Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Dec 26: Amending the Service recruitment rules for faculty members in Medical and Dental Education, the State Government today reduced the minimum teaching experience from five years to three years for becoming Associate Professor and Professor.
Two separate notifications of SRO in this regard were issued today by the Health and Medical Education Department, according to which the qualifying service experience has been reduced from five years to three years for an Associate Professor and Assistant Professor to become Professor and Associate Professor, respectively.
“The amendments are likely to considerably reduce the number of vacant faculty positions in the State Medical and Dental Colleges and also diminish the threat of de-recognition of certain disciplines by Medical Council of India because of poor faculty position here,” said Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Secretary Health and Medical Education, J&K Government.
Pertinent to mention that post of Lecturer is a direct recruitment post and the posts of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor are promotional posts in terms of the J&K State Medical Education (Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 1979 and J&K Dental Education (Dental College) Gazetted Service Recruitment Rules, 1993. A minimum teaching experience of three years was earlier required for a Lecturer to become Assistant Professor, five years for an Assistant Professor to become Associate Professor and again five years for an Associate Professor to become a Professor.
In all, a minimum of 13 years of teaching experience was earlier required to reach the level of Professor for a faculty member from the date of his appointment as Lecturer in the Medical and Dental Colleges here.
Because of these eligibility criteria, the faculty position in Government Medical Colleges and Government Dental Colleges in Jammu Kashmir was quite pathetic. Majority of the senior level faculty members had attained superannuation while the next falling in seniority were non-eligible for elevation to higher level.
Due to this depleting faculty, there was a potential threat of de-recognition to certain disciplines of these colleges from Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India. In GMC Jammu, 23 posts of Professor are lying vacant against sanctioned strength of 49 while in GMC Srinagar, 43 positions of Professor are unfilled against sanctioned strength of 55. Similarly, 14 posts of Associate Professor and 28 of Assistant Professor are vacant in GMC Jammu against sanctioned strength of 46 and 67, respectively. In GMC Srinagar, the number of vacant posts of Associate Professor and Assistant Professor is 31 and 52 respectively against sanctioned strength of 63 and 103, respectively.
However, the situation is more pitiable in Indira Gandhi Government Dental College, Jammu, where all the nine positions of Professor are vacant while seven posts of Associate Professor and six of Assistant Professor are also lying unfilled against sanctioned strength of nine and 11, respectively.
Besides reducing the qualifying period, the Government has made the Research publications compulsory by the faculty members as first author for their elevation at each level. A transitory period of two years, however, has been kept from the date of issuance of the SROs.
The provision of a transitory period of two years has been kept as the faculty members are presently not involved in Research publication particularly as first author, explained Mr Dwivedi. “The requirement of Research publications would lead to higher quality in these medical institutions as there will be more competition among the faculty at national and international level,” he added.
As per SRO 425 and 426, minimum four Research publications indexed in Medicus/national journals as first author are required for the elevation as Professor while at least 2 research publications are required for promotion as Associate Professor and one for the post of Assistant Professor.
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