A section of the senior faculty at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here has written to the Institute director Dr. R. C. Deka asking him to stop the process of contract appointments.
“The Institute should not succumb to the insidious wave of contract appointments that is sweeping through the medical institutions of Delhi. All of us are aware that the vast majority of appointments at the Assistant Professor level in Delhi colleges are on one-year contracts, that too at a very low salary. It is sad that at a time when the UGC and HRD Ministry is trying to ensure that contract and ad-hoc appointments for university teachers are minimised, an opposite policy is being followed for medical institutions,'' said a member of the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum, a group protesting against contract appointments.
The Forum has noted that at a time when the Central Government is anticipating a shortage of medical teachers and has increased their retirement age to 65 years, it has taken steps that are cutting away at the roots of medical education of the future.
“Contract appointments provide no career security for the person and is a sure way of killing institutes in order to benefit the private sector. It also does not provide future orientation to people appointed and such appointments lack value as they are dependent on the whims and fancies of those in-charges making them susceptible to exploitation and leading to professional dissatisfaction,'' said the letter.
The doctors have noted in their letter that “keeping in mind the welfare of our patients, students, profession and health of the future generation we should work together to stop contract appointments immediately''.
It is learnt that the Institute director has sent letters to all the departments asking for the number of vacancies.
