Nagaland Association of Community Health Officers (NACHO), which launched phase-wise agitation on October 12 against non-payment of salary and performance-based incentive (PBI) to some community health officers (CHOs) since April 2022, has begun phase-II protest on Tuesday.
NACHO president Semakchang and general secretary Chumrenthung N Ezung said that altogether 105 CHOs posted in different health and wellness centres (HWCs) have been affected leading to untold hardships and financial problems. Even as the deadline of the first phase expired on October 17, NACHO said there was no official response or positive outcome from the department (NHM-H&FW) on the issue.
Therefore, NACHO said that at an emergency meeting held on October 16, they decided to initiate the phase-II agitation from October 18, which would extend till November 1, 2022. NACHO cautioned that further “drastic measures” would be initiated if demands were not met.
During phase-II agitation, NACHO said all affected CHOs under 15th FC would continue to observe “total cease work.”
Further, the unaffected CHOs would observe “pen-down” strike, during which CHOs would halt all forms of vertical documentations and reports currently documented by CHOs. However, NACHO said lateral documentations such as records and registers, referrals were exempted from the preview of “pen-down” strike.
The association, therefore appealed to the health department to resolve the issue without further delay.