The Maharashtra Public Health Department has suspended two assistant directors in Pune over alleged negligence in implementing and monitoring child health and family planning programmes, following a departmental review that found their performance highly unsatisfactory.
Dr Rajkumar Jagtap and Dr Rajshree Dhawale were suspended after the department identified failures including the absence of field visits, inadequate monitoring and supervision, and ineffective reporting on the status of programmes under their charge. Jagtap was responsible for child health programmes, while Dhawale oversaw the family planning programme.
The action followed a review meeting held on October 12 by the Principal Secretary-I of the Public Health Department. According to the report, the review found serious lapses in the implementation and monitoring of both programmes. The department’s assessment formed the basis for the suspension orders.
During the suspension period, both officials will be stationed at the General Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, rather than continuing in their Pune assignments. They will not be allowed to leave their designated headquarters without prior permission from the competent authority.
The orders also bar the two officials from taking up private employment or engaging in any trade or business while they remain under suspension. The restrictions are part of the conditions attached to the departmental action.
The case places attention on the administrative systems used to deliver public health programmes, particularly the role of field inspections, supervisory reviews and reporting. In the reported findings, the department linked the officials’ alleged negligence to shortcomings in these routine functions rather than to a single isolated incident.
Child health and family planning programmes depend on monitoring at the implementation level, where officials track activities, review performance and report programme status to higher authorities. The department’s action indicates that it considered the reported gaps serious enough to warrant suspension while the officials remain subject to departmental proceedings.
The suspension orders do not establish that the two officials committed permanent or final misconduct; they represent administrative action based on the findings cited in the review. The available report does not provide details of any further inquiry, the duration of the suspension, or the specific programme targets affected by the alleged lapses.
For now, the two officials are required to report to the General Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and comply with the restrictions in their suspension orders. Further departmental action will determine how the allegations and the programme-monitoring failures are addressed.
