01 June 2010
By Prafulla Marpakwar
Mumbai, India
Public health minister Suresh Shetty on Monday entrusted the task of recruiting medical officers in his department to the staterun Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation (MKCL). “MKCL will conduct an online examination of doctors and submit the results. Appointments will be purely on merit. The entire process will be completed within a month,” Shetty told TOI.
Earlier, the task was entrusted to the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC). After Shetty took over the reins of the public health department, he found that MPSC was unable to complete the exercise in a time–bound period. Later, Shetty moved a proposal for filling up the vacancies through MKCL, which was approved by the cabinet. “We have a total of 1,454 vacancies of medical officers, including 54 for ayurveda graduates. We have received 4,243 applications from MBBS graduates for 1,400 posts and 9,806 for 54 posts of BAMS graduates,” Shetty said.
A senior Mantralaya official said, a proposal for recruitment of 2,800 medical officers was pending with the MPSC for several years. Shetty then took up the issue with chief minister Ashok Chavan. “When it was found that public health services, particularly in rural parts of Maharashtra were adversely affected due to non–availability of medical officers, it was decided to entrust the task to MKCL. This will be for the first time that medical officers will be appointed on the basis of an online examination,” he said.
Simultaneously, Shetty has asked chief secretary J P Dange to ask the MPSC about the steps it was taking for filling up senior level posts in the public health department. “Two years ago, the MPSC had advertised for the post of deputy directors, district health officers, civil surgeons, police surgeons and chief administrative officers, but so far, there has been absolutely no progress. Shetty has asked Dange to personally follow it up with MPSC,” he said.
Significantly, it’s more than five years now that all top posts in the public health department are lying vacant. “The post of director is lying vacant for five years. The doctor, holding the post, is fourth in order of seniority. In fact, the entire directorate is on ad hoc basis. We hope Shetty will streamline the directorate before it’s too late,” a senior doctor said.
Govt colleges to offer degree courses for paramedics
Mumbai: The state has decided to start 19 Bachelor of Paramedical Technology courses beginning this academic year.
Not only Maharashtra, but the entire nation is facing a shortage of technical staff in the field of medical science. So, the government has decided to start 19 new courses which would be certified by the Maharashtra University of Health Science, said medical education minister, Vijaykumar Gavit. “The new courses will be initially conducted in government medical colleges across the state. If private colleges approach the government, they too will be given permission to start the courses,” he said.
The fees for the three–year courses, to be taken after the HSC, would range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per year. Fourteen government colleges, including JJ Hospital and three BMC–managed hospitals–Sion, KEM and Nair–would offer the courses from this 2010–11, Gavit said. –Sanjeev Shivadekar
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