‘State ready to revise pay scale, awaits Centre’s nod’

“This is not a new issue that they are bringing up. While the nurses are demanding that the government give promises to them in writing, there is no necessity to do so, as everything is governed based on procedures laid down.” 

The nurses were given enough time, both on Monday and Tuesday, to select the representatives and come forward to meet the Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar. “Unfortunately, though the representatives had a thorough understanding of whatever was discussed in the meeting, they were unable to pass on the message. If they had adhered to whatever was discussed in the meeting on the first day itself, the problem would have not been so large,” said a Health official. 

Explaining the working of the scheme, Dr Kolandaisamy said, “There are two kinds of posts. One is a time scale post – which is a reasonably well paid one and then there is the regular scale post. These nurses who had been protesting are the contract nurses under the regular scale. We maintain the same conditions. While we do not deny that the amount paid to these nurses is not enough compared to their services and the few holidays they get, we will need to first get it endorsed from the Government of India National Health and Rural Mission scheme,” Kolandaisamy said.

While promising to create more posts as per the norms, the Health Minister said that until the nurses are moved to the regular posts, they would be given a reasonable salary, especially in the context of the recent pay commission. “Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy had given Rs 14,000 crore to revise the salary of every staff. Now, the government is ready to revise the salary for these nurses also. However, we have to get the concurrence of the Government of India,” he added.