Acknowledging “the irreplaceable importance” of medical staff in its fight against the coronavirus, the West Bengal government on Wednesday increased honorarium and terminal benefits for two categories of municipal healthcare workers.
Urban Development and Municipal affairs Minister Firhad Hakim tweeted, “The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak helped the world understand the irreplaceable importance of our healthcare workers. While they continue to fight this battle every day, it gives me immense pleasure to inform that the State Finance Department has accorded approval for enhancement of honorarium & other benefits of health workers of urban local bodies.”
According to Hakim, contractual honorary health workers (HHW) will now get Rs 4,500 a month against the earlier Rs 3,125 — a 44 per cent raise. Similarly, the honorarium for first tier supervisors (FTS) has been increased 94.72 per cent to Rs 6,500 a month from Rs 3,338. Terminal benefits for both categories have been hiked to Rs 3 lakh.
A senior official of the Municipal Affairs Department said the decision was taken after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announce the honorarium hike for Asha workers in rural areas. “As a result, the honorarium of urban health workers became less than that of Asha workers. So, the government decided to do the same for urban healthcare workers,” said the official.
