Post Punjab govt assurance, no doctors’ protest till July 6

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 2

The Punjab Civil Medical Services doctors today suspended their week-long protest following an assurance by Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu to take up their demands with Cabinet colleagues.

A delegation of the joint coordination committee led by Dr Gagandeep Singh, PCMS Association president, met Sidhu to discuss their demand for withdrawal of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation to reduce their non-practicing allowance (NPA) from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and delink it from the basic pay.

“We met the minister today, who assured that our demand would be discussed in the Cabinet Sub-Committee meeting, scheduled for July 6. He assured that the order regarding the NPA would be set aside. Thus we have postponed our protest till Tuesday,” Dr Gagandeep Singh told The Tribune.

It may be recalled that the doctors working in the Health and Animal Husbandry Department have been protesting the pay commission recommendations since last week under the common banner of the Joint Punjab Government Doctors Coordination Committee.

Dr Gagandeep Singh and Dr Sarabjit Singh Randhawa, president, Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association, while welcoming the assurance by the minister warned that the protest had merely been postponed. In case the demands were not met, the struggle would be intensified, they said.

Since last week, doctors had been boycotting work. The joint committee said after the minister’s assurance, doctors would carry out work as usual from tomorrow by wearing black badges. The next meeting of the committee would be held on Tuesday evening.

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