Health department allegedly misplaces Rs 75 lakh

A REPORTER

SHILLONG, June 29: The Health department of Meghalaya has allegedly misplaced Rs 75, 48,750 which include the arrears, revised payment of around 305 ASHA facilitators and travel and daily allowances. The matter has come to light through an RTI.

“The RTI findings clearly mention that the remuneration for the ASHA facilitators, where the honorarium is fixed at Rs. 1000 per month and an allowance of 20 fixed visits with Rs. 150 per visit, for which the total amount to be paid for the ASHA facilitators is around Rs. 4000 per month,” said Fairson Kharja, adviser of the ASHA Facilitators and ASHA Workers Union, on Monday.

The findings reveals that payment of supervision cost for ASHA Field Assistants has increased from Rs. 150- to Rs. 250 per visit with effect from the month of January 2015 and which is applicable to all districts of Meghalaya. According to which, the allowance to be paid to an ASHA facilitator is Rs. 5000 per month in addition to the payment of Rs. 5000, and a daily wage of Rs. 125 per visit per month for attending the Block Level Meeting.

The RTI further clarified that an arrear for the revised pay should be applicable from April 2014 to December 2014 for all districts of the State.

In its reply to the RTI, the Director of health service (MCH & FW) clearly mentioned that the new remuneration is effective from January, 2015 but surprisingly, the department is not yet paying the revised scale to the ASHA employees.

The union on Monday informed that since the ASHA Facilitators and ASHA Workers Union is affiliated to INTUC, they will move to court with due consultation of INTUC lawyers.