Fill vacant posts in health centres: HC

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has issued interim directions to the state government to fill all vacancies in state-run district and taluk hospitals, Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) by November 30, 2020.

“The failure on the part of the State Government to fill up the posts will amount to violation of fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution. In a given case, such as a case of a women belonging to a family below poverty line suffering maternal death due to lack of availability of doctors at grass root level facilities, her family members can claim compensation by taking recourse to public law remedy for violation of Article 21”, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur said.

The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, which drew the attention of the court to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India titled “Performance Audit of Reproductive and Child Health under the National Rural Health Mission”.

The bench also issued interim directions to the Principal Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare to file a personal affidavit on or before March 20, 2020, specifying the schedule for filling up the vacancies.

“The State Government should take immediate steps to fill up all the vacancies to the posts of doctors, specialized doctors, staff nurses, para medical staff, health workers, health assistants and other staff such as accountants and data operators etc,... immediate priority should be given to fill up all vacant posts in CHCs and PHCs,” the bench said.

If regular appointments take time, essential staff such as doctors should be hired on contract, the bench said while directing the government to appoint a committee in every district on or before March 20, 2020, to monitor the functioning of taluk hospitals, PHCs, CHCs, sub-centres.  The committee can supervise implementation of various state and central schemes for pregnant and lactating women and new-borns.

Dismal picture of Karnataka’s health system
Karnataka had 1,300 PHCs and 2,353 in existence
CHCs required 325. 206 are established
Only 10 CHCs have gynecologists.
19 CHCs do not have health workers.
Large number of PHCs have no para medical staff.
PHCs are functioning without general physicians, gynaecologists, paediatricians, anaesthetic etc.
Scarcity of ambulance services has led to maternal deaths
Karnataka’s maternity mortality ratio (MMR) is the highest in the South. In 2015-2017, MMR was 97

OCI students get relief on CET admission
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi on Monday passed an interim order permitting a batch of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card-holding students to register for the Common Entrance Test-2020.   The state and central government had earlier submitted before a single judge bench that OCI students must obtain admission only under NRI quota. When the single judge bench did not give them relief, the students filed writ appeals before the division bench. The appellants, foreign-born students who studied in Karnataka, questioned the validity of rule 5 of the Karnataka Selection of Candidates for Admission to Government Seats in Professional Educational Institutes Rules, 2006, which restricts admission to Indian citizens. The OCI students contended they have equal rights as Indian citizens when it comes to education.