Grievances, dissension multiply at RIMS
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 31 2017: The appointment of Dr A Santa as RIMS Officiating Director after a series of Directors-in-charge has only multiplied grievances and dissension at the medical institute .

Notably, RIMS has been functioning without a regular Director after Dr S Sekharjit .

If the multiplying grievances are not addressed before it is too late in accordance to relevant rules, the matter may be taken to Court and it may turn out to be a serious setback to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as Officiating Director Dr A Santa, informed a source .

For his dedicated efforts toward establishment of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, Dr Santa is in the Ministry's good book .

However, during a personal interaction held at Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi on January 13 this year for appointment of a regular Director for RIMS, Dr Santa concealed a number of things while submitting his bio-data.

But the Ministry's search and selection committee did not take up necessary action after due scrutiny, said the source .

Grievances, dissension multiply at RIMS

Even though the result of the personal interaction was pending, an outsider was appointed as Officiating Director of RIMS thereby flouting all the norms of the medical institute .

Dr A Santa is also serving as the Principal of NEIGRIHMS Medical College and Head of Department, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, NEIGRIHMS .

According to the bio-data Dr Santa submitted, he served as senior resident doctor at Jipmer, Pondicherry from April 24, 1990 to August 17, 1991; BPKIHS, Dharan, Nepal from February 21, 1995 to November 27, 1995; Assistant Professor at the same institute from November 28, 1995 to October 21, 1996; Assistant Professor at Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhra from November 28, 1996 to July 24, 1997, Associate Professor at Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences from July 28, 1997 to November 29, 2001 and Professor at the institute from November 30, 2001 to June 21, 2007 before joining NEIGRIHMS .

The personal interaction held on January 13 was based on the modified MCI rules which remained in force till June 8 this year .

The notification issued by the Ministry for appointment of RIMS regular Director spelt out that the candidates should have completed 21 years in medical profession after obtaining Post Graduate degree .

On the other hand, an ad-hoc committee was constituted in accordance with a directive issued by the Supreme Court on November 20, 2002 to carry out inspection of medical Professors .

After inspection, the ad-hoc committee maintained that Dr Santa should not be counted as an Assistant Professor from February 1994 to July 1997 when he was serving at BPKIHS Dharan and Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhra.

This observation was written clearly in the MCI website, said the source .

September 15, 2016 was the last date for submission of application forms for the post of RIMS regular Director.

By that time, Dr A Santa had not completed 21 years in medical profession.

Even though Dr Santa joined NEIGRIHMS on June 22, 2007, he received the Letter of Permit only on July 15, 2008.As such, there was a gap of over one year.

This gap too should not be counted in the service period of Dr Santa, said the source.

Again, Dr Santa served as Director in-charge of NEIGRIHMS from November 23, 2011 to October 29, 2012.According to rules, only men/women who have served as Professor for at least five years should be appointed as Director in-charge but Dr Santa was appointed as Director in-charge even before completing five years as Professor .

On account of the failure of the search and selection committee to check all such anomalies and discrepancies in time, the process of appointing Officiating Director as well as the personal interaction are highly dubious, added the source.