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| Commissioner Secretary H&ME insults protesting students of Dental College Srinagar | | Tells them there is no harm in carrying out domestic jobs assigned by guide | |  Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 7: Commissioner Secretary, Health and Medical Education (H&ME) department, Pawan Kotwal 'insulted' the profession of medicine after he asked the protesting post graduate students of Government Dental College (GDC) Srinagar to do menial jobs of their guide.
A group of post graduate students while sharing their views with Early Times said that they were shocked when the Commissioner Secretary asked them to do domestic jobs assigned by their guide. The students said that if this is the response of a bureaucrat how they can expect justice from the system.
"We were hoping that the visit of Commissioner Secretary to the college would be beneficial for us. However, to our utter surprise he said that there is nothing wrong if the guide asks us to do jobs not supposed to be carried out by us. This is disgusting and insulting for all of us," said the PG students.
The students said that Commissioner Secretary told them it is not a big deal for the students to carry out menial jobs of the guide adding that all the students do it at one point of time. The students said that Kotwal provided a 'shield' to the guide who has been asking them to carry out domestic jobs.
"We have virtually lost hope with the system since the Principal Dental College, Srinagar failed to take instant action against the guide. The clean chit by Commissioner Secretary has added insult to the injury. Our hopes are now pinned on the health minister and hopefully he would come to our rescue," said students.
It would be in place to mention here that trouble broke out at GDC Srinagar in the first week of January when a faculty member of the college beat up and manhandled a post graduate student. The trouble is more at the department headed by the faculty member with the student also belonging to the same department. The student had refused to carry out the domestic job assigned by the guide.
The PG students of Department of Orthodontia protested against the head of the department Prof. Mohammad Mushtaq Najar after the HOD Orthodontia manhandled one of the PG students and later slapped him. Interestingly, the state government has appointed Prof Najar as a member of State Dental Council.
Ever since the episode has taken place the protesting students have not attended to clinics and college. They have already presented the video clips and other material against Prof. Najar to the enquiry committee set up by the college authorities to look into the matter. Prof. Mushtaq is very close to Principal GDC, Srinagar, Dr. Reyaz Farooq.
Sources said that that many allegations were leveled against the HOD Orthodontia in the past as well. However, all the charges against Prof. Mushtaq were dropped since he and the Principal GDC Srinagar influenced the concerned stakeholders not to take action.
This episode is the latest addition of reports of mismanagement, indiscipline and high-handedness emanating from the college on regular basis.. The GDC Srinagar has been in news for wrong reasons in the past with the role of Principal GDC Srinagar already established in a multi-crore scam.
Pertinent to mention here that State Vigilance Organization (SVO) registered a case against Dr. Reyaz after it was established that he had purchased medical equipment for GDC Srinagar and GDC Jammu at exorbitant rates thus causing loss in crores of rupees to the state ex-chequer. The multi-crore purchase scandal came to the fore after revelations that came through a Right to Information (RTI) application moved by Tanveer Hussain Khan.
After preliminary investigations that led to the revelation of purchase scandal the anti-corruption court in Srinagar started the formal investigations in the case. The inquiry established the fraud and finally a First Information Report (FIR) under FIR number 33/2012 under section 161 of Ranbir Penal Code was registered against Principal GDC, Srinagar.
The inquiry officer probing the case established that equipment was purchased on exorbitant rates in order to cause monetary benefits to Principal GDC, Srinagar and officials of the company that supplied the equipment. In his report to then Special Judge Anti-Corruption Kashmir, Aijaz Ahmad Mir, the inquiry officer had written that machine Orthophos X G5 DS Ceph had been procured on exorbitant rates in order to cause undue pecuniary benefits to Dr. Reyaz and some others.
After this Special Judge Anti-Corruption Kashmir directed SSP Vigilance Organization to register formal FIR in the case if in his opinion any ground for the same exists on the basis of the findings arrived at by the inquiry officer under the relevant provisions of law. The vigilance organization while carrying out probe also found that fraud has taken place and it was only after this FIR was filed.
The inquiry officer in his report said that he compared the rates of the equipment in the market and found that GDC Principal has paid more for the equipment so that he acquires benefits from the purchase. The rates of the equipment were also presented to the Anti-Corruption Judge by the inquiry officer in a tabular form in his report. |
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