The agitating nurses claimed that grade-2 diploma-holders among them currently get Rs 1,305-Rs 2,360 despite the fact that their salary was expected to be raised to Rs 4,125-Rs 8,850 since January 1, 2008.

“The promised salary hike is yet to come into effect. Also, there is no parity between the pay structure suggested by the Central government and the one implemented by the state government, which is much lower.

Even the revised pay structure that was supposed to be introduced last year is still to come into effect,” said Rituparna Mahapatra, a nurse with a government hospital.

The nurses also claimed disparity between the wage structure of the nursing-diploma holders and other diploma holders, saying the former were underpaid. They demanded that the nurses who have passed their GNM diploma training be absorbed by the hospitals.

The other demands included bringing down the nurse-patient ratio in general wards to 1: 3 and 1: 1 in special wards, besides cutting duty time to 40 hours a week, as suggested by the Indian Nursing Council.

Among the protesters were nurses from the Calcutta Medical College Hospital, PG, NRS and RG Kar as well from hospitals in Diamond Harbour and Hooghly. “Such disparity does not exist in any state except for Bengal and Orissa. Even a state like Bihar which we claim lags behind Bengal has a better pay-scale for its nurses,” said Mahapatra.