By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
DEHRADUN, 6 Jun: Officers and employees working on attachment in Uttarakhand’s Medical Health and Family Welfare Department have been directed to return to their original places of posting. The department has issued fresh directions to ensure compliance. The orders in this regard have been issued under signatures of Director General Medical Health and Family Welfare under directions from Health Minister Subodh Uniyal. The formal orders in this regard, make it clear that from June 2026 onwards, salaries of the concerned officers and employees will be released only on the basis of their attendance at their parent stations.
The move follows a recent review meeting chaired by Health Minister Subodh Uniyal with officials of the Medical Education Department, Medical Health and Family Welfare Department, State Health Authority and other related agencies. During the meeting, the minister had directed all the departments associated with the health sector to send attached officers and employees back to their original places of posting. He instructed that all such personnel should be relieved immediately and directed to join their parent stations at the earliest.
Acting on the minister’s directions, the Health Department has instructed all the divisional and the district-level authorities to ensure that officers and employees working on attachment under their jurisdiction report to their original workplaces without any delay. The Director General of Medical Health and Family Welfare has also directed all the competent authorities and Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to ensure strict compliance with the orders.
The department has issued clear instructions that salaries for June 2026 and subsequent months will be released only after verification of attendance at the employees’ original places of posting. The order further emphasises that no deviation from these instructions will be permitted and that all authorities concerned will be responsible for ensuring implementation.
With the issuance of the DG’s order, the directions have come into immediate effect. Chief Medical Officers, Medical Superintendents, Principal Medical Superintendents and other senior officials across the state have been directed to ensure one hundred per cent compliance with the order.
It may be remidned here that the issue of attached officers and employees unwilling to return to their parent postings has remained a matter of discussion within the health department for a considerable period. Several attempts have been made in the past to send such personnel back to their original stations, but these efforts have largely failed to produce tangible results on the ground. Many doctors or paramedical employees and nurses etc whose original place of posting is in the hills, particularly have managed to get attached in the plains or other convenient locations using their influence. This has led to shortage of doctors in the hills in reality even when on papers, doctors may be posted in the hills. In this backdrop, the latest directive issued following the intervention of Health Minister Subodh Uniyal is being viewed as a significant step towards enforcing administrative discipline and ensuring that manpower is available at the locations where it has been officially sanctioned.
Following the minister’s directions, the Directorate has now formally initiated the process of ending such attachments and restoring officers and employees to their original places of posting, signalling a renewed effort by the department to rationalise human resource deployment across the state’s healthcare system.
