With UT Health Director Dr Rakesh Kashyap’s tenure coming to an end later this year, the Chandigarh administration has initiated the process to select a new one. Punjab health officials told Chandigarh Newsline on Tuesday that they are in process to form a panel of doctors.The post of Health Director is reserved for Punjab. Each time, the UT administration sends a communication to Punjab asking them to send a panel, out of which a Director is selected.
“We will send a panel to the Chandigarh administration soon. They will then take a call on who would be selected as the new Director,” a senior Punjab health official said.
He said that the process would be taken on top priority as the UT administration wants to select a new Director before the last week of September. Last year in October, Dr Rakesh Kashyap was appointed after a three-member selection committee headed by UT advisor Parimal Rai. The orders, issued by the health secretary Anurag Agarwal last year had said, the duration of the tenure “will be one year or till such time his services are required by the Chandigarh administration.”
Before, Kashyap, Dr Vanita Gupta was holding the post of the UT Director. A senior UT official told Chandigarh Newsline on Tuesday that one of the important factors which would be kept in consideration during the selection is the “time left with the person to hold the post”. Off-late, all the Directors who have been selected as UT Health Director have served for a shorter time due to the limited time left in their retirement.
“We are waiting for the panel from the administration. At time of selection, we will also see how much time is left with the candidate before he retires, so that the person who is selected has the maximum time left to serve as the Director,” the official said.
