Maharashtra: ‘Update final electoral list ahead of MUHS polls’

This is the first time so many names are missing. Representation pic

With the countdown beginning for the March 17 elections to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) senate and board of studies, the names of hundreds of professors, associate professors and principals (deans) attached to state, civic-run and private medical colleges from Mumbai and the Konkan are missing from the final electoral list uploaded by MUHS.

This is the first ever time that such a large number of names are missing from the list.

Irked, the Maharashtra State Medical Teachers Association (MSMTA) addressed a letter on February 14 to the vice-chancellor, MUHS to update the list. The association has also sent a letter to Girish Mahajan, medical education minister.

The names of principals of the civic-run GS Medical College (KEM), LTMMG (Sion) and Grant Medical College (JJ) and the government medical colleges (GMC) in Alibaug and Sindhudurg and BJ Medical College in Pune are missing or marked NIL.

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Interestingly, the name of the principal/dean of HBT (Cooper) and TNMC (Nair) are listed.

Overall, the names of barely a few professors and associate professors are listed. It is as if these medical colleges are run without principals, pointed out a senior faculty member of a civic-run medical college in Mumbai.

Dr Sachin Mulkutkar, president, MSMTA, which has more than 3,200 professors and associate professors as its members said, "They (MUHS) have kept hundreds of teaching faculties [dean, professor and associate professors] of the four biggest medical colleges in Mumbai - JJ, KEM, Nair, Cooper - and the Nagpur, Latur and Gondia GMCs out of the MUHS elections. Nearly 50 per cent of BMC and government medical colleges' faculty names are not in the final electoral list released, which is unfortunate. It is nothing but depriving the faculties, who otherwise would have been keen on contesting the elections."

He added, "Our concern is also about the manner in which MUHS had released their first list on February 7, but allegedly later added approximately 200 names of influential teachers and a fresh list was issued on February 13. But, they refused to add names of the remaining teachers of JJ, Nair, KEM, Cooper and Government Dental College (GDC) and Nagpur, Latur and Gondia GMCs. This is unfair. Had select additional names not been added after February 7, the association would not have raised concerns."

Dr Mulkutkar further stated, "The teaching faculty is already upset with their names missing from the electoral list and whispers are making the rounds that this may have probable repercussions on the university practical examinations which will start on February 23 and evaluation of theory papers, starting from Saturday."

Dr Uday Mohite, central president, MSMTA, said, "MUHS claims that they had written to the respective medical colleges two months ago, asking for enrollment, but this information has not reached the teaching faculties in most of the government and civic medical colleges. And this is the first time hundreds of names will be missing from the MUHS electoral list."

He added, "This means that we have no representative from GMCs or civic medical colleges contesting or casting their vote, thereby having no voice or say in the MUHS. If the MUHS already has the data of faculties attached to each college in the state and if this gets updated yearly, it can easily convert them to the electoral list instead of asking for details separately for the election, which is conducted once in five years."

Other side

So far, 498 medical health science colleges in the state are affiliated with the MUHS, Nashik. Of these, 50 are medical colleges and 19 of them are GMCs and the around 14,000 who teach in these colleges are eligible voters.

Dr Rajendra Bangal, registrar, MUHS, also the election officer, said, "As per university norms for conducting polls, we had asked for details in the prescribed format from the affiliated medical health sciences colleges across Maharashtra a few months ago and even did regular follow-ups. The last date for receiving the list from every affiliated college was December 31, 2022, and most of them promptly sent us the entire lists, which were released, as per the scheduled date on February 7."

Asked if he was aware of MSMTA's concerns, Dr Bangal said, "MUHS had given sufficient time to colleges, but those who did not respond within the specified dates have lost their chance of getting their names incorporated in the electoral list and nothing can be done now, as entire election programme has already been chalked out .

Asked why the data of colleges that are used for yearly inspection purposes, was not used, he clarified, "The norms for conducting elections as per the University Act demand that the faculty lists need to be sought from respective colleges, who are eligible for casting their vote and contesting the election. The lists are made and uploaded accordingly."

He refused to comment on the allegation of adding names.

17
Day in March when poll will be held

Imp dates as per election schedule

Feb 7: Date of publication of final electoral roll
Feb 10 to 15: Date for filing of nominations of candidates
Feb 20 to 23: Date for scrutiny of Nominations
Feb 28 to March 3: Date for publication of final list of eligible candidates for contesting elections
March 10: Date for publication of list of contesting candidates