Claiming torture, nurses seek action on taluk med officer

TIRUCHY: Nurses staged a protest against the Taluk Medical Officer (TMO) in Thanjavur on Monday for using objectionable words against women nurses and demanded immediate action against him.

According to the protesting nurses, the Sethubavachatram taluk medical officer Ramalingam working at the taluk Primary Health Centre has been acting against the government regulations. He has been acting against the employees and attempting to misbehave with the nurses. “Unable to bear his behaviour, some nurses attempted suicide. If anyone does not obey him, he will torture them by putting them on night duty continuously,” charged R Indira, state president of Tamil Nadu Nurses Union, who led the protest.

She claimed that the nurses working under him were subjected to severe mental torture. “He has been working in the same unit for the past 17 years and torturing the nurses. We demand departmental action against him,” she said.

More than 300 nurses from the district had boycotted duty on Monday and Indira warned that a state-level protest would be conducted if there was no action against him.