The State administration is sitting over the recruitment of 314 new Medical Officers (MO) as it is not clearing the file of syllabus of the selection process sent by the Uttarakhand Medical Services Selection Board (UMSSB) from last three months. The board has sought approval of the State administration on syllabus and the selection criteria of the MOs in the recruitment drive. In July this year, the State administration had sent a requisition for recruitment of the MOs for the State Health Services to the UMSSB. The board then sought the approval of the State administration on syllabus of the recruitment drive which is pending for last three months.

The Uttarakhand Government accords top priority to the recruitment of doctors for its health system which is plagued by shortage of medical officers.

In such a situation, the delay in approval for a routine issue like syllabus raises questions about the style of functioning of the health system in the State. Interestingly, the inordinate delay and laxity of the state administration is coming into fore at a time when the entire health system of the state is under scanner of central agencies.

Recently the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog had downgraded Uttarakhand in its index of health services. The Aayog has kept the State in the list of 14 States that have performed poorly on various parameters of providing health services. The immediate fall out of the low score on the report card of NITI Aayog was that the National Health Mission (NHM) inflicted a cut the incentive offered by it to the state.

When contacted, the chairman of UMSSB, Dr D S Rawat said that the board is waiting for the approval and on its receipt would release the recruitment advertisement. He added that the board has done all the necessary preparation for the recruitment drive.

It is learnt that in the new drive 86 posts out of 314 would be for general category candidates while rest would be kept reserved.

The selected MO would be inducted in the pay scale of 56100-177500 (level 10) of state health services. The new recruitment drive would be the second such drive after October 2017, when UMSSB had  released the recruitment advertisement for 712 posts of MO in the State Health Services. However it could not find candidates of reserved categories in 213 posts.