By IANS
New Delhi : Faculty members of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Sunday dismissed the findings of a government committee that hospital Director P. Venugopal played "a provocative role" in spearheading an agitation against quotas in elite educational institutions, saying "the allegations are absurd and baseless".
The AIIMS Faculty Association said the three-member Thorat Committee, constituted by the central government last year to look into allegations of discrimination against reserved category students at the premier hospital, was "an ad hoc kitchen garden committee" of Union Health Minister P. Ramadoss.
"This committee never interacted with faculty of AIIMS," it said in a release.
They said: "We decry these attempts to tarnish our image. We have a track record of performance and we do not practice any discrimination on the basis of caste or creed."
They questioned the impartiality of the committee, saying it consisted of the "known associates of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, whose sole purpose seems to assail the AIIMS and its faculty".
The doctors demanded a judicial probe into the allegations levelled by the reports of the committee.
The committee, headed by University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairperson S.K. Thorat, had submitted its report to the minister Saturday.