Registered AYUSH doctors in Hubballi-Dharwad have announced that they will launch an indefinite strike against the alleged harassment by the District Health Officer and his team on Thursday.
Speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday, AYUSH Federation of India State president N.A. Mugadum said that for the last one month, the health officials in the wake of conducting inspection in clinics have been harassing AYUSH doctors and even issuing them with notices asking them to close down their clinics.
The Supreme Court has given an interim order allowing AYUSH doctors to use allopathy medicine for primary treatment.
This apart, the State government too has appointed AYUSH doctors in government hospitals to overcome shortage of allopathy doctors and they too have been allowed to prescribe allopathic medicine. However, the Health Department here has been targeting AYUSH doctors in the district and not allowing them to conduct their practice, he alleged.
Federation general secretary Somnath Huddar stated that more than 60,000 doctors have graduated from reputed universities and have registered themselves with the AYUSH Board and also under the KPMEI Act before taking up their practice.
Even though they have permission to use allopathy medicine, the health officials are unnecessarily creating problems for AYUSH doctors and not allowing them to serve society. The officials are frequently raiding clinics and sending a wrong message to patients. The federation welcomes the move to conduct a drive against quacks who are active in the district. But, the officials are raiding clinics of reputed AYUSH doctors which is unpardonable, he said.
He further said that the officials are hand-in-glove with quacks and to protect them, the officials are raiding clinics of registered AYUSH doctors.
He warned the health officials to immediately stop harassing AYUSH doctors and stop issuing notices failing which the federation would launch the indefinite strike on January 2 by closing down clinics.
This apart, AYUSH doctors located across the State would descend on Dharwad on January 6 and launch a protest against the Health Department, he said.
