Kochi: The State Government has once again made Ernakulam District Collector the Special Officer with full jurisdiction over Cochin Cancer Research Centre.
After former District Collector Mohammed Safirulla had demited office three-and-a-half months back, present District Collector S Suhas had jurisdiction only over the construction activities of the new building of the CCRC. This was done on the directions of Health Minister K K Shylaja who directed that CCRC Director Dr Moni Kuriakose be given the full charge over the administration of CCRC.However now Dr Moni Kuriakose has been divested of the independent charge over administration of CCRC and Mr Suhas has been given full additional charge of Special Officer. The order has now been issued by Chief Secretary Tom Jose.
According to Health Department sources, the recommendation of the CCRC Director to recruit an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) in the Department of Integrated Cancer Screening and Palliative Care of CCRC did not go well with the Health Department. The Union Government rules do not allow recruiting an OCI in research activities or activities involving patient data collection.
The file regarding the recruitment of this person to CCRC, mooted by the Director, is now pending with the Health Minister. Simultaneously the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council has forwarded verification of the overseas qualifications this doctor to the Medical Council of India and its result is pending. Meanwhile in an interesting development, the National Health Mission has appointed this doctor as the co-ordinator for the Ernakulam District Cancer Control Programme being implemented at CCRC, which has raised several eyebrows.
CCRC recruitments piloted by the director had earlier fallen into controversy with different qualifications fixed for selecting equivalent senior faculty positions at CCRC. The notification published in this regard on CCRC website had revealed that different years of experience and different desirable qualifications were prescribed for the equivalent posts.
Meanwhile the Committee on Estimates of the State Assembly chaired by S Sarma which held a visit to the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) on August 30 will submit its report to the Health Minister on October 9.
