Editor,
Since the Union health Ministry has decided to conduct an independent enquiry into the NEIGRIHMS affairs I am compelled to let the public know what’s exactly happening in the Institution.
NEIGRIHMS was declared by the then Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee in 2000 as the “Institute of National Importance” and declared a “Centre of Excellence” by Parliament on January 2007. It was formally inaugurated on March 5, 2010. But in the last few years this institute is shriveling.
Today this Institute is neither an “Institute of National Importance” nor a “Centre of Excellence” when compared with other Institutes of the same rank. The Deputy Director of AIIMS Delhi is a Joint Secretary rank, IAS officer. So too with the Post Graduate Institute (PGI) Chandigarh! All Deputy Directors of other AIIMS (Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Rishikesh etc) have Deputy Secretary Level individuals coming from the Central Service like IAS and IRS. But the Deputy Director, NEIGRIHMS is a Civil Engineer working in the same organization as an Executive Engineer before taking over as a Deputy Director; that too for 7 continuous years till date. The advertisement for the post of Deputy Director is ‘On Deputation Basis” but this individual with the help of in-house experts (on rule manipulation) were able to steer the rules to his advantage. Finally he became Deputy Director (administration). The question is how can a person working in the same organization join a post which was advertised as being on deputation and requiring different skills sets?
The Deputy Director (Administration) is to ensure that all rules and procedures are followed in the Institute. The Director’s responsibility is to steer the medical team and provide overall leadership. That the post of Deputy Director is tagged with the word ‘Administration’ suggests that the post is that of an administrator. The fall out of this (mis)appointment, is “CHAOS”. Looking at the roads, toilets and the overall campus of NEIGRIHMS any passerby will rate the engineering section as “very poor” in performance. The Engineering section is headed by a lady assistant engineer who is unofficially baptized as a Executive Engineer (EE) but with no benefits or promotion. The lady engineer has been requesting for promotion to the designated post but to no avail.
The post of Superintendent Engineer (SE) was created for the present Deputy Director since his present post is only a tenure one. And worse, for creation of this post, 4 technical posts (junior engineer, Assistant Architect and 2 draftsmen) in the section were declared ‘Not required” and abolished. This has negatively affected the performance of the engineering section which now has only an Assistant Engineer and outsourced staff. Appointing an engineer for the post of Deputy Director is unprecedented and saying that this is necessary because of several construction works is misleading since the constructions activities in the campus are executed by big companies like Larsen & Toubro and will be handed to the Institute authority once completed.
The present Director blames the Head of Department (HoD), Cardiology and the Union Health Ministry for the mess this Institute is in right now. On October 14 last the Governing Council gave a verbal order to the Director to put in his papers but the Deputy Director was allowed to continue for the 8th year. Technically, since the Director is on lien he reverts to his parent organization and need not resign.
The Director claims to be a “victim of expose” but he indulges in “selective expose.” The Dean (who issued a character certificate to a DM (Cardiology) student with the words ‘integrity doubtful’ is the Head of Academics with full powers on the subject but he yielded to pressure from the Director who has a personal grouse against the DM student.
Within two weeks of joining, this Director signed and circulated an order that only vegetarian food is to be served in all eateries inside the campus. No one opposed this so he was emboldened to do things that have brought down the Institute. The HOD Cardiology is not the only problem in NEIGHRIMS. There are a number of self seekers. The senior most faculty of the Institute, the HOD of Anesthesia who was appointed as vigilance officer, projects himself as the Chief Vigilance Officer. How can this man act as a watch dog of corruption when he himself is an imposter? Being the senior most faculty, he held charge before this present Director joined. During his tenure, he directly/indirectly appointed himself in-charge of many activities in the Institute and neglected his primary duty as anesthetist. De-recognition of many departments including his own is because there is a serious lacunae in OT hours, not because of shortage of faculty. Cancellation of operation at the last moment is an everyday affair in the hospital even when patients are wait-listed for months.
Recently, Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma endorsed the idea for a probe by a Central agency. An FIR was also filed by social activist Agnes Kharshiing (ST Oct 26, 2019). Interestingly, Kharshiing was with the Director in his office chamber for hours before filing the FIR. On whose behest did she file the FIR? Isn’t she being used?
On Oct 21, the Director called a press conference to prove his innocence but forgets that as the appointing authority for tenure posts in the institute (Resident Doctors) for many years he changed the rules by appointing himself the Chairman of the Selection Committee. A recruitment test was conducted for appointment of senior resident doctor in the Department of Community Medicine. A non-local candidate from JIPMER, the director’s parent institute, was selected by sidelining a local senior doctor working in the Government of Meghalaya. The interview was held on the October 19 even while this lady doctor resigned her post at JIPMER on Oct 17, only one day before the interview and was selected on the third day. Now how can a person resign from a post they are serving just a day before the interview, unless assurance is given that she is already selected? Incidentally the local doctor is senior to the JIPMER one.
Many pertinent questions remain to be answered such as (a) how many operations have been cancelled at the last moment in the last six months and why? (b) How long does it take for a patient to get operated? (c) How many suppliers and contractors are related to the staff working at NEIGRIHMS? (d) How is the owner of the medical shop supplying stent implants in the Cardiology Department related to the staff working in the same department? (e) How is the owner of the Pharmacy inside the hospital related to the staff of NEIGRIHMS? How can a canteen in front of Emergency which was reported by media many a times for the havoc it causes, be allowed to continue there? (f) How are tenders being cancelled or delayed just because a particular supplier/contractor did not get the contract? (g) How is promotion given arbitrarily? There is a case of an individual being promoted to a higher post in 3 years whereas others working in the same section have to wait for decades, just because the individual is the leader of a group? (h) Why should unfortunate ones have to retire in the same post they had joined? (i) How can one post be advertised but 2 persons appointed? How can the head of a section which deals only with purchase be appointed as a liaison officer with the Ministry in Delhi by the Deputy Director?
NEIGRIHMS needs to be swept clean.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request