Tale of Two Chief Ministers

Expressing concern over the manner in which agitating nurses of government hospitals and students of government-run nursing colleges since January 24, were being treated by the ADMK regime, DMK President and former Chief Minister Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi urged the government to invite them and hold talks to solve the issue amicably.

Speaking at a function held at DMK Headquarters Anna Arivalayam on Jan.26, Kalaignar said the Tamil Nadu government should hold talks with agitating nurses, who are protesting against a government order to appoint nursing staff from private institutions at government hospitals, and settle the issue amicably.

Expressing concern, Kalaignar said, “We are all seeing the plight of the nurses for the last couple of days through newspapers and how they were being treated. Why should they be made to suffer like this? What have they asked? The nurses and the government can sort out the issue through talks” , the DMK President said. “If the government invited them and held talks with them, and satsify them by accepting their demands, they will be doubly happy”, he said, and lamented over the manner in which they were being treated by the ruling ADMK.

More than 1,500 nurses from government hospitals and medical colleges were arrested across the State on Jan.24 after they took to streets protesting against the GO dated Jan.18, which said that the government had decided that “in future, all vacant posts of nurses in all government institutes shall be filled up from among the trained nurses both in the government institutions and government-approved private nursing institutions by conducting an examination by the Medical Services Recruitment Board.”

In Chennai, nearly 500 nursing students went on a hunger fast in Director of Medical Services campus from Jan.24 when they were forcibly removed by the police and thrown into police lorries, detained in kalyana mandapams and released in the evening. In other district headquarters also, nurses and nursing students resolved to boycott of attending on patients, formed human chains and held demonstrations etc., The agitation was getting intensified day by day as there was no move from the government to call them for talks and find solution. Instead, the authorities resorted to coercive methods to put down the agitation. Hostels of nursing students and nurses were closed for a week and inmates were asked to go to their homes. On Jan.27, when about 500 of them intended to present a memorandum to the Chief Minister and proceeded to the Secretariat they were stopped by the police near Kannagi statue and directed to disburse. When the girls refused they were threatened to be remanded, they refused to leave and offered to get arrested. The police used force to clear them from the road by which the convoy of Chief Minister Jayalalitha would pass through. They were all kept in a hall and in the late evening taken in vehicles to different parts of the city and dropped. They were not even provided with food and drinking water all through the day. In some places like Coimbatore, parents protested against nursing school authorities for seeking a declaration that their children will not take part in protest.

Twenty-two Government nursing schools and 24 nursing colleges in the state produced 4,000 nurses every year as against 10,000 by 155 private nursing colleges and 214 schools. The nursing students, who were pursuing diploma courses in government colleges said that the status quo, which permits only those graduated from government-run nursing and medical colleges for appointment in government hospitals, should continue as admission was done purely on merit in such institutions and most of them come from economically poor families. “If examinations are conducted by allowing students from private nursing schools/colleges too to compete with students graduating from government schools of nursing, our job opportunities will get sized down,” the students said.

Leelavathi, president, Tamil Nadu Government Nurses Association speaking to reporters said the association had intervened in asking students to present their demands without quitting work. While commending the order for providing nurses from private institutions with equal employment opportunities, Leelavathi said some preference such as higher percentage of recruitment should be accorded to government nursing students. “Nurses trained at government institutions are better trained than their private counterparts. They have more practical training as they are required to tend to poor patients in the government hospitals and attend a wide spectrum of medical cases. Nurses trained in private institutions on the other hand cannot lay claim to equal practical training as they tend to limited number of patients.”

“Though we are not paid much, we continue to work in government hospitals since we consider this as a service to the patients. While we slog without a break, it is unfair for the government to appoint nurses from private colleges, as meritorious students would be affected because of this decision”, said Pushpalatha, a senior nurse at the GH, Chennai.

When the nursing students started protesting, the authorities of government nursing colleges and schools had threatened them that they would be committing contempt of the Madras High Court, “which had directed the TN government in June 2011 to grant equal job opportunities to students of private and government nursing colleges.” This is contrary to truth and if at all any contempt of court is committed, it is by the government and not the students.

A conscious effort by the ADMK government to sidestep the judicial process seems to have triggered the latest protests by nurses of government hospitals and students of government-run nursing colleges. The order issued by the Health and Family Welfare department on January 18 permitting nursing students from private colleges to compete for appointment in government hospitals, has a long and complex legal history.

The order was issued though a special leave petition on the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, and a specially-constituted three-judge bench of the Madras High Court too is seized of the matter. When the issue has not yet attained finality in judicial forums, what was the urgency to come out with such an order, ask jurists.

The government order partially answers the query. It says the government was receiving a constant stream of petitions from candidates from private nursing schools/colleges. It also says the order’s validity is subject to the outcome of the SLP in the SC. But it does not mention that the issue is also pending with a full bench of the HC comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao, Justice D Murugesan and Justice M Venugopal. The case last came up for hearing before the bench on September 9,2011.

In 2006,a single judge of the High Court ruled that private college students were entitled to be treated on a par with candidates from government nursing schools. On an appeal, a division bench set aside the order in April 2007. The third round of litigation started when private nurses challenged the rule itself, which says that only nursing students from government colleges are eligible for appointment in government hospitals.

After a single judge dismissed their plea, appeals were filed before a division bench in Madurai. The bench directed the authorities to consider the applications of private students for appointment in government institutions.

This interim order of March 31,2011 was confirmed by the bench on June 23,2011.

Government college students successfully appealed against the order and got it set aside. Against this order, private nursing students filed an SLP in the SC, which stayed the division bench order on November 17,2011.The apex court issued notice to the government as well.

The government, which was supposed to file its response before the SC as well as the HC, has, instead, chosen to come out with an order which forecloses the litigation before these courts. What is the tearing hurry for the government to take sides with private institutions, asks a former law officer.

While referring the matter to be decided by a full bench, a judge had said that the existing scheme was not one of institutional preference favouring government nursing colleges, but a comprehensive scheme for training and appointing nurses.

For nurses, the entry point to GHs is admission in government nursing schools. The students and the government sign a bond, pledging stipend for students who would give an undertaking that they would work only in government hospitals.

But all this while, there were no moves from the Chief Minister or the Health Minister to take up the matter and find a solution. Dismayed over the plight of these young women, Kalaignar said, “Witnessing the scenes of these women tortured, outraged, arrested, lifted and lobbed into lorries and dragged away, people like me could not but feel ‘why all this distress and get annoyed.’

It is not because Kalaignar is not in office now and leads the opposition party that he expressed his concern and dismay for protesting nurses and students. What did he do in a similar situation during his rule?

Not long back but during his previous tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar, promptly acted with extraordinary sensitivity and humanness. On 26.5.2010, 72 differently-abled persons who could not get appointments after completing secondary school teacher training during the period between 2005-06 and 2008-09 in Special Teacher Training Centre in Poonamallee, resorted to indefinite fast near Rajarathinam Stadium, Egmore in Chennai demanding appointment as teachers. Some of them fell sick and swooned on the second day 27.5.2010. The police took them to Government General Hospital in the night and admitted for treatment. Refusing to undergo treatment, they continued their fast in the hospital itself. The news was published in dailies on May 28. On learning the news from dailies, the then Chief Minister Kalaignar felt distressed and rushed to the GH even without taking his breakfast and met the fasting differently-abled persons. He pacified them and assured to fulfill their demand within a week in consultation with officials. They were moved and thrilled by Kalaignar’s gesture, gave the fast and returned to their homes. Without procrastinating for a week, on reaching the Secretariat, Kalaignar swiftly consulted with officials and passed order on the same day (May 28) in fulfilment of his assurance to the differently-abled teacher trainees. Accordingly, government order was released on the same day for providing appointment to all the 72 of them as secondary grade teachers, in primary schools under School Education Department by relaxing rules.

Thus, Kalaignar as Chief Minister went out of the way in personally heading to the place of the agitators, talk to them, gave assurance and fulfilled it on the same day. But what is the “change” that people of Tamil Nadu wanted in May last year and what do they witness now? The present Chief Minister is not moved by the reports of these young girls protesting on the roads for days together, the scenes of the police brutally handling these girls in white uniforms and driving them away when they came to present a memorandum to her. The people of the State who aspired for a “change”, also witnessed some days back, the former Chief Minister, in spite of his advanced age, undertaking a gruelling journey on roads in his car for over 500 km through Puducherry, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts hit by cyclone Thane to personally meet and console the affected people and  render assistance to the extent possible; and the sitting Chief Minister making a flying visit by helicopter to Cuddalore for just 12 minutes.

“What to do? We have to face the consequence of the actions we did, we have to find salvation for the mistakes we committed. We only have to be awarded punishment for the actions we did. That is what is happening now”, Kalaignar said speaking for the people of Tamil Nadu, – the moral of the Tale of Two Chief Ministers – then and at present.