Rural pharmacists in Punjab boycott Covid duty

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 20

After rural medical officers lodged a protest over the alleged bias in postings, rural pharmacy officers are now at loggerheads with the government. They have decided to boycott the Covid duty for an indefinite period.

They have returned to the dispensaries where they were posted. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, rural pharmacists across the state have been given frontline duties.

They, however, say they don’t have job security as they are working on a contractual basis. Demanding regular jobs, many of them today staged a protest outside the Civil Surgeon’s Office in Ludhiana.

Jot Singh, president, Rural Pharmacy Officers Association of Punjab, said they were doing their duty by risking their lives that too without any job security. “There are 1,186 dispensaries in the state and rural pharmacy officers are getting a meagre amount of Rs 10,000 as salary. In 2006, the government brought rural dispensaries under the panchayats. Even after 14 years, we are still working on a contractual basis,” said Jot Singh.

Another member of the association said they had been assigned duties in isolation wards, containment zones, flu corners for taking samples and visiting door to door. “Our counterparts in Amritsar and Mohali are deployed at airports as well. Our families remain worried about our well-being as we have not even given PPE kits and other safety gear,” he said.

Jot Ram said for the past two months, they had been urging Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa to give them benefits under the Disaster Management Act, but in vain.

The Cabinet had proposed 600 new posts of rural pharmacists, but nothing is being done on ground.