SHANGLA: Lady health workers have threatened to boycott the upcoming anti-polio drive if their pending salaries were not paid before July 15.
They told mediapersons here on Friday that they were performing the polio duty against all odds, but since they joined the project they had received salaries of only three months during the service spanning over 15 months. The LHWs said the health department had paid salaries of six months to some of their colleagues.
“We perform our duty with passion but the government is not paying salaries on time. I have not received my salary for the last three months,” Nabeela, an LHW, said. She said their job was tough as they had to go to far flung areas for vaccinating the children, but in response the government discouraged them.
Gul Khuban, another LHW, said she had borrowed money from neighbours to attend trainings in the tehsil headquarters hospital, Bisham, but the department failed to pay her pending salaries.
She said over 200 LHWs were awaiting payment of their pending salaries.
The LHWs said a WHO representative had asked them at a meeting to take part in the upcoming anti-polio campaign, commencing from July 15, but they had decided against it unless they were paid pending salaries.
District health officer Dr Mohammad Riaz told The Northern Post that the salaries would be paid to LHWs before the commencement of the anti-polio campaign.
