The state public health department has suspended two assistant directors of health services posted in Pune over alleged lapses in the monitoring of family planning and child health programmes. In a separate administrative order, the department has assigned additional charge of the post of deputy director of health services, Latur, to Beed civil surgeon Dr Satishkumar Madhukar Solanke; officials said.
All three orders were issued on October 13, following a review of the concerned officials’ work and administrative changes in the health services’ department. Dr Rajashree Gajanan Dhawale, assistant director of health services (family welfare), Latur and Dr Rajkumar Jagtap, assistant director of health services (family welfare), Pune were suspended; whereas the third order assigned additional charge of the Latur division post to Solanke till further orders.
The two suspension orders stated that a review was conducted by the public health department’s principal secretary on October 12 during which, the work carried out by Dhawale and Jagtap was found unsatisfactory. Both were allegedly found to have failed to conduct field visits, discharge their supervisory responsibilities properly, and provide accurate information about the status of the programmes assigned to them; as per copies of the orders seen by Hindustan Times. While Dhawale was responsible for the family planning programme, the order against her cited alleged serious neglect of the programme and failure to fulfil her supervisory duties. Jagtap was handling child health-related work. The order suspending him flagged alleged negligence in monitoring the programme and said that the work required close supervision because of its sensitive nature.
Anil Kumeriye, desk officer, Maharashtra government, said, “The department has proposed departmental inquiries against both officials, alleging dereliction of duty. Both officials have been suspended under rule 4(1)(a) of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1979. They will remain under suspension till further orders.”
{{/usCountry}}Anil Kumeriye, desk officer, Maharashtra government, said, “The department has proposed departmental inquiries against both officials, alleging dereliction of duty. Both officials have been suspended under rule 4(1)(a) of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1979. They will remain under suspension till further orders.”
{{/usCountry}}During the suspension period, the suspended officials’ headquarters will be the general hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Neither official can leave the headquarters without prior permission from the competent authority. The orders also prohibit them from taking up private employment or engaging in business or industry during the suspension period. However, they are entitled to subsistence allowance and other admissible allowances under the applicable service rules.
Beed civil surgeon given additional charge of Latur post
In a separate order, the commissioner of health services assigned additional charge of deputy director of health services, Latur division, to Dr Satishkumar Madhukar Solanke, civil surgeon of Beed, till further orders. The order followed the relieving of Dr Rekha Namdev Mudkhedkar (Gaikwad) from the additional charge on October 12. The department said that the post needed to be filled on an additional-charge basis.
Solanke has been directed to continue his duties as Beed civil surgeon while taking charge of the Latur division post, said Sanjay Katkar, commissioner of health services and mission director of the National Health Mission, Maharashtra. However, Mudkhedkar (Gaikwad) claimed that the decision is unjustified and that she was supposed to be retired after 15 days. She was temporarily holding the charge of deputy director for the past three years.