Meagre Salary, no Non-Practicing Allowance for Specialists: Himachal Doctors to go on Black-badge protest

Shimla: Raising their voice against the denial of non-practicing allowance to the specialist doctors in the State and several other issues, the Himachal doctors have decided to initiate a symbolic protest from January 18 onwards by wearing black badges to work.

The Himachal Medical Officers Association (HMOA) has highlighted that the specialist doctors, employed on a contractual basis in the state, are only getting Rs 33660 as salary, which is the lowest in the whole country. 

Issuing a press release in this regard, the General Secretary of the association Dr. Vikas Thakur further claimed that even though the Chief Minister had last year assured the association that NPA would be re-attached in case of future appointment of doctors, it has not been included till date. 

"There is already a dearth of specialist doctors in the state and instead of working at such low wages, the specialists have to move to other states. On the other hand, the people of the state are deprived of specialist facilities. NPA has not yet been included in advance recruitment but as per notification dated 21-10-23 NPA has also been removed from pension of retired doctors," Dr. Thakur mentioned in a release.

The Chief Minister had also promised back in June to reassign the charge of the Project Director of AIDS Control Society to Pune Health Director. Further, the CM had assured to return the powers of Principal and Senior Health Superintendent in Medical College with amendments. 

However, Dr. Vikas Thakur alleged that even after 7 months, the promises made by the Chief Minister have not been fulfilled. Further, the association pointed out that the doctors were given the 4-9-14 assured career progression scheme.

They also pointed out that the Central Government provided financial benefits under the Dynamic Career Progression Scheme to doctors in the Gazette of 2008 and in the Extraordinary Gazette of 2014. The Central Government has provided this facility in various States of the country including Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Referring to this, the association has also requested the authorities to implement the Dynamic Career Progression scheme in Himachal at par with the Central Government.

"Doctors in Himachal Pradesh are rendering their services day and night even in remote areas and they are being paid very less salary than the Central Government or other states like Bihar and even after that removing NPA from the calculation of pension is also a very unfortunate subject," Dr. Vikas Thakur mentioned.

HMOA has also pointed out how retired Chief Medical Officers of the Health Department have been re-employed on promoted posts. The association has expressed its opposition many times in the past to extend the service of any officer as it is not in the interest of the unemployed young doctors in the State. In this regard, the association has urged the Chief Minister to put an end to the process of service extensions at the earliest.

The issues faced by the doctors in the State were discussed at the meeting of the association held on January 14. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Dr. Rajesh Rana, the President of HMOA. All district presidents, general secretaries, members of the central executive committee and representatives of resident doctor associations were present in the meeting.

Commenting on the issue of the black badge protest by the doctors, the President of HMOA Mandi Branch, Dr. Amit Thakur told Medical Dialogues, "We are not against the Government. We just want to make an amicable understanding between the doctors and the Government. If a State is healthy, the reason behind is the doctors treating the patients day in and day out. So, what is already been given to them, should be reinstated. One should not stop what is already given to them- like NPA or 4-9-14."

Medical Dialogues had last year reported that protesting against the abolition of NPA after a meeting with the Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil failed to produce any results, doctors under the Himachal Pradesh Medical Officer Association (HPMOA) decided to observe one hour strike every day from 9:30 am to 11 am every week to persuade the government to restore the NPA system for the newly recruited doctors in various departments of the state government.

Also Read: Doctors on pen down strike as Himachal Pradesh refuses Non-Practicing Allowance