Odisha: State homeopathy colleges suffer acute staff crunch

Bhubaneshwar: Acute staff shortage in state run homeopathy institutions should have any Homeopathy aspirant think before seeking admission into courses being run at any State-run Homeopathic Medical Colleges. Faculty shortage has reached a point wherein, it is presumed that after 5 years the minimal staff appointees in these colleges would also have retired leaving no teachers at all. The CCH is also threatening to de-affiliate itself from the government colleges

In the four state run Homeopathy colleges, at Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Berhampur, out of the 144 sanctioned posts including 60 lecturers, 59 Readers and 25 professors; 115 are lying vacant for several years. Only 3 lecturer appointees are there against the 60 posts sanctioned. Not a single person has appointed on the post of professor.

Of the 29 appointed staff , 26 Readers and 3 lecturers finish their tenures in the next five years, reports New Indian Express.

In 2012, Post Graduate courses were shut down at Dr Abhin Chandra Homoeopathic Medical College, Bhubaneswar due to no lecturers being available to run courses in the concerned departments. Three lecturers are the minimum required in running a department. The undergraduate courses at the college are slowly on the way of meeting the same fate .Sadly, all government colleges are being managed by HMO’s who hold post graduate qualifications.

The state's attempt to fill posts with contractual employees has also failed. Only one reader joined against 79 vacancies advertised through this process. The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has also failed to keep target appointments requested for as vacancies are yet to be filled by them too, said a medical officer.

Keeping the present scenario in mind, the HMO’s have asked for regular lecturer appointments and qualified HMO’s to be appointed as teaching fraternity through the OPSC. They have also demanded a relaxation of upper age limit and changes in the modification pattern. It is believed that PG courses could be started again if the HMO’s are appointed as teaching faculty.

The Ayush ministry has also been roped in to come up with an outline for filing up of vacancies. They are also meant to incorporate OPSC views on recruitment hurdles faced till now.