TENKASI: In an unhealthy development, except for the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH), all the major government hospitals in the State have refused to furnish information on the attendance of doctors under the Right To Information Act, claiming that the said details were 'third party' information, an activist Anand Raj said.
Anand Raj, on whose petition the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in 2017 directed the health department to install a biometric attendance system in all government health institutions, said he sought the information on the doctors' attendance as a follow-up of the High Court's direction.
"I had filed the particular petition after I found that many government doctors who took up the private practice are not reporting for duty on time. The Court even issued a notice to the health secretary on a contempt plea in my case in 2018. After being pressed by the Court and the National Medical Commission, the biometric attendance system was installed in all medical college hospitals," he said.
The activist added that the State-run hospitals stopped using biometric attendance systems since the Covid-19 outbreak.
"So, I demanded information on the doctors' attendance, which should have been noted in the register manually or collected in the biometric system, under RTI Act. However, apart from TvMCH, the State-run medical colleges in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchy, and district headquarters hospitals in Usilampatti, Ramanathapuram and Kallakurichi have refused to furnish the details," he added.
The Public Information Officer of a medical college hospital told The New Indian Express that the State Information Commissioner had once rejected an applicant's appeal, which sought the attendance details of staff of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR and CE) Department.
However, Raj said, "That particular order of the Commissioner was issued in a different context, and it cannot be applied in my case. Every taxpayer has the right to know about their servants' attendance. Also, I am the High Court petitioner in this regard."