*Proposal to be placed in next Cabinet meeting
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 22: In order to meet the faculty requirement of the five new Government Medical Colleges, the Health and Medical Education Department has decided to amend the rules governing re-employments on academic arrangement basis and a proposal in this regard would be placed before the Cabinet in its next meeting.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that Minister for Health and Medical Education, Taj Mohi-ud-Din has issued directions for preparation of draft amendments in the rules governing re-employment on academic arrangement basis as he wanted to place the same before Cabinet in its next meeting in order to set into motion the process for engagement of faculty required at the initial stage.
As per SRO-384 of 2009 dated December 14, 2009 read with SRO-409 of 2013 dated July 16, 2013 of Health and Medical Education Department, re-employment on academic arrangement basis after retirement can continue till the re-employed person attains the age of 65 years or till the post is filled through the regular process of appointment. Moreover, he or she can become eligible for pension for the services rendered up to superannuation age (58 years) only after completion of re-employment period.
These provisions, however, have no similarity with the Rules of Medical Council of India vis-à-vis re-employments on academic arrangements basis after retirement, sources said. Under the MCI Rules, the age limit is 70 years as against 65 years in J&K while as during the period of re-employment there is no bar on payment of pension under the MCI Rules.
As without the availability of faculty the new five Government Medical Colleges cannot become functional and creation/filling up of posts through regular process would take time, the Minister for Health and Medical Education has found it imperative to amend the rules governing the re-employments on academic arrangement basis after retirement from the services so as to ensure availability of minimum possible faculty in all these colleges, sources said.
Confirming this, Mr Taj told EXCELSIOR, “there is no other alternative available to start these Medical Colleges. There is requirement of around 15 faculty members for each college and the same can easily be met with through academic arrangement process”.
In the meantime, the process will be set into motion for filling up the posts on regular basis, he said while disclosing that about 500 posts of different categories of employees would be required for each Medical College.
Disclosing that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has already been signed with the Union Health Ministry for start of these Medical Colleges from upcoming academic session, Mr Taj said, “we have also sent a formal communication to the Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) with the request to keep the provision for admissions in new five Medical Colleges”.
About the infrastructure required to start these Medical Colleges, the Minister said that old wards in district hospitals at Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Anantnag and Baramulla are being converted into class rooms for the first year students and infrastructure for the second year students would be completely ready before the next academic session. “Whenever new Medical Colleges are started make shift arrangements are required to be made and similar was the case with Government Medical Colleges of Jammu and Srinagar”, Mr Taj claimed.
Responding to another query, he said that the bed strength of these five District Hospitals would be increased with the addition of 100 beds every year so that on the completion of the infrastructure for these medical colleges all these hospitals have 500 beds as per the Medical Council of India requirement.
Mr Taj, however, admitted that making these medical colleges functional in all respect and creation of required infrastructure within shortest possible time was a challenging task. “I will leave no stone unturned to ensure objection behind sanctioning these Medical Colleges is achieved as early as possible”, he claimed.
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