Imphal, August 07: Members of Rapid Response Team (RRT) of the State's Veterinary and Animal Husbandry (V&AH) Department resumed duty from mid-day today after they were persuaded by the Veterinary Minister DD Thaisii and top officials of the Department to leave a protest demonstration staged to denounce an attack at the residence of their colleague.

another protest by employees took place at the RD Wing Hall, Lamphelpat where health workers aired grievances over alleged ambiguity and non-transparency on duty allowance/honorarium.

At the Sanjenthong office complex of the A&VH Department, RRT personnel joined their protesting colleagues for nearly four hours to condemn the attack carried out by unidentified persons at the Khurai Lamlong residence of the Department's cashier identified as L Boyai.

The attackers reportedly barged into Boyai's house on August 5 morning, fired at a television set and threatened family members.

The protest demonstration briefly stalled the ongoing bird flu containment exercise but arrival of the Veterinary Minister along with Secretary (A&VH) KK Chettry at the protest site inside the Department premise to pacify the annoyed employees yielded positive result in encouraging the RRT personnel to go back to work.

the RRT personnel finally agreed to resume their works from 1pm.Reflecting on the attack the minister fumed, "This is too much.

The department is making all out efforts in combating the bird flu outbreak to avert possible human catastrophe and mounting attack on our staff in the midst of this work is senseless and everyone should condemn it".

On the other hand Director (V&AH) Th Dorendro Singh opined that the attack might have links with monetary demand served by underground organisations on the department.

He also recalled a similar incident which occurred at the residence of the department's deputy director Dhananjoy Singh at Khagempalli on June 15.All Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Workers and Employees' Union and All Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry and Dairying Employees' Association, strongly condemning the attack called upon all concerned to desist from such unwanted acts in the future.

The employee bodies also described the attack as inhuman and dastardly in view of the grim situation people of the State had been facing due to outbreak of avian influenza.

The other protest, also involving employees currently engaged in the bird flu containment operation took place at the RD Wing Hall, Lamphelpat.

The agitation was reportedly triggered off due to anomaly in the allowance rate in addition to non-payment of the said allowance to a section of the health workers even as their colleagues had been provided the payment.

Some employees complained that the daily allowances differed from Rs 280 to 300 for the engaged employees of whom some of them are yet to receive the said amount till date even though the avian influenza containment exercise had completed 13 days.

Adding fuel to the health workers' angst is said to be leave taken by the Director (Health) for five days inspite of an earlier assurance to the employees that all payments including TA/DA and monthly salary would be cleared in time.

However, the agitated employees were mollified after detailed explanation and assurances by top officials of Health Department who rushed to Lamphelpat on receiving information about the tense situation.

intermingling with the agitating employees, Secretary (Health) P Vaiphei urged them (health workers) to call off the agitation with an assurance of clearing all necessary payments including TA/DA, and took serious note of the Director staying on leave.

P Vaiphei also informed the health workers that a sum of Rs 10 lakh had been sanctioned for bird flu containment-related expenditure and the said allocation handed over to the Additional Director of the Department for further handing over to RRT personnel.

Joining the interaction, Superintendent of JN Hospital (Porompat) Dr Sukumar explained that of the total sanctioned amount meant for ten days period, only Rs 8.23 lakh had been received out of which Rs 5.57 lakh has already been utilised.

Continuing that from the expended amount Rs 29,000 had been utilised in setting up the isolated ward in JN Hospital and other related usages, Dr sukumar further noted that inspite of the allocation for the 10 day period, the bird flu containment operation has entered the 13th day today.

The agitating employees reiterated their complaints regarding non-transparent and alleged partiality in the allowance distribution and inconveniences faced by them in dispensing their duty with particular reference to absence of proper training on the relatively new disease prior to deploying them to face ground reality.

They mooted that adequate training programme should have been conducted before being sent to conduct house-to-house awareness campaign and medication advises to the affected families/persons.

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