Mangaluru : Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers have threatened to strike from next month to press the government to release the incentives due to them.

Addressing a Dakshina Kannada district conference of the Karnataka State Composite ASHA Workers’ Association, affiliated to the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), here on Thursday D. Nagalakshmi, State secretary of the association, said that the date of the start of the strike would be decided in Bengaluru soon.

She said that there were 30,000 ASHA workers in the State. The government owed Rs. 35 crore as incentive due to them for 2014-15 and about Rs. 30 crore during the current financial year.

The association was fed up by presenting memoranda to Health Department officials and Ministers. She said that currently workers were getting only incentives and no monthly salaries. The government should provide them a minimum salary of Rs. 15,000 per month as the workers have been forced to do many jobs in addition to the 32 works which they have to attend compulsorily.

She said that ASHA were the backbone of the Health Department but the government was least bothered to pay incentives due to them.