Aspirants for faculty positions in 19 key departments of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) have been endlessly waiting for authorities to complete the selection process, seven years after the posts were advertised.
In October last year, the institute came up with the selection list of faculty for 20 departments, six years after the posts were advertised. However, this selection list did not include these 19 departments for which the interviews had been held simultaneously.
A delegation of aspirants for these departments expressed concern over inordinate delay and feared it could result in “manipulation of records”.
“It is a norm everywhere, even in JK Public Service Commission that the selection list is made public soon after interviews are held,” an aspirant said. He added the delay tantamount to “criminal negligence” on part of authorities as it was putting their career in jeopardy.
“We have been waiting for this selection process for years now. Many of us are getting over-aged as well,” he said.
Director SKIMS, Prof Omar Javed Shah said that the process to pave way for issuing the selection lists was “going on”. “There is a committee that has been entrusted with the task and it met only last week,” he said adding the members had been directed to “expedite” the process.
While the director did not comment about department-wise status of selections, he however said there were “some legal issues” with selections in a “few departments”.
“I am hopeful that selections list in three to four departments will be made public in a week or two but others will need to fight in court”.
A senior faculty member at SKIMS said the delay in selection of faculty for several departments was putting patient-care and medical education at the Institute in jeopardy.
“How can we justify a process that takes so many years to conclude,” he said. He added that such complacency towards retaining qualified specialist in state institutes was resulting in brain-drain.
The departments in which selections are pending include neuro-surgery, nuclear medicine, critical-care medicine, endocrinology, neurology, bio-chemistry and clinical hematology among others.
Interviews for faculty in various departments of SKIMS had begun in August 2017 and concluded in May 2018. The posts had been advertised many times since 2012, and later clubbed together for interviews.
After some complaints regarding the process, in August last year, then Governor NN Vohra had ordered constitution of a committee and sought a time bound report on selections to expedite recruitment. A month after the report was submitted, the institute had issued a partial selection list in October 2018.