Senior Vets association urges CM to redress doctors’

Senior Vets association urges CM to redress doctors’

grievances on priority
Nabaz-e-Punjab, Ludhiana, July 18:
The Senior Vets Association in a meeting held here today rued the callous and stubborn attitude of the state government towards the genuine demands of government doctors and medical teachers who had started a stir against the reduction of Non Practicing Allowance (NPA) from 25 to 20 percent and its delinking from salary.
Dr Gurinder Singh Walia, former Joint Director Animal Husbandry Punjab and member Punjab State Veterinary Council urged the Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to intervene in the matter and come to rescue of doctors who were demoralized and feeling dejected , due to which unrest prevailed in the cadre of government Veterinary, Medical, dental, ayurvedic and homoeopathic doctors affecting their smooth working. He averred that in the prevailing scenario, under the ‘one health programme’ , Veterinary and Medical doctors had a crucial role to play and were supposed to form Joint strategies and programmes to contain the spread of emerging new diseases globally. The one health approach is critical to addressing health threats in Animal, human and environment interface. He further added that Government must ensure parity of Vets and medicos and provide them pay scales higher than Punjab Civil Service officers because of their higher qualifications, longer duration of study and arduous working conditions.
Dr Walia recalled that CM Capt Amarinder Singh was seized of importance of Animal Husbandry sector realizing which during his previous tenure Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Ludhiana had been established to lay more focus on this sector through which rural economy can be uplifted.
Dr Nitin Kumar , former CEO, Punjab Gau Sewa Commission lamented that the pay commision had disturbed inter se pay scales
of different category of employees resulting in resentment amongst them. Instead, it should have made proportionate increase across board to avoid ripples as earlier all employees were satisfied with the previous grades.
Prominent among others present in the meeting were former Deputy Directors Dr Bimal Kumar, Dr Raghunandan Sharma, Dr Guriqbal, Dr Nirmaljit Singh Mahal and Dr Rajinder Kumar Vasdev.