SHANGLA: The technicians of Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) here have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to pay their pending salaries for last eight months, saying they had performed all duties assigned to them during the anti-polio and routine immunisation and coronavirus pandemic.

Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, they said they were passing through a difficult period because the government was not responding to their requests to pay their pending salaries.

Naveed Ahmed, an EPI technician at Kamach, said the government was delaying their salaries and their management also used lame excuses in this regard.

“We perform every duty assigned to us by the health department, but we have nothing in our pockets to pay even our travel fares to reach our duty stations. We just want salaries and regularisation of our services,” he said.

He said that 17 EPI technicians were appointed in 2018 across the district who worked under the integrated health project (IHP). He said they had been waiting for their outstanding salaries for the past eight months.

“In the past eight months, I have only received the stipend for anti-polio campaigns. I regularly check my bank account, but the salary has not been released. If we get late for just half an hour our reporting officers seek explanation from us, but unfortunately no one ask about our salary and expenditures,” said Bacha Khan, a technician.

He said they visited every area even passing through hard terrains in the district to vaccinate children.

Sher Khan, another technician, said he wanted to serve the people when he joined EPI, but he now felt disappointed at the present situation.

They demanded of the health department to immediately pay their salaries otherwise they would boycott the vaccination campaigns and start agitation.

When contacted, EPI district coordinator Dr Gulzar Hussain said he had sent demands to the relevant authorities to release the pending salaries of IHP-based technicians. He hoped the pending salaries would be released soon.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021