Cuttack, Aug. 20: After a two-year hiatus, the Odisha government has resumed the process of recruiting assistant professors to fill up about 200 vacant posts in the three state-run medical colleges following intervention of Orissa High Court. The first phase of recruitment will begin from August 27.
Odisha chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and health and family welfare secretary Pradipta Mohapatra were made to appear in person in the high court on July 25 to discuss the recruitment issue which had not progressed since the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) invited applications for the posts. The division bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice Indrajit Mahanty, before which both the secretaries made an in-chamber appearance, granted one month time to complete the process of selection of assistant professors for the 120 vacant posts for which an advertisement was issued in August 2010.
Sources in the OPSC said the recruitment process had resumed with scheduling of dates for interview of candidates for the posts. “In the first phase, some 51 candidates have been intimated to appear for the interview, which will be held on August 27, 28 and 29,” said an official of the commission.
OPSC special secretary N.R. Mohapatra had issued a notice on August 18 for interviewing candidates for the post of assistant professor in 14 disciplines, including dentistry, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, ortho-surgery, tuberculosis and chest diseases, ENT, forensic medicine and toxicology, oral medicine and radiology, oral medicine and maxillofacial surgery.
On August 16, the OPSC had recommended a candidate for recruitment in the post of assistant professor in cardiology.
For expansion and strengthening of medical education and patient care in the state, the Odisha government had created 193 posts of assistant professor in Group – A of the Odisha Medical Education Service in the last two years.
On receiving requisitions from the Odisha government, the OPSC had issued an advertisement on August 17, 2010, inviting applications for 120 posts of assistant professor. It published another advertisement on December 9, 2011, inviting applications for 73 more posts of assistant professor.
The issue of large number of vacancies in the rank of assistant professor reached the high court when Cuttack resident S.H. Ali Rizwan filed a PIL alleging that the Odisha government was not taking any step to fill up the posts.
On November 4, 2011, the court had directed the Odisha government and its various agencies to ensure the conclusion of the process of selection of doctors at the earliest to improve the state’s patient care system.
But, the OPSC had not gone ahead with the recruitment process as the amended Odisha Medical Education Service Rule, 2009, had not followed the requisition from the government.
While directing for personal appearance of the chief secretary and the health and family welfare secretary, the high court observed on July 18, 2012: “We are constrained to note that in spite of repeated assurances / affidavits by various senior officials of the health department that immediate steps would be taken, nothing substantial has been done till date. Instead, time has been sought for time and again to do the needful.”
“Written affidavits of various officials committing to the court that the direction would be complied within a month have merely added to the volume of the present file without their being any real progress whatsoever in the said regard,” the court observed.
