MOHALI: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for pay parity HAS strongly condemned the Punjab government for delaying the restoration of the pay parity of Veterinary Officers with their counterparts in health department. The Vets also held a dharna on August 1 in Mohali to press for their demands.
This disparity, they alleged had been created by the previous government at their fag end and was in absolute disregard to the 5th and 6th Punjab Pay Commissions and 7th Central Pay Commission as well as attracted contempt of court because via Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment, Veterinary officers were granted Pay scale of 940-1850 equivalent to Medical Officers.
In this sit in, Veterinarians of all ranks, retired Animal husbandry Officers from all districts of state and students of the three Veterinary Colleges including that of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University Ludhiana participated.
Different speakers highlighted the work done by Vets in the state to uplift the rural economy and especially during the covid pandemic when experts of the department pitched in for covid19 testing at their North Region Disease Diagnostic Lab Jalandhar to ease the load on human health personnel. They lamented that the previous Finance Minister had rewarded them by reducing their entry scale from Rs 56, 100/- to 47, 600/- They underlined the importance of Veterinarians under 'One health programme' to check and contain the spread of zoonotic diseases to the human population and vice versa. This is the reason Canadian government had appointed a Vet as health Minister to devise strategies to save the community from existing and new emerging diseases. In stark contrast, the Punjab Government is giving step motherly treatment to Vets whose entry scale has been reduced following an aberration in Finance Department.
The Convenor of JAC Dr Gurcharan Singh and co-conveners Dr Puneet Malhotra, Dr Abdul Majid and Dr Harmandeep Singh pointed out that there was no rationale in disturbing the parity of Vets with Medicos which had been in place for the past over four decades. Rather, there was time when pay scales of Vets were higher than that of Medicos. They called upon the government to undone the injustice meted out to their fraternity at the earliest, otherwise the JAC will oppose the ruling disposition in by-election.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Gurinder Singh Walia Media incharge of JAC and member Punjab State Veterinary Council said that although previous ministers Sh Kuldeep Dhaliwal, Sh Laljit Singh Bhullar and the present incumbent Sh Gurmeet Singh Khudian had been assuring time and again that the injustice meted out to them by previous FM will be undone by restoring their pay parity with medicos, but till date, they got only assurances and no concrete action.
Dr Walia said that the present Chief Minister Sh Bhagwant Singh Mann was grassroot level leader, who was not only honest but a visionary, who knew the role, livestock sector could play in uplifting rural economy and GDP given the limited contribution of agriculture sector in present times due to urbanization and division of land holdings.
He urged the CM to redress the genuine grievances of Vets of the state.
Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were Dr Nitin Kumar Gupta former Chief Executive Officer of Punjab Gau Sewa Commission, Dr Preeti Singh, Dr Amrik Singh retired Joint Director, Dr Tarpinder Singh, Dr Nitin Gautam, Dr Tejinder Singh and Dr Amit Nain.