The Kerala Health Minister's move to provide reservation for B Pharm graduates to get promoted to the post of Kerala District Store Verification Officers (SVO) is being strongly opposed by the Kerala Government Pharmacists Association (KGPA). This decision could affect the promotional possibilities of officers already in service for the past many years in the government sector.

The issue is an off shoot of a case filed by a lady in the High Court two months back demanding a special reservation for B Pharm qualified people for promotion to the post of SVO. As the decision in this issue rests in the hands of the State Health Ministry, the High Court has ordered to stop inducting people for the post of SVO till the government takes a decision in this issue.

The Kerala Health Minister has allegedly been putting some pressure on the Department on Health Services (DHS) to initiate the move of earmarking a certain percentage of posts for appointment by promotion from degree holders to the category of district SVO. Such a system is not prevalent in any department of the Kerala Health Sector, said Kerala Government Pharmacists association general secretary KC Ajith Kumar.

If the decision is taken in favour of the lady, then it might encourage the government servants in other sectors in health services like doctors and other ministerial staff etc to demand similar qualification based promotion to higher posts. This would eventually lead to turmoil, said Ajith.

"There are Pharmacists having B.Pharm qualification. Whereas the basic qualification prescribed for appointment to the post of Pharmacist is a two year Diploma in Pharmacy. So now if the people with Degrees are posted as SVO's then the others who have 35 years of service in the pharmacy segment will be left in lurch. And slowly this kind of demands will spread into other departments too. For instance, doctors with higher qualifications will start demanding promotion to the post of Director DHS," said president of KGPA, Hareesh Chandran Nair.

Sources said, that the post of a SVO was given for one who had been a store superintendent and one who knows the in and out of store checking. This post according to them was not the one into which one could get promoted just based on a person's qualification as experienced hands were required to conduct verifications in the pharmaceutical stores in the State. Moreover even the order given to the senior store superintendents while they get transferred to the post of SVO is "Transferred and Posted as Store Verification Officer" and there was no mention of the word "Promotion" in it.

"There are a lot of political interests involved in this issue. That is why the minister is showing so much interest in this matter. There are other health associations affiliated to the Minister's party, but the minister is not proposing to introduce such initiatives there. This brings out the political clout the lady is using to win her demands," said another government source.