Punjab faces another protest as over 9,000 NHM employees begin pen-down strike over salary delays

Union representatives argued that the salary hold-up is linked to the state’s failure to release its share on time, which, in turn, prevented the Centre from transferring its portion.

SNA-SPARSH portal

Avtar Singh of the NHM Employees’ Union said the new fund flow system does not allow the Centre to release money unless the state has placed its own contribution. He pointed out that the August salary was released only on September 22, while the September salary came in mid-October after the threat of agitation, and even then, it had to be arranged through the 15th Finance Commission funds. With the new system under the SNA-SPARSH portal now fully functional, employees alleged that the delay clearly reflects the state’s pending share. They also noted that Punjab’s NHM workers already receive lower pay than those in neighbouring Haryana because of smaller state contributions.

Sources in the Punjab Health and Family Welfare Department, though, said the state had already submitted the salary claim for October to the Centre, but the full amount was yet to be released.

The employees’ troubles began after the Union government made it compulsory for states to upload the complete details of NHM personnel, their posts, and salary structures on the SNA-SPARSH portal. This is a newly introduced ‘just-in-time’ mechanism for routing funds under Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The system links the Centre’s Public Financial Management System with the state treasury and the RBI’s e-Kuber platform to ensure that money is released only at the moment of actual expenditure, rather than being parked in various bank accounts. Under this arrangement, state departments raise day-to-day claims through the state’s IFMS. The claims are then electronically verified and forwarded for immediate release of both the central and state shares directly to the single nodal agency (SNA) of the implementing state government.

“The purpose of this shift is to stop idle funds, prevent leakages and create real-time transparency in how government money moves,” said a source.

In Punjab, however, till August, salary came through the old system as the state had requested some more time for uploading the information, though the implementation was done in other states from April onwards, claimed NHM employees.

Sukhmeet Kamboj, state committee member of the NHM Employees’ Union, Punjab, said, “State government authorities keep telling us that they raise the salary claim with the Centre well in time, but the central government delays the release by raising undue objections. We don’t know who is correct, but the employees are suffering.”

Kamboj added that the “biggest anomaly” lies with the Punjab government’s practice of seeking expenditure bills from district-level employees only in the middle of the following month.

“Because of this, salaries are never released before the 20th of the following month. This has been happening for more than a year now. If they sought bills by the 25th of the same month, we, too, could get salaries on the first of the month like regular health department employees. For us, the issue of both state and Centre share becomes a double whammy,” he remarked.

Letter to civil surgeons

Meanwhile, later in the day, the special secretary (health)-cum-NHM mission director issued a letter to all civil surgeons in Punjab, stating that sanction has been accorded for the release of Rs 44.85 crore to pay salaries and incentives for November through the SNA-SPARSH portal.

However, the letter has not impressed the employees, as they stated that such a letter was dispatched for the month of October as well, but they have not yet released the salary for the month.

Public health program

NHM is a public health program aimed at improving access to health services, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. It includes what were earlier two separate missions – the National Rural Health Mission launched in 2005 and the National Urban Health Mission introduced in 2013. These were brought together to form a unified mission called NHM, which focuses on strengthening maternal and child health services, expanding immunisation, improving disease control, reinforcing primary healthcare facilities, and encouraging community involvement through accredited social health activists (ASHAs).

Apart from over 9,000 NHM employees, nearly 18,000 ASHA workers, who get a fixed amount of Rs 2,500 every month in addition to incentives from NHM, have yet to receive any amount for the past three to six months.