Activists of the Indian Youth Congress are planning to approach Health Minister K.K. Shylaja seeking transparency in the appointment of staff under the Kozhikode regional office of the Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society (KHRWS).
Sreeyesh Chelavoor, president of the Kozhikode North Assembly constituency, alleged on Wednesday that five persons had been appointed illegally - three at the Institute for Maternal and Child Health and one person each at the medical college hospital and taluk hospital, Thamarassery. He claimed that no advertisements were placed in the media before the recruitment was done, except for the information given on the KHRWS website for a short time. Mr. Sreeyesh claimed that the managing director of the society, who had been replaced from his post, had illegally issued the order for the purpose.
Some of these people had been working under exigency terms, appointments made during emergency situations, without any statutory benefits. Now, it has been alleged that they had been given appointment as daily wage labourers with benefits such as Employees’ Provident Fund. Mr. Sreeyesh alleged that they were linked to influential people in society.
The objective of the KHRWS, set up in 1973 under the Travancore-Cochin Literacy, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act-XII of 1955, is to improve the infrastructure in medical colleges and government hospitals in the State and to strengthen the public healthcare system. The society has six regional offices, including the one in Kozhikode. Mr. Sreeyesh said that Youth Congress activists would stage a protest outside the office of the regional manager here on Thursday.
He accused the medical college authorities of wrong-doing in the purchase of an MRI scanner for the Advanced Clinical Research Lab run by the society. Mr. Sreeyesh claimed that the new equipment was being bought at a time when a CT scanner was lying unused as there were no doctors to supervise its operations. He wondered when the medical college authorities could not depute a doctor for the CT scanner how they could get them to supervise the operations of the MRI scanner.
