Seeking regular jobs, de-addiction centre staff in Punjab go on strike

Tribune Reporters

Bathinda/Phagwara, May 4

Members of the Government De-addiction and Rehabilitation Employees’ Union, Punjab (contractual and outsourced staff) observed a pen-down strike here on Monday. The members said despite rendering services for years, they had not been regularised by the state government.

Inderpreet Singh, vice-president of the union, said, “Contractual and outsourced staff members have been providing services at the de-addiction centre just as regular staff for years, but we have been forced to work on a meagre salary of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month. Moreover, there is no health insurance for our family members.”

The strike was observed by contractual and outsourced staff at government-run de-addiction centres across the state. Meanwhile, addicts who had come to take medicines at the OPD of de-addiction centres and OOAT clinics were a harried lot. Later, they lined up outside the centre and raised slogans against the state government. Meanwhile, hundreds of drugs addicts had to face inconvenience due to the protest by contractual employees of de-addiction centres in Phagwara, Nurmahal, Nakodar and Phillaur.