LUCKNOW: The National Health Mission General Manager, HR, Sandeep Saxena, has been suspended, a day after several anomalies were detected in the results of the written test for recruitment of around 5,000 paramedical contractual workers.
After the results, declared on December 22, were uploaded on the NHM website, it was discovered on Tuesday that candidates with scores as low as three or eight out of 90 were declared eligible for the interview round while those with scores of 64, 29 or 18 were not selected.
The Uttar Pradesh health department has asked the NHM authorities to cancel the declared results and put out a fresh list of selected candidates on the basis of the cut-off marks announced on Tuesday for all districts.
The NHM had hired the Kolkata-based Institute of Education and Examination Management to conduct the exam, which was advertised in several newspapers on July 22 this year. The exam for the contractual posts of staff nurses, ANMs, PRO, lab technicians etc was held on November 5 across the state.
The NHM Managing Director, Pankaj Kumar, said a probe had been ordered into the laxity on the part of all officials concerned, including Saxena who had not ensured that the cut-off marks were released prior to the written test.
“The cut-off marks for the general category is 30 (33%) out of 90. For OBCs, it is 27 out of 90 (30%), and for SCs/STs 22 out of 90. Accordingly, fresh results will be prepared and announced. The previous results stand cancelled,” said Kumar.
Uttar Pradesh health minister Siddharth Nath Singh hinted at bigger and tougher action. He said the goof-up had happened because of the slackness of NHM’s HR officials and the state government was looking into it. “Fresh result will be declared soon,” he said.
Cataract surgery: notice to UP
The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary after taking suo motu cognizance of the negligence with which cataract surgery was done on 30 people by torchlight at an Unnao community health centre on Monday.
Referring to media reports, the NHRC observed on Wednesday that it was a case of medical negligence and sheer carelessness on the part of doctors and district health authorities.
The incident, the NHRC notice said, highlighted the condition of the state’s health centres where basic amenities were absent. Their operation theatres did not have a foolproof power back-up system, which put human lives at risk, it added.
The controversial surgeries were conducted in torchlight at the five-bed healthcare centre in Nawabganj in Unnao district that, like many rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, gets electricity for only 12 hours a day.
After the incident was reported by the media, the state government transferred the Chief Medical Officer of Unnao and suspended the superintendent of the health centre for negligence and violation of norms.
Issuing notice to the UP Chief Secretary, the NHRC has sought the names, addresses and mobile numbers of all patients operated at the health centre. It has also asked for patients’ post-operative recovery reports and why there was no power back-up in the OT.