Maharashtra: 5,000 to get allotment orders across 25 govt medical colleges soon

The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) had taken up the exercise of filling up vacancies via Tata Consultancy Services. The examinations have been conducted and results declared, so the joining orders will be sent out soon, said officials at the medical education department.

According to official data, all 15 sanctioned Class I nursing and 60 Class II nursing posts are vacant. Of the 14,339 Class III nursing posts, at least 39 per cent are vacant. There are 4,348 sanctioned Class III technical and 2,968 Class III non-technical posts . There are more than 40 percent vacant posts in each category.

Meanwhile, government data indicates of the total 36,131 sanctioned posts of Classes I to IV at government medical colleges, a total of 15,044 posts are vacant. There are 3,927 sanctioned posts for professor, associate professor and assistant professor at medical and dental faculties in 25 government medical colleges. However 40 per cent of these posts are vacant.

At the assistant professor level itself, of the sanctioned 2,044 posts, at least 44 per cent are vacant. What is concerning is that there are more than 40 per cent vacancies in Class IV posts. There are 9,543 sanctioned posts, of which 3,974 are vacant across these government medical colleges.

At the top brass, the post of Director Medical Education and Research (DMER) is vacant and Dr Dileep Mhaisekar is currently handling the additional charge. Four posts of Joint Director of Medical Education are vacant and additional charge has been allocated to different officers. Of the sanctioned 25 posts of deans (medical), only 14 have been filled.

When contacted, Dr Pravin Shingare, who was the Director of Medical Education and Research till 2019, said the post of DMER has been lying vacant for five years now . He also asked whether it was fair to open new medical colleges without sanctioning adequate number of posts of doctors.

Around 1,400-1,500 new MBBS seats were added across colleges in some of the districts in Maharashtra. New medical colleges also came up in Satara and Baramati and assistant professors with four years’ of experience were given charge of department heads at new colleges, top officials pointed out.

“The vacancies got distributed and those occupying senior posts in a particular college were sent to a new one on deputation,” said the official.