CPS inquiry: Nitin Gadkari demands medical education secretary’s transfer

Union minister Nitin Gadkari has written to chief secretary Manukumar Srivastava seeking transfer of medical education secretary Ashwini Joshi, days after shooting his first letter in which he had accused her of creating impediment to the work carried out by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS)

Union minister Nitin Gadkari has written to chief secretary Manukumar Srivastava seeking transfer of medical education secretary Ashwini Joshi, days after shooting his first letter in which he had accused her of creating impediment to the work carried out by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS).

Gurugram, India-March 16, 2023: Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India inspection the Urban extension road-2 from Alipur to Dwarka expressway, in Gurugram, India, on Thursday, 16 March 2023. (Photo/HT)(Pic to go with Abhishek Behl's story)

Srivastava could not be contacted for his comments.

Sources at Mantralaya, however, said Joshi has the backing of medical education minister Girish Mahajan and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and not much could be done immediately.

In response to Gadkari’s first letter on March 9 alleging that Joshi had a reputation of creating hurdles in the departments she had worked with, the latter sent a strong rebuttal to Srivastava on March 14. She defended her stand and cited examples of Rajasthan and Gujarat that had stopped admissions to CPS-run courses.

Sources told HT that Gadkari’s office sent a second letter four days ago.

On Tuesday, Dr Rajesh Darade, registrar of CPS, attended a hearing called by Joshi seeking the former’s explanation on the alleged anomalies detected at the institutions offering its courses.

“We have submitted our replies to the queries raised by the department. Today, we were asked fresh queries. We will submit their answers in the next hearing,” Dr Darade said.

The medical education department has scheduled the next hearing on March 24.

The Maharashtra Medical Council, during an inspection last year, found that two institutions offering courses of specialisation by CPS were closed while there were deficiencies in 45 others. The remaining 73 refused inspection, a notice issued to CPS said. In January and February, Joshi wrote two letters to the union health ministry on the state of affairs at CPS and why admissions to its courses should be stopped. The association of CPS-affiliated institutions then met Gadkari and sought his intervention.

Associates of Joshi, however, describe her as a no-nonsense officer since the beginning of her career. As an additional collector and returning officer of North-West Mumbai, she seized cars of Congress candidate Gurudas Kamat during elections, and she was subsequently transferred. Her actions as collector of Thane and Mumbai City upset many. When she was the excise commissioner, lobbyists of liquor industry were out to get her transferred.

Joshi is a dentist by education and has also worked as an additional commissioner with BMC where she looked after the health sector. During this tenure she came to know about the functioning of CPS.