Women power is all set to storm the Uttarakhand health services as three out of six directors would now be women. The department has finalised the much awaited Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for the post of directors and sent it for clearance to the state government. There are six posts of Directors in the medical, health and family welfare department. The positions of four Directors are vacant at present while Director Kumaon Division Dr K l Arya is not attending office as he is seriously ill for some time which effectively leaves only one Director- Dr R P Bhatt, Director Medical Education- in the health services.
The Director General (DG) Health services, Dr G S Joshi confirmed that names of Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) Pithoragarh, Dr Harish Chandra Pathak, Additional Director (AD) Store and Plan, Dr Kusum Narriyal, AD Medical Care Dr Abha Mamgain, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Haldwani Dr Geeta Sharma and CMO Chamoli Dr Ajit Gairola figure in the DPC list for Directors. He said that the list was dispatched to state government for final approval.
Department officials revealed that it would be for the first time in the state health services when three women would be holding top positions. Interestingly one out of three newly promoted Directors; Dr Kusun Narriyal is widely expected to make it to the top post of Director General Health services. The present DG Dr G S Joshi is superannuating on May 31.
In all probability seniormost Director Dr R P Bhatt would assume the position of DG after the retirement of Dr Joshi. He is expected to be replaced by Dr Narriyal in the month of January 2016. Interestingly both Dr Kusum Narriyal and Dr Geeta Sharma were batch mates at Kanpur medical college during their studies. When contacted, Dr Narriyal expressed happiness at the fact that three women would be promoted to the post of Director in health services. She said that she would try her best to do justice to whatever task is assigned to her.