The Sangai Express: Imphal: Sunday, January 14, 2018.
A strong
suspicion has been raised about some officials of the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare committing discrepancies at the time of appointing the
Officiating Director of RIMS.
The question
of committing discrepancies emanates from the response to an RTI application
filed by an RTI activist with regard to the personal interaction (interview)
held on January 13, 2017 for appointment of a regular Director of RIMS and
appointment of Officiating Director by an order issued by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare on August 14 last year.
The RTI
activist, on condition of anonymity, told The Sangai Express that an
application was filed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's CPIO on
August 21 last year seeking detail information about appointment of RIMS
Officiating Director and the institute's Administrator.
The
application was seeking names of candidates recommended by the search and
selection committee for the personal interaction held on January 13 last year,
names of candidates put in the waiting list of the selection process, reasons
for not declaring result of the personal interaction and the file noting
related to the appointment of Dr Ahanthem Santa of NEIGRIHMS as Officiating
Director of RMS.
The CPIO
replied to the RTI application on October 5 last year.
The CPIO's
reply said that the Ministry was directed by the High Court of Manipur not to
declare result of the personal interview until further order as a petition had
been already filed at the Court by some faculty members of RIMS.
The High
Court further directed the Ministry to finalise RIMS recruitment rules and
publish fresh advertisement for recruitment of RIMS Director based on the
finalised recruitment rules.
The CPIO's
reply also said that sharing these information would amount to challenging the
High Court order.
A photocopy
of a file noting signed by Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda was also
provided to the RTI activist with regard to the query on the appointment of Dr
A Santa as Officiating Director of RIMS.
The same
photocopy says that the appointment was approved after considering pages 20 and
21 of the recruitment rules of RIMS Director.
But the
particular pages were not enclosed in the CPIO's reply thereby invoking
suspicion about some officials flouting the same recruitment rules.
Nonetheless,
another application was filed to the Deputy Secretary of the Union Health
Ministry on October 12 last year seeking copies of the same pages.
The Deputy
Secretary is also the appellate authority.
As the
Ministry suggested re-direction of the application to the Central Information
Commission (CIC), the application was sent to the CIC on December 7 last year,
said the RTI activist.
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