The ongoing strike by a section of nurses in Jharkhand could affect the pulse polio campaign in the state tomorrow with the agitators saying that they would boycott the drive even as the government termed their stir as 'illegal'.
The state Health and Family Welfare Department, in a release today, asked the Auxiliary Nurse Mid-wife and Grade A nurses working under National Rural Health Department to call off their "illegal" strike to help the state achieve its target in the pulse polio campaign.
The charter of demands of the agitating nurses was being seriously looked into and its execution was in progress, the department stated.
The agitating nurses' body, Jharkhand NHRM-ANM-GNM Anubandhit (contractual) Sangh, which are on strike since yesterday, however dismissed the appeal.
"We will boycott the pulse polio campaign as the government has not fulfilled our demands - confirmation of our jobs from the date we are appointed, PF and LIC benefits, etc, Juhi Minz, the Sangh's General Secretary said.
They had been on 'strike' from December 16 to 18 last year on the same demands and resorting to it again is illegal, the department said, and asked them to withdraw their strike in the interest of the state and the people.
However the nurses' organisation said that their December agitation was a dharna and not a strike.
