20 govt docs quit to protest Gonda DM’s misconduct

Lucknow: At least 20 government doctors, including medical officers heading 16 community health centres in Gonda, have tendered their conditional resignation to protest alleged use of unparliamentarily language by DM Markandey Shahi during an official meeting on Tuesday.
While 17 doctors put in their papers on Thursday, others joined on Friday. A letter written by agitated doctors stated en masse resignations were triggered by the DM’s misbehaviour.They also submitted a memorandum to the commissioner, Devipatan division, which straddles Gonda district, and requested him to act against the DM. The letter also said the DM encroached upon rights of senior departmental officials and was controlling transfers and postings, while regularly hurling insults at doctors.
“All additional chief medical officers and medical superintendents worked round-the-clock during the pandemic, but Gonda DM has been using objectionable language against us during assessment meetings and field inspections. Keeping public welfare in mind, we continued to perform our duties, including Covid vaccination and sampling,” read the letter. It added the DM’s behaviour towards ACMO Dr AP Singh during meeting was inappropriate and this hurt superintendents of community health centres.
Copies of the memorandum were marked to the health minister, director general health and government doctors’ association. The doctors’ body maintained the complaint was not new. They cited similar incidents from Rae Bareli, Unnao and Aligarh where bureaucrats crossed the line of dignity. A few months ago, Provincial Medical Services Association had taken up the matter with higher authorities, but nothing changed.
When contacted, Shahi said: “A communication gap led to this unexpected situation. There is pressure to perform on various counts but in a moment of stress a misunderstanding hurt the doctors. They were later invited to talk and the matter was resolved amicably.” The doctors association refuted the claim. “No doctor has taken the resignation back,” an association member said.