SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, July 13: The election of the Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA), the frontal organization of government medical officers, has been deferred for 14 days due to the month-long Shrawani Mela in Deoghar.
The JHSA election was scheduled for August 7 but the election commission has now deferred it to August 21.
A member of the JHSA election committee said that since medical officers (doctors) of different districts are on deputation for a month-long (July 13 to August 14) at Deoghar-Basukinath Shrawani Mela, the election has to be deferred for 14 days.
Notably, even the chief election officer of the JHSA poll Dr Lal Majhi (Sadar hospital Ranchi) has also been placed on deputation at Deoghar’s Shrawani Mela and he resumed service there on Tuesday.
“If the election is conducted on the scheduled date (August 7), many medical officers who are on deputation in Babadham (Deoghar)- Basukinath (Dumka), would miss casting their vote. So, keeping this in mind, the poll date has been deferred for two weeks. If all goes as per plan, the election would be conducted across the state on August 21,” said the official of JHSA.
This is the first time after the formation of the Jharkhand Health Service Association (in 2003) that the election of office-bearers is being done through voting. Since the creation of the Jharkhand state (2000), the senior-most medical officer of state was elected the president and secretary unanimously till the last election.
Right from first president Dr Sumant Mishra, second president Dr Praveen Chandra and present outgoing president Dr Marshal Aind, all were selected unanimously. “At that time, our (JHSA) president was selected unanimously and not through a vote,” said Dr Navin Kumar Sinha, who was the JHSA secretary from 2011-13 and convener from 2009-11.
This time too, the senior-most medical officer of state Dr Krishna Kumar (now the director-in-chief of health of Jharkhand government) was offered the post of the president but he reportedly refused to contest the election.
However, four candidates have claimed the post of president and three candidates for the post of secretary. Even medical officers of different districts have entered the field for different posts.
