M A I N   N E W S

Appointment of Doctors
Punjab makes heavy weather of selections
Jangveer Singh/TNS

Chandigarh, February 13
The simmering controversy over direct recruitment of doctors this year by the health department versus last year’s recruitment of doctors through the Punjab Public Service Commission escalated today with health department officials firmly denying any irregularity.

The Punjab health department will tomorrow start distributing appointment letters to 214 doctors, selected directly by it, informed the department Secretary, Satish Chandra. He claimed that the government’s decision to go for direct recruitment had been vindicated because the department was yet to receive a single complaint related to the procedures followed.

Several PPSC members, however, claim to have found the departmental process ‘vitiated’ and have threatened to drag the department to court. The controversy has erupted following a damning report submitted to the High Court by the state government’s Vigilance Bureau (see Page 5) indicting the PPSC for last year’s recruitment.

The five PPSC members as well as its Chairman S K Sinha are being investigated by the Vigilance Bureau for “collusion” that led to alleged favourites being given higher marks in the interview to edge out more meritorious candidates in selection for 312 doctors last year. All of them are learnt to have joined last year itself but face a possible dismissal if the High Court holds the recruitment ‘vitiated’.

Though PPSC members have picked holes in the selection process of the Punjab health department, it is a process that they might well have followed. The health department allocated 80 marks for a written test conducted by it and only 10 marks for the interview. The remaining 10 marks were equally divided with five marks earmarked for experience and five marks for having completed education in a rural area.

Although a few candidates have secured higher marks in the written examination but fared badly in the interview, no objection has been received by the department, claimed sources. Chandra said each candidate was asked five questions, each of which carried two marks. He said the interview was video recorded and was available on demand. This is in sharp contrast to the casual manner in which the PPSC conducted interviews, which carried 50 marks with many candidates being asked only one or two questions and the interview allegedly getting over within minutes.

Terming the selection by the PPSC as “doubtful”, the health secretary pointed out that in the system followed by the PPSC, those who scraped through their MBBS exam were given 18 points while toppers who secured over 70 per cent in their MBBS exam were awarded just 26 points.

PPSC member Dr Satwant Singh Mohi, when contacted, said the prevailing system in the PPSC had been in place for the last 20 to 25 years. He claimed that Commission Chairman S K Sinha had actually “reformed” the system by splitting the 50 marks for the interview to 40 for the PPSC members and allocating the remaining 10 marks to the subject expert.

“Earlier the subject expert could not award any mark at all,” he said. He also pointed out that the Commission had brought in subject experts from reputed institutions.