Karam Prakash Patiala, October 13 Despite the ongoing recruitment, Government Medical College (GMC), Patiala, is reeling under shortage of faculty members. More than 48 per cent of the posts of medical teachers are said to be lying vacant. Out of the total 312 sanctioned posts, 152 are lying unoccupied. The severe shortfall in the college continues to affect the quality of medical education. Notably, following a meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC), in July this year, over 108 medical professors were recruited under direct quota while the rest were promoted from Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) to the post of assistant professors. However, the GMC, Patiala, is still facing a faculty shortage. Out of all the posts, the post of teaching faculty —professors, associate professors and assistant professors— the maximum shortage is among the post of professors. Out of the 77 sanctioned posts of professors, 48 posts are filled while 29 are lying vacant. Out of the 91 sanctioned posts of associate professors, 47 are vacant; while against the 144 posts of associate professors, 76 are unoccupied. 75 per cent posts of the professors and associate professors are supposed to be filled within the teaching cadre through promotions, for which, no advertisement or invitation of applications are needed. These posts are lying vacant due to the indifference of the administration. DK Tiwari, principal secretary, research and medical education, said they were doing their best to fill the vacant posts. He claimed that the department, under direct quota, was regularly recruiting the faculty. Dr DS Bhullar, general secretary, Punjab State Medical & Dental Teachers Association, said, “There should be a time-bound re-designation of the teaching faculty. As there was no provision of re-designation (which requires no hard process and financial burden), consequently, there are not enough eligible associates who could be promoted to the post of professors. And, owing to this, there is a huge shortage at the professor level.” Besides, the officials said faculty shortage had been highest among the super-speciality branches as they (specialists), quite often, refrained from joining the government sector. In fact, there are only a handful of professors in the super-speciality ward.

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