Saturday, October 03, 2015

Health officers booked for accepting allowance without valid degrees

Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Saturday, 03 October 2015.
BMTF registers FIR after RTI activist files query on officials' qualifications.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) registered an FIR against 12 BBMP health officers and other BBMP officials on Thursday. Reason: The officers have been getting post-graduation allowance even though the masters degree from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences is not recognised as a PG course.
The BBMP medical health officers are in dock after an RTI activist sought information on their educational qualifications. It was found many health officers have provided unrecognised post-graduation (PG) certificates to the BBMP administration to seek PG allowances which are provided to the medical health officers. As per Medical Council of India's post graduate medical education regulation 2000, Masters in Public Health (MPH) and Diploma in Public Health (DPI) are not considered PG qualifications in public health.
The 11 accused medical health officers listed in the FIR are Dr Vedavathi BJ, Dr Sujatha S, Dr G Dhanalakshmi, Dr Komala K R, Dr N Bhagyalakshmi, Dr Nayanatara N Patil, Kalavathi Devi L, Dr Sunitha B, Dr Sandya Rani, Dr Sanghamitra and BBMP officials and others.
Speaking to BM, Udaya Shankar P, an RTI activist, said, "A few months ago, I had complained to the BBMP health officials about an encroachment on the Rajakaluve in DJ Halli where some residential and commercial establishments were raised. But the health officer did not take it seriously. When asked to lodge a complaint against these encroachers, they did not take any action. Later, I applied for an RTI asking the list of BBMP health officers and their educational qualification. I got to know that many health officers do not have the recognised PG degrees but were still taking the allowances. They were also given promotions from assistant surgeons to medical officers of health (MOH), for which they were not eligible."
The RTI reply sought on the recognised and unrecognised courses from the Directorate of Medical Education (DME), stated, "According to the DME, three years postgraduate course in community medicine exists in postgraduate seat matrix of government of Karnataka and courses such as MPH (2 years) and DPH (1 year) do not exist in postgraduate seat matrix of government of Karnataka."
"I asked the BBMP administrator then to not consider MPH for promotion as per MCI postgraduate medical education regulation 2000, as MPH is not a PG qualification on public health. I also asked him to withhold the PG allowance of Rs 8,000 to the doctors and recover the arrears of the allowance amount already paid since two years. The BMTF has to conduct a detailed enquiry against the officials for the negligence and injustice from which the BBMP has spent and lost crores from these tainted health officers," said Shankar.
When BM contacted one of the medical health officers, Sujatha, she said, "I know about the complaint that is lodged with BMTF but I don't want to comment on it." The phone numbers of the other medical health officers were either switched off or not reachable when contacted.
BMTF superintendent of police P Shivakumar said, "There are 12 health officers who are accused of taking PG allowance by providing unrecognised certificates. We have registered a complaint and booked a cheating case against the accused, who include BBMP officials. The investigation is on and we have to verify in detail who are involved in this case."