Uttarakhand: Nursing aspirant consumes phenyl during protest in Dehradun

The nursing aspirants were protesting outside health minister Subodh Uniyal’s residence, demanding year-wise recruitment and other pending demands.

A nursing job aspirant was hospitalised after allegedly consuming phenyl during a protest outside Uttarakhand health minister Subodh Uniyal’s residence in Dehradun on Wednesday, people aware of the matter said. The protesters were demanding year-wise recruitment to nursing posts based on seniority, along with other long-pending demands.

President of the Nursing Ekta Manch, Naval Pundeer, said that the group had ended its over 150-day protest in May after receiving assurances from the health minister that their demands would be addressed. However, he alleged that the government had failed to fulfil its promises.

“We were staging a protest outside the health minister’s residence when one of the protesters consumed phenyl. A few others also attempted to do so, but we stopped them,” Pundeer said.

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He said a delegation of protesters met the health minister at around 1 pm and informed him that their demands were justified and had remained pending for the past eight months. “Some of the aspirants are in depression because of the prolonged delay in recruitment,” Pundeer added.

Station House Officer (SHO) Shankar Bisht of the Cantt police station said that the woman consumed phenyl while staging the protest outside the minister’s residence. “She consumed phenyl during the protest, following which she was admitted to Doon Hospital,” the SHO said.

Medical superintendent of Doon Medical College and Hospital RS Bisht said the woman was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). “She is stable and is currently under observation in the ICU,” he said.

The aspirants are seeking year-wise recruitment to nursing posts on the basis of seniority, relaxation in the upper age limit for candidates who became overage due to delays in recruitment, preference for local candidates in appointments, and the creation of at least 2,000 additional nursing posts in accordance with Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).

Pundeer said that nursing recruitment in Uttarakhand was earlier conducted on the basis of year-wise seniority before the rules were amended in 2020 to introduce a written examination.