Amritsar, December 24: Veterinary doctors in Amritsar district continued their strike for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, bringing all veterinary services under the Animal Husbandry Department to a complete halt. The protest was organised on the call of the Joint Action Committee of Vets for Pay Parity, pressing the government to address long-pending demands related to pay parity and service benefits.
As part of the agitation, all veterinary services in the district, including OPD services, medicines, surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, and laboratory testing, remained suspended, affecting livestock owners across the region.
Addressing the protest, district president Dr Gagandeep Singh Dhillon said that veterinary doctors had enjoyed pay parity with medical doctors from 1977 for nearly 42 years. During this period, benefits under the Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) 4-9-14 scheme were also granted on lines similar to medical doctors. However, he alleged that in 2021, the government scrapped these benefits in violation of the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as well as the Supreme Court of India.
Dr Dhillon further accused the government of violating service rules and ignoring the principle of “equal qualification, equal work, equal pay.” He pointed out that while a common notification exists for granting Non-Practising Allowance (NPA) to medical, ayurvedic, homeopathic, and veterinary doctors, veterinary doctors are not being paid House Rent Allowance (HRA) on NPA, which he described as discriminatory.
He also emphasised that veterinary services are specialised in nature and cannot be provided by doctors from other streams. Despite this, veterinary officers are not being granted full salaries during their probation period, a demand that has remained unresolved despite repeated assurances from the government.
Appealing to Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Dr Dhillon urged him to personally intervene and correct the injustices faced by veterinary doctors. He demanded the immediate restoration of pay parity that existed for over four decades and the issuance of a notification to implement all pending demands without further delay. During the protest, copies of government notifications were symbolically burnt.
Several other veterinary doctors, including Dr Harman, Dr Vishal, Dr Ankit, and Dr Navneet Kaur, also addressed the gathering in support of the agitation.
