Two Indian doctors still on the payroll of their Mumbai workplace are working in Dhaka’s Apollo Hospital in violation of their job contracts, an Indian newspaper has reported.
The amounts they draw in Dhaka a month are much higher than what they earn in Mumbai a year, the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) of the Boxer Group and G Group said in a recent report on its Web site.
Dr Nandkumar Katakdhond and Dr Prashant Agrawal of Sion Hospital of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were working at Apollo Hospital absenting themselves from their Indian workplace for long, the report said.
Quoting an anonymous source, the report said the salaries of the two doctors had already been stopped but the accounts department of Sion Hospital did not know how the doctors had received their salaries.
An associate professor at the BMC receives a salary ranging between Rs 16,000 (over Tk 27,000) and Rs 22,000. But they earn between Tk 3 lakh and Tk 4 lakh a month each from Apollo in Dhaka, which has created commotion among many doctors and other hospital staff. DNA said that working for a private hospital while still on BMC’s payroll is illegal.
The two doctors went to their Indian workplace once every few months to save their jobs. Apollo’s general manager for media Giasuddin told bdnews24.com that Dr Katakdhond and Dr Agrawal work in the orthopaedic department. He said steps had been taken to look into the matter, and the Indian hospital would be “contacted soon”.
The DNA report said the matter came to light when the BMC had wanted to promote Dr Katakdhond to associate professor in November last year.
On promotion, he was transferred to another hospital. When Sion Hospital wanted to issue his “release letter” and promotion documents, the authorities learnt that he had been absent from work for long, the report said. But they have been drawing salaries regularly, it said. On further investigation, the hospital authorities came to know that Dr Katakdhond was working at Apollo in Bangladesh and drawing between Tk 3 lakh and 4 lakh a month.
Dr Agrawal has been working with Apollo for four years, the DNA report said. BMC additional municipal commissioner Dr Kishore Gajbiye confirmed to DNA that the two doctors had been absent from work for long.
He said they were probing the allegations against the doctors. If elaborate inquiries are carried out, many such cases will come to light, several Apollo officials told bdnews24.com on condition of anonymity.
Source: The Daily Commercial Times
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