3-member panel probing 15K illegal nurses’ appointment: Ma Su

CHENNAI: State Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday informed the State Assembly that a three-member committee of experts was probing the illegal appointment of 15,000 nurses in the previous AIADMK regime.

Intervening during the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address in the State Assembly, Ma Subramanian said that about 15,000 nurses were recruited in violation of the rules in the previous ten-year AIADMK regime. Reasoning that the total recruitment must not exceed 10 percent of vacancies, the Health Minister said that the number of vacancies permitted by the recruitment board was only 7,543, but around 8,230 nurses were recruited in their regime.

Arguing that communal rotation and certificate verification was not done in nurses' recruitment during the AIADMK regime, Subramanian said that a three-member committee of experts constituted by the previous regime was probing the recruitment of 15,000 nurses in violation of rules and the truth would unfold upon the committee concluding its probe.

Rebutting Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami's demand for regularisation of nurses recruited on contract basis during Covid period, the health minister reiterated that the chief minister has 2,300 and odd nurses of the MRB Covid Nurses Association would be accommodated in their respective areas through the district health society with a Rs 4,000 hike from their earlier salary of Rs 14,000 (total Rs 18,000 per month) and they would be given priority in future recruitment through the MRB. Criticising the LoP, he wondered why they (AIADMK regime) did not recruit 1,820 doctors through MRB for the Amma clinics for a one-year period.