BENGALURU: Bengaluru Urban received a record 427 applications for just 11 vacancies and Kalaburagi received 257 applications for 112 vacancies in the health department’s recruitment drive. The department had quoted `1.1 lakh for non-high priority districts and `1.3 lakh for high priority districts and said the salary was negotiable.
Frowning on this, Karnataka Government Medical Officers Association has put up stiff resistance, saying the current serving specialists earn no more than `1.1 lakh and hence offering up to Rs 5 lakh to those hired through online bidding was unfair. Principal Health Secretary Shalini Rajneesh, however, said, “MD of NHM (Rathan Kelkar) has asked district health officers to justify the bid amount above Rs 2 lakh.
KGMOA should be happy that if remote places are taken by contractual specialists, senior government practitioners can work in district hospitals. After all, they never choose these places during counselling when offered. Who says money is not the only reason for not opting to join government hospitals for specialists? They never joined when we went for fixed packages under KPSC recruitment.”