AIIMS meeting record 'tampered'

Ad hoc workers wont get permanent jobs

The minutes of the recent governing body meeting of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have been “wrongly recordered” according to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sushma Swaraj and Congress leader Motilal Vora.

The ‘inaccuracy’ in the minutes  has meant that 250 ad hoc employees in the hospital, some of whom serving the hospital for more than a decade, will not be regularised just yet.

Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Congress MP Motilal Vora, members of governing body of AIIMS, have written to the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the president of AIIMS owing to his post, regarding the ‘inaccuracy’ of the minutes of the 146th governing body.

Vora's letter dated March 10, 2012 states, “You would very kindly recall that it was decided to regularise the services of all ad hoc employees whereas the minutes reflect that the issue was to be referred to the Ministry of Heath.”

Referring to the ministry means there is a provision to deny permanent status to the 250 ad hoc employees while actually the GB is supposed to have cleared the names.

Swaraj, in a letter dated March 11, 2012, has asked the health minister to intervene in the matter. Meanwhile, even before the next GB could take place, which is scheduled for April 14, the administration advertised for the posts held by the affected employees in March.  

The employees will have to go through a selection process, which will be in violation of the decision of the GB, their union claims.

"We had met the director and he assured us of a positive response. But the minutes of the meeting show nothing positive has happened," said Satyaprakash Kaliya, president, AIIMS Karamchari Union. The posts include stenographers, data entry operators, laboratory attendants and lower division clerks, among others under the Group C category employees.

"In a meeting the director told us that the deputy director (administration) will look into the matter. We have been chasing the issue and every time the director changes, he has a different outlook," said Ramesh, general secretary of the union.

He said many people have been working for 15 years and this has put them under gross insecurity. "The cut-off age is 40 years. Most people are now overage and won't be even able to apply," said Ramesh. A senior faculty member accused the administration of tampering with the minutes.

“It has happened twice in this case. The recruitment of 39 faculty members is also pending due to similar tampering. The decisions of the GB are not being adhered to which has made a mockery of it,” he said.