Kolkata, Sep 26 (IANS) The West Bengal Health Department has started the process of identifying junior doctors getting chances for higher studies under the service quota in state-run medical colleges and hospitals during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, without fulfilling the necessary criteria for that.
At the same time, said an insider from the state health department, the process has also started of identifying those erstwhile influential officers in the department without whose support such irregularities in utilisation of service quota would not have been possible.
“The general rule is that any junior doctor getting opportunity for higher studies in any state-run medical college and hospital under the service quota is required to mandatorily render three years of service in remote rural areas in the state to avail that opportunity.
“However, a recent probe by a state health department-appointed committee had identified instances where junior doctors close to the previous ruling party got chances for doing higher studies under the service quota without rendering three years of service in remote, rural areas,” said an insider from the state health department.
At the same time, he added, the probe committee had also mentioned about the involvement of some erstwhile influential officers in the state health department, without whose direct patronage such irregularities in the utilisation of the service quota would not have been possible. The state health department, he added, will now take action on this count against the department officials as well.
“The four-member state health department-appointed committee had already submitted its report on the matter. Now, it is up to the state health minister and other top brass in the department to decide on the fate of both the junior doctors availing the service quota opportunity without fulfilling the criteria, as well as the departmental officials patronising them,” said the health department official.
State health minister, Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee, who is himself a medical practitioner, said that he is yet to go through the probe report and after studying the report he will announce the next steps necessary.
It is learnt that one of the junior doctors who had been identified by the probe committee as taking advantage of the service quota without fulfilling the criteria is Avik Dey, whose name surfaced during the controversy surrounding the R.G. Kar rape and murder case in August 2024.
–IANS
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