The Anuragh Narain Magadh Medical College Hospital in Gaya. Picture by Suman

Gaya, Aug. 4: Lapping up a job doesn’t necessarily mean assured salary. Over a hundred trained nurses of the Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College and Hospital here learnt it hard way.

The health hub appointed 127 trained nurses in February. Six months on, they have not been paid a penny. Losing patience, they went on a warpath yesterday.

“Back home nobody is ready to believe that we are yet to receive our first pay packet despite being on the roll for the past six months. This can happen only in Bihar,” said an agitating nurse.

Frustrated, the nurses staged a demonstration near the emergency ward of the hospital to register their protest against non-payment of salary. The nurses disrupted services at the hospital for several hours. They resumed work after the hospital authorities promised to arrange money for at least a month’s salary.

The hospital superintendent, Dr Sita Ram, said the nurses were not paid salary due to lack of budgetary allocations.

“The nurses were appointed in February. The budget exercise in the health department started much earlier. So, provisions for nurses were not made in the budget,” said a source.

The superintendent said the hospital management had sought supplementary budget allocation for salary payment to the nurses. But the effort went in van, said Sita Ram.

“For the time being we will somehow manage a month’s salary for the nurses,” said the hospital superintendent.

Sita Ram, sources said, has mooted the idea trimming salary of other employees to arrange money to pay the nurses. But cajoling the employees for a pay-cut would be an uphill task for sure.

The 500-bed Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College Hospital caters to the medical requirements of the residents of the five districts, including Aurangabad and Nawada, in Magadh division.

Besides the Magadh division, patients from Chatra and Koderma district in Jharkhand also come to the hospital for treatment.

Complaining a raw deal, one of the nurses, preferring anonymity said that they have lost credibility at home as, whenever they seek money from family members and relatives, they are taunted for being extravagant.