Venugopal asked to explain 'irregularities'

With the High Court order staying any action against Director P Venugopal weighing heavily, the AIIMS Institute Body today demanded an explanation from him over complaints of discrimination of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) students and irregularities in management.

The meeting was marred by a walkout by BJP MP and member V K Malhotra who said the meeting was "illegal, improper, and unconstitutional."

"All the members met this morning and discussed about the state of affairs in AIIMS. The members showed concern about happenings in the institute and unanimously decided to seek reply from the AIIMS administration on all these issues," said Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss after chairing the institute body meeting, which was attended by 14 of the 17 members.

The administration has been asked to give a reply in two weeks time, Ramadoss said. On being asked whether the sacking of Venugopal was on the agenda, the minister retorted back by saying, "Were you there in the meeting?"

The meeting, which was held at Nirman Bhavan, first saw a walkout by Malhotra, who said he decided not to stay at the meeting because the "minutes of the meeting were circulated late and which don't mention the action taken against Venugopal last time."