Prof of psychiatry at Govt Medical College resigns

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 9

Dr PD Garg, professor at the Psychiatry Department of Government Medical College and Director, Swami Vivakanand De-addiction Centre, resigned from the college here today.

He was on extension for the past couple of years after retirement. Talking to the Amritsar Tribune, he confirmed the development, citing health issues as the basic reason behind his resignation.

“I had suffered a heart attack last year. Now, the pressure of work was taking a toll on my health and therefore I decided to submit my resignation,” he said, adding that he had no plans about his future yet.

However, many teachers in the college revealed that pressure was building on him after the recent controversy wherein it was alleged that he was sending patients to a private firm where his son worked.

He had refuted the charges and had termed the shrinking number of patients at the OPD to the unavailability of drugs because the government had failed to provide medicines from its warehouse even after repeated pleas.

It was alleged that the Swami Vivekanand De-addiction Centre had not procured the medicines for the drug addicts from the government warehouse. Due to this, the patients were forced to shift to the private centre, where his son allegedly works. The daily OPD list at the centre has shrunk from 400 to 60-70 patients. The drug addicts are now purchasing the tablets from a private rehabilitation centre on the circular road.

Garg was the only professor in the department while the posts of associate professors are lying vacant for the past many years. The department has only four assistant professors out of the five sanctioned posts while one of the assistant professors has gone on deputation to Faridkot. The department, which also runs the Swami Vivekanand De-addiction Centre, will now be in the hands of junior doctors and this is likely to hamper the functioning of the department, said doctors in the department.

Dr Tejbir Singh, principal of the GMC, said Garg had not mentioned any reason behind his decision and admitted that the department would face a problem, as there was no senior teacher left in the department. He said he would take up the matter with the government to hold a Departmental Promotion Committee meeting for promoting doctors to senior levels besides filling the vacant posts.