J&K hospital cracks whip against staff for leaving post during Indo-Pak conflict

May 13, 2025

RAJOURI: The Government Medical College (GMC) and Hospital in Rajouri has said it will not release salaries of several of its staff members who were found absent from duty during the armed conflict between India and Pakistan, an official said on Tuesday.

The punished workers include faculty, consultants, senior residents, junior residents, staff nurses, paramedical staff, technical staff, ministerial staff, multi-tasking staff, interns, and many others who fled the town on May 7, the order read.

"Furthermore, the said period shall be treated as unauthorized absence, and appropriate entries shall be made in their service records/service books in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations," Principal, GMC Rajouri Prof (Dr) A S Bhatia said in the order.

The facility serves as a key medical institution for the entire Pir Panjal region spread across border districts of Rajouri and Poonch both worst-hit in the artillery and mortar shelling by Pakistan.

At least 20 of the total 28 deaths in the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir were reported from the two districts, with over 50 others injured.

The dead included Rajouri Additional District Development Commissioner Raj Kumar Thappa, who lost his life when a shell hit his residential compound in Rajouri town on May 10.