Following directives from the health department, the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) authorities finally handed over the charge of the superintendent to Dr Kausik Samajdar on Wednesday.

The development came hours after the Medical Council of India (MCI) raised questions as to why no one was given the superintendent’s charge. In a letter issued on 29 March, the health department had removed former superintended Dr Maitrayee Kar and asked her to join as associate professor in the department of anatomy at the Malda Medical College and Hospital.

NBMCH authorities, however, received the order on 2 April. Dr Kar was supposed to hand over the charge to Dr Samajdar on 7 April. Head of the department of microbiology, Dr Arunava Sarkar, was in-charge of the superintendent.

Principal Dr Samir Ghosh Roy handed over the charge to Dr Samajdar. In the meantime, Dr Kar courted controversy after her reluctance to hand over the charge even after her removal.

“The health department asked the NBMCH authorities on Wednesday to hand over the charge to Dr Kausik Samajdar as the superintendent. Dr Samajdar has taken the charge,” the director of medical education, Dr Debasis Bhattacharya, said.

According to formal procedures, the outgoing head hands over charge to his/her successor by bringing to his/her knowledge the activities and plans of the department.

However, such a thing did not happen at the NBMCH this time around. The way the charge was handed over on Wednesday was perhaps the first instance in the history of the 50 years of NBMCH, sources said.

Meanwhile, an MCI team visited the NBMCH on Wednesday and enquired about the superintendent. After they were told of the situation, sources said they raised questions as to why the new superintendent had not taken over charge yet.

“This prompted the health department to intervene in the matter,” sources said.

It is learnt that the threemember team–head of the department of community medicine of Koppal Institute of Medical Sciences, Karnataka Yuvraj BY, Prof BC Dutta of the department of anatomy, Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Assam, and Prof Girish Thakur, head of ENT and dean of Government Medical College, Latur, Maharashtra– visited the NBMCH at around 9 am on Wednesday.

According to the sources, the trio visited the various departments and also the college and checked the attendance of the faculties. The purpose of the visit was to examine the infrastructure for 150 MBBS seats, it is learnt.

The MCI did not approve 150 MBBS seats following the last visit (21 February) of its team. The visit was meant to look into the infrastructure at the college for admissions in those seats for the academic session 2018-2019.

The MCI had slashed 50 of the 150 MBBS seats in the last academic session (2017-18), citing inadequate infrastructure. During the earlier visit, the MCI had raised questions on Dr Kar’s administrative experience required for her to be at the NBMCH helm.

Dr Kar, who had joined as the medical superintendent on 27 December 2016, also tendered her resignation on 26 February after a section of doctors, who are not directly involved with the NBMCH, allegedly made efforts to remove her over the MCI’s experience concern issue.