The National Health Mission (NHM) has sanctioned Rs 94 crore for disbursement of salary to district-level contractual healthcare workers following a strike threatened by unpaid healthcare workers deployed at railway stations, bus stands, airport and other strategic points in the state capital for Covid testing.

“A sum of about Rs 94 crore has been sanctioned by the government for the payment of salary to district level contractual workers. The payment will be made soon,” Managing Director of NHM Dr Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, contractual healthcare workers deployed at various points in the state capital for conducting Covid tests had threatened to go on a strike over non-payment of salary for two months.

Ranchi Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar admitted that contractual healthcare workers involved in Covid-related duties in Ranchi did not receive their salaries for two months. The civil surgeon had also written to NHM and the district administration to ensure payment of salary to contractual healthcare workers in the district.

At present, about 700 contractual workers are deployed across Ranchi district to conduct RAT and RT PCR tests at railway stations, bus stands, the Birsa Munda Airport and other locations in the state capital. Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for payment of salary to contractual workers in Ranchi.

East Singhbhum, Deoghar, West Singhbhum, Giridih, Godda and Hazaribag were also allotted Rs 5 crore each, while Bokaro, Chatra, Dhanbad, Dumka, Garwah, Gumla, Sahebganj and Saraikela were allotted Rs 4 crore each. Rs.3 crore was sanctioned for each of the remaining nine districts in Jharkhand.

Several thousand contractual workers under NHM have already been on strike since October 10 demanding reinstatement of a terminated employee and implementation of an HR policy. The striking healthcare workers have claimed that the NHM did not pay salaries on time to several contractual workers despite having funds. The funds sanctioned recently will not be used for payment of state level NHM workers, sources said.