KHYBER
Polio supervisors and field workers in Landi Kotal disapproved Direct Disbursement Mechanism (DDM) policy, announced by the provincial government, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and World Health Organization (WHO) to pay the front-line polio eradication workers. In a protest rally held at Bacha Khan Chawk, main Landi Kotal bazaar on Tuesday, dozens of the polio workers rejected the policy and said it was economic killing of thirteen hundred polio workers in Khyber. The concerned department should pay them their arrears besides extend their contract for six months, they added and asked for granting of martyr package to them.
They insisted to reinstate them on the positions of polio workers permanently and bestow them all their legal rights.
They demanded the health department and WHO to revisit the policy and resume the previous procedure of monthly payment to them.
The protestors threatened that till acceptance of their demands; their boycott of the polio campaign would be continued and would initiate protest sit-in at Pak-Afghan highway to get their rights.
As per the WHO, the policy will directly benefit the workers by receiving their payment on time besides DDM allows the government and other stakeholders to closely monitor progress during the polio eradication drive.
