The Tribune : Aruna Sharma : Chandigadh : Monday, December, 21, 2015.
A visually impaired teacher, Rajeev Sharma from Gurdaspur, had to lose his job following a medical board of PGI doctors prepared report of his medical examination according to a wrong pro forma.
The board in its report declared that Rajiv had his best corrected visual acuity of 6/60 which according to notification of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was considered as visual impairment of 20 per cent. The report also mentioned that according to the notification, 20 per cent visual disability was considered as category 1.
On the contrary, original notification stated that people with 20 per cent visual disability were under category 0 and people with visual acuity of 6/60 were considered 40 per cent visually impaired and put under category 1.
Those with minimum degree of disability of 40 per cent are eligible for any concessions or benefits. Acting on the PGI report, the Education Department dismissed Sharma in May 2014.
The trouble for Sharma started when he got a job as vocational master at Government Senior Secondary School at Bhumbli in Gurdaspur district in July 2011, under the visual disability quota. Soon after, two local residents, including a doctor, complained that he got the job on a manipulated medical examination report. Rajeev said he had exposed a medicine scam in a government hospital and the accused of the scam were behind the complaints.
Rajeev claimed that acting on a complaint, a medical board examined him at Gurdaspur and nothing wrong was found in the medical report submitted by him earlier.
The complainants, however, continued to approach the Education Department and he was sent for a medical examination at the Advance Eye Centre of the PGI on May 14, 2013, he said. Rajeev alleged that the medical board at the PGI used a tampered copy of the notification to prepare his report.
Rajeev said he contested the report but doctors concerned stuck to their stand till original proforma procured by him under the RTI Act was presented. On September 25, 2014, the PGI re-evaluated its report and came out with a new report. The amended report showed him visually impaired between 20 and 40 per cent, he said.
First his disability was shown as 20 per cent using a tampered proforma and now his disability was shown between 20 and 40 per cent which did not fall in any of the category mentioned in the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Social Justice. This proved that everything was not in the right place and needed inquiry from an independent agency, he said.
When contacted, Dr Ramandeep Singh, one of the members of the medical board, agreed that a wrong proforma was used while preparing the report of Rajeev Sharma. He, however, failed to explain as to how the wrong proforma reached before the board.
Advance Eye Centre head Dr Jagat Ram and PGI spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar both tried to avoid commenting on the issue, but said that they advised Rajeev to undergo another medical examination at the PGI or any other medical board.
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