PCMC names new health chief, puts to rest years of jostling over post
Dr Laxman Gophane took over as the medical officer of health. He will be in charge of at least seven major hospitals of PCMC, except for the 750-bed YCM Hospital.
A resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad, Dr Gophane studied at the Fatechand high school in Chinchwad and Modern College in Shivajinagar before completing his MBBS from Pravara Medical College. (Express)
Listen to this articleYour browser does not support the audio element.
After several years, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has got a medical officer of health in a move expected to put to rest years of strife over the post by various claimants. On Friday, Dr Laxman Gophane took over as the medical officer of health, one of the key posts in the PCMC hierarchy.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Vithal Joshi issued the order, promoting Dr Gophane from the post of assistant medical officer of health. The post of medical officer had fallen vacant after Dr Pavan Salve retired following an eight-month tenure on May 31.
You have exhausted your monthly limit of free stories.
Read more stories for free with an Express account.
“This is a happy moment for me…I started my career with PCMC over 20 years back and have risen from the ranks to occupy the highest medical and health post in the civic body,” Dr Gophane told The Indian Express.
A resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad, Dr Gophane studied at the Fatechand high school in Chinchwad and Modern College in Shivajinagar before completing his MBBS from Pravara Medical College.
“There is no other claimant for the post. Dr Gophane is the seniormost officer and therefore, he has been appointed as the Medical Officer of Health,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sunil Joshi. Dr Gophane, 47, is expected to serve in the new position for 11 years.
In the last two decades, the PCMC has witnessed intense jostling over the post, starting with Dr Nagkumar Kunachgi and Dr Rajshekhar Iyer. After Kunachgi was appointed, Iyer approached the courts, claiming seniority. Years later, they reached an out-of-court settlement. Iyer was appointed the medical director, a post which was specially created, while Kunachgi continued in the original post for nearly eight years.
After Dr Kunachgi retired, Dr Iyer took over and served for a year. Subsequently, the post saw several changes. Dr Anand Jagdale, medical superintendent of Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, served for 10 months, followed by Dr Shyamrao Gaikwad for about four months before he retired.
Story continues below this ad
Following Dr Gaikwad’s retirement, Dr Anil Roy took over in a move that drew objections from his deputy, Dr Pavan Salve, who approached the state government. The issue went back and forth between the government and the civic body.
“I went to the high court, which asked the PCMC to maintain the status quo in the matter….I then remained medical officer of health for nine years,” said Dr Roy, who retired last year in May, claiming that “some politicians played their part” in the tussle.
The new medical officer of health, Dr Gophane, has drawn praise for handling the medical team during the Covid pandemic. Dr Gophane himself was affected by Covid while on duty and was in the intensive care unit for days.
Dr Gophane will now be in charge of at least seven major hospitals of PCMC, except for the 750-bed YCM Hospital. “YCM Hospital is under the charge of the dean. I will be in charge of other PCMC hospitals and dispensaries,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
