Davanagere: District medical officer drives autorickshaw after alleged harassment at work

Davanagere: Dr M H Ravindranath who had worked for 27 years as a medical officer here quit his job and started driving rickshaw after allegedly being harassed by superior officers at work.

In a news meet on September 7, Dr Ravindranath stated that his harassment started after he refused to appoint as a specialist doctor under the National Health Mission a friend of the Zilla Panchayat’s CEO. The CEO started to behave abusively with him after that and after his transfer, the new CEO too meted him the same attitude.

He further alleges that the officer also suspended without any good reason and after he approached the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) rescinded the suspension order but transferred him to Sedam Taluk Hospital.

Dr Ravindranath said he again approached the KAT asking how can a district medical officer can be transferred to a taluk level post. KAT ordered in his favour and asked that he must be given a district-level posting. However, he claims that the order has not been obeyed yet.

“As I am in suspension since June 2019, I have not been paid any salary, hence, to make ends meet, I started to run an autorickshaw,” added Dr Ravindranath.