LAHORE: Driving on The Mall and its adjoining roads continued to be a hard task for the motorists for the third consecutive day on Wednesday as veterinary doctors and animal healthcare professionals also staged a sit-in besides the lady health workers (LHWs) at Charing Cross.

The LHWs have been sitting on The Mall since Monday while the employees of the livestock department came to the thoroughfare at around 11am with placards and banners, demanding a service structure.

While a team of primary and secondary healthcare departmentcould not convince the LHWs during talks late on Tuesday night, no senior ofhcer of the livestock department approached the protesting veterinary doctors and yet professionals till late in the evening on Wednesday.

A group of LH Ws urged their colleagues to end the protest after approval of allocation for payment of outstanding dues. Office-bearers of National Health Employees Association -Shahnaz Akhtar, Iram Zara, Farhat Jabeen and Asifa Javed -left Charing Cross after claiming that they have been provided with a copy of the notification.

They said there was no justification to continue protest as the department had forwarded a summary to upgrade pay scales and ser-vice structure. However, majority LHWs were not ready to trust the department high-ups who what they called were `notorious` for not keeping their word.

LHWs Association president Rukhsana Anwar said the protest would continue till acceptance of all demands.

Meanwhile, Integrated Reproductive Maternal, Newborn Child Health (IRMNCH) Programme Project Director Dr Mukhtar Hussain Syed claimed that Fazilat, who died at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital due to brain haemorrhage, was not a lady health worker.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Dr Syed said LHW Shazia Shaheen from Baadsha Basic Health Unit in Chakwal dis-trict had an attack ofepilepsy during the sit-in. Ms Shaheen was shifted to the hospital and after proper treatment, she went home.

He said all the genuine demands of LHWs and lady health supervisors (LHSs) had already been met by the government.

The IRMNCH project director said the finance department had released funds for the payment of arrears to the LHWs while their service rules had also been notified.

Working on their service structure was under way and would be notified very soon, said Dr Mukhtar while adding that salaries of LHWs and LHSs had been paid up to February and there was no issue of pendency.