Politics And Dentistry : The Agitation Of Unemployed Dentists

The Dental Surgeons in Jammu Kashmir have been protesting since long against the employment strategies of the government.

Since 2008, the J-K Public Service Commission (J&KPSC) has not issued any notification for the recruitment of Dental Surgeons.The government claims that Rs 40 crore budget is needed to absorb the doctors in the hospitals.

The surgeons have tried every measure from peaceful protests to selling vegetables and ice-creams. Some dental surgeons to intensify their agitation had also burnt the xerox copies of their degree certificate in resentment. They even suggested that if the government cannot accommodate all the doctors in one go, they can do it in a phased manner on yearly basis in which they passed out.

Now Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) have come forward to highlight the problems of these doctors. The core committee members along with the members of dental community held a meeting in which the whole situation was called unfortunate. The leaders claimed that the government has been advertising posts for other streams like MBBS, BAMS, and BHMS but there has been no recruitment for dental surgeons despite of the continuous protest.

The AAP leaders demanded that all the unemployed dental surgeons should be absorbed through JKPSC and other centrally sponsored schemes. They also demanded framing a regular policy for recruitment of Dental Surgeons every year and constitution of a separate Directorate of Dentistry and one time age relaxation for overage candidates.