Admitting that more than 300 doctors serving on probation in Health Department are unwilling to serve in far-off and inaccessible areas, Jammu and Kashmir Health Minister Taj Mohiuddin Tuesday said that the department has decided to terminate all these doctors and a formal notice in this regard will be issued within a week.“We have decided to terminate over 300 doctors who are on probation and are unwilling to serve in far-off areas of Jammu and Kashmir,” Taj told Srinagar based news gathering agency CNS adding that no show cause notice will be served to them before the termination. He said that the department has already warned them through a notice that they will be terminated in case they did not budge. “Now there is no need to issue another notice in this regard and I tell you we have already chalked out the list of over 300 doctors whose services will be terminated within a week,” Taj said.
He said that the aim of Health department is to provide better health-care facilities to people. A doctor on probation has to serve in far-off places for 7 years to avail service benefits, but, “none of them is ready to leave their home districts and we have taken a serious note of it and they will feel the burnt,” he said.Expressing concern over the rampant use of spurious drugs in Kashmir valley, Taj Mohiuddin told CNS that department has sought cooperation from people to overcome the menace. “Let people inform us if they feel that spurious drugs are in circulation and if they feel that certain drugs are not effective. Let them inform Health officials and we will definitely take action,” he said.Refuting the charges that the suspension of Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) Dr Nisar-ul-Hasan was a politically motivated decision, the Health Minister said that in essential service department there is no role of unionism. “I was invited by a group of doctors on Iftaar party who informed that they are the real representatives of DAK. They even informed me that Dr Nisar-ul-Hasan is a one-man army who has hijacked their Association,” Taj said. (CNS)