The agitation would affect functioning of all government hospitals, primary health centres, ESIC hospitals and medical colleges statewide, according to Gorakh Patil, president of the Government, Semi-government Pharmacists Association. Patil today said that the State government was according a ``step motherly'' treatment to the thousands of pharmacists by ignoring their long-pending demands.

``We have been agitating against the unfair pay scales for quite some time now. Members of the association worked with black tapes pinned on the shoulders from December 14 to 31, 1999. The government did not bother to look into our problems and we are left with no option but to go on mass leave,'' Patil said.

``A person holding diploma in engineering is appointed as a junior engineer in theState government and gets pay scale of Rs 5,500 to Rs 9,000. On the contrary, a pharmacist is paid according to a different pay scale of Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,000. This is unfair to us,'' he said.

Patil has also accused the State government of not giving them the risk allowance recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission as well as the D M Sukthankar Committee. He said the pharmacists have to deal with patients suffering with contagious diseases like TB and face a lot of risk everyday.

He said the pharmacists do not have a chance for promotion in the service and hence can only bank on a higher pay scale. He alleged that all health ministers and secretaries ignored their demands on purpose. Patil threatened that if the government failed to change the pay scales after the January 21 protest leave, the pharmacists would go on an indefinite hunger strike.