GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar has, late on Thursday, issued orders repatriating several Assistant Medical Officers of Health (AMOH) working in various circles to their parent department, the Directorate of Health.
A total six AMOHs who are long standing on deputation in the civic body, have been sent back with immediate effect as per the orders. The orders came on the heels of a scam unearthed by the city police, involving issue of fake birth certificates, about a week ago.
The repatriated officers include K.S.Ravi from Serilingampally circle, K. Helen Nirmala from Alwal, P. Padma from Rajendranagar, Pratap Sampath Kumar from Moosapet, K. Manjulavani from Hayatnagar, and P. Chandra Shekhar Reddy from Kukatpally.
Higher officials from the GHMC said each of them had completed three to five years of service on deputation in GHMC, and hence, the repatriation was purely on administrative grounds. While they claimed that the officers sought repatriation, sources informed that they were told to write seeking to go, or be eased out by the civic body unceremoniously.
The officers would be deemed to have been relieved, the orders said, asking them to hand over the complete charge to the Deputy Commissioners concerned. The Deputy Commissioners have been asked to make internal arrangements through Deputy Executive Engineers, and Assistant Municipal Commissioners as per the need.
It has been customary in GHMC to take AMOHS from Health Department on deputation, for discharge of responsibilities pertaining to issue of birth and death certificates and also as circle-level authorities for sanitation. A few years ago, the corporation has mulled over shifting of the sanitation responsibilities to engineering wing completely. For reasons not spelt out, the shifting remained only partial, and sanitation is still the responsibility of AMOHs in several circles.
Recently, city police have busted a racket of fake birth certificates, and charged an AMOH and a data entry operator with issuing birth certificates without proof after receiving bribes.
“They sent us samples of five birth certificates and asked us to verify in our records. Upon verification, the names in the certificates did not match with the names in the records,” informed an official. The AMOH concerned has since been absconding, and it is not known if any action is taken against him by the Health Department.
