M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Oct 17: Hopes have brightened up for the NRHM doctors and other medical personnel in Palamu, whose salary for September was hanging on fire when Diwali is around the corner now, following the Palamu civil surgeon Dr John F Kennedy being in judicial custody and the delay by the state health department to replace him till date.
Sources said the state Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh has taken cognizance of this issue and is looking into the problem.
Salary for the NRHM doctors and other personnel is handled by the civil surgeon only who is the drawing and disbursing officer for it.
The post of Palamu CS lies vacant since September 30 when Dr Kennedy was trapped by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Palamu, which the family of Dr Kennedy has termed as a false implication of him by hatching a conspiracy to dislodge him from the post.
Sources said doctors and paramedics at the Medinirai Medical College Hospital in Daltonganj who are not NRHM personnel have no issue with the salary as their drawing and disbursing officer is their medical superintendent who is very much in the harness.
However, the irony of the issue is that the medical superintendent of the MMCH Daltonganj Dr Dilip Kumar Singh, who is the drawing and disbursing officer for the non-NRHM doctors and other personnel of MMCH Daltonganj, is looking for his own salary as for his salary the drawing and disbursing officer is the civil surgeon Palamu and as of now there is no civil surgeon in Palamu, his salary is on hold like other NRHM personnel.
Dr Dilip Kumar Singh said, “I am equally concerned about my September salary since first I am a medical officer in charge of the Manatu community health centre which comes under the jurisdiction of the Palamu CS whose post now is vacant here. This superintendentship is my additional charge.”
All eyes are now on who will don the cap for the post of Palamu CS. There are as many guesses as there are people. Some say one of the old guards still in service here may be selected to hold the post of the civil surgeon Palamu. The gradation list is to be taken into account in the event of selection of the senior working doctors here in Palamu.
Sources said this week is very important as the state health department is morally bound to notify the civil surgeon as otherwise, non-payment of September salary to the NRHM doctors and other personnel before Diwali will boomerang upon the department.
Well-placed sources said the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of Health Arun Kumar Singh is fully aware of the delicacy prevailing in the health set-up in Palamu arising out of the judicial custody of the civil surgeon here and he is said to be quite anxious to plug the vacant post at the earliest.
