. Even though there are several vacancies, we have less staff and overburdened the heavy work. For the junior male employee postings there are 182 posts of which 70 are filled and 112 are vacant. Under the senior section there are 39 vacancies for 65 posts, he said.

He said due to the severe staff shortage, the available resources have to work seven times extra compared to the normal actual assigned work. There are no promotions even then after 33 years of service. The junior health assistants are not promoted. They should retire with the jobs they had taken up during their admission into the profession earlier, he said.

He also said that the wages are very meager and the payment is usually delayed. The health assistants have to wait for more than three months for their salaries. The delay policy is followed in the reimbursement of expenses incurred while availing the health care amenities and also hike in the salaries, he said.

Gowda said that district health officer is blind to the problems encountered by the assistant junior and senior health workers. The district health assistant junior workers have stopped handling the additional duties apart from the assigned one. The health related programme data is not sent to the government in the past two months.

Gowda said that Zilla Panchayat executive officer had initiated a meeting concerning the problem on 1^st of January and had issued instructions to ensure the in charge payments for the junior workers who are handling additional duties until new appointment for the vacant posts are made. The Health and family welfare officer not taken any initiatives concerning the direction issued by chief executive officer. Gowda also warned that if the situation persisted, the employees would be compelled to take stringent measures seeking justice for them.

During the press conference along with Nithyanand Gowda, Anand Gowda and Krishna Upadyaya were present.