Post of PGIMS Director likely to be abolished

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 27

The Haryana Government is considering a move to abolish the post of Director of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak. The underlying idea behind the move is to streamline the functioning of the institute by doing away with multiple authorities and overlapping responsibilities.

Senior functionaries at the institute maintain that ever since the establishment of the University of Health Sciences (UHS), the role of the PGIMS Director had been reduced to that of a forwarding executive, which used to refer almost all significant matters to the university authorities.

Hence, a proposal to scrap the post and let the dean handle the academic responsibilities and Medical Superintendent take care of the hospital administration is being actively considered by the state authorities.

The interactions for the posts of UHS Vice Chancellor and PGIMS Director were conducted on May 6 and 7. However, while Prof OP Kalra was appointed UHS Vice Chancellor on May 15, the appointment of PGIMS Director has been put on hold.

The delay is now being attributed to the said move to abolish the Director’s post altogether. The move has disheartened the faculty members who aspired to get the post.

Before the UHS came into being, the PGIMS used to be headed by a Director. However, after the establishment of the UHS in 2008 and appointment of its Vice Chancellor and Registrar, the multiplicity of authorities increased, with a dean and a Medical Superintendent already in place.

Sources said the recent interactions between the state authorities and the UHS/PGIMS functionaries also indicated that the state government was mulling the move to abolish the said post.

Strike over, focus shifts to instigators

With PGIMS resident doctors calling off their five-day stir over the lodging of an FIR in a matter pertaining to the death of a Jind woman and her newborn allegedly due to medical negligence and manhandling at the institute, the focus has now shifted to identifying the faculty members who fuelled the agitation. Sources maintained that the state intelligence agencies has prepared a list bearing the names of at least five faculty members, including two HoDs and an assistant professor, who secretly backed the protest and sabotaged the efforts to end the stir.