Maha: Retirement age of doctors, deans, medical professors increased by 1 year
Mumbai: In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has officially extended the service period of doctors, deans, and medical professors working in its hospitals and medical colleges by increasing their retirement age limit by one year temporarily.
With this, the retirement age of doctors has been revised to 59 instead of 58 years of age. Similarly, the new retirement age of professors of BMC run medical colleges has been changed to 64 from the existing retirement age of 63 years.
However, the decision to continue work is voluntary and would not be applied to those health officers who would retire within the next three months.
As per recent media accounts, the decision by BMC was taken last year in order to avoid the shortfall of manpower during the pandemic situation. The proposal was tabled for a post-facto clearance in front of the standing committee on January 8. However, the committee members opposed the proposal stating that extending the service period of senior doctors and professors would deprive juniors of their due promotions.
Observing the lockdown, the proposal was put on hold and the standing committee meetings were suspended.
However, the meeting also revealed that more than 50 percent of posts designated for senior doctors and medical officers in the BMC run hospitals had been lying vacant.
In order to get a better idea about the situation, a group leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in BMC, Prabhakar Shinde, asked for the details of the vacant posts from BMC authorities, reports The Free Press Journal.
Subsequently, during a meeting on Wednesday, the proposal was officially cleared unopposed as a temporary measure in view o fthe pandemic. Ravi Raja, standing committee member and Leader of the Party (LoP) in BMC informed the daily that the extension of the retirement age has been applied to only 12 senior medical doctors.
He further added, "The service period has been extended only for senior employees whose experience and guidance was necessary during the COVID-19 outbreak."
While commenting on the decision of the civic body, another official stated, "The retirement age has been increased to 59 from 58. This was a temporary decision, which was needed to tackle COVID-19 in Mumbai."
