11 ayurvedic college teachers in Patiala appointed without finance dept nod

Patiala Government Ayurvedic College, Patiala’s, appointment of 11 teachers in March 2019 is yet to get state finance department clearance, due to alleged procedural ambiguities and irregularities on the part of the authorities at the college and the Directorate of Medical Research and Education (DRME). The DRME office issued the appointment letters. The teachers have been without salary for a year.

In addition to not taking the finance department clearance, appointments were done in violation of a personnel department guideline ‘that no contractual appointment should be done against permanent posts’, sources said.

Usually, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) recruits Class-1 officers/faculty, but here walk-in-interview was organised to bypass the PPSC, the sources also claimed

In this case, the DRME office issued an advertisement of March 9, 2019, for filling the posts of seven readers and seven lecturers in Govt Ayurvedic College, and fixed March 16 as date for walk-in-interview for contractual appointments. The code of conduct for LS elections was announced on March 10.

“The advertisement was published in the newspaper on March 9, 2019, but it did not have complete information about the number and departments in which the posts were to be filled. The complete advertisement was only made available on March 14 on the departmental website and the interview was conducted on March 16. As a result, candidates were not given enough time to plan for the interview and many deserving candidates did not even come to know about it. Only candidates from Patiala and nearby places turned up,” said a senior faculty member, pointing out the flaws in the recruitment process, including not following reservations rules.

“Proper selection protocol/procedure was also not followed as no subject expert was called for screening candidates. There was nepotism, as some relatives and friends of employees were adjusted,” sources claimed.

College principal Dr Harvinder Grover admitted that the finance department had not approved the appointments and not released the budget, resulting in faculty not being paid.

On irregularities in appointment, she said, “I had only floated a demand for recruitment. It was the duty of the DRME and the secretary of the department to ensure all norms were followed.” Medical education secretary DK Tiwari said, “We have supplied all required information to the finance department, which will, hopefully, revert by this week.”