Bengaluru: Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader faced a heavy backlash over the inordinate delay in the appointment of doctors and specialists in government hospitals. Khader was grilled by members from all political parties in the Legislative Assembly including Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa on Thursday, November 19.
The incident took place during question hour, when Khader was answering Congress member N.A. Haris over the appointment of doctors in government hospitals. Khader defended himself saying that the recruitment process of government doctors was on the verge of completion and the doctors will be assigned postings soon.
However, the house was not satisfied and said that he had made the same assurance during the last Assembly session too. BJP MLA Sunil Kumar questioned Khader if he would resign in case he was unable to complete the recruitment process by the end of December.
Kagodu Thimmappa, irked at Khader’s response, said it was already two and half years since the Congress government came to power and that the Health Ministry was still in the process of recruiting doctors. He directed Khader to scrap the counselling system. “The system had become a big scam. Doctors posted through counseling never report for duty in remote rural places,” he charged.
Khader responded saying he would look into the issue of cancelling the counselling system after consulting department officials.
