Mangaluru (The Hindu): Defending his action not to place under suspension government doctor Dayanand from Birur, Food and Civil Supplies Minister U.T. Khader said he preferred posting him to another hospital rather than losing his services by paying him half his salary for the period of suspension.

Mr. Khader, who earlier held the Health portfolio, was commenting on the statement by his successor K.R. Ramesh Kumar in the Legislative Council on Monday, expressing displeasure over a delay of more than a year in acting on the recommendation to place under suspension gynaecologist Dayanand from Birur Government Hospital. The doctor was accused of unnecessarily carrying out over 1400 operations on women to remove their uterus.

Mr. Khader said a three-member committee had inquired into the allegations in 2015. Following a report by the committee, the allegations were looked into by the Department’s vigilance committee followed by an inquiry by a District Judge. The case was referred to Criminal Investigation Department a month ago. “If he is guilty, action will follow,” he said.

When asked about the delay in acting upon the recommendation to place the doctor under suspension, Mr. Khader said, “We transferred him from that hospital to another hospital where there was need of a gynaecologist. I was not interested in placing the official under suspension as this would mean losing the services of another gynaecologist, who are already too few in number, for a period of six months and paying him half of his salary for that period,” he said.