In 2012 the state health department referred 45 posts of physiotherapists to J&K Service Selection Board (SSB) to be filled up on “priority” basis. No action followed in the next five years. And in January, the board finally issued a list, selecting 90 candidates in place of 45.
Now, the administrative department of health and the recruiting agency are clueless on how to resolve the issue of surplus recruitments.
A source in health department said that the issue has been taken up with the administrative department. “We are discussing what can be done about the candidates who stand selected,” the source said.
The minister for health Bali Bhagat didn’t respond to repeated calls from Kashmir Post for past three days. The Director Health services Kashmir too refused to comment on the issue.
The chairperson SSB Simrandeep Singh said that the health department was to” take call on the issue”.
“I cannot say anything beyond that,” he said.
An official source said that the posts had been referred to the SSB twice which had created confusion. “When no selection followed in the three years after the 45 posts were first referred to the SSB in 2013, an equal number of posts of physiotherapists, meant for the Directorate of Health Service Kashmir (DHSK), were again referred to the Board in July 2015”.
But subsequently, the health department learnt that the “posts had been referred twice,” reveals another official document accessed by Kashmir Post, reflecting the lack of coordination and communication between the two sides.
The directorate of health even shot a letter to the administrative department asking for the 45 posts referred second time to “be withdrawn”.
The administrative department took up the matter with the SSB on 7 December 2015, asking it to withdraw the posts. The administrative department expressed displeasure with the DHSK over “casual approach… in matters of urgent public importance”.
The recruiting agency, however, didn’t withdraw the posts. Instead it has issued two selection lists of 45 candidates each against 45 posts. The first list was issued in October 2015. Among them, the health department formally appointed 25 candidates in 2016. The remaining 20 posts as per an official document are said to be in “pipeline”.
The second list was issued in January.
An official said, there was no communication between the administrative department and the recruiting agency about the fate of the earlier posts when the same number of posts were referred to the SSB a second time.
“Both the department and the SSB should have sorted it out first,” said the official.
45 Posts referred to SSB by health department, 90 Selected
