Alleging large scale irregularities in the selection process of dental doctors by the Uttarakhand Medical Services Selection Board (UMSSB), many aspirants have demanded that the Government should quash the whole exercise and initiate fresh process of recruitment.
Some of the aspirants who failed to make it to the interviews which were conducted from July 24 to 28, organized a meeting at Gandhi Park on Saturday and demanded that the state government should initiate fresh recruitment. Under the banner of Uttarakhand Dental Association these candidates demanded that the state government should give priority to the natives of the state in the process of recruitment. The President of the association, Dr N S Dariyal said that recruitment of dental doctors is taking place after a gap of 12 years. He said that there are more than 2000 registered dental doctors in the state and many of them are on verge of becoming overage for government job. Dr Dariyal said that the government should quash corruption ridden process of recent doctor recruitment and initiate a fresh process. He said that the recruitment should be done on the basis of seniority of clearing qualifying examination and priority to the natives should be given in the new recruitment. Dr Dariyal alleged that more than 70 percent of the candidates called for interview by the UMSSB were from outside the state.
It is worth mentioning here that the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) has put up a stay on declaration of the result of the examination. The court granted stay when some students complained that irregularities in tempering with the OMR sheets of some candidates have occurred.
To fullfill large number of vacant posts of medical officers in the health services the state government by the agency of UMSSB decided to recruit 203 dental doctors in the state health services to provide doctors in the mountainous locations. The plan was to appoint 203 BDS out of which 53 positions are in dental cadre and 150 posts in Provincial Medical Health Services (allopathic doctors) cadre of the state health services. The services of these doctors would be permanent in nature and would be governed by the state dental service rules and regulation.
