Women Health Volunteers seeking wage hike submit a petition at the Coimbatore Collectorate on Monday.
| Photo Credit: SIVA SARAVANAN S.
Women Health Volunteers (WHVs) engaged under the State government’s Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme have urged the government to increase their monthly remuneration to ₹15,000, provide job security and release pending honorarium payments.In a petition submitted to the Coimbatore District Collector on Monday, representatives of the WHVs Welfare Association said that 13,225 volunteers had been receiving a monthly incentive of ₹5,500 for the past five years despite carrying out blood pressure and blood sugar screening and delivering medicines to beneficiaries at their homes.The association alleged that though the volunteers were engaged for two hours a day, they were being assigned duties for more than eight hours and were involved in most activities carried out by Health Sub-Centres. It said assurances had been given earlier regarding a wage revision, but the revised remuneration had not been implemented so far.The petitioners further claimed that honorarium payments had not been disbursed for the past four months. They sought immediate release of the pending dues, an inquiry into the delay in disbursal of wages and written instructions to district health officials to prevent additional workload being imposed on workers beyond prescribed norms.In a separate petition, farmers urged the District Collector to seek relaxation of restrictions on the sale of petrol and diesel in cans for agricultural purposes.They said farmers routinely purchase fuel in 10-, 20- and 30-litre cans from fuel stations to operate tractors, power tillers, mini tractors, rotavators and power sprayers used in agricultural fields. Referring to a Union government gazette notification issued on June 11, 2026, prohibiting fuel outlets from dispensing petrol and diesel in cans and barrels, the farmers said the move would create difficulties when machinery runs out of fuel in fields located 10 km to 15 km away from fuel stations.The farmers urged the Union and State governments to exempt agricultural use from the restriction or arrange doorstep fuel supply to farmlands, stating that uninterrupted access to fuel was essential for farm operations. Published - June 22, 2026 06:37 pm IST
