SRINAGAR: Former finance minister Altaf Bukhari on Wednesday urged the Union Health Ministry to bring the medical assistants of Jammu and Kashmir within the ambit of the Central Pharmacy Act (CPA) and do away with the discrimination faced by them.
He said that the career of around 30,000 medical assistants of J&K was at stake as the Central Law only caters to the degree and diploma holders like Bachelors in Pharmacy and Diploma in Pharmacy.
“Restricting the issuance of pharmacy licenses to aspirants with B. Pharma and D. Pharma has jeopardised the careers of medical assistants, who have studied the same subject with same syllabus from government recognised institutes,” the former finance minister observed.
“But, unfortunately, the new pharmacy law made applicable to J&K has made their future bleak. The government of India and the concerned ministry must take all the concrete measures to address the genuine grievances of this section of qualified professionals,” Bukhari said, while demanding necessary amendments to the CPA as soon as possible.
Bukhari said that there seems to be no rationale behind exclusion of medical assistants from the CPA, which was made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir after October 2019.
“Exclusion of J&K youth with government recognised medical assistant courses is unjustifiable and the issue needs to be addressed on priority basis,” Bukhari advocated.
IANS