Srinagar: More than 3,000 doctors in Jammu and Kashmir participated in the two hour pen down strike from 10: am to 12:00 pm on Wednesday, in support of a call given by Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK).
Pressing for their long pending genuine demands president DAK, Dr Suhail Naik in a statement said that the pen-down strike received an overwhelming response from all over the state. The doctors working in the peripheral health care system are disappointed due to the callous and insensitive attitude of state government. The government is meeting step motherly treatment towards doctors and is persistently neglecting the genuine demands.
Dr Owais H Dar, General Secretary DAK said “the strike, during which no Out Patient Department(OPD)was held during the said time by doctors, was to press the state government for our long pending genuine demands”.”General OPD was held only after 12:00 PM. Emergency services were exempted from strike so that critical cases are treated on time and priorit,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that doctors bodies for now long are demanding for two and a half day extra salary as compensation for their roster duties by medical officers and call duties by consultants in analogy to paramedics. Further demands of doctors which are pending in front of government include Caderisation of Medical officers, Dental Surgeons and consultants, risk allowances , rural allowances, an offense against health officials a non-bailable offence, clear cut posting and transfer policy and equal pay for equal work for doctors employed under NHM. Furthermore, we warn the government that if they continued to show cold shoulder in solving our issues, doctors across the state will go on indefinite strike from June 25 as already notified to the government.
The strike call given was fully supported by Doctors Association Jammu , Chenab Valley Doctors Association and Ladakh Doctors Association. DAK is thankful to people of the state for full cooperation and understanding our miseries.