The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Junior doctors boycott interview

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Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Junior doctors boycott interview

Staff Reporter

Protest against contract appointments as Senior Residents in medical colleges

Junior doctors demand regular appointment through Public Service Commission
500 vacancies of Lecturers remaining unfilled since 2001

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Junior doctors boycotted en masse, the interview for contract appointment as Senior Residents in Medical Colleges on Wednesday in protest against the Government’s decision to appoint postgraduate (PG) doctors as bonded workers while hundreds of entry-level posts in the Medical Education Service have been lying vacant for the past six years.

The Directorate of Medical Education had fixed the interview for contractual appointment of PG doctors to all Medical Colleges as per a recent Government Order, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

However, the junior doctors said they had decided to boycott the interview and that the decision had been given in writing to the Director of Medical Education in advance.

They demanded that instead of making them bonded workers for a meagre pay, they should be given regular appointment with proper pay through the Public Service Commission (PSC), against the vacancies of Senior Residents.

Over 500 vacancies of Lecturers/Senior Lecturers in all Medical Colleges has been remaining unfilled since 2001. Instead of posting PG doctors against these vacancies on a regular basis through the PSC, the Government was trying to exploit the students by making them bonded employees on a measly pay, junior doctors alleged.

The Government had issued a GO on June 30 that PG doctors who have just completed their course be appointed on contract basis for one year against the vacancies in the sanctioned posts of Lecturers and Senior lecturers. The one-year temporary appointment was to be considered as part of the bonded service of two years that PG doctors were expected to fulfil.

A shortcut

The Government’s decision to give temporary appointment to PG doctors as Senior Residents on a consolidated pay of Rs. 15,000, is seen as a shortcut to resolve the acute shortage of junior level teaching staff in Medical Colleges. The GO said this contract service would be terminated when regular PSC hands join or on completion of one year.

Junior doctors have, however, taken exception to the manner in which Government is temporarily filling the vacancies in the entry cadre in Medical Education Service.

They pointed out that the last time appointments were made to the post of Lecturers in Medical Education Service through the PSC was in 2001. Though the PSC called for applications to entry-level posts in 2005, the process was never completed.

Despite the rule that vacancies in Medical Education Service should be filled by the PSC on an annual basis, the Government was not doing anything to expedite the appointment process.

By temporarily filling the entry level teaching posts with PG doctors every year, the vacancies would go unreported to the PSC. This would, in a matter of three or four years, lead to a situation wherein there would be none with adequate experience for appointment to senior posts in Medical Colleges.

Junior doctors said they were willing to enter the Medical Education Service but rather than offer them regular employment with appropriate pay and benefits, the Government was only interested in short-term measures without much financial commitment.

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