Agitation to continue till wages raised, state govt withdrew from talks: protesting ASHA workers

Thiruvananthapuram, More than two months after starting their agitation, ASHA workers protesting outside the Secretariat here said on Tuesday that they will not relent until their wages are increased.

They also accused the state government of unilaterally withdrawing from the talks with them.

S Mini, state vice president of the Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association whose members are carrying out the agitation, also alleged that the proposal to set up a committee, to examine their demands and working conditions and give its report, "was only a tactic aimed at ending the protest".

"The proposal to set up a committee was not a sincere one. No panel has been set up till now. It was only a tactic aimed at ending the protest.

"The protest will go on strongly. We will not end it without a hike in our wages," she told a TV channel.

A section of Accredited Social Health Activist workers have been protesting outside the secretariat since February 10 demanding a hike in their honorarium from ₹7,000 to ₹21,000 and a post retirement benefit of five lakh rupees.

As the protest entered its 65th day, Mini said that they were willing to end the agitation if the government were to increase, as an interim measure, their honorarium by ₹3,000 and announce that retirement benefits of ₹5 lakh would be provided.

"We had informed the government about this in the last talks when they came with the proposal to set up a committee. They said that talks will continue on the next day. But, on the next day, they informed us that there will be no talks. So, it is the government which unilaterally withdrew from the talks," she claimed.

She was referring to the fifth round of talks held with the government on April 3.

Last week, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had contended that the government had held six rounds of talks with the agitating ASHA workers and had also taken several measures to make their working conditions easier.

Despite that, the protestors are saying that they will not withdraw from their agitation till they get ₹21,000 honorarium and ₹5 lakh retirement benefits, he had claimed.

He had also said that the state government's stand was to help the ASHA workers as much as possible and the majority of them were aware of it as only a miniscule number of them were protesting outside the Secretariat here.

Besides the agitation, the protesting ASHA workers have launched an indefinite relay hunger strike that entered 27th day.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.