The health assistants in Andhra Pradesh are staging a protest in Hyderabad on April 18 demanding the state government for taking back as many as 1700 contract employees-back to the health department- who were terminated from the service. The employees who sat before the office of the director of health and family welfare have raised the slogans against the government.

They vented out their anger stating that they were awaiting the regularization of their services. Expressing their anguish, they said it was unfair for the government to pass GO number 273 at this point of time to remove 1700 health assistants.

The terminated health assistants have said that they joined the contract services purely on merit basis and the government failed to tag them as regular employees despite being associated with one department over a couple of years.

The police, who plunged into the action, managed to clear the traffic (that was jammed due to the agitation) and arrested those who sat before the office and blocked the road.

When Kiran Kumar Reddy government is in a fix due to several issues, it seems that the current agitation of health assists will add fuel to the fire. It will in turn, most likely, to effect the votes of the Party in 2014. (Phani)