The Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa has directed to set up a committee led by senior officers of the department to formulate a policy to regulate the services of pharmacists working under the panchayat department. This was decided during a meeting with representatives of the Rural Health Pharmacist Association, Punjab at Panchayat Minister's office here today, Seema Jain, Financial Commissioner, Rural Development and D.P.S Kharbanda Director Rural Development were also present in the meeting.During the meeting, the Panchayat Minister directed the officers that the committee should frame a time bound policy regarding regularizing the services of rural pharmacists.In addition, some other demands of the Association's were also addressed during the meeting which included expenditure of electricity, increase in stationery expenses from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000, EPFO benefits, travel allowance, service books, changing the name of a pharmacist cadre to a pharmacy officer and maternity leave of 6 months with pay and some other demands. The minister directed the officials to implement all the genuine demands without any delay. Pharmacists have been working on contractual basis for the past several years in the1186 rural health dispensaries under the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats across Punjab.On this occasion, Rural Health Pharmacist Association Punjab State Secretary Navdeep Kumar, President Jot Ram, Chairman Baljit Bal, Senior Vice President Swarat Sharma and Vice President Prince Bharat in a joint statement thanked the Rural Development Minister for accepting their genuine demands and giving directions for framing a time bound policy to rgularise the services of the Rural Pharmacists.