Decaying Manipur health care delivery system - 5
Appointment of RIMS Director- Strange things do happen in our State of Manipur

Dr Th Suresh *

RIMS - Regional Institute of Medical Science, Imphal in January 2015 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

About 10 days or so, I have highlighted the appointment of an IAS officer as Director i/c JNIMS after a lightning strike by the institute’s faculty. That was the 1st case in India and that it was 100% against MCI rules which will lead to de-recognisation of JNIMS was also highlighted.

Another strange thing does happen in the centrally-run medical college RIMS. I am referring to the appointment of Prof. S. Rita as i/c RIMS Director vide an order issued by union Health & F.W Under Secretary M. Lal Sharma wef 23/4/2015. This order was challenged by the incumbent Director i/c Prof. Ch. Arunkumar in the state’s Hon’ble High Court citing the country’s Supreme Court ruling that no two interim Directors be placed i/c of a medical institute consecutively.

The Hon’ble High Court stayed the above order of the Under Secretary on 27/4/2015. Another strange thing again happens within 3 days, this time in the High Court.

On 29/4/2015, a single bench consisting Chief Justice L. Mahapatra again stayed the ruling of the same high court dt. 27/4/2015. This latest high court order, however, added that further hearing will continue.

That means Prof. Rita will continue as i/c Director of RIMS till the hearing is disposed off. It is worth to roll back and recall that prof. Ch. Arun was appointed a few months back as i/c Director replacing previous Director S. Sekharjit whose tenure was riddled with corruption charges and inefficiency. Professor Sekharjit is presently facing a CBI scanner.

It is here that certain questions do arise for the common people. In the 1st place, why has the Union Health Ministry appointed 2 i/c Directors in a span of a few months? It shows the utter callousness of the Central Ministry in respect of Manipur. Instead of improving the management, it is only leading confusion and frustration to the faculty and to the institution as a whole.

I have no personal bias against Prof. Rita. I am only pointing out to the system failure. The logical step the Union Health Ministry should have taken was - to appoint the senior-most one as i/c till a regular appointment is made.

One wonders, whether the centre would have done such things in other states. In the 2nd place, why has the Hon‘ble Manipur High Court giving two contradictory orders within a span of 3 days?

The writer is not challenging the wisdom of the Hon’ble court. However, it did raise the credibility of our legal system. The best option would have been to give a fair and reasonable order and stick to that till the disposal of the case. This court’s order only adds extra confusion and disappointment to the already existing scenario.

The 3rd one is - what happened to the CBI investigation of RIMS? How long will it take? It is time that the culprits be punished within a time bound. This will lead to more transparent management of RIMS and will teach lesions to the future administrators. If the charges are not proved, those concerned be cleared off so that they stay clean in public image.

The 4th one is - why is our state Govt. remaining silent and not taking up with the centre about this important CBI case? Why is the state behaving as if RIMS is not situated in Manipur? Remember RIMS is a product of Manipur, we have sacrificed our elsewhere important General Hospital at Lamphel, with many specialists and entire staff, only to have this medical college. Again Strange things do happen in our state!

The 5th one is - why are our MPs, MLAs, civil organisations, intellectuals and students’ organisations maintain a static silence to these 2 important (JNIMS & RIMS) developments? What are our MPs doing in Parliament? Why are our MLAs not making a huge and cry for these 2 important events?

Also, Manipur society, famous to have a museum effect for petty incidents here and there, should learn a thing or two on how to differentiate between an important one and a mere negligible one so that the public is highlighted and well informed about important events.

And lastly, why are our media remaining a silent spectator and not highlighting these 2 important events ? why are our media, printed and audio-visual, not giving a critical review of the High Court’s 2 contradictory verdicts? Are our media afraid to touch our High Court? Your writer expects that at least the more knowledgeable sections should speak and act.

We have to ponder and ponder repeatedly. Such intriguing things do happen only in Manipur. It will not happen in other states where there is a hawkish media ever ready to give 24x7 coverage. It will not happen in other states where the opposition parties are ever ready to criticise such irregularities.