Agitated MTS workers displaying Covid Warrior certificates.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Having worked closely with the patients admitted to the ESI hospital, Margao during the first and second Covid waves, these MTS workers have a simply query for the government -- can the Covid warrior certificates help them make both ends meet as their services as Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS) workers stand terminated after ESI hospital shut down for Covid operations?
Numbering around 35-40, they are out of job since the ESI hospital was de-notified as a Covid hospital. Since then, they have been knocking the doors of the authorities, in a bid to draw their attention to their plight as their termination has meant loss of job and livelihood.
These workers have made a simple plea to the government to consider them for alternate employment after having worked closely with Covid patients and looked after them as being their very own even when their kin stayed away from hospital.
“Some of the workers even changed pampers of patients and we fed the patients who were bed-ridden in response to the call of duty. Even the government can check up with the patients, who were attended by us during their stay in the hospitals. The government cannot leave us in the lurch when the Covid situation has improved now”, remarked Mehboob.
He added: “Last nine months, I had worked in the ESI hospital even though many looked upon as virus carriers. We responded to the call of duty without caring for our safety. We are jobless now. The ESI hospital had issued us the Covid warrior certificates, but these documents will do us no good nor give us job and livelihood”.
His counterparts also echoed similar sentiments. A lady worker U Naik said they had all gone to Bambolim, hoping they will give us some jobs, but we returned home disappointed. “We had even put in double duty for the sake of the patients, without even bothering about our family back home. And, this is what we have got after putting in works for around a year now”, she said.
Former Aquem-Baixo Sarpanch Siddesh Bhagat, who has taken up cudgels for the beleaguered Covid warriors, said they will set a deadline to the government to absorb these 35-40 workers before kick-starting their agitation. “There were many employees, who had even proceeded on on leave out of fear of Covid. But, these MTS workers worked hard and cared the patients as if they were their very own”, he said.
Siddesh added: “We cannot forget these workers who were once considered as untouchables and had to face discrimination from family and relatives just because they all took up the job in the Covid hospital”.
