Move to avoid legal problems

Hyderabad: The Department of Medical and Health (DMH) and the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) are discussing on different rules and regulations governing multiple vacancies in the department so that the appointments they make do not get entangled in legal problems.

According to senior officials, the TSPSC was earlier providing weightage marks to doctors seeking jobs in the department based on various parameters and this was resulting in delay in the recruitment of doctors through the TSPSC.

But, following the Supreme Court judgement on the issue of weightage of marks, the rules that were framed earlier by Directorate of Medical Education (DME) are now being reviewed.

This includes, the rules governing different cadres working at district, zonal and State levels. It may be mentioned here that vacancies in anaesthesia, cardiology and the like have separate rules governing each of the services, on which the TSPSC had sought clarifications. Earlier, while the process for the appointment was nearing completion, the State government had come up adding some more vacancies. Reorganisation of the districts in Telangana had added more problems.

Following this, the commission had asked the department to recalculate the roster points for each of the posts including the additional vacancies that the government wanted to fill. Giving weightage for the outsourcing employees serving in the department ranging from one to 10 years was another issue that the department had to take into consideration.

The department had been asked that this should be done as per the district, zonal and State cadre positions, said a senior official from the DM &H.

However, the process of getting details from the districts had been delayed due to lack of sufficient staff there. Moreover, even the commission (TSPSC) has been struggling with shortage of staff. It is taking one and half months time to scrutinise the data received from the department; to give its remarks and to seek further information wherever required.

“The commission has been scrutinising the data sent to it minutely. It had made it clear to the department that it does not want any of its recruitment process end up in court litigations which would cause further delay in the recruitment of vacancies,” said the official.

Given the current position, the official said that the department had submitted the data in the formats prescribed by the commission. “Most of the hurdles coming in the way of the process had been resolved and discussions with the commission are in final stages. And, it may take a little more time for the commission to take up the recruitment process,” the official added.

By V R C Phaniharan