Sahi on contract call
RANJAN DASGUPTA

Ranchi, June 11: Unfazed by the failure of the
“doctors on contract” experiment in the state, the
health and family planning department today announced
plans to recruit 2,000 more doctors “on contract” by
this year-end.

Health minister Bhanu Pratap Sahi told a television
channel that the process would start soon after the
ongoing exercise to recruit 3,000 auxiliary midwives
is completed.

Admitting to a severe shortage of government doctors,
the minister declared that contractual appointment is
necessary to tide over the crisis.

The state currently is saddled with 500 doctors “on
contract” who have been demanding regularisation of
service. Upset over the minister’s statement,
president of State Contract Doctors’ Association
Bimlesh Singh said: “ We are surprised at the
announcement. The minister’s priority should have been
to address our demand first.”

The announcement caught the health department by
surprise. Because Jharkhand high court had quashed
contractual appointment of doctors, which it held to
be illegal and unconstitutional.

Pronouncing the verdict around two years ago, the high
court had also directed the government to fill up the
vacant posts of doctors immediately through regular
appointments at the state level.

“The department could be pulled up by the court if it
makes fresh attempts to recruit doctors on contract.
If the matter is brought to the notice of the court,
there could be major embarrassment for the department.
The minister must re-think before implementing what he
has announced,” warned an official of the department.

In 2003, the state had invited applications for
contract doctors against 2468 vacancies and finally
1,800 of them were recruited. The doctors were
initially given a contract for two years, which was
later extended twice for a year each.

Four years down the line, only around 500 of them have
stuck to their contracts while others simply gave up.

“Why would doctors slog for just Rs 14,000 a month
when the neighbouring state of Bihar is giving nearly
double the salary,” wondered Singh, who claimed that
most of the doctors have left Jharkhand and opted to
join Bihar government.

The minister, when contacted, claimed that recruitment
on contract would be a stop-gap arrangement till the
public service commission makes permanent
appointments.

“Health is an essential service and the state
government cannot allow people to suffer due to lack
of doctors,” declared Sahi.



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