Parliamentary committee recommends mandatory SC, ST member in faculty selection committee

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary committee on welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have raised the issues of vacant posts of reserved categories in All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The committee noted that several applicants of SC and ST categories have been “deliberately declared not suitable” due to “biased assessment” of AIIMS selection panels.

The committee made the comments in a report tabled before the Lok Sabha. The report read that the selection for faculty posts at AIIMS New Delhi is made by the standing selection committee (SSC) consisting of seven members, including AIIMS Chairman. “The Committee is concerned to note that none of the members of this committee belong to the SC/ST community,” the report added.

The committee has recommended mandatorily including a member of SC/ST community in the selection committee in order to provide representation and to participate in policies being framed to enhance the prospects of SC/ST employees in AIIMS. “Though the Committee are pleased to note that an action plan is being prepared by the union government to fill the vacant faculty posts yet, they are grieved that 348 vacancies of faculty posts are still lying vacant,” it added.

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The committee said that it is not inclined to accept the frequent stereo-type reply of the government that “no sufficient number of suitable candidates could be found”. “This is in fact not a correct picture of assessment of the SC/ST candidates who are equally bright and deserving. But they are deliberately declared as ‘not suitable’ because of a wrong biased assessment by the selection committee just to deprive SC/ST candidates of their legitimate rights to be part of the faculty,” the committee said in the report.

As per the ministry of health and family welfare, 16 senior faculty posts went vacant in AIIMS Delhi as the selection committee found “candidates not suitable” in the SC/ST and OBC category in 2018. In the next selection process in 2022, 12 such posts went vacant due to the similar reason.