Pharmacist starts fast unto death

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 10

Demanding regularisation, a contractual pharmacist has started fast unto death at Zila Parishad complex here.

Kamal Awasthi (42), who is posted at a government dispensary at Dhablan village on Patiala-Nabha road, is protesting against the state government for not regularising his service. Awasthi said pharmacists, along with rural medical officers, were recruited in 2006 on contractual basis at 1,186 dispensaries in the state. However, the government had already regularised the doctors, but it failed to regularise their services, he said.

The Rural Health Pharmacist Association, Punjab, has come in support of the pharmacist. Members of the association said they were professionally qualified for the jobs and held experience, but the government turned a blind eye towards their demands. They said they had written to higher officials and the minister concerned, but nothing had been done so far. In the afternoon, members of the association held a protest and raised slogans against the state government.