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| Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey listens to dentists in Patna. Picture by Deepak Kumar |
Patna, Sept. 14: In a bid to clip wings of the civil surgeons who published advertisements to recruit dentists on contract without the approval of the senior functionaries of the health department, the state government has decided to issue an order freezing all such recruitment.
State health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey told The Telegraph: “The matter (advertisements to recruit dentists) was brought to my notice by some members of the Indian Dental Association. What some civil surgeons are doing is completely unacceptable because they are not supposed to go ahead with recruitment without the health department’s directive. Such appointments are completely invalid and we do not want the process to go any further.”
Choubey said: “I have asked all the 38 civil surgeons of the state to not to violate the norms and practices of the department by indulging such activities. If they still go ahead with the appointment process, disciplinary action could be taken against them.”
The health minister also issued a directive stating that chief medical officers were not entitled to terminate contract of any dentist under any circumstances without taking approval from the senior officials of the health department. The order came after a dentist lodged a complaint after he was allegedly removed by a civil surgeon.
According to sources, there are about 325 dentists in the state government services. Majority of them have been appointed on ad hoc basis.
The government had recently increased the monthly remuneration of the dentists from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000. But the dentists allege that most of the civil surgeons have been refusing to pay them the increased salaries.
Dr Mukesh Chauhan, the general secretary of Bihar State Dental Health Services Association, said the health department issued an order to pay increased salaries to the dentists, but some civil surgeons refused to give the benefits to dentists citing that they could not go ahead with the allotment of increment until the Bihar State Health Society passed an official order on the matter.
He also alleged that several civil surgeons had published advertisements for appointing dentists on daily wages though the state government had no such intention. “The advertisements published by the district-level heads of the health department clearly say that dentists interested to work for a daily wage of Rs 500 could apply for the posts. It is ridiculous that civil surgeons are going ahead with their own plans and schemes though the health department has not issued any order in this regard,” Chauhan said.
Dentists in the government health services in the state have been demanding regularisation of their services and salaries at par with MBBS doctors apart from creation of additional posts for them in the government hospitals, primary and community health centres.