Rules not followed in nurses counselling, alleges activist

He, in a statement, charged that the entire proceedings were in contravention to the guidelines issued for promotion and transfer of Tamil Nadu Medical Services, issued in 2007. 

“Every month-end, the details of vacancies, the cause of each vacancy and the date from which the vacancy arose should be displayed in the official website of the Health Department namely, www.tnhealth.org and a report in this regard should be sent to the government by the 5th of the succeeding month,” Anandaraj said quoting the guidelines, which are in vogue for over 10 years. 

There was no such vacancy list uploaded to the said website even once. The vacancies are always closely guarded, so that they can be auctioned through brokers, and the counselling would be conducted for namessake, he charged. 

“For instance, this time the call for counselling came on November 10 and it was a Friday. Even if someone wanted to knock on the doors of the High Court considering the host of violations plaguing the counselling, there wouldn’t be enough time,” he added. 

Even if a writ was filed, the same might come up for hearing on Tuesday at the earliest and the state was planning to complete the counselling by that time, he said. He charged that a similar eyewash counselling had been conducted earlier this year, while the state announced creation of 779 nurses posts. 

Though the norm suggests that the senior nurses and existing staff be provided a window of opportunity before the new recruits join the services, the transfer orders to a lot of 124 persons were issued without conducting any counselling, he said.

He also sought the state to implement the guidelines in letter and spirit and to call off the proposed counselling to set right things. The other demands include setting up of an inquiry into the alleged corruption involved in the transfer orders issued to 124 persons.