Srinagar, Apr 23: Amid Covid-19 crisis, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Friday demanded risk allowances and two-and-a-half days of salary for the employees of the health department in lieu of attending night duties, on call duties and duties on gazetted holidays across J&K.
President DAK, Dr Suhail Naik said that doctors and other healthcare workers are working day night tirelessly to sustain uninterrupted services and are managing both pandemic and non-Covid patients successfully at the cost of their own life.
“Our fraternity has lost many doctors and paramedics while dealing with this devastating pandemic, which has literally collapsed the health sectors across the globe. We all are under constant potential threat to contract many infectious diseases and it is very unfortunate that successive governments have failed to provide much desired risk allowances to fraternity,” Dr Naik said in a statement.
Dr Owais H Dar, General secretary DAK said that the ongoing pandemic has invariably increased the risk of contracting lethal infection and then spreading it to family members.
The frontline health workers, he said, are working round the clock in order to provide treatment to both Covid and non covid patients and are also proactively involved in different measures like mass testing, screening, contact tracing, home management, vaccination to curtail the spread of the disease.
“It is therefore quite fair and is the responsibility of the administration to provide risk allowances and two-and-a-half days of salary to health care professionals to raise their morale and dignity during these trying times and to acknowledge their relentless services,” Dr Dar said.
Dr Imtiyaz Banday, Spokesperson DAK stressed that despite innumerable assurances from higher ups, “none of our genuine demands were fulfilled till date”.
“DAK appeals LG to personally intervene in the matter at the earliest, so that the morale of fatigued fraternity shall be elevated in this crisis,” the statement read.
