Kannur: The Communist Party of India (CPI) has decried the order of the Kannur collector to make use of the services of nursing students in private hospitals in the wake of the ongoing nurses' stir. The collector issued the order after the stir started affecting the functioning of various hospitals in the district.
CPI district secretary P. Santhosh Kumar stated that the collector's order was against the policies of the LDF government. However, district collector Mir Mohammed Ali refused to budge.
The CPI stand against the collector also exposed the differences in the ruling front. Health minister K.K. Shailaja of the CPM openly backed the collector.
This was not the way to resolve a strike. The nurses stir should be settled amicably, the CPI said in a press release which urged the government to scrap the controversial order.
Undaunted by criticism, even from within the ruling front, Mir Mohammed Ali decided to continue the deployment of nursing students in hospitals which were affected by the nurses’ stir. “Once the nursing students started to serve in the stir-affected hospitals, the situation is slowly picking up there,” he said.
The district administration has not initiated any action against the students of Pariyaram medical college even after refusing to obey the collector's order. The strike in nine private hospitals in the district demanding decent pay is also on.
The students of the Pariyaram medical college continue their stir demanding the withdrawal of the collector's order. They boycotted classes and started a protest in front of the college on Tuesday morning.
A large section of nurses in Kannur and Kasargod districts started an indefinite strike on July 11, demanding wage hike, affecting the functioning of hospitals difficult.
Considering the difficult times and the spread of viral diseases, the collector slapped prohibitory orders in Kannur and ordered nursing colleges to provide the service of nursing students in the hospitals on an ad hoc basis. The order was met with mixed response as the Indian Nurses Association and some political parties opposed it as arbitrary and illegal.
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