Caste panel orders review of final list for new PGI Director

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 15

In a major setback to the government, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) today asked the Ministry of Health to review the list of three finalists approved for selection to the post of PGI Director, Chandigarh, citing violations in the procedure.

Passing the orders on a petition challenging the three shortlisted candidates on grounds of discrepancies, NCSC member Ishwar Singh said: “There are some recruitment rules to be followed in the selection of PGI Director. These include seniority, merit, experiences and length of services. These rules were violated by the search and selection committee. It appears candidates to be favoured were selected earlier and the interviews were held to suit a plan. We have recommended a review of the final panel keeping in view the seniority, experience and research credentials of the three candidates.”

During the hearing today, the commission questioned ministry officials for placing Dr Jagat Ram, the senior-most among three finalists, all PGI professors, at the bottom of the panel and for placing Dr Anil Bhansali (27th in PGI professor seniority) on top and Dr Meenu Singh (52nd in seniority) on number two.

“Dr Jagat Ram has a research gate score of 54.10, whereas Dr Bhansali’s score is 40.61. The merit and seniority list of a Scheduled Caste candidate (Dr Jagat Ram) has been ignored. The ministry says it considered suitability and merit in selections. 

Suitability is not the criteria for selection to government office. Prof Jagat Ram who has the requisite qualifications and experience and is the senior-most among the other two candidates has been placed at the bottom of the selection panel. Hence, the selection committee has clearly violated the recruitment rules to the post of PGI Director and was insensitive to the interests of deprived sections,” the NCSC order said.

The commission, which also took cognizance of a detailed The Tribune report on this subject, documented a range of discrepancies in its order. It questioned the inclusion of Dr Anil Bhansali, HoD (endocrinology), PGI, in the panel, saying: “Dr Bhansali was not free from vigilance shadow and PGI’s Chief Vigilance Officer in his 2006 report had recommended issuance of a warning to Dr Bhansali for lapses by him.”

The commission wondered how Dr Meenu Singh, professor (paediatrics), PGI, was made part of the panel when she was not even HoD, as required under the PGI Director recruitment rules.

“Dr Meenu Singh is not HoD. She has a very low research gate score. Dr Jagat Ram has 280 research papers, 24 national and international awards, while Dr Bhansali and Dr Singh don’t have adequate research publications,” the order says casting doubts on selections.

The ministry, represented today by Joint Secretary Arun Singhal, reiterated it followed prescribed procedures in the selection, which PGI Institute Body ratified on November 3. The commission, however, rejected ministry’s contentions as “unsatisfactory”.

NCSC member Ishwar Singh, who passed the orders, told The Tribune: “The ministry had no answers to how they ignored Dr Jagat Ram’s seniority, his length of service, his highest number of national and global awards, his highest research score among the three finalists.”

The panel of finalists for PGI Director’s selection is currently with the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, which has sought some replies from the ministry. The post had fallen vacant on October 7.