18 years on, Jharkhand gets its own rules to appoint govt medical college principals
The move comes after the medical education regulator, the Medical Council of India (MCI), raised questions over some appointments in the medical colleges.
Eighteen years after its formation, Jharkhand has finally notified service rules for the appointment and promotion of teachers in government medical colleges. According to the notification, only the senior-most and the second senior-most professors will be eligible for the post of principal and hospital superintendent of medical colleges for a period of three years.
The state has two government medical colleges: namely, Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad, and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Hospital (MGMCH) in Jamshedpur.
The move comes after the medical education regulator, the Medical Council of India (MCI), raised questions over some appointments in the medical colleges.
Until recently, Jharkhand followed Bihar rules, which are no different from the newly notified guidelines, in appointing principals and hospital superintendents. However, the Jharkhand governments, in the absence of the state’s own guidelines, overrode the seniority criterion in most appointments.
The new rules, which were notified by newly appointed principal health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni on November 22, are in consonance with MCI’s guidelines. The state government can also name an outsider as the superintendent of a medical college if she fulfills the eligibility criteria.
“We thank principal secretary health for finalising the state’s own service rules. It would provide stability to the medical college administration,” said a senior professor of MGMMCH on Sunday.
In the past eight years, PMCH has seen five principals — Dr SN Barolia, Dr Arun Kumar Chaudhary, Dr PK Sengar, Dr Arun Kumar, and Dr Kameswar Biswas, while Dr Shailendra Kumar Singh is the incumbent.
Similarly MGMMCH has witnessed six superintendents since 2010 — Dr Shiv Shankar Prasad, Dr RY Chaudhary, Dr Vijay Shankar Das, Dr AN Mishra, Dr Bhartendu Bhushan, and the incumbent Dr SN Jha. None of the them, barring the incumbent, could complete their three-year term.
“In the absence of state’s own service rules, established norms of seniority were not followed and junior professors were given the top posts. This created a lot of resentment not among senior teachers but also MCI. Last year, the state government, under duress from MCI, had to remove PMCH superintendent Dr Sidharth Sanyal and Dr Bhartendu Bhushan of MGMMCH who did not fulfill eligibility criteria,” said a senior teacher of PMCH.