Comparing Vets with the quacks is unacceptable. Pashu Sandesh

Comparing Vets with the quacks is unacceptable.

Pashu Sandesh, 27 April 2019

Dr Yeshwant D Waghmare

It is letter asking for introspection to every veterinarian, and to every decision-making officer in organization. This letter is for those who are complaining about the working of graduate veterinarians (i.e. LDO,INCHARGE VETS ) and giving sympathy to paravets ( LSS OR ASSISTANTS) , passing the judgment in their favour which is biased and is without studying the ground reality. This letter is representation of the field vet and it is not only a clarification but a candid opinion of the field vet who are working since more than 2 decades in the department. This is opinion of all those who worked hard and given their life for the profession, or you can say it is the statement of advice from the professional expert.

In Maharashtra state animal husbandry department, it has become a tendency now to blame the lower staff or field officers over the failure. I found the same statement from secretary level to commissioner level. All are fully supporting paravets (LSS OR ASSISTANTS), trying neglecting and denying the presence and commitment of the veterinarian (i.e. LDO, INCHARGE VETS). This disbelief is a result of multiple factors. It’s my apparent view that it is due to well articulated presentation of some of the facts that have mired good image of LDO. This needs to be well addressed as it is a need of time and it’s my duty to put forth the clarification over this misconception. I do not want to hurt any official but it is my duty to bring in realities, so request them to take every suggestion positively.

Livestock development officer (LDO) these are the category of gazetted officers who are graduate, technical expert and having the thorough knowledge of the profession. They are having practical and theoretical data with them and working confidently and with responsibility at field level. On the contrary the livestock supervisors (LSS) are the diploma holders of 2 years which has no clinical subject in its curriculum, and which is meant for supportive animal husbandry management practices only and later they are trained under the veterinarians. Here I am not comparing both but I want to wipe out the rust on the minds of few officials, who believe and intentionally try to spread a lie that only LSS work hard and LDO’s don’t. This is an organized racket in the department growing with the selfish motives and working to benefit the corporate sector, and by spreading this lie they want to achieve something different. Unfortunately, this organized racket is working successfully with the help of suggestions from some JAYCHANDS in the veterinary profession. I request the authority and decision makers to keep yourself away from these bluffers, and follow the SOP to get the data and run the organization as we trust you people (IAS).

In this support, I will suggest the authority to look into and investigate these factors, which are responsible for today, has biased scenario

1.Objective of the department and its paraphernalia;

The main aim of the establishment of animal husbandry department is LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT AND LIVELIHOOD. The unit of the whole organization is veterinary dispensary, where the paraphernalia is not up to the mark/substandard. The main performer or expert of this unit is LDO who is not having any authority and powers.

The head of organization had never invested smartly and through proper system for the timely fulfillment of basic infrastructure and paraphernalia. The potential of LDO’s in the form of capability, knowledge, expertise and the duties given to them by the head of the organization were not proportionately distributed with their skills and were always disproportionate.

The staff which is expert and are capable to do multitasking is not allowed to work freely as the bosses has created hurdles (intentionally or unintentionally ) in the form of targets, MPR , illegal rules, giving them isolated task and lot more which were not synergistic with the aim of the organization. This has degraded the moral of the vets and thus made the situation more miserable.

Comparing to the developed countries our LDO are of same potential, confidence & skill but the difference is lack of the facilities provided, authority to work, free hands, providing funds and useful/fruitful spending, giving conducive environment, etc. The class I/Group A officers are working in the field are without any authority, they are not having basic tools, supportive skilled staff which affects the efficiency and productivity of appointed field officers situation becomes vulnerable when authorities held them responsible for the situation.

2. Education and its implementation:

The LDO is the post selected by MPSC, with the basic qualification of BVSC & AH. The said degree is of four years (now 5 Yrs) with 6 month internship. They get admitted to degree course after 10+2 in science discipline, after NEET. He learns different subject with theory and practical and pass the exam by scoring minimum grade of 50%. The degree holder veterinarians is having knowledge of veterinary science and animal husbandry, with capability represent, skill of extension, ability to do the basic research, convincing ability, application of knowledge. In addition to above, if veterinarian do Post graduation and PhD in particular, discipline is one of the bigger asset for any organization, and the number of such candidate is increasing.

The knowledge of Veterinarian is a Doctor’s knowledge i.e. veterinary science with animal husbandry. These assets need to be used by the organization at their optimum level and very meticulously to increase their efficiency and productivity, but it doesn’t happen and for which vets are held responsible, it is wrong and unacceptable.

LDO should be a basic post to enter the AH department for Vet Graduates and every other higher post should be from the postgraduate LDO’s from the department or postgraduates from outside the department (Direct Selection) who bear experience in livestock health and animal husbandry sector after PG. The reason behind opting such a selection pattern is, higher authorities with zero field knowledge are fatal for the planning, decision making and execution of AH activities which is going to be their responsibility/duty. It will be completely a mismatch, and it’s going on in the department. At least, LDO’s should be preferred on priority basis; some percentage should be their like 80:20.

3.Transparency in transfer:

The secretary office in mantralay is whole authority in the transfer of the LDO and above officers. The transfer procedures are with lot of faults, sec office had failed to bring transparency in it. The rules are bent and interpreted as per the need and the selfish peoples nexus involved in this procedure, get their job done. This being happening for more than a decade and no officer or minister has tried to curb it by bringing the transparency by the use of technology. This has affected adversely on the performance of the LDO, for which immediate intervention is needed.

The expert in genetic is posted somewhere in dispensary and person of surgery is posted in poultry, for which certain changes as like identification of the posts was needed which has never been initiated by the secretary and comm. office and is the main crux. The officers sitting in the Pune are reluctant to move to field and field expert with additional qualification, and who are noiseless and wise never got the chair of their eligibility. The clamorous mob posted in Pune or in all metro cities never allows the other to enter as they have control over these transfer nexus where officer from the commn office play vital role to create a comfort zone for these mob. Educational qualification of LDO’s was never been utilised for the benefit of department by posting them as per their qualification. There were no efforts to make such rules for posting to benefit the department and eventually the farmers. Are we developing as a public department in real sense?

These raise the question over the secretary office and must answer to the failure in the performances of the field vets.

4. Scheme design and M.E.L.D:

The schemes when looked upon carefully looks very attractive but as a technical expert if we go through it in detail we will find that designer has never took the field conditions into consideration. Also during their designing, they never trusted the potential of the field vets, their efficiency, their knowledge, their expertise, their rights, available infrastructure, their limitations, socio-geographical limitations of area etc, creating a major communication gap which is detrimental for the fruitfulness of designed schemes. The designers think as if they are the most knowledgeable, with ability to elicit technical work as well.

The veterinarians from whom these scheme designers got suggestion are the ones who are least honest and never considered doing the real field job, but only had their aim fixed on getting there posting done in Pune. These designers got victory over these proxy veterinarians making it easier for them to do their job for their own benefits. Over these years this has sown seeds for a nexus that negatively influences any administrative officer that take the office.

There is no effort taken to deploy the cognitive mode of empathy to develop rapport between HOD and field vets. This resulted into the birth of the educated illiterate officer who has lost the capability speak up and represent in the benefit of the farmers and animal owners. In mean time, we have lost the connection with the farmers, thus perted from the main objective of the department- LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT AND LIVELIHOOD.

This has affected the performances of field vet a lot for which we suggest to do the MELD of all the schemes that are designed by these people.

For e.g. I will put some of the schemes, which must be investigated urgently to know the motto behind the implementation and also how these selfish people defined it.

FORMATION OF ISO DISPENSARIES.
MASS AI.
BRUCELLA VACCINATION.
DOUBLING THE INCOME OF THE FARMERS.
FMD VACCINATION.
INAPH.
GENETIC UPGRADATION.
EGG DAY CELEBERATION.

................. AND LOT MORE.

Honestly think on who to blame.

5. Table no-1 to 14 of commissioners office:

This office is the heart of the organization, where the hon. comnn get the input from these table in-charges, which are of Deputy Commn level. These officers are here in Pune office must have to take experience and data input from the field and generate the supportive intervention in favor of the objective of the dept. But this normal thing is now only in history as the posting of these officers is done with different qualification and of which is money factor. We can diagnose there motive by looking at the scheme. We can also find that the design of the scheme never favored the objective of the department but favors’ few other. (Not blaming the ALL but those who are involved)

6. USE OF TECHNOLOGY:

The impact of technology is known to everyone, which has influenced both inpiduals and organization. All the vets are techno savvy except some meager percentage. The bosses must have given preferences to make the entire thing digital to avoid the manual error and thus was possible to avoid the donkey work. This is helpful to remain update and to increases there efficiency and performance, to get the data entered thoroughly, easily and to overcome the vacancy born problems.

The valuable data which the field vets gains from there day to day activities is just a garbage if not interpreted at different level, and well in time. Hardly there are any decisions taken based on data and manipulation of data done very swiftly to get interpretation as per the need or as per their selfish motive. (e.g. transfer of funds to NGOs by showing or manipulating the data of AI and INFERTILTY, appointing the SEVA - DATAS and giving them the credit of change.) As a public AH department, we should aim at nullifying patients presented for treatment by empowering preventive medicine practices, on the contrary, we are raising our patients treated target by 10% every year. This is due to serious technical negligence and poor technical planning. What sort of technical development is this? Irony is everyone is least bothered about such issues.

So use the technology and see the performance of vets and blame afterwards will be normal, otherwise it will be psychopathic.

7. DIFFERENT INSTITUTES OF STATE LEVEL :

IVBP, DIS, SHELI MENDI MAHAMANDAL, MLDB, etc, are the state level institutes which are the nose of the organization have been spoiled (DEGRADED / NOT PERFORMING UPTO THE MARK / NOT PERFORMING AS PER MANDATE), by all means due to the selfish motives and malicious intentions of some officer in charges. It’s time to investigate the real reasons and identify the mischievous. In history these institutes were the proud of the fraternity and use to create an inspiration in the minds of the field vets to come and work here. These institutes were the guide for the field vets, and were referral labs, which is now past, and thus not helpful for the performances of the field vets. Blame those Jaychands who had spoiled the status of these institutes, and not the LDO and vets.

8. INSTITUTES OF REGIONAL LEVEL AND DISTRICT LEVEL:

Regional level institutes like RDIL and the district level institutes like polyclinics are only for the name there is no specialization or no other special facilities compared to the unit level. These are for names only; who spoiled this is the matter of investigation. If the field vets want to refer to these institutes nothing admirable they are getting which resulted into degradation in rapport and performances, of both. Thus question arises whom to blame.

9.TRAINING AND EXPOSURES TO THE FIELD STAFF:

Work in any organization should never stand still and neither the development of staff, who is the key asset to achieve the department’s goal. Training and education is a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of all the in-service staff. Updated training and education is vital for the technical department like A.H. In the current scenario some narrow mind, may think that development opportunities are expensive, Employees attending training sessions also miss work time, which may delay the ongoing projects. However despite these said potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the inpidual and organizations as a whole with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment.

Knowing the importance of in-service training and higher education, authority must try to create supportive environment to the vets to keep themselves update, but this is hardly happening in the dept. The national and international training are continuously going on in different subjects and disciplines, but making availability to appropriate person and advance pre- planning is lacking, due to the lethargic atmosphere, thus it hampers the progress of all. This is why i request to intervene swiftly.

10. STATUTARY INSTITUTES:

Maharashtra State Veterinary Council is a statutory constitutional body of Govt. of Maharashtra, established under the provisions of Indian Veterinary council act. 1984. This body is non functional since its establishment. No authority has tried to make it active, may be because this body might prove hurdle for them. This is very pragmatic behavior of the authority than idealistic towards MSVC.

Profession is noble its army is undernourished due these multiple reasons, we request through this article to all authorities of state level and national level to extend faith and trust on us and give us power and give chance to prove. Hon officers I also request to pay attentions to the resolutions passed by governments like doubling the income of the farmers, employment generation through A.H activities, soil fertility and organic carbon level of the soil etc can be brought in reality only and only with the help of veterinarians. We along with our different organization from government, NGO, private sectors, etc. assure you a complete constructive unconditional support towards these objectives.

Unless, authorities prepare concrete plan to rejuvenate every veterinary institute, empower the LDO’s, the major decisions of government as said earlier will otherwise a nightmare. As a result, it is for sure that authorities will blame LDO’s for failure or weak outcome. By putting forth every fatal lacuna in the system, on the eve of WORLD VETERINARY DAY 2019, I hope, concerned authorities will take serious cognizance of the matter and act on it optimistically to empower the basic unit and eventually empower the livestock owners, farmers of this state.

Dr Yeshwant D Waghmare.

Livestock Development Officer.

p.s Vaijapur dist-Aurangabad

MEMBER -MSVC NAGPUR.

Ph-020-25692135, Mob-09422006913.

ydwaghmare@gmail.com