M A I N   N E W S

Service rules on age, pay flouted
Appointment of dental college Principal
Jatinder Sharma

Rohtak, July 6
Violating rules and its own decisions, the government has appointed 64-year-old Dr (Brig) Suresh Chand Anand (retd) as Principal of the only state-owned dental college in Haryana.

Since the Dental Council of India does not allow retention of a person beyond 65 years of age, the designation of Brigadier Anand would be Chief Executive Officer of the college with effect from June 2002. Interestingly, this post did not exist either at the dental college or even the Health Department of the government, including the PGIMS.

He has been offered the post on a contract basis for two years. He will be Principal only for one year and for the remaining period he will be the Chief Executive Officer.

He will be paid a consolidated monthly salary of Rs 35,000 and the pension that he gets as an Army officer has been protected, as per his appointment letter, a copy of which is in the possession of this correspondent.

Sources said the procedure adopted in his appointment was contrary to all rules. He had not applied for the post in response to an advertisement carried in several newspapers. His name was sponsored suo motu.

The emoluments offered to him were opposed by the Finance Department on the grounds that as per rules, the pension amount was always deducted from the salary of a person on re-employment. The Finance Department also pointed out that all Vice-Chancellors were getting Rs 26,000 per month, minus the pension amount they were getting from their respective government departments.

Strangely, a proposal to protect the pension of the then Director of the PGIMS, Dr D.S. Dubey, was turned down by the then Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal in 1997. He had ordered the deduction of the pension amount from the salary of Dr Dubey and had ordered recovery of the excess amount paid to Dr Dubey from the officer concerned.

But in the present case, despite stiff opposition from the Finance Department, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, has approved the salary offered to Brigadier Anand.

The post of the Principal of the dental college has been lying vacant for long. It was advertised in 1999 with the stipulation of the upper age of 50 years. Since it was considered impractical, the government on November 22, 1999, relaxed the upper age limit from 50 to 55 years for posts of Principal, Government Dental College, Rohtak, Director, PGIMS, and Medical Superintendent.

These orders were approved by the Chief Minister on October 27, 1999.

If the government wanted to appoint a person more than 55 years old, an amendment in Rule 23 of the Haryana Medical Education Service Rules, 1988, was necessary. This, however, had not been done in the present case, the sources said.

Also, the house which was allotted to Dr S.B. Siwach, former Director of the PGIMS, was cancelled and allotted to Dr Anand on June 15. He submitted the occupation report on the same day. Before it was allotted to Dr Siwach, the house was used as a guest house of the medical college.

Dr Siwach was allotted another house which had been declined in the past by several professors on grounds of being unsafe. He did not accept the house. Senior members of the faculty here felt that the salary of the new PGIMS Director would be higher than the emoluments offered to the Brigadier.