NEIGRIHMS director to contest against GC proceedings

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 20, 2019

SHILLONG: Ready to honour the decision of his removal, the Director of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) Dr DM Thapa however said he is determined to contest against the proceedings of the Governing Council.

The Governing Council of NEIGRIHMS in its meeting chaired by Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi on October 14 has decided to remove the incumbent director following series of allegations against him.

Dr Thapa was alleged to have failed in calling the meeting of the Council in the past years.  He was asked to either resign or transfer order will be issued.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, Dr Thapa said that he would abide by the decision taken by the Governing Council, the highest body of the NEIGRIHMS.

“I will only contest the proceedings of the Governing Council. I will certainly contest the contentious points and false allegations made against me,” the director said.

Stating that he want a high level team to visit the institute and inquire into the allegations, he said, “I want full unedited version of the video coverage of the Governing Council meeting to be given to me where I have stated that I should be given an opportunity to explain and where they have unanimously agreed to remove me. I should also know the reasons why I had to be removed and what are the allegations against me.”

Alleging that a secretive note was never brought to his notice, he said, “What transpire in that meeting was also not known to me. How can they decide the fate of a person when the principal of natural justice that the other party has to be given equal opportunity to reply was not applied?”

He also questioned the failure of the Governing Council to find out what is happening in the institute and verify things before taking any decision.

“Governing Council is a disciplinary authority for me and for me the appellate authority is the central government. The disciplinary authority has to frame charges against me and they should give me an opportunity to answer to those charges,” he added.

The director further informed that earlier in September, last year 13 charges were also framed against him and an inquiry was also conducted by Dr BD Athani, consultant in the DGHS, who in his report sent to the Ministry in February, this year had absolved the director from all the allegations.

Asked, Dr Thapa said once the marching order comes, he will not stay for a single hour here but provided he is giving relief on two issues, which will hamper his exit from the institute.

These relates to the FIRs filed by the Sanjo Medical, a private pharmacy located outside the hospital, against the director with the Rynjah police station and the Meghalaya State Commission for Women, the cases of which are lying pending in Court.

“I want the government should help me to wind up the case as fast as possible so that I can go back and secondly my wife should also get transferred (from here),”  he said.

The director earlier had alleged that the seizure of cardiology consignment of stents, pacemakers and consumables to the tune of Rs 30 lakhs approximately on April 30, is tip of the iceberg of business syndicate of Dr Animesh Mishra, Head of Cardiology NEIGRIHMS and Sanjo Medical,

On asked, Dr Thapa said a preliminary inquiry report on seizure made was already sent to the Central Vigilance Commission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and to the Secretary of Health and Family Welfare.

“As a follow up action, the central vigilance commission has not given us any reply but from the NE section of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, we received some communications and some querries related to the vigilance actions. We have also replied to the querries and we are awaiting now the action taken report from the vigilance section of the ministry,” he said.

On the allegations that he had failed to call for a meeting of the Council, the director said after joining in 2017, he had sent the Governing Council agenda in August last year but the minister stated that because of the elections the meeting could not be conducted adding “so where is the director failing in his responsibilities.”

He further claimed that 26 meetings was conducted by him with the faculty members and said, “An institute of this magnitude cannot run smoothly without the interaction with faculty members. It (allegation) is some kind of lobby working trying to malign and mislead the Governing Council.”

“I have not done any criminal act. The person who is involved in criminal act he has been let lose. The vigilance inquiry report has been submitted to the ministry, they are overlooking everything and bundling up an honest and sincere person from this institute who is working for the betterment of the public and giving proper health care to the people at a cheaper rate.”

Meanwhile, the director informed that he has been focusing on the need to make NEIGRIHMS an autonomous institute.

“If NEIGRIHMS is given full autonomy like AIIMS, it could produce well organized manpower both at the doctor level and nursing faculty level and this institute would have grown much faster at better pace,” he said.

Stating that AIIMS Guwahati is coming up, Dr Thapa however said that once the AIIMS, Guwahati comes up, many of the people from here are likely to go to that institute, the reason being there is no pay parity as NEIGRIHMS have been removed from the seventh pay commission and put its scale as per MHRD.

He also said that he has been writing for the past two years to increase the learning resource allowance and academic allowance for the faculty members citing that these are incentives to attract the faculty to the institute.

Another hindrance to the faculty earlier was the assessment promotion scheme (APS). He however said after much effort being put in, the APS was approved in May, this year and will be sanctioned from November 26.

He informed that he is going to conduct an interview for the APS for the faculty members and for the first time they will be getting promotion under the scheme.

“This will now be a boon for the faculty here. The ministry however have not agreed to implement the APS with retrospective effect as it will lead to litigation as if we give retrospective promotion then they will become senior to the people who are directly recruited. Therefore, it will be implemented prospectively,” Dr Thapa informed.