IMPHAL, February 8: Employees of the Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MACS) today continued with the relay hunger strike at RD Wing Lamphel, said a statement of the society.
It said as part of the nationwide strike called by the All India AIDS Employees’ Association, Manipur State AIDS Control Society Employees’ Association (MACSEA) also launched an indefinite cease work strike from January 30, last. Due to any lack of positive response from the authorities, the relay hunger strike was re-launched yesterday, it said.
MLA RK Imo today visited RD Wing Lamphel and met employees who are on hunger strike.
It further continued that representatives of MACSEA submit seven charters of demand to him and narrated how National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has failed to redress employee’s grievances in National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) phase IV which is schedule to launch formally later this month.
MACSEA lamented that the chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who is also the chairman of the MACS governing body, refuses to give time to meet representatives of the Association, it said.
Due to the strike, Integrated Counseling and Testing Centres (ICTCs), Prevention of Parents to Child Transmission (PPTCT) centres, ART and Link ART centres across the state were shut down, it further said.
However, ART and Link ART centres were allowed to open from February 4, after a meeting of the association to render continuous services to ART patients, it said.