Srinagar, Jan 23: The medicos working in the J&K Health Department have expressed apprehensions about changes in the Gazetted Health Recruitment Rules 2006 by the State government after a court quashed the appointment of Director Health Jammu and Director Family Welfare (J&K) recently.
The Field Doctors Association (FDA), a representative body of the doctors in Health Department, has approached the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah with a plea that the rules should not be changed.
“The Administrative Health Department is in process of changing the rules for the sake of doctors of the Medical Education Department. Any such process is unethical and detrimental for the doctors of the Health Department,” said the Association member, Dr Saleem Rehman. 
He said: “Doctors in the Health Department should not be made subordinate to Medical Education Department. The MED is governed by separate Medical Education (Gazetted) Recruitment Rules 1997.”
He said the Departmental Promotional Committee meeting should be conducted to follow a court judgment seeking filling up of positions in accordance with the set rules.
However, he alleged that the government was contemplating to change the recruitment rules of the Health Department.
The appointment of some top officials in the Health and Family Welfare departments had recently drawn severe criticism as they were allegedly done in violation of rules.
On January 1, the High Court took cognizance of the matter and quashed the appointment of Director Health Jammu and Director Family Welfare J&K and directed the government to fill the positions in accordance with the set rules within four weeks.  
The Court of Justice Hasnain Masoodi quashed the appointment of Dr Ashok Sharma and Dr Rakesh Khajuria as Director Health Jammu and Director Family Welfare, J&K respectively.
The Court observed that the Chief Secretary and Commissioner/Secretary Health by following the practice of stop-gap arrangements for 13 years had violated the recruitment rules and fundamental rights of members of the Health and Family Welfare (Gazetted) service who were not even considered for promotion to different levels in the service. 
However,the Court held that the present stop-gap/ad hoc arrangement shall stay in force for a period of one month only. The appointments were challenged by Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman.
When contacted, the principal secretary (Health), R K Jeerath refused to comment on the issue.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST