Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Sept 3: Following recent directives from the State High Court, the Medical Education Department where hundreds of posts of faculty members are lying vacant has started the recruitment process to avoid further reprimand from the Court of law.
According to highly placed sources, the authorities in Medical Education Department have started the process of filling up of vacant posts by calling the applications from the eligible candidates on contractual basis on the initiative of Minister of Medical and Technical Education, Youth Services and Sports, Taj Mohi-ud-Din.
The Department is on the tenterhooks and all the vacant posts of doctors, Lecturers, Assistant Professors and Professors will be filled up soon, sources said.
Sources said that advertisement for some vacant posts of lecturers has already been issued while the remaining posts will also be filled up in a time frame to ease the work load on existing doctors of the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu which is facing dearth of senior doctors.
Sources said, the axe will also fall on 262 doctors whose posts were sanctioned for Medical Education Department two years back for GMCs of Jammu and Srinagar but whose services were kept on the disposal of the Health and Family Welfare Department for the time being as till date they have failed to join their parent Department.
The Medical Education Department has decided to terminate their services in case they failed to join within days, sources added.
Sources said Taj Mohi-ud-Din has taken serious exception to the same and asked the authorities to issues the termination orders of all the 262 doctors meant for the GMCs of Jammu and Srinagar who have failed to join the Department till date. Confirming this, the Minister told Excelsior that the services of all the 262 doctors sanctioned for GMCs will be terminated if they failed to join the Department after a fresh notice is served to them. Out of 262 doctors only 22 are with GMCs at present, he added.
He also maintained that all the vacant posts of faculty members will be filled up soon as the Department is on the job. The deserving faculty members in different departments of GMC who are due for promotions and were deprived of the same till date will also get their right. Besides, making appointment of some doctors on contractual basis 400 nurses were already appointed to over come the shortage of staff, he added.
Sources said that various departments of GMC are facing dearth of doctors, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors and Professors and the posts have not been filled for years together due to bureaucratic wrangles.
Sources said Gynaecology Department of GMC which earlier had three posts of Professors is functioning with lone post now after the retirement of Prof Anita Sharma in 2011 and promotion of Dr Shashi Gupta as Principal GMC early this year.
Out of five units of the Department two have been dissolved and only three are functioning putting an additional load on in -service doctors adding to their roster duties in emergency and OPD, sources added.
Sources said likewise in Physiology Department where two posts of Professors were lying vacant one was promoted as Professor last year while another Associate Professor, who too has the required eligibility for the post of Professor was not considered and preference was given to a retired person thereby playing with the future of the doctor.
Sources said previously a precedence was made in GMC to fill up the posts of Associate Professors, Assistant Professors in various departments by downgrading the posts to adjust the blue eyed boys and some of them were later elevated to higher posts despite the fact that the PSC had not even confirmed their previous promotion which they got after down grading the posts. But those who had no approach in bureaucratic or political circles were not considered for the same forcing them to knock the doors of court for justice, sources added.
It may be recalled that the State High Court in its recent judgment in case of an Assistant Professor in Gynaecology has urged the authorities of Medical Education to grant promotion to her to the post of Associate Professor on the basis of her eligibility. The Court also issued directives to the authorities that in case the post of Associate Professor was not available, the post of Professor be down graded as was done in other cases previously.
Sources said earlier up to 2004 the promotions were granted to the doctors on higher posts on the basis of seniority in GMCs, Jammu and Srinagar in their own pay and grade and much to the chagrin of the doctors this practice was stopped later in GMC Jammu while GMC Srinagar continued the process of filling up the vacant posts on the basis of stop gap arrangements as per seniority.
Prof Shashi Gupta Principal Medical College, Jammu said that the process of filling up of posts on contractual basis has started and interviews for 14 posts of contractual lecturers was held recently while for seven posts it will be held soon.
It may be recalled that State High Court in its judgment on August 26 had asked the Government to fill up the vacant posts of 40 percent quota of faculty members lying vacant in the GMCs of Srinagar and Jammu.
The Court passed these directives after examining the affidavits submitted by the Commissioner Secretary to Health and Medical Education Department and Additional Secretary of the Same Department.
In the affidavit it has been mentioned that out 55 posts of Professors 43 are vacant, out of 63 posts of Associate Professors, 31 are vacant, 52 posts of Assistant Professors are vacant out of 103 posts and 45 posts of Lecturers are vacant out of 178 in Srinagar Medical College alone.
While in GMC Jammu out of 201 of such posts 61 are lying vacant.
Sources said that shortage of doctors in two GMCs has often led to doctors’ -attendants clash as the latter while accompanying the patients think that they are not being properly examined by the doctors who on account of heavy work load can’t do justice to their job.
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