Sacked staff of Keonjhar hospital lock CDMO & ADMO in room

Keonjhar: Several sacked employees of the Keonjhar District Headquarters Hospital today locked the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) in-charge and Additional District Medical Officer (ADMO) in a room on the hospital premises protesting the decision to lay them off without prior notice.

As per reports, the Class IV employees including sweepers and attendants engaged temporarily at the hospital came to work today like any other usual day. But the ADMO stopped them saying that they have been retrenched.

Following this, they sat on a dharna in front of the ADMO office demanding jobs against 35 vacancies of Group D post in the hospital. Later, when the CDMO in-charge reached the spot to resolve the matter, the protesting staff locked up both the CDMO and ADMO in a room.

Reportedly, the temporary Class IV staff were appointed by the hospital in 2007 under the Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) scheme. However, the district administration later asked the CDMO to transfer the temporary staff to other hospitals.

The protesters alleged that instead of carrying out the directive, the hospital authorities sacked them.

Earlier, in February, the temporary staff had also staged protest opposing similar action by the hospital authorities.