By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 30 May: Health Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat today reiterated that 883 vacant posts in various districts under the National Health Mission will be filled soon. He also disclosed that officers from the departments concerned have been instructed to start the recruitment process.
Dhan Singh Rawat was holding a review meeting of the Health Department in the Auditorium of Food Safety & Drug Administration (FDA), here, today. He instructed the officers concerned to prepare a proposal to form a separate cadre of specialist doctors from across the state and initiate the process to raise their superannuation age to 65 years. Officers were also asked by Rawat to prepare a concrete action plan on spending the approved annual budget of the department for the year 2023-24.
Rawat directed the officials to start the process to fill the 883 vacant posts under NHM at the earliest so that better implementation of all the schemes run under the National Health Mission can be ensured. He also reminded the officials that the posts of Staff Nurses, Lab Technicians, Medical Officers, Specialist Doctors, Ayush Medical Officers, Pharmacists, Counsellors, Social Workers, Midwifery Educators, etc., are lying vacant in various districts under the National Health Mission. In view of the shortage of specialist doctors in the state, especially in the hill districts, a proposal should be prepared to create a separate cadre for them and raise their age of superannuation to 65 years, which will be placed in the state cabinet meeting.
However, this proposal should include options for specialist doctors for voluntary retirement, too. Raising the superannuation age for specialist doctors will help in tackling the shortage of specialist doctors in the hills.
The officials informed the minister that, under NHM, a budget of Rs 8.31 crores had been approved in the year 2022-23, out of which only an amount of Rs 4.60 crores could be spent. Expressing displeasure over the slow progress of the annual budget expenditure, the minister directed the officials to prepare a concrete action plan to spend 100 percent of the annual budget. He added that the progress will be reviewed every month. He instructed the officers to speed up the construction works being carried out in various districts under NHM.
Secretary, Health, Deependra Chowdhary, Additional Secretaries, Health, Arunendra Singh Chauhan and Amandeep Kaur, Director General, Health, Dr Vinita Shah, Director, NHM, Dr Saroj Naithani, Director, Kumaon Mandal, Dr Tara Arya, Director, Health, Dr Sunita Tamta, Dr Tarun Kumar Tamta, Dr Ajit Mohan Johri, Additional Director Dr Bhagirathi Jangpangi, Finance Officer Deepali Bhaner, Dr Pankaj Singh, Dr Arjun Singh Sengar, Dr MK Maurya and Dr Ajay Nagarkar were among those present at the meeting.
