SHILLONG: NEIGRIHMS resident doctors have alleged that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has quashed the advertisement for the post of various faculty posts in the institute.
The resident doctors said in a statement that this was for the first time in the last 20 years that advertisements were quashed.
The statement said an advertisement was issued to fill the vacancies in various departments and avoid derecognition of courses. Also, there was staff shortage in certain crucial super-speciality departments like Chest and Respiratory Medicine.
“The advertisement was floated in various newspapers of India by the institute last year spending lakhs of rupees to recruit the faculty. It is learnt that the recruitment criteria were changed without the permission of the highest recommending body of the institute that is the Governing Body, while at the same time another advertisement came out without changing the criteria for eligibility for reasons best known to the incumbent Director, NEIGRIHMS,” a resident said.
They also alleged that screening of applications was done under the chairmanship of Director Dr DM Thappa for both the advertisements at the same time and subsequently candidates were called for interview this year in May at AIIMS, New Delhi where Director of NEIGRIHMS was the member secretary of the standing selection committee.
“The interviews were conducted for two advertisements simultaneously having different selection and eligibility criteria. The recommendations of the standing selection committee were sent to the Ministry for offer of appointment. The ministry, after receiving several representations from the affected candidates and seeking explanation from the Director, NEIGRIHMS, found that there are anomalies in the advertisement and finally took the decision after five months of interview to quash the advertisement and directed the institute to re-advertise all the posts,” the resident doctors said in a statement.
As per the statement of the residents, several faculties from the institute who were duly qualified without the changed criteria are also affected by the administrative arbitrariness in the advertisement.