Agenda of AIIMS meetings under wraps

Vividha Kaul / TNN / Jun 24, 2006, 00:08 IST

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On Friday, doctors were informed that an institute body meeting of an 'extraordinary' nature would be held on July 5.

NEW DELHI: Things seem unlikely to settle down at AIIMS over the next few days. On Friday, doctors were informed that an institute body meeting as well as a governing body meeting of an 'extraordinary' nature would be held on July 5.
What has irked faculty members, however, was the fact that no agenda for the meetings was announced, a departure from usual practice.
The institute body is a larger body which currently has about 17 members, including MPs Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Akhilesh Das. It makes all the policy decisions and meets less frequently as compared to the governing body.
The governing body consists of members chosen from the institute body who look after the functioning of the institute. The Union health minister and AIIMS president is the chairman of both these committees.

Meanwhile, AIIMS director Dr P Venugopal's summer vacation ended on Friday and sources close to him said he would rejoin duty on Saturday. Doctors say, so far, no showcause notices have been issued to either the director or any of the doctors at the institute.
The lack of an agenda for the institute body meeting has made the director's supporters see red. "Usually, the agenda too is circulated when the meeting is announced.

Since there are almost two weeks to go for the meeting, the agenda too should have been announced. The intentions behind calling the meeting in such a manner seem crooked," complained a senior doctor.
"Some interviews took place recently and this might be discussed at the governing body meeting, but we still don't know what will happen at the institute body meeting," said a senior doctor.
Faculty members supporting the director are also unhappy with the fact that the terms of reference of the three-member committee constituted by health minister Anbumani Ramadoss have still not been set.
"We wanted at least one former director of the institute to be a part of the committee but that doesn't seem likely," said a doctor.
Trouble started brewing at the institute after Dr Venugopal went public on June 15 with allegations of repeated interference from health minister Anbumani Ramadoss in the day-to-day functioning of the institute.
Ramadoss, on his part, had said that he had got a Rs 500-crore budget for the institute and that some doctors at AIIMS had turned it into a political hub. The constitution of a committee to look into the functioning of AIIMS was announced after Ramadoss met the PM earlier this week.

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