JK Dental Council calls on J&K Bank CMD

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JAMMU: Members of the J&K Dental Council today called on the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) J&K Bank Rajesh Kumar Chhibber, highlighting the difficulties faced by them while navigating through the economic distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the UT, requesting economic support measures for the dentist fraternity especially the private practitioners.

The delegation comprising of Registrar J&K Dental Council Dr Ritesh Gupta, HOD OMDR Dr Satvinder Singh and Lecturer Dental College Dr Bhanu Kotwal met the CMD at the bank’s Zonal Office Jammu (Central I) and apprised him about the “difficult times” currently faced by the dental practitioners.

“Our profession is one of the worst affected due to the pandemic. It requires close physical proximity to treat a patientthereby increasing the chances of contracting the Covid-19 infection. Also, the dental clinicsrequire huge amount of money to set-up, run and maintainplus the additional costs tofulfill SOPs for Covid-19.

The total number of dental surgeons in the UT is around 5000 out of which almost 3500 are unemployed and solely depend upon private practice to sustain themselves”, the delegates highlighted, adding that many dental practitioners simply do not have the reserves or cannot accommodate the dramatic reduction of income due to the lockdown.

Putting forth their demands, the delegates requested the CMD to consider interest waiver on existing loans availed by the practitioners, minimum maintenance accounts, and support for upgrading dental clinics among other things.

Lending a patient ear to the problems faced by the dentist fraternity, the CMD while assuring full support to them within the ambit of regulatory guidelines, underscored that the bank has already in place a tailor-made loan product-J&K Bank Heath Plus Scheme-devised to cater to the financial needs of healthcare professionals including dentists.

“We are proactively engaging with our stakeholders as well as representatives from various sectors to devise resolution road-maps by soliciting feedback and suggestions. Bank has already put in place high powered executive level committees headed by Executive Presidents to interact with various economic strata and work out tailor made solutions to overcome the challenges faced. It has always been our endeavor to understand the needs of our customers and formulate products as per those needs. In today’s context, while we are reeling with the pandemic, it becomes imperative to have at hand products and schemes that cater to the financial needs of the people”, the CMD said, adding Bank has already extended the moratorium on EMI and 10 pc additional facility in the working capital limit of the J&K Bank Health Plus scheme.

The CMD also assured that other demands expressed by the delegation would also be looked into in the ambit of the regulatory framework. The delegation expressed their gratitude and thanked the CMD for providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Government Dental College Jammu to help safeguard them while discharging their duties.