Northeast Desk, 21st November: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh has extended an invitation to the Meghalaya Accredited Social Health Activist Workers Union (MASHAWU) for a discussion on November 22 regarding their demands.
In a letter addressed to the Union, the department stated on Monday, “…the minister in charge of health and family welfare has summoned a meeting with the office functionaries of MASHAWU on November 22 in her office chamber in connection with the work stoppage by ASHA workers.”
This move follows the decision by ASHA workers to escalate their protest by organizing a march to the Secretariat on November 27. Their protest is against the state government’s unyielding stance on their demand to increase the fixed honorarium to Rs 5,000.
A peace rally, attended by hundreds of ASHA workers, took place on Friday. Union President Marajune Myrsing declared, “We are planning a protest march and an indefinite sit-in-demonstration in front of the Secretariat.”
Myrsing emphasized that there would be no retreat or surrender unless the state government provided some form of assurance on the ASHAs’ concerns.
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