ISM doctors demand full-time HOD

‘In absence of HOD, a group of employees call the shots’

5 Dariya News

Srinagar 23-Mar-2017

The ISM Doctors Association has bemoaned the growing indiscipline in the “headless” department of the Indian System of Medicine and urged the government to urgently appoint a full-fledged head of department to bring ISM back on the rails.“Every employee has become a law unto himself which has affected the work culture,” the president of the Association Dr V K Sharma said in a statement to KNS. “We urge the government to appoint a full-time head for the department”.In November, the state government had given the principal commissioner, health, Dr M K Bhandari, the additional charge of the ISM department after the attachment of the Director General ISM Dr Abdul Kabir Dar pending official enquiry into the allegations that the two medicines lifted from the two dispensaries in Jammu contained fungus.Though enquiry was to submit its report within a week, it is still not complete.Meanwhile, High Court in response to Dr Kabir’s petition stayed his attachment and directed the government “to suitably post the petitioner commensurate to his status and position”. The government later appointed him as the Secretary Technical, Health and Medical Education Department.“In the absence of a full-time HOD, the hierarchy in the ISM department has collapsed,” Dr Sharma said. “Instead of the HOD, a group of employees call the shots. This is why we want a full-fledged HOD. We hope the government takes us our request seriously”.Sharma also accused the government and a section of media of creating confusion about the quality of medicines at the ISM dispensaries. “Some officials in the department driven by personal animosities plant stories in the media about the quality of ISM medicines which is tarnishing the image of the department,” Dr Sharma said. “Government should start to check the authenticity and the motivations behind these reports”. (KNS)