Unnao, Uttar Pradesh

A total of 11 community health centre (CHC) in-charge and five primary health centre (PHC) in-charge in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district who had tendered their resignations on May 12, have retracted their decision and have returned to work.

The development came after Unnao CMO Ashutosh Kumar held talks with the officials and assured them of resolving their grievances.

While resigning, the officials had cited difficulty in providing treatment to the COVID19 infected persons due to limited resources.

In a letter addressed to the chief medical officer (CMO) of Unnao, the 16 officials alleged that undue pressure was meted out to them by higher officials during their service.

“As protective measures in this ongoing COVID19 pandemic, vaccinations, surveillance, sampling, distribution of medicines amongst the patients in home-isolation, contact tracing of symptomatic patients is continuously being done with limited resources,” the letter addressed to the CMO read. Gaon Connection has a copy of the letter.

Also Read: COVID-19 invades rural India; district hospitals struggle with faulty or no ventilators at all

“Despite this, the punitive orders by administrative officials have been issued against us without any clarification in a manner that is immodest. Also, non-cooperative behaviour by the higher health officials is problematic,” it added.

On being contacted by Gaon Connection, Unnao CMO had said, “Yes, I am aware of the resignations. Efforts are being made to talk to the officials and sort the issue.”

The letter had reasoned mental and financial torture by the higher officials to be the rationale behind their decision to resign from their posts of health center in-charges.

Also Read: Rural Uttar Pradesh in a fever of trouble