the goan I network
PANAJI
In a grave punitive action, the Goa government on Friday removed Dr Pradeep Naik as dean of the Goa Medical College over his failure to apply to the Union Health Ministry for conversion of the post-graduate diploma seats to MD seats.
According to an order issued by the Under Secretary (Health) Trupti Manerkar, he has been asked to report to the health department at the State Secretariat. GMC’s Medical Superintendent Dr Shivanand Bandekar will additionally hold the office of the Dean and also the Director of the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour. As reported first in The Goan, the Goa Medical College lost out on the opportunity to enhance its post-graduate intake by converting its post-graduate diploma seats because the authorities failed to file an application requesting the same before the Union health ministry within the the
deadline set.
The report had prompted Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to take serious congnisance of the lapse and order a departmental inquiry. Dr Naik is alleged to have failed to respond to a Public Notice issued by office of Union Health Ministry in January. The notice announced that Medical Colleges could upgrade diploma seats to MD and MS seats.
The public notice set the colleges a January 26 deadline to apply for the seat conversion, which the authorities at GMC failed to do.
When this lapse came to be reported, the Health Minister took a serious note and directed the Health Secretary to issue show cause notice to Dean. To compensate for the issue the health minister held parallel meetings with Head of the Departments of other units and parents of the students also.
The issue also took a political tone with the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) holding a public protest, to highlight the government’s lapse, in Mapusa.
The NSUI condemned the GMC management for not applying for the upgradation of diploma seats which has come as a major disappointment to MBBS students.
The tension between Rane and Dr Pradip, meanwhile, had been growing in the recent past with the former publicly expressing displeasure over the Dean’s working style.
In 2017, Dr Naik was issued a show-cause notice but due to the intervention of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the tiff between the Minister and the Dean was buried.
3 senior doctors in line
for dean’s post
PANAJI: Three senior doctors among the faculty are in line to bag the prestigious position of dean of Goa Medical College.
Apart from Dr Shivanand Bandekar, who has been given the charge of the office until further orders, Dr Roque Wiseman Pinto who heads the Pathology Department and Senior Neprologist Dr J P Tiwari are also in the zone of consideration, a top government source said.
Dr Bandekar, was appointed Consultant in 1991 and has since then rose with regular promotions to head the Orthopedic department. He was instrumental to commence knee and hip replacement surgeries at the hospital.
Dr Pinto, is professor and head of the pathology department and currently doubles up as Dean of Medicine Faculty at the Goa University. He has presided over several international conferences of pathologists and cytologists across the world and also served a term as President of the international body of cytologists.
