No NOC to state cadre docs leaving job within 7 years

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 22

The Khattar government has cracked the whip on Haryana Civil Medical Service (HCMS) doctors, who leave for greener pastures after getting post-graduation education (PG course) at the cost of state exchequer.

In a bid to retain the HCMS doctors in government hospitals after post-graduation, the state government has made obtaining of no objection certificate (NOC) for them to leave the jobs or move to the medical colleges inside and outside the state ‘virtually impossible’.

“The state government has decided that the NOC will not be issued to any HCMS doctor, who is still within the bonded period (seven years) for serving the HCMS cadre.

Even after the bonded period, the NOC will be issued in rare case only in respect of such doctors whose specialties are of no significant use for the state,” a recent order of the Additional Chief Secretary (Health) to the Director General Health Services (DGHS) said.

In fact, no application for NOC during the bonded period would be entertained by the office of the DGHS, said the order, adding that the NOCs issued by mistake would be rejected.

Sources said the order was the offshoot of the acute shortage of doctors, particularly specialists, in the Health Department, whose hospitals and dispensaries provide healthcare to the poorer segments of society.

At present, to provide better healthcare to the general public visiting government hospitals, a special policy dispensation has been created by the state government under which MBBS doctors belonging to the HCMS cadre are given preferential treatment by way of 40 per cent quota for admission to the PG courses in medical colleges in the state.

In two-three years of PG courses, such doctors are paid full salary, increments, assured career progression (ACP), and other service benefits such as seniority. The state government spends a lot of money in making its MBBS doctors PG degree holders. These facilities are granted in lieu of a bond executed by the doctors for serving Haryana in the HCMS cadre for seven years.

However, sources said a large number of doctors, who acquire PG degrees at the cost of the state government, either leave the service after becoming postgraduates or move into various medical colleges and other health institutions within or outside the state after obtaining the NOC. “This tendency defeats the very purpose of having a policy for reserving 40 per cent PG seats for the HCMS cadre and spending huge money on them. This, in turn, severely affects the functioning of government hospitals,” the order said justifying the new decision.