Radiologist slapped Rs 50 lakh penalty over unfulfilled bond service
Patiala: The Health Department in Barnala has asked a radiologist to pay Rs 50 lakh as a penalty for leaving his government job without fulfilling his bond service liabilities of serving the department for a period of 10 years.
Confirming this, the Civil Surgeon of Barnala, Dr. Jasbir Aulakh told HT that the concerned doctor has already paid half of the penalty amount and added, "The doctor has deposited ₹25 lakh in the past week and has requested time till February next year to pay the remaining amount."
The existing rules specify that a government doctor is required to serve the department for a period of 10 years. In case the doctor decides to resign from his/her job, they are required to deposit Rs 50 lakh as penalty. However, Dr. Chhabra, who got an MD seat under Punjab Government Quota, violated these rules by not fulfilling his bond liabilities.
In this regard, the Civil Surgeon has informed that the concerned doctor was a radiologist and he joined the Government Service at Barnala Civil Hospital in 2020 after completing his postgraduate MD degree from a government quota seat in Punjab.
However, in 2021, the concerned doctor remained absent without informing the authorities. As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, after a few months, the civil surgeon got to know that the concerned doctor was running a diagnostic centre in Hansi town of Hisar in Haryana. Consequently, a team went there to obtain documentary evidence of the concerned doctor running the Centre.
Following this, the Civil Surgeon approached the State Health Department and got the Health Department's nod to pursue a case of recovery of Rs 50 lakh, which was the penalty amount for violating the bond service conditions.
The Daily adds that the Barnala Health Department kept pursuing the matter continuously and finally this week, the concerned radiologist deposited half of the penalty amount.
Commenting on the matter, the Barnala Health Department informed HT that they had already filed a case in Barnala judicial court for the recovery of the penalty money.
The officials of the Punjab Health Department have informed HT that several medical specialists are fearlessly working in the private sector without fulfilling the bond service conditions and paying the bond money. Last month, the Health Minister of the State, Dr. Balbir Singh had mentioned that many specialist doctors had approached him to exempt them from the mandatory bond period. However, he refused to grant such exemptions.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association, which is a body comprising of government doctors as its members, insisted that the bond needs to be rationalised effectively. The association added that the liability regarding the bond money should be reduced in sync with the number of years served in a phased manner.
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