Jharkhand: state govt makes amendments to leave policy

In the revised policy, the medical officers (MO) are now required to take leave permission from the civil surgeons. In the original proposal, they were to get their leaves sanctioned by the panchayat samitis. This new protocol applied only to the block-level health centres. MO's at the primary and community health centres will continue to get their leave sanctioned by the panchayat samitis.

The amendments essentially come in restructuring the powers of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads from its draft guidelines.

As reported by TOI, the draft regulations mandated civil surgeons seeking leave sanctions from zila parishad, which remains unchanged. However, the doctors posted at the district hospitals will seek leave sanctions from the chief medical officers of the district instead of the zila parishads.

Though the management committee of community health centres (CHC)s will be headed by panchayati samiti chief and sadars be headed by zila parishad chief, the institutions will 'ensure' availability of doctors in the health centers by keeping tabs on the duty rosters of doctors.

However, the presence of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM), who are under contractual service, will be monitored by panchayats and gram samitis based on which the salaries will be credited. The statutes have been brought into effect from January 1 this year.