Orissa HC seeks response from Health Department on time-bound plan for filling up vacant doctor posts
Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has recently sought a response from the Additional Chief Secretary Department of Health and Family Welfare on the exact number of vacancies in each of the doctors' posts and the time-bound steps proposed to fill up the vacancies.
This came after the high court observed a lack of a time-bound plan necessary to fill up the vacant posts in State-run hospitals and medical facilities.
As per a recent media report by TNIE, dissatisfied with the process of filling up the vacancy, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice B P Routray directed the Additional Chief Secretary Department of Health and Family Welfare to file an affidavit informing the court about the exact number of vacancies in each of the posts and the time-bound steps planned to fill up the vacant posts.
This came after a lawyer Chittaranjan Mohanty had filed a PIL in April 2018 seeking the court's direction to initiate the process of filing up the sanctioned posts in the government medical college hospitals, the district headquarter hospitals (DHHs) and other periphery hospitals.
The affidavit is supposed to be submitted by September 27 and give information about the status of recommendations made by the OPSC regarding the process of filling up the vacant posts.
"The OPSC had made some recommendations for many of these posts on April 30, 2021. The progress in this regard in the last three months is not known," the bench observed.
According to The New Indian Express, in the affidavit, Health and Family Welfare department Special Secretary (Medical Services) Dr Dinabandhu Panda had stated that there are 8,719 total posts sanctioned by the Health Department but nearly 1,695 posts are lying vacant in the Odisha Medical and Health Services (OMHS) cadre out of the sanctioned strength.
The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has already received requisitions for the recruitment of 2,452 posts. In the case of the vacant seats of medical college, 1,661 faculty members are serving in the position while 337 posts are still lying vacant. However, the affidavit regarding the time-bound steps proposed to fill up the vacancies is yet to be submitted in court.
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