Doctor removed from Covid panel post

KOLKATA: Dr Pradip Kumar Mitra, who was engaged as the co-ordinator of Covid-19 management committee was removed on Monday from his post. In his place, Gopal Krishna Dhali was posted as the coordinator.

In April 2020, Dr Mitra was appointed as the coordinator of the Covid-19 management committee, but the sudden removal of Mitra from the committee has sparked off controversy among the medical fraternity.

According to Mitra, he is not aware why he has been removed from the committee .

Mitra said: "I have been appointed by the state government as the coordinator of the management committee. I am happy that the government has taken such a decision. Now, they have felt that new persons should be appointed to this post. I welcome their decision. As it's not a permanent post and all depends upon the government's decision I have nothing to say on this matter."

According to a section of doctors, a few days back Mitra had paid a visit to a BJP doctors' cell meeting where he introduced himself during a live conference with Union health minister Dr Harshvardhan.

In June 2019, when medical student protest reached its peak in Bengal after the relatives of a patient assaulted a junior doctor, the state government appointed Mitra to resolve the students' protest issue. Mitra spoke with the students union members and tried to solve the matter amicably .

In 2019, MCI pulled up Dr Mitra for his involvement in conducting a dialysis of a dog at IPGMER. The MCI order said, the committee perused the document available and noted that the three doctors were involved in hatching a plan to perform dialysis of a pet dog using the dialysis machine at SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.

The MCI has issued a recent order against the doctors.