The post of Tamil Nadu’s Director of Medical Education has remained vacant since July 31, prompting doctors’ associations to oppose an interview-based selection process for the senior administrative position. The vacancy comes as admissions to undergraduate medical and allied health courses are underway and academic programmes are beginning at government medical colleges across the state.
The Directorate of Medical Education exercises administrative control over all government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Officials told the Times of India that the selection process for the next DME is in progress. The position fell vacant after former DME Dr Suganthy Rajakumari retired in July.
The Service Doctors and Postgraduate Doctors’ Association has objected to the method being used to select the next director. The association said the mandatory promotion panel had not been published before the interview exercise. According to its general secretary, Dr A Ramalingam, 10 medical college deans were interviewed for the post.
The association said appointments to the department had usually been made through an annual promotion panel based on doctors’ eligibility and seniority as of March 15. The panel was then used to grant promotions and fill senior administrative posts, Dr Ramalingam said in a press release.
The association has urged the state government to appoint an eligible senior doctor as DME on the basis of the promotion panel rather than through the interview-based process. Its objection centres on the process used to identify the next administrative head, rather than on the reported existence of a selection exercise.
The vacancy places the appointment within the broader administrative framework governing the state’s government medical colleges. The DME’s office is responsible for administrative control over these institutions, while the current academic cycle includes admissions and the commencement of courses in undergraduate medical and allied health programmes.
The doctors’ association has also demanded that promotions to professor and associate professor posts be completed annually without delay. The demand links the DME appointment dispute to the wider functioning of the department’s promotion system and the filling of senior academic positions.
Officials have said that selection is in progress. The government’s next step will determine whether the appointment proceeds through the reported interview process or follows the association’s demand for selection from an eligible seniority-based promotion panel.
