DW BUREAU The medical dental doctors working in Government Medical and Dental Colleges in Patiala and Amritsar from today have started their indefinite protest against failure of the Punjab government to rectify the anomalies in the non practice allowance (NPA) and restore it in the original form. Ten medical dental teachers from different departments will daily sit in protest with complete shutdown of OPD and elective surgeries along with daily suspension of administrative duties by faculty, routine medico legal services and class room teaching of medical students. According to Dr DS Bhullar, state General Secretary of Punjab State Medical and Dental Teachers Association (PSMDTA), the association has categorically requested the Punjab government at all levels (Group of Ministers and Committee of Principal Secretaries) that NPA of the state government doctors must be restored to the original 25 percent of the basic pay, linked to the basic pay as earlier and should be considered as part of the pay for calculation of dearness and house rent allowance etc. Further, the Academic Allowance of the doctors should also be restored and fixed at Rs. 2500 along with conveyance allowance of Rs. 2000. Meeting of the Group of Ministers and Committee of Principal Secretaries (Finance, Health and Personal) of Punjab Government fixed for Thursday (July 22) at Chandigarh had been cancelled which had further irked the government doctors for delay in addressing their genuine demand in time. (editor@dailyworld.in)