To put pressure on the State Government to accept their demands the allopathic pharmacists of Government hospitals are doing their duties while wearing black ribbons. The pharmacists of State health service are on war path from many days in support of their demands. State president of Diploma Pharmacists association (DPA), BS Kaluda told The Pioneer that the pharmacists would register their protest by wearing black ribbons till April 19 and after that they would sit on a Dharna in front of health directorate. He informed that since creation of Uttarakhand the cadre of pharmacists is not structured due to which there are very less avenues for promotions for pharmacists. Kaluda said that there are only 12 percent promotion posts for pharmacists in the health department while in other departments such posts constitute 30 percent of total posts.
The association is demanding immediate review of transfer policy as many pharmacists working in sub centres are not transferred to other hospitals from many years. There are 1503 posts of pharmacists in the state; the association is of the view that the due to increased work load the state government should increase the posts of pharmacists in the health services. The pharmacists are demanding that they should get inaccessible area allowance and Chief Pharmacists should get patient care allowance like in central government.
The state President of DPA said that talks with the state government on all the above mentioned issues is currently in progress. He said that association would go on an indefinite strike from June 01 if their demands are not accepted. It is worth mentioning here that the pharmacists are an important cog in the health machinery of the state as health services in the remote and mountainous areas of the state are virtually run by the pharmacists due to acute shortage of medical officers.