Doctors Association Kashmir(DAK) President Dr. Suhail Naik in a communique said that National Health Mission(NHM)Employees are protesting for their legitimate and genuine demands since past 2 weeks but it seems Govt. is in deep slumber and instead of making a policy regarding their issues Govt. is using authoritarian approach by lathi charging the employees in which female employees are also not spared but are even manhandled. We condemn this approach of Govt. towards democratically protesting employees in the strongest possible words” Dr Naik said.Dr Naik further said that “the authorities are presenting a rosy picture in front of Govt. vis a vis present Health Dept. scenario but the fact is totally in contrast. Due to the shortage of staff working capacity of regular staff is being stretched beyond human limits as they are being kept on night duty roster every second day which is humanly impossible and is against the National law. Even leaves of regular staff have been cancelled which is the “right” of every employee. Regular staff is excessively overburdened at present and are working beyond their normal capacity. If the Govt. doesn’t take any concrete steps in solving the NHM Employees issue the time is not far off when the whole Govt. Health Dept. machinery will collapse.Dr Naik further said that “we support the genuine demands of our NHM employees brethren especially equal pay for equal work and maternity leave benefits for female employees and have asked our doctors to observe 2 hour pen down strike from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM on 08/Jan/2018 i.e., Monday”. “All the Out Patient Departments (OPDs) will remain closed during this time barring casualty and emergency theaters” he further elaborated.DAK demands Govt. to make a policy regarding NHM employees issues so that justice is served to them otherwise we will have no other option but to aggreviate our protest further. (CNS)