Pune: Maharashtra State Zilla Parishad Nurses Association has warned that nurses working for the Pune Zilla Parishad will also participate in the ongoing agitation and go on indefinite strike if the pending demands made by the association are not met soon. Association’s Junnar tehsil President Anita Kasar and executive President Sunita Gadekar have issued this warning to the district administration and said that 18,000 nurses working in rural areas will be working with black ribbons for their demands from September 1 to 7.

Maharashtra State Zilla Parishad Nurses Association office bearers have submitted a written warning letter regarding this to Ayush Prasad, the Chief Executive Officer and also the District Health Officer of Zilla Parishad.

Junnar tehsil Health Officer and Block Development Officer (BDO) has been given a statement by Association’s Junnar tehsil president general secretary Ranjana Kadam and treasurer Mangal Nadekar. There are about 18,000 nurses working in rural areas and they will be working with black ribbons for their demands from September 1 to September 7.

The association has said that if the government does not approve their demands, nurses will go on a single day strike on September 8. Even thereafter if the demands are not met, then nurses will call and participate in an indefinite strike from September 9.

Recently, all nurses and contractual employees working with the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) hospital had also protested for two hours on August 26 for their various demands.

The protesting nurses, under the banner of Maharashtra Government Nurses Federation, demanded that six thousand vacant posts of nurses in the medical education department and public health department should be filled immediately.

The nurses also demanded that these posts should not be filled on a contractual basis. Their other demands were that nurses should be given seven days of Covid-19 duty on rotation followed by seven days of quarantine leave.