DMER director fudged date of birth in service records
NAGPUR: Medical education director Dr WB Dr Tayade, who is already being investigated for graft in purchase of medical equipment, could be in for more trouble. School records that were provided to TOI by a source, and independently confirmed from Dr Tayade's school, indicate that he fudged his date of birth in government service records. Going by the date of birth in Dr Tayade's SSC school leaving certificate, he should have retired in November 2008.
According to his school records, Dr Tayade is sixty years and four months old at present, which means that he should have retired in November 2008. The state government increased the retirement age from 58 to 62 by issuing a GR dated June 17, 2010. However, Dr Tayade continues to be in service as head of the directorate of medical education and research (DMER).
Dr Tayade's school leaving certificate issued by New English High School, Akola, states his date of birth as November 10, 1950. The certificate was first issued by the school in June 1966 and a duplicate was procured on February 2, 2011. These records were given to TOI by some RTI activists and medical teachers, and were independently confirmed by TOI from the school records.
However, DMER sources and the medical education secretariat say that Dr Tayade's date of birth as per service documents is November 10, 1952. This indicates that the change in documents was made at the time of joining service or during service, when Dr Tayade was medical lecturer and dean at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC) respectively.
This is also evident from the fact that his medical college could not have admitted him to the MBBS course at the age of 16 years and 8 months. So, his college must have been given the original age certificate.
Apparently, the manipulation was carried forward over the years without the DMER or any other state government authority verifying it. All of Dr Tayade's batchmates in GMCH's 1969 batch, who retired in 2010, just before the new GR relaxed the age limit, are now crying foul. They all are shocked at the manipulation of date of birth.
Though no one is still willing to speak on the record, some batch mates say that he had always been a manipulating person. As proof, they point out that even the most brilliant of their lot, including merit holders, could not even make it to the dean's post whereas he reached a director's post. "What is more shocking is that at no level did the DMER or the government verify his age," said a former professor at GMCH.
Dr Tayade however is not willing to speak on the issue. "I have no comments to make," he told TOI on Wednesday.
His colleagues are also shocked. A DMER official said, "How can the medical secretary, the Governor and the chief ministers in the last few years have not bothered to make any investigation? Many RTI queries on his age were sent to them with proof of wrong doing." Others are squarely blaming the then medical education minister Digvijay Khanvilkar, in whose regime Dr Tayade was promoted as DMER joint director in 2004 from the post of dean IGGMC.
Most of Dr Tayade's colleagues say that the medical education ministers and secretaries too should be taken to task for shielding him then and now. They questioned why medical education minister Vijay Kumar Gavit is also not taking any action? TOI efforts to contact Gavit proved futile. He was either on official tour or in cabinet meetings.
"I am really ashamed to hear my student manipulating things to such a level," said a former GMCH teacher. Another teacher suggested that not only should he be suspended immediately (after a FIR is filed against him) but he should be made to pay back all the salary he drew from the government.
An ACB source in the city told TOI that the Mumbai team has also laid its hand on Dr Tayade's birth certificate. "Manipulating the age amounts to cheating and depriving someone else of a job opportunity. ACB can definitely take serious action now," he said.
