Karwar: “Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Director Dr Shivanand Dodmani is involved in several scams. So, he must be immediately transferred,” demanded members of Janashakthi Vedike who staged a protest rally putting forth this demand in Karwar on Friday.

The protesters hung a board reading ‘ambulance’ to a pushcart and put a siren on it. A man slept on the pushcart acting like a patient. The protest rally was taken out with this mock demonstration. The rally passed through Pikale Road, Savita Circle, Green Street and culminated at the deputy commissioner’s office. Later, the protesters submitted a memorandum to Assistant Commissioner Abhijin.

Addressing the protesters, Vedike president Madhav Nayak said that there are several criminal cases against Dr Shivanand Dodmani. As per norms, a director of a medical college cannot continue to hold the post for more than four years. However, Dodmani is serving as the director of Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences for the last five years. In this way, the guidelines had been thrown to wind and the government was indirectly encouraging corruption, he complained.

Nayak said that the service term of Dodmani ended in August 2018. Notification inviting applications to fill the post of the Institute director were published in newspapers for three times. However, no interviews were conducted paving way for a corrupt person to continue in the post.

Nayak said that they had brought the issue to the notice of Medical Education Minister Tukaram and District In-charge Minister R V Deshpande. But they did not act and Dodmani has continued to rule the institute. This propelled them to stage a protest.

Rama Naik, Anu Kalas, Sangeeta Naik and others were part of the protest rally.