Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 5, 2008
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/132333/Ramadoss-forces-'reservation-agenda'-on-AIIMS-eyes-95-posts.html
Nation's premier hospital of excellence, the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has opened a floodgate of
controversy by initiating a special recruitment drive under SC, ST and OBC
category that would cover all the 95 posts lying vacant for the past five
years.
The move has drawn immediate criticism with
the doctors alleging that 'merit' has been sacrificed and claims of general
category students overlooked in the appointment process.
According to Health Ministry officials, applications
were invited for all the 95 posts ranging from Professors to Assistant Professors
as part of the backlog in the SC, ST and OBC category. For the past five years,
there was no recruitment in the AIIMS. The Institute invited applications
in 2006 and 2007, but the Health Ministry withheld the process. This had led
to an unseemly tussle between Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and the then
Director P Venugopal.
The Resident Doctors' Association has alleged
that the Health Ministry has misinterpreted the 'backlog theory' for political
gains. "They (Ministry) have hidden the political agenda during the election
year. Ramadoss wants to be champion of reservation by killing the merit. Ministry
had misinterpreted the backlog statistics to their advantage by unscientific
calculation," alleges Kumar Harsh, president of Resident Doctor's Association
of AIIMS.
"What will others in unreserved category
do? There was no recruitment for the past five years. How can they put the
entire 95 posts under reserved category in a Centre of Excellence like AIIMS.
This is an appeasement for cheap political gains by Health Minister,"
said Harsh.
The Association claimed that the Health Ministry
had made unscientific calculation in backlog posts. "They had mingled
several streams of departments for their convenience. They mixed clinical
and non-clinical into one category. Medical and para-medical posts were also
mingled to satisfy their desired pattern in putting all in backlog category.
Anyhow they killed the merit," adds Harsh
The last recruitment in AIIMS was conducted
in 2003 on a floating recruitment pattern. Till 1983, the recruitments in
AIIMS were held purely on merit basis as the institute fell under the category
of Centre of Excellence.
The tussle between the Health Minister and
the then Director Venugopal started over the policy of adopting reservation
in top posts. Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Health had criticised
AIIMS for flouting reservation norms in appointments for the past decades.