AIIMS recruitments arbitrary: Committee

AIIMS has come under attack from a high-level committee for alleged arbitrary recruitment of teachers.

AIIMS, recently the battleground between Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Director P Venugopal, has come under attack from a high-level committee for alleged arbitrary recruitment of teachers and failing to provide reservation to SC/STs in a fair manner.

The five-member committee, headed by Member of Parliament Karan Singh Yadav, appointed to look into alleged irregularities in appointments in the premier Institute, said that appointment of the teaching staff was ‘characterised by a series of arbitrary in-house decisions and actions that violated procedures’.

The committee, after going through all the records of appointment came to the conclusion that reservation policy for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were also not followed properly by the Institute.

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“The committee is of the opinion that the administration of the Institute failed to accommodate reserved category candidates in a free and equitable manner,” it said adding that in contravention of the government regulation no relaxation and concession to facilitate the inclusion of SC/STs and OBCs were provided in recruitment rules.

The appointments were made in 2003 when Venugopal was the Dean of the Institute.

Ramadoss and Venugopal have been locked in a battle since the anti-reservation agitation in 2006 in the Institute, which reportedly had the Director’s backing.

The Health Minister had a Bill passed in Parliament fixing the age of the AIIMS Director at 65 years leading to Venugopal’s removal in November 2007.

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However, the Supreme Court struck down the law paving the way for his return at the top of the Institute.

The committee found that in the last rounds of recruitments in 2003 no relaxation was given to candidates appearing for 68 reserved seat and 27 seats remained vacant.

The committee was appointed by the Health Ministry after a senior doctor filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the appointment of 164 assistant professors in AIIMS in 2003 and subsequent promotion of 64 of them to the post of associate professors.

The report was submitted to the Health Ministry last December but no action had been taken since then prompting the High Court to direct the Centre to place the report along with the ATR before it.

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Sources in the Health Ministry said that findings of the report might even lead to removal of 164 doctors appointed.