Union health secy transfer linked to his unwillingness to accept Ketan Desai as MCI's key functionary

New Delhi: 

The abrupt transfer of Union Health secretyary Keshav Desiraju has resulted in speculations that it was due to his unwillingness to accept tainted Ketan Desai as key functionary of Medical council of India.

 

The Jan Swasthya Abhiya has expressed concern at the manner in which Desiraju, has been transferred out barely 11 months after being appointed. 

Although Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, has termed it a “regular affair” and further that the public and media need not concern itself with such transfers.

But sources question the transfer stating that it has happened when no replacement for Desiraju appears to have been decided upon.

"Nor is there any evidence that Desiraju’s services were urgently required in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, to which he has now been transferred," sources added.

 The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan said that such cavalier transfers undermine the ability of public institutions to perform their tasks in an honest, transparent and efficient manner. 

The transfer is a violation of the spirit of the Supreme Court’s ruling of October 2013 where the Court had asked the Centre and all state governments to take steps within three months to insulate the bureaucracy from political pulls and pressures, and further to ensure fixed tenures for serving officers.

Interestingly, media reports and sources claim that Desiraju’s transfer is linked to some of his decisions. Key among these, as reported in sections of the media, is his unwillingness to accept Dr Ketan Desai as a key functionary of the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Dr Ketan Desai’s has attracted the attention of criminal investigative and income tax agencies on several occasions in the past.  A prima facie case was established against him in December 2000 following investigations by the Income Tax Department, which had raided his house. In 2002,

Dr Desai was removed from the post of chairman of MCI following a Delhi High Court order (dated 22nd November, 2002) that accused him of turning the MCI into a "den of corruption". While he managed to get himself acquitted of these charges, he was charged again in 2010 by the CBI, while serving as the Chairman of the MCI.

He was arrested by the CBI on April 22, 2010 on charges of disproportionate assets and for allegedly receiving a Rs 2 crore bribe to give recognition to a private medical college based in Patiala (Gyan Sagar Medical College). The MCI had also suspended Dr.Desai’s license to practice medicine as a consequence of these charges.

Dr.Desai, media reports suggest, is presently out on bail. In October 2013 the Gujarat University nominated him as a member of the MCI and there have been speculations that he would again offer himself for the post of Chairman of the MCI. It may be recalled that after Dr.Desai’s arrest, in May 2010 the MCI was superceded by a Board of Governors whose term expired on May 14, 2013.  After passage of the Medical Council (Amendment) Bill in 2013 the MCI is being constituted afresh. 

Reports suggest that, despite pressures, after having consulted with the CBI Desiraju did not want to sanction the re-entry of Ketan Desai into the MCI.

It has also been reported in a section of the media that there were other areas of differences between Desiraju and the Government. It is reported that he was charged of being ‘inflexible’ in his reluctance to license a foreign manufacturer of stents (which are devices used in procedures such as angioplasty for heart patients).

 
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had also observed in its October 2013 order that: “"We notice that much of the deterioration of the standards of probity and accountability with the civil servants is due to the political influence or persons purporting to represent those who are in authority".