No post created since 2008, says president SDS
Gul Owais
Srinagar, Aug 28: Proposal to create over 500 posts of dental surgeons has been caught in the official wrangles for the past two years, official sources told Precious Kashmir on Thursday.
They said that over 4000 dental surgeons have been unemployed since 2008.
Officials privy to the development said that two years have elapsed since the work over the creation of 587 dental surgeon posts was started in Jammu and Kashmir, but the process was not taken to its logical end.
Notably, the Directorate of Health Services in early 2018 had submitted a proposal for creation of posts for 587 dental surgeons. However, the officials divulged that in the last over two years, the file regarding the creation of posts has been returned to the Directorate many times for one reason or the other.
They informed the file was almost in its final stage all the time, but was returned without any substantial reason. The officials further informed that the Directorate was told to reduce the number of posts for in 2019.
When contacted Director Health Services Kashmir (DHSK), Dr. Samir Matoo said that he has no knowledge about the issue, adding that this is an administrative matter and only the officials concerned can provide any details in this regard.
Meanwhile, President of Society of Dental Surgeons Jammu and Kashmir (SDS), Dr. Imtiyaz Banday told ‘Precious Kashmir’ that the delegation led by him recently met the Finance Commissioner Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo. “During the meeting, we apprised him about the non-creation of dental surgeon posts since long,” he said.
He added that the posts in Jammu and Kashmir were created last in 2008, adding that even after getting proposals from the concerned; nothing has been done in this regard. “We strongly recommend the creation of dental surgeon posts. Several other posts have been created so far but the creation of posts for dental surgeons has been ignored since,” he said, adding that the people in far-flung areas have been facing tremendous hardships in absence of the dental surgeons.
He also said that a file regarding the creation of posts is being moved from one department to another, but no result was yielded yet even after the passage of over two years.
Despite repeated attempts, Finance Commissioner H&ME, Atal Dulloo couldn’t be contacted for the comments as he didn’t receive the phone call from this reporter.
Pertinently, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha soon after taking the charge directed the Health Department to fill all the vacancies of doctors and other paramedics in the hospitals across the Union Territory to improve the doctor-patient ratio.