WB Govt hikes honorarium, terminal benefits of municipal healthcare workers
Calcutta: The West Bengal Government has announced an increase in the honorarium and terminal benefits for two categories of municipal health care workers, wherein, Honorary Health Worker (HHW) will now get Rs 4,500 monthly honorarium, while, the First-Tier Supervisors (FTS) will get Rs 6500. Further, the terminal benefits for both categories have been hiked to Rs 3 lakhs.
The step was taken by the state government to appreciate the efforts of the urban health care workers and to acknowledge their ' irreplaceable importance' in the fight against coronavirus.
The increase in the honorarium has been introduced particularly for Honorary Health Worker (HHW) and First-Tier Supervisor (FTS). While the honorarium for HHW has been increased up to more than 40%, as far as FTSs are concerned it has seen a whopping 94% increase.
The urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim informed that Honorary Health Worker (HHW) who used to get Rs 3,125 as honorarium will now get Rs 4,500 a month which indicates an almost 40% increase. Similarly, the First-Tier Supervisors (FTS) who used to get Rs 3338 per month will now get Rs 6500, indicating a hike of 94%. Moreover, terminal benefits for both categories have been hiked to Rs 3 lakhs.
Confirming the same, the minister tweeted, " The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak helped the world understand the irreplaceable importance of our healthcare workers. While they continue to fight this battle every day, it gives me immense pleasure to inform that the State finance department has accorded approval for enhancement of honorarium & other benefits of health workers of urban local bodies."
One of the senior officials of the municipal affairs department told the Indian Express that the decision of increasing honorarium for HHW and FTS came following the increase in honorarium of Asha workers in the rural areas announced by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamta Banerjee. He further told the daily, " As a result, the honorarium of urban health workers became less than that of Asha workers. So, the government decided to do the same for urban healthcare workers."
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