State asked to take over call centre services

HYDERABAD: The Health Management Research Institute (HMRI) - 104 call centre contract employees are a troubled lot with the government deciding to end its collaboration with HMRI to manage the 104 medical services by September. Apart from being on the verge of losing their livelihood, the contract employees have not received salary for over two months now.Stating the HMRI-104 service is one of the best health services in state, CPM MLA Julakanti Ranga Reddy demanded it be  merged with the health and medical department. He reasoned that the government provides 95 per cent funds to run the services. Addressing a dharna staged by HMRI-104 Call Centre Employee's Union in front of the Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare at Koti on Monday, he asked chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to cancel the contract with HMRI, merge the service with the government and immediately clear the pending salaries of the employees.K Satyanarayana, general secretary of the employee's union demanded that the government take over and run the 104 service and urged to regularise the services of contract employees.The HMRI-104 call centres was set up in 2007 under public and private partnership where the state provided 95 per cent funds for the project. There were 18,000 employees in the beginning, but now there are only 1,000 employees. The call centre handles over 50,000 non-emergency medical calls per day.