West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced a fixed salary of Rs 1300 for all Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers from the state government's coffers.
She said women who work as community health workers in villages under the National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) get paid only on the basis of amount of work done and there is no fixed remuneration for them.
"We will give Rs 1300 to each ASHA worker from the month of April and they will get their first pay on May one," Banerjee said.
"We had requested the Centre to bear the financial burden, but it did not agree. So, despite financial constraints, we have decided to start with the monthly payment which they will get apart from what they earn on account of work under NRHM," she said.
Every ASHA worker will have to open a bank account to which money will be transferred on the first day of every month, she said adding the state would have to shoulder an additional burden of Rs 100 crore to pay them their salaries.
