Housing allowance and NPA of medical officers will be withheld

Aurangabad, Feb 2:

Medical officers of primary health centers (PHCs) in rural areas do not reside at the headquarters. This is impacting the vaccination campaign resulting in the district falling behind in vaccination. The administration has decided to withhold the housing allowance and Non-Practicing Allowance (NPA) of the medical officers in the district who do not reside in the headquarters, informed district health officer Dr Sudhakar Shelke.

Dr Shelke said that 51 primary health centers are run in rural areas under Zilla Parishad. The health centers have medical officers having responsibility to provide immediate medical treatment, do regular checkups, give first aid to accident victims and implement the vaccination campaign. But most of the medical officers do not stay at the headquarters.

Earlier, ZP chief executive officer Nilesh Gatne issued a written order on December 8 stating that it is mandatory for all officers and employees of ZP to remain at the headquarters. According to the order, the employees who do not reside at the headquarters were warned of actions like withholding housing allowance and withholding of annual salary increment. All medical officers have been given a verbal warning to stay at the headquarters. But to no avail. Hence the administration has decided to stop the NPA and housing allowance of the medical officers who do not reside at the headquarters.

Big financial blow

Medical officers receive 25 per cent of their basic salary as NPA and 8 per cent as house rent allowance. If these two allowances are deducted, the officers can get about 33 per cent less salary per month.