Plea in HC claims nurses of Rajan Babu Institute not paid since October last year

A plea has been moved in the Delhi High Court by the nursing staff of Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC), claiming they have not been paid their monthly salaries since October last year.

The petition came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh which adjourned the matter to January 15 when several similar pleas are listed.

The petition by the Delhi Nurses Union has said that it had earlier also moved a plea for release of salaries from June last year onwards and in that matter the high court had on November 11, 2020 directed that salaries of nursing staff be paid till September 2020.

However, they were constrained to move the court again as their salaries from October 2020 onwards have not been paid till date, the petition has said. It has further claimed that the nursing staff of the hospital have been ''working vigorously in the detection of the coronavirus disease by conducting home visits, virtual community meetings, contact tracing, organising COVID-19 tests, comorbidity evaluation, ensuring regular medication, defaulter patients visits, record maintenance, etc''.

The union has contended that the difficult nature of the services rendered by the nursing personnel have not been recognised by the corporation.