PM-led panel seeks more names to choose next AIIMS Delhi director: Report

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the prime minister on Monday sought a wider panel of names for the post of director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, official sources said.

The tenure of the incumbent AIIMS director, Dr Randeep Guleria, which was set to end on March 24, was extended by three months.

Earlier in March, the names of three doctors, short-listed by a search-cum-selection committee and subsequently approved by the Institute Body, the top decision-making body of the AIIMS, were sent to the ACC for final approval.

The three AIIMS doctors whose names were recommended earlier were Nikhil Tandon, head of the department of endocrinology; Rajesh Malhotra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre and the head of the department of orthopaedics; and Pramod Garg, professor in the gastroenterology department.

"...the Competent Authority in the ACC has directed to return the instant proposal with the request to send a wider panel of names for consideration of the ACC," an official source told PTI, quoting an office memorandum sent to the Union Health Ministry by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Personnel and Training on June 20.

The four-member search-cum-selection committee tasked with short-listing names for the AIIMS director's post is headed by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

Apart from Bhushan, the committee includes Secretary of Department of Biotechnology Rajesh S Gokhale, Principal Scientific Advisor to the government K Vijay Raghavan, and Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh.