Resolve issue of pending postings of 23 UPSC-selected docs: LG

New Delhi: The Delhi Lt Governor has asked officials to resolve the issue of pending postings of 23 doctors selected through the UPSC as an authority that decides such matters has not convened a meeting since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's incarceration.

The National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA), which is headed by the Delhi Chief Minister and has the chief secretary and the principal home secretary as its members, has not met after Kejriwal was arrested in the excise policy case in March. Raj Niwas officials on Wednesday said Lt Governor (L-G) V K Saxena recently reviewed the status of recruitments and vacant positions in the Delhi health department.

The focus was on expediting the filling up of vacant posts in the medical, paramedical and the nursing wings of Delhi government hospitals. This has been pending for the last 10 years, they said. The L-G was informed that 23 Group 'A' doctors of different specialties, such as neurosurgery, cardiology, plastic surgery and microbiology, had already been appointed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and their dossiers sent to the health department in July last year, an official said.

"However, their postings are yet to take place because the competent authority to post them -- the NCCSA -- was not meeting due to the chief minister being in judicial custody," the official said.

"The L-G directed the chief secretary and the principal secretary services to immediately find a way out, especially in the light of a severe shortage of doctors that government hospitals in Delhi are facing," the official said. Through a detailed presentation, the L-G was informed that there are 1,364 sanctioned posts of general duty medical officers in the medical branch, and out of these, 234 were vacant. The process of filling these up is in an advanced stage, according to the officials.