Having battled anxious moments and even burnt the midnight oil after the H1N1 virus scare in various parts of the country, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has just begun to breathe easy. But he is saddled with another problem.
Apparently he is hunting for a Kashmiri Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Insiders in the health ministry point out that Azad is keen to zero in on a local from Jammu and Kashmir so that people from his home state get unhindered access to the prestigious institute.
But doctors, including senior officials at AIIMS, are putting a spanner in the works as they want an in-house inmate to hold the post. Efforts are now on to resolve the issue amicably to prevent the return of turbulence that hit the institute during Azad’s predecessor Anbumani Ramadoss’ time. Ramadoss and then AIIMS director P. Venugopal had taken their battle over autonomy of the institute to court.
rounak