Sri Vijaya Puram, July 02: Gram Panchayat Shivapuram Pradhan Venkateswar Rao has submitted a detailed representation to the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Secretary of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration, seeking enhancement of salary, welfare benefits, and regularisation of long-serving National Health Mission (NHM) employees in the Islands.
In his representation, the Pradhan highlighted that NHM Staff Nurses, ANMs, and other healthcare personnel have been rendering dedicated services in rural and remote areas while performing duties equivalent to those of regular Government employees. Despite handling emergency services, maternal and child healthcare, immunization programmes, patient referrals, and various public health initiatives, many NHM employees continue to receive comparatively low remuneration and are deprived of essential service benefits such as EPF, Health Insurance, TA/DA, Night Duty Allowance, Patient Care Allowance, and other admissible benefits.
He also praised the remarkable contribution of NHM employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that they worked tirelessly on the frontlines to ensure uninterrupted healthcare services and the successful implementation of the vaccination programme across the geographically scattered Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Referring to the improvement in the service conditions of teachers engaged under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Pradhan urged the Administration to adopt a similar approach for NHM employees. He further cited a recent High Court judgment regarding the regularisation of long-serving employees and requested the Administration to frame an appropriate policy for eligible NHM staff who have completed several years of continuous service.
The representation specifically seeks enhancement of salaries, extension of welfare benefits including EPF, TA/DA, Health Insurance, Patient Care Allowance and Night Duty Allowance, and the formulation of a policy for the regularisation of eligible NHM employees.
