CHENNAI: As the nurses’ protest for job regularisation and new recruitments enters the fourth day, Health Minister Ma Subramanian has invited them for talks on Monday.
Organised by the Tamil Nadu Nurses Development Association, the protest began on Thursday, with over 500 nurses staging a demonstration in Chennai. Despite a police intervention and temporary dispersal, the protest continued at multiple locations, including the Kilambakkam bus terminus and the Guduvanchery Government Primary Health Centre.
Making several accusations against the state government, the nurses said the DMK administration has failed to honour its election promise to regularise nurses currently working on a consolidated pay scheme. They claimed that no new nursing posts have been created since the DMK came to power.
Also, the government has not taken steps to appoint 8,000 nurses who have passed the Medical Recruitment Board (MRB) examination to permanent positions, the agitating health workers alleged, claiming there is a critical shortage of nurses in proportion to patient numbers across district hospitals, medical colleges, and primary health centres.
They questioned how new government healthcare schemes can succeed without adequate staff, urging the administration to fulfil their demands before the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Ma Subramanian has stated that creating new permanent posts for nurses is not feasible.
Defending the government’s record, he said, “In the past four and a half years, the government has regularised 3,783 nurses.”
He accused the protesters of acting under political pressure, suggesting the strike has been strategically timed to pressurise the government before elections.