Srinagar—Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) under its president Dr Suhail Naik on Monday lodged a strong protest at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir Office, Srinagar against the government for its callous approach in resolving the grave issues of the medical fraternity.

The spokesman said that it has been since decades that government is playing with the sentiments of medical fraternity by not addressing the legitimate demands. Either the government is hell-bent not to solve the issues or the functionary is so inefficient that only after coming on to roads the demands shall be fulfilled.

DAK has always been against protests as patient care is our worship and of utmost duty but seeing the dead end of the hopeless tunnel we are left with no option but to agitate so to highlight our demands for redressal.

“Today we are protesting to highlight our list of demands along with highlighting grave pay anomaly and availing gazetted holidays as it should be. Neither the doctors have been kept in Pay Band 3rd as per the past Commission recommendations nor as being witnessed in other parts of the country nor we being given any extra emoluments for the extra challenging duties, do we? From the history of pay bands it has observed that in J & K, the doctors enjoyed the higher pay bands as is evident from the previous records but with the passage of time it was relegated to lower pay bands for unknown reason as a result of this relegation the doctors of this noble profession feel humiliated and even has to lead to the brain drain .This is against the ethics of being an employee and defies all labour laws,” the spokesman quoted Dr Naik Saying

“Doctors will from now onwards avail gazetted holidays barring the medical emergencies & casualty sections of every hospital. There is no rule where it is written that a Doctor has to give extra duty without being given any perks that too when their pay band has already been demoted,” he added.

The spokesman further said that Finance Minister Altaf Bukhari while declaring 7th Pay Commission has recommended that, a government employee should work not more than 40 hours a week. Duty hours of medical officers/dental surgeons range from 50 to 60hours a week while that of consultants range from 65 to 75 hours per week.

Pertinently the newly elected DAK has already met Hon’ble Health Minister Bali Bhagat, Ex-Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu along with all other officers at Secretariat and  Directorate level but unfortunately, there seems no hope of seeing our issues being heard or resolved.

“The Doctors have been knocking the administrator corridors since time immemorial but it seems government only acknowledges the problems when the matters get highlighted via protests. It is unfortunate that DAK had to resort to protest as all options have resulted in a dead end for us”, the spokesman quoted Dr Naik saying.

General Secretary DAK , Dr Owais H Dar said that “we have submitted  last year a list of all genuine Financial and Non-Financial Implication Demands (Annexure – A)  to various stakeholders of the Government but it’s quite deplorable that there is a complete halt on the redressal of our demands for the reasons better known to the authorities”.

DAK has requested Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti to intervene and frame high-level committee so as to look into our genuine demands.

DAK further said that the government that if the authorities don’t come with a stipulated time-bound action plan in resolving the issues then we are left with no option but to launch a statewide agitation. We are giving 6 weeks’ time to the government to full fill our demands or we will proceed with a statewide strike and the Patient care thus affected will have all the onus on government exclusively. It is pertinent to mention that DAK enjoys the support of JKDCC which is an amalgam of all doctors association of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh

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