Minister Ramdas raids DME
Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas, during a surprise visit on Tuesday to the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) located at Anandrao Circle, found administrative lacunae and violation of rules by the staffers of the institution.
Retired District and Sessions Judge N Narayana would be asked to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within a month, the minister said. He also directed DME director Dr A R Aruna to go on a month’s leave till the inquiry report is submitted.
Ramdas inspected the directorate building and proceeded to the director’s chamber. Although a red bulb outside her chamber indicated she was in a meeting, Aruna was not in the chamber. The minister said he was surprised to find the directorate had not installed biometric equipment despite official orders making it mandatory for all medical colleges.
He also found 11 officers absent and directed that they be served notices. The director herself had not signed the attendance register for an entire month, he said.
Irregular distribution
On being questioned, the officials said there was no proper rule on the distribution of work. The directorate did not even have a copy of the latest Cadet and Recruitment rule book.
Ramdas said rules stipulated that all purchases costing more than Rs 10 lakh should be done through e-procurement, but not a single purchase was made online.
“There is no roadmap on file transfer, no accountability and no disciplinary action has been taken against employees who came late to work. I have received complaints that the norms are being violated in transferring students from one college to another for internship,” he said.
The minister also found six ambulances — each costing Rs 14 lakh — ordered by the directorate without authorisation. Even the equipment bought for Belgaum Medical College in 2009 was lying unused since they did not require it, Ramdas said. In fact, the official who certified the equipment for purchase was an electrical engineer and not a biomedical engineer as the rule stated, the minister said.
“In the last one year, 78 seats have been surrendered. But many students have taken the stipend and moved to a private institution. We have to recover Rs 78 lakh. But the directorate does not have any idea on the number of seats surrendered and the amount to be recovered for the last three years,” he said.
Aruna said the directorate was not autonomous and so they did not have the authority to fix responsibility.
