Two apply for Kochi Cancer Research Centre director post

KOCHI: Only two oncologists have applied for the post of director of the Kochi Cancer Research Centre as the deadline for applying expired last Thursday amid allegations that the post was not advertised. Dr Febe Renjitha Suman of Chennai and  Dr Moni Abraham Kuriakose of Bangalore are the two oncologists who have applied for the job. While Dr Moni  applied to the state government, Dr Febe is learnt to have forwarded the application to the KCRC office. Stringent norms or rather convenient norms for applying coupled with lack of sufficient advertising  resulted in such a limited number of applications, it is learnt.

“The post was not advertised in any daily. In fact,  it should be advertised in national dailies also. There are a lot of specialists from different parts of the country working in private hospitals in Kochi. So the post being advertised in places like Delhi and Mumbai has a lot of significance,” said Dr N. K. Sanil Kumar, leader of the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Movement which is spearheading the campaign for setting up the KCRC.

The only advertisement has come on the KCRC website and some other health department websites. One of the qualifications stipulated for the post is “proven ability in conceptualisation and implementation of major research projects, clinical and hospital projects with extra mural funding.” One of the doctors in Kochi, who preferred not to be named, said that ‘extra mural funding’ comes from international corporates and hence people having the backing of multinationals are being roped in to run the prestigious project in Kochi.

It is learnt that Regional Cancer Centre director Dr Paul Sebastian is playing the key role in deciding the affairs of Kochi Cancer Centre. It is on his advice that INKEL which is entrusted with  building the centre is making each move, including preparation of the Detailed Project Report of the project since it doesn’t have any expertise in the field. It may be recalled that  former health secretary Dr Elangovan had dumped the DPR prepared by Dr Paul Sebastian for a 50-bed cancer centre in Kochi earlier and then entrusted the HSCC Ltd under the central government to prepare it. Doctors familiar with the developments say that the RCC director was interested from the beginning to limit KCRC as a satellite centre of RCC, which was thwarted by the strong stand of the public and activists in Kochi.