PGIMER does away with 54 posts of ‘dying cadre’

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

Already facing huge manpower shortage, the PGI here has abolished as many as 54 posts, including those of technician, work inspector and lift operator.

A top PGI functionary, preferring anonymity, reasoned, “These posts had been in dying cadre for a long time. This meant that the posts of the cadre cannot be filled. The ministry has issued directions to this effect. Abolition is a technical terminology. Outsourcing is the only possible way to fill these posts.”

Earlier, mishaps like fire in the Emergency operation theatre complex and a lift at the Nehru Hospital getting stuck midway have been reported due to non-maintenance.

As per an order released this month, four posts of technician (biomedical), 19 of technician (electrical), two of work inspector, 15 of lift operator, five of technician (painter/washer), two of technician (gas steward), four of gardener, an architectural assistant and two posts of store man have been abolished.

As per the PGI, the posts have been abolition in implementation of the recommendations of a coordination committee for operation theatre cadre as conveyed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Sources said the committee was formed to bring recruitment rules on a par with the AIIMS, Delhi, and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry. “The committee has exceeded its brief. It was formed to bring the staff on a par with the two institutes. However, it went ahead to increase and decrease the pay scale of PGI employees, who were given no hearing. We smell corruption,” alleged Ashwani Kumar Munjal, president of the PGI Employees’ Union.

A PGI employee said, “There is already a huge staff shortage in the PGI. Abolishing posts will further worsen the already-hit maintenance works. It will result in recurrence of mishaps like fire and snag in lift. Services rendered to patients will also get affected as scrapping technician (biomedical) posts meant no quick availability of experts to repair machines like CT scan. We will have to call technicians from outside and pay lakhs. They may not be readily available. Secondly, if there is a shortage of work inspectors, the quality of works would certainly fall.”

PGI’s official spokesperson Manju Wadwalker said, “I have no information about it.”