BJP raising 2 L village health volunteers’ force
LUCKNOW Mayank Gupta, 40, a medicine shop owner from Azamgarh has a new designation – swasthya swayamsevak (health volunteer).
Armed with a kit, some lessons from doctors on the basic dos and don’ts to adopt to avoid Covid-19 spread, a booklet and some essentials like pulse oximeter, medicines and thermometer, he is part of the nearly 2 lakh health volunteers the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to deploy in the state’s countryside.
“All these preparations are being made ahead of the muchtalked about third wave. As a responsible party, we have taken this unique initiative to help the people, should the third wave strike,” said Gupta, who is also the BJP’S treasurer in the district.
At the day-long training session on Tuesday, the party’s national general secretary CT Ravi, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev and state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal told the nearly 460 mostly-young volunteers who had come for the training exercise to Lucknow that they would now train more volunteers at the district level.
While the exercise, months ahead of the 2022 UP polls, would obviously help the BJP connect better with the villages which had witnessed widespread grief during the Covid surge in the second wave in April and May, the health volunteers denied that the initiative had a political reason.
“Our leaders made it clear that though the BJP had taken up the initiative to post health volunteers in villages, yet the exercise to train volunteers would not remain confined to the party. In fact, we would be willing to train other social organizations irrespective of the party affiliation,” said Indra Nigam, 34, an accountant and a BJP volunteer from Gorakhpur who took the lessons. He works with BJP’S IT team in the district.
Some health volunteers, however, admitted that along with raising awareness about Covid safeguards, they would also popularise the various efforts made by the Narendra Modi government at the centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in UP, to help the poor through various schemes and initiatives.
“We are BJP workers from districts so we will also talk about the party and government initiatives “a health volunteer said.
The idea of health volunteers to be posted in villages was first mooted by BJP general secretary (organization) BL Santhosh during his visit to the state capital in June.
Back then, the move to deploy health volunteers was announced immediately after the extensive devastation caused during the second Coovid wave in April.
The BJP also invited Dr Suryakant from King George’s Medical University’s (KGMU) department of pulmonary medicine to coach the doctors who too had come for the training session.
“There were teams of nearly five or more people, including a doctor, from across the districts for the training session in Lucknow. Dr Suryakant interacted with the doctors as well as us. He stressed on the use of certain medicines, their dosage for various age groups and what can instantly be given,” said Sanjay Ram, a health volunteer from Gorakhpur.
Each team which arrived from districts had a party person, a doctor from the district, an information technology person and a coordinator.
“Now, these people would train volunteers. For instance, there are 1294 gram-panchayats in Gorakhpur region, and we will help train one male and one female volunteer in each of these panchayats,” he said.
PRAYAGRAJ: Recent transfer of women teachers in Boys’ Government Intermediate Colleges (GICS) across the state has not gone down well with their male counterparts.
A large section of male teachers is objecting to these transfers, claiming the transfers are against government norms.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has 1,108 Government Intermediate Colleges (GICS) and 1,186 Government Girls Intermediate Colleges (GGICS). Recruitment of assistant teachers and lecturers for these institutions are done by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC).
The male teachers said on July 13, eighteen women teachers were transferred to GIC– Prayagraj and this meant that there were 39 women teachers against 61 male teachers in the college.
“These transfers are in violation of the set norms. There is no provision of having male teachers in GGICS and women teachers in GIC (Boys). However, the Gic-prayagraj which is located in the heart of the city is a muchpreferred choice of all and many women teachers have got posted there in violation of the guidelines,” claimed Rajnath Yadav, a senior male teacher at the college.
“There were separate cadres of teachers for government boys’ and girls’ schools in the state. Appointments as well as seniority determination and promotion of the male and women teachers were done separately, the male teachers claimed.
“Strangely, these women teachers have been posted here while applications of male teachers also vying for a transfer were overlooked. Five of the 18 women teachers transferred at Gic-prayagraj have not even joined duty yet,” said Ramphal Bharti, another teacher of Gicprayagraj.
“These transfers are in gross violation of set government guidelines. Our recruitment, cadre, transfers and seniority are all separate from the women teachers and even in the education directorate, different sections handle our affairs. Right at the time of recruitment, the advertisements clearly indicate the count of posts available in men’s and women’s branch of the colleges and while applying online, an applicant is required to choose the cadre according to their gender,” said Rameshwar Pandey, the state general secretary of Rajkiya Shikshak Sangh (Pandey faction).
He said that at Gic-prayagraj, the first female teacher was transferred in 2012 and since then this practice is continuing.
“This year we are getting reports of women teachers being posted in GICS at most of the district headquarters including Lucknow, Bareilly, Meerut, Agra and Etawah. If this continues, all the posts of male teachers would get filled up by women teachers,” he maintained.
Male teachers point out that the transfer of women teachers at Gic-prayagraj is happening despite number of vacancies in many girls’ colleges.
However, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma who is also the state’s secondary education minister had a different take on the issue.
“Transferring women teachers in government intermediate colleges (GICS) is in practice for the past two years now. There were some vacancies in these schools and so we decided to post excess women teachers in those institutions where there was shortage of teachers,” he said.
“Now, some GICS have also been opened to girl students and so we want women teachers there also. We wish to assure that no one would be affected through this move,” he added.