Kolkata, July 30 : State-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, where a woman doctor was raped and murdered last year and multi-crore financial irregularities were detected, is in the midst of a fresh controversy again.

This time, the controversy is over the irregularities in the appointment of house staff for the institute, where the main allegation is the abrupt creation of additional seats.

West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front (WBJDF), which was leading the mass movement on the R.G. Kar rape-murder issue last year, has flagged this issue of irregularities in house staff appointment in the institute. The additional seats created were allotted to one particular department, they said..

WBJDF pointed out that till the recent past, the number of house staff seats in R.G. Kar, combining the new and old batches, was 105, with 84 seats allotted for new candidates, while 21 seats were allotted for the supplementary batch candidates.

However, this year, the controversy has erupted as 12 additional seats under this category were created, and surprisingly, all these additional seats were allotted not only in quota for the supplementary batch candidates but also for a single department of cardiology.

WBJDF alleged that the creation of these additional seats, under the supplementary batch candidates and all for the same department, smells of foul play in the process.

According to Dr Aniket Mahato, one of the leading faces of the R.G. Kar movement last year, although the request for an increase in the number of house staff seats in the hospital came from the junior doctors, they never expected that the increase would be done in such an arbitrary manner.

'It is surprising to see that 12 seats have been increased in just one department, and all under the supplementary batch quota. How could the seats be increased for one particular department overnight?" he questioned.

Trinamool Congress-backed rival junior doctors' body, West Bengal Junior Doctors' Association (WBJDA), had been cautious in giving its reaction on the matter. 'There should not be a controversy on this issue. The principal has assured us that the authorities would look into the matter. If any irregularities have taken place, then the matter should be probed and resolved," said WBJDA office-bearer Sourav Das.

R.G. Kar's medical superintendent-cum- vice-principal (MSVP), Saptarshi Chatterjee, has assured that a proper clarification in the matter would be provided to the institute authorities at the right time.

It was during the tenure of the former principal of R.G. Kar, Sandip Ghosh, that corruption in the appointment of house staff in the cardiology department surfaced first time.

Ghosh, as well as a junior doctor and leader of Trinamool Congress student wing, Ashish Pandey, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for their involvement in the multi-crore financial irregularities at R.G. Kar. Both Ghosh and Pandey are currently in judicial custody.

/IANS