Pharmacists working for the State government, on Thursday, began a 10-day-long protest raising their demands, including upward revision of their pay scale and filling up posts of pharmacists. As many as 61 pharmacists working in government hospitals in the district attended to work with black ribbons as a mark of protest on their shoulders.
The office-bearers of Hassan district unit of Karnataka State Government Pharmacists Association, in a press conference, said this was the first phase of the protest. It would be intensified in the coming days. “We will be working with black ribbons on till January 12. We have planed a protest march from Freedom Park to the office of Commissioner of Health Department in Bengaluru on January 20,” said M. Eligar, vice-president.
The association has decided to intensify the protest further in the third phase by boycotting the national health programmes, said Thimmesh Prabhu, general secretary.
He said the pharmacists had been working under tremendous pressure with no sufficient staff. “Among the 161 posts sanctioned for Hassan district, only 60 have been filled up. Going by the patients’ strength at Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences in Hassan, there should have been more than 20 pharmacists, but at present only one is working.”
The government had been forcing D group employees to do the job of pharmacists, which was wrong. “The government procures medicines worth crores of rupees, but there are no sufficient staff to handle medicines. If D group employees, with no formal training in pharmacy, handle the task, they may err, affecting somebody’s health”, he pointed out.
The association also alleged that the government had not paid them the salary meant for the technical staff, though their posts had been designated technical.
