Guwahati Nurses Strike: 200 agitating nurses held, released later

The AANA members claimed that Health Minister Pijush Hazarika had called them for a meeting on Tuesday but after their representatives reached his office, the meeting was cancelled all of a sudden.

The minister could not be reached for his comment.

The AANA members were demanding, among others, 'same post same salary', restoration of the abolished designation of 'staff nurse' instead of 'nurse', the solution of "pay anomalies".

They asserted that they had placed their demands before the government several times but received no positive response.

On their strike affecting functioning in the hospitals, they said, "The government will be responsible for any eventuality as it has driven us to this point by not heeding to our repeated demands".

The authorities of the GMCH and the JMCH said functioning of the hospitals were affected as other nurses were engaged.

Nurses and faculty from the Regional Nursing Colleges attached to the GMCH and the JMCH, nursing supervisors and nurses undergoing training in the hospitals, paramedical interns were pressed into service, they said.