SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 2: In a bid to streamline all five medical colleges, the Jharkhand government has initiated steps for appointing professors on the vacant posts in the institutions on a contract basis.
Additional Secretary Alok Trivedi has invited applications for the 83 posts of professor in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) Jamshedpur, Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) Dhanbad, Phulo Jhano Murmu Medical College Hospital (PJMMCH) Dumka, Mednirai Medical College Hospital (MMCH) Palamu and Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) Hazaribagh.
The selection of the professors would be made through walk-in-interview on August 17 at the administrative building of Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) Ranchi.
The professors are being appointed on a two-year contract basis and they would be paid Rs 2.5 lakh honorarium per month during the period. Their contract can be extended for a year but that would depend on their performance.
The officials of the state health department today said that the maximum age of the applicant should be 70 years. “However, the selected contractual professors will not be entitled to claim for regularization of the job,” said the official.
Several faculties in all five state government-owned medical colleges have been running without enough professors. As per the National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines, a professor is mandatory in each department.
Notably, in the present scenario, posts of professors in Anatomy, TB Chest, paediatrics, radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiotherapy and anaesthesia are vacant in all five medical colleges.
Besides them, the microbiology, FMT, PSM and eye departments of four medical colleges are also without professors.
A senior officer of the state government medical education wing of the health department said due to a shortage of senior faculty members, the NMC recognition of three newly built Dumka, Hazaribagh and Palamu medical colleges is at stake while the seat enhancement (50 MBBS seats to 100) of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital has been held up for seven years.
Over 16 departments in Dhanbad medical college are without professors. PSM, Pharmacology, biochemistry, surgery, anaesthesia, radiology, and physiology are those important faculties that are running without professors.
