The civic general body of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday finally approved the appointment of doctors in dedicated Covid hospitals. The general body, at the meeting on Wednesday, gave a green signal to the administration to issue appointment letters without any discussion to doctors to treat Covid-19 patients. The corporators, who had stalled the appointment in last week's meeting and made number of allegations, did not oppose the administration's proposal to give permanency in service to the doctors on Wednesday. “Within five minutes, the proposal was approved,” said Mayor Usha Dhore. A BJP corporator, however, said the proposal was hurriedly approved after calls from top BJP leaders like Devendra Fadnavis and Chandrakant Patil. “Complaints had gone to the BJP top brass that BJP corporators in PCMC were delaying the appointment of doctors. Therefore, the party on Wednesday asked the corporators to not oppose the appointments,” he said. PCMC chief Shravan Hardikar said of the 103 doctors to be appointed, 74 will be given permanency in service. “Initially, they will be on probation period. We will have to look for rest of the doctors as the vacancies could not be filled up,” he said. The doctors were picked by a civic selection committee. However, first the law committee and then the civic general body delayed the appointment. It was alleged that Rs 30-40 lakh were demanded from the doctors for giving them the job. BJP corporator Seema Savale, who had argued in favour of doctors, said, “Doctors have been staking their lives and trying to save lives of the patients. It was therefore the duty of the civic body to given them permanent jobs.” Savale said after their appointment in PCMC service, the doctors cannot take up private practice. “They will have to stay committed to PCMC and not practice privately. That rule has been inculcated while giving them jobs,” she said.
