H&ME Dept’s Proposal Infringement on Rights, Jurisdiction of Executive Heads: Medicos

“Academic institutions in Jammu and Kashmir are being degraded by over-possessive governments and the same is being sold as upgradation.”

SRINAGAR — A day after the Health and Medical Education department in J&K proposed to empower administrators, personal officers and administrative officers of Government Medical Colleges and Subordinate Departments of Health and Medical Education Department, the Medical Faculty Association of Government Medical College and Government Dental College Srinagar said that the draft proposal is a clear infringement on the rights and jurisdiction of the executive heads of the medical institutions.

The MFA urged the government to not go ahead with the draft proposal so as to ensure the respect and the rights of the executive heads of medical institutions of repute like GMC Srinagar/Jammu and, hence, a cordial working atmosphere among various levels of administration is not disturbed.

President MFA, Dr Syed Sajjad told Mountain Ink that the association has come to the conclusion that the proposal is against the interests of the public in general and it would have serious implications on patients and academics in colleges.

“I don’t know what the government thinks over it. This decision will make patients suffer; academics suffer. The administrators they are bringing have no past experience of it. The plan was against the affairs of undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral students where the principal was a signatory between the National Medical Commission, the university of affiliation and the students. Principals should control the institution. It’s in the best interests and welfare of everyone,” Dr Sajjad said.

“It is a clear infringement on the rights and the jurisdiction of the executive heads of the medical institutions ensured by the National Medical Commission and the University Grants Commission,” the MFA said in a statement.

The proposal is against the best interests of patient care as the nuances of Healthcare and Medical Education can better be understood by an administrative head from a medical background, they said.

Professor Dr Ghulam Mohammad of the Department of Anatomy at the Government Medical College Srinagar said that time and again academic institutions in J&K are being degraded by over-possessive governments and the same is being sold as upgradation to the public. “For many years the dignity and authority of Principals of prestigious GMC Jammu and Srinagar have been progressively trampled [SIC], which has resulted in dwindling of the academic and research output of these institutions [SIC],” he wrote on Facebook.

“Latest is the proposal of making the principals of these reputed institutions nominal and giving the powers to run them to lower-rung bureaucrats which will be the last nail in their coffin in these already ailing institutions,” he further wrote.

Earlier, according to a communique, the proposal reads, that in order to settle the various issues, the hierarchical channel/pyramid for Government Medical College Jammu/Srinagar for examining/routing the files and submitting the information to the Administrative Departments as well as concerned quarters shall be administrative officers of GMC Srinagar/Jammu forwarding files to personal officers who will forward them to administrators of the said colleges except for policy decisions/issues which shall be decided by the concerned principal.

Furthermore, in order to settle the issues, the hierarchical channel/pyramid for examining/routing the files and submitting the information to the Administrative Departments as well as concerned quarters, the concerned administrative officers of the institutions namely Government Medical College Kathua, Government Medical College Rajouri, Government Medical College Doda, Government Medical College Baramulla, Government Medical College Anantnag, Indira Gandhi Government Dental College Jammu, Government Dental College Srinagar, Government Unani Medical College Ganderbal, Government Ayurvedic Medical College Akhnoor, Directorate of Health & Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, J&K and Drug and Food Control Organization J&K, shall directly route files to the concerned HoD/Principal respectively, reads the proposal.

The Medical Faculty Association said the proposal is against the affairs of undergraduate/postgraduate/postdoctoral students where the principal is a signatory between the National Medical Commission, the university of affiliation and the students. “It is likely to adversely affect the recognition of the courses at all levels,” the association said.

The draft proposal is demoralizing to the faculty members who are busy fighting unrelenting variants of Covid-19 like Omicron, Delta, etc., in addition to their routine responsibilities of healthcare and medical education, it said.

The association said it would have no objection if the arrangement were part of a national scheme applicable to all such institutions of the country. “No such example is available from any medical institutions in any of the states or the union territories.”