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Ludhiana: At AAC recruitment drive, applicants point to ‘lack of basic facilities’
Candidates said that despite the interviews being pre-scheduled, no shed for the waiting aspirants had been arranged outside the civil surgeon’s office, forcing many to sit on the floor in the sun
An interview drive for clinical assistant posts under Ludhiana’s Aam Aadmi Clinic (AAC) network turned “chaotic” at the civil surgeon’s office on Thursday as candidates cited lack of seating and drinking water arrangements besides the “absence of any formal guidance system”.
The panel-based recruitment was held for 73 clinical assistant vacancies, officials said. Ludhiana currently has 111 operational Aam Aadmi Clinics. The new recruitment is aimed at ensuring that vacancies do not disrupt services as the network expands.
Candidates said that despite the interviews being pre-scheduled, no shed for the waiting aspirants had been arranged outside the civil surgeon’s office, forcing many to sit on the floor in the sun.
Several candidates, who arrived around 9 am, said there were no chairs, no organised queue management and no official available to guide them through the process.
Jaspreet Kaur, a candidate for the clinical assistant post, said, “We have been seated on the ground since morning in intense heat. There was no proper seating arrangement. No was there to guide us. Though an RO dispenser was there, that was not sufficient keeping in view the number of visitors.”
Another candidate, Amandeep, said the arrangements did not match the scale of the interview. “Officials should have arranged was chairs, shade and drinking water. Many candidates came from far-off places,” she said.
One of the doctors associated with the recruitment process, who didn’t wish to be named, admitted that the administration had misjudged the turnout. “There was no estimate that the footfall would rise to nearly 175 candidates. For around 73 posts, we had expected roughly 80 to 100 candidates. Sometimes only 30 applicants turn up for 60 posts. This time, the turnout was far beyond what was anticipated, which led to confusion in seating and holding arrangements,” the doctor said.
Officials said the recruitment exercise is part of the Aam Aadmi Clinic staffing pool model, under which selected candidates are kept ready so that if an existing clinical assistant leaves, services at any clinic are not affected.
The same pool is also expected to support 30 new clinics which are likely to come up in the district, taking the total number of Aam Aadmi Clinics in Ludhiana to over 140.
Dr Ramandeep Kaur Ahluwalia, civil surgeon, who didn’t respond to phone calls, stated via text that she was occupied with a workshop in Chandigarh.
