Around 367 contractual nurses of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, will go on an indefinite strike from July 24 in demand for permanent jobs and better pay.

The protesters, who submitted a two-point charter of demands to the hospital’s officiating director Dr S.K. Choudhary on Tuesday, have declared that they would work with black badges on July 21 and go on a pen down strike on July 22. On July 23, they will gherao the officiating director and will start the indefinite strike from July 24 till their demands of job confirmation and a grade pay of Rs 4,600 are met.

Ram Rekha Rai, president of RIMS Contractual Nurses Union under which the nurses are agitating, said 367 contractual nurses had been working at the hospital for the past 11 years, but had never been considered for job confirmation or salary hike.

She further said out of the total number of 1,500 sanctioned posts, RIMS has only 427 nurses.

“Of them, only 60 senior nurses are permanent while the remaining 367 are on contract. While we are the pillars of the health institute and without us the medical services will collapse, nobody thinks about us. As it is, we are overworked as the institute has taken no initiative to fill up the vacancies,” Rai added.

The contractual nurses at RIMS currently get salary as per the grade pay of Rs 4,200.