NHM employees suspend 35-day strike, to resume duties tomorrow

National Health Mission (NHM) employees Sunday suspended their 35-day-long strike after Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik's assurance that their demands will be looked into.

Thousands of NHM employees had gone on strike across the state on January 14 in support of various demands, including regularisation of services and implementation of 'equal pay for equal work' order, badly affecting the functioning of the government-run health institutions.

"The decision to suspend the strike and resume duties from Monday was taken on the assurance of state Governor Satya Pal Malik that our genuine demands will be given a favourable consideration," NHM Employees' Association spokesperson Faizan A Tramboo told PTI.

He said a delegation of senior BJP leaders, led by state party president Ravinder Raina, also visited the protesting employees and assured them to facilitate a meeting with the governor in the first week of March and persuaded the members to suspend the strike in view of the tense situation in the state.

In one of the deadliest attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber Thursday rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into a bus in Pulwama district, killing 40 jawans. The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying CRPF personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.

"We have decided to suspend the strike in view of the prevailing situation and in the larger interest of the country," Tramboo said.

On Saturday, the governor administration had ordered the termination of services of 46 employees in different districts for "unauthorised absence from duties" after serving notices to the erring employees with a directive to resume work.

Tramboo claimed that they have been assured that the termination orders of the employees would be revoked once they resume duties.

He said Raina, along with former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and former minister Priya Sethi, also offered fruit juice to the employees who were on a hunger strike at the exhibition ground for the past nine days.