Discrepancies suspected in RIMS Offg Director's appointment
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 13 2018:
A strong suspicion has been raised about some officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare committing discrepancies at the time of appointing the Officiating Director of RIMS.
The question of committing discrepancies emanates from the response to an RTI application filed by an RTI activist with regard to the personal interaction (interview) held on January 13, 2017 for appointment of a regular Director of RIMS and appointment of Officiating Director by an order issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on August 14 last year.
The RTI activist, on condition of anonymity, told The Sangai Express that an application was filed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's CPIO on August 21 last year seeking detail information about appointment of RIMS Officiating Director and the institute's Administrator.
The application was seeking names of candidates recommended by the search and selection committee for the personal interaction held on January 13 last year, names of candidates put in the waiting list of the selection process, reasons for not declaring result of the personal interaction and the file noting related to the appointment of Dr Ahanthem Santa of NEIGRIHMS as Officiating Director of RMS.
The CPIO replied to the RTI application on October 5 last year.
The CPIO's reply said that the Ministry was directed by the High Court of Manipur not to declare result of the personal interview until further order as a petition had been already filed at the Court by some faculty members of RIMS.
The High Court further directed the Ministry to finalise RIMS recruitment rules and publish fresh advertisement for recruitment of RIMS Director based on the finalised recruitment rules.
The CPIO's reply also said that sharing these information would amount to challenging the High Court order.
A photocopy of a file noting signed by Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda was also provided to the RTI activist with regard to the query on the appointment of Dr A Santa as Officiating Director of RIMS.
The same photocopy says that the appointment was approved after considering pages 20 and 21 of the recruitment rules of RIMS Director.
But the particular pages were not enclosed in the CPIO's reply thereby invoking suspicion about some officials flouting the same recruitment rules.
Nonetheless, another application was filed to the Deputy Secretary of the Union Health Ministry on October 12 last year seeking copies of the same pages.
The Deputy Secretary is also the appellate authority.
As the Ministry suggested re-direction of the application to the Central Information Commission (CIC), the application was sent to the CIC on December 7 last year, said the RTI activist.