Lack of basic qualification during recruitment: Three AIIMS Patna faculties terminated, Administration remains tight lipped
Patna: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna, has recently given consent to a proposal of terminating three of its faculty members for lacking the basic qualification at the time of their recruitment. The Governing body of the institute has taken the decision on Thursday maintaining silence to comment on the matter.
According to media reports, the three faculty members include professor and head of pathology department, associate professor in the microbiology department, and an assistant professor in the department of community and family medicine. One among the three faculties had even got promoted during the August-September 2017 assessment promotion scheme of the Institution.
A total number of 19 faculty members had been under the scanner regarding the matter. Some of them had earlier criticized the penalty after eight years for the fault committed by the Selection Committee. A few of them had moved the court against the disciplinary action taken by the institute.
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As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, the matter goes back to 2011 when the institute had advertised for faculty recruitment in December that year. However, the advertisement had clearly mentioned that the appointment required a PG degree recognized by the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI), now National Medical Commission (NMC). Two faculties had only postgraduate degrees in Zoology, a non-medical subject, during their appointment in 2012-2013. Although Ranjan had the required qualification he lacked a Ph.D. Degree at the time of recruitment.
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The daily further reports that an IPS officer had been the whistleblower regarding the issue. Kishore, Deputy Director (Administration) of AIIMS Patna back then, had brought the matter into notice back in 2013.
Following this, the Vikas Arya committee, constituted by the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW) in 2014, had also marked the appointments as faulty. Finally, a five-member a high-powered committee comprising of directors of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and AIIMS-Patna had also found the appointments of the three faculty members as erroneous, reports the daily.
Dr. Narendra Kumar Arora, executive director of the International Clinical Epidemiological Network and also the chairman of the governing body of AIIMS-Patna had denied commenting on the matter. He told HT, "Let the minutes (of the meeting) be prepared; we can then let you know about it."
"Once the minutes of the meeting are prepared and approved, it will be in public domain. Until then, I cannot divulge any information about the governing body meeting," said Dr. Prabhat Kumar Singh, Director of AIIMS-Patna.
However, a doctor working with the AIIMS-Patna has questioned the select penalty order by the institute as there had allegedly been some other faculty members holding non-medical degrees. Speaking about the same, he told Times of India, "Why action against a select few and not others."
Meanwhile, the news has been making rounds on Twitter. Expressing his satisfaction over the news, the whistle-blower Anil Kishore Yadav has commented on Twitter, "Congratulations! Finally, some justice, albeit delayed and inadequate, can be expected to be delivered. I was made to pay a heavy price for my whistle-blowing act..."
Another user has praised his involvement in the matter and written, "But for you, this wouldn't have happened, Sir. You sided with truth and fearlessly exposed the wrongdoers, caring little about the repercussions."
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