The Department of Ayush has removed Dr S Boopathiraj from the director of the Chennai-based National Institute of Siddha (NIS), due to unsatisfactory performance during the last one year of his probation in the post. Dr Manicka Vasakam, professor of General Medicine in the Institute, has been made the new director.

P K Jha, director of Ayush told Pharmabiz over telephone from New Delhi that Dr Boopathiraj was on probation and the department has reviewed his general performance of the period and found it has not been such as to justify his confirmation in the service. Boopathiraj was appointed the director of the institute by Ayush one year ago. Before that he was working in the Tamil Nadu state government service.

"We had the post of a director there at the NIS in Chennai one year ago. We published it in a newspaper. He came through by responding to the advertisement. His appointment was as Director on probation for a period of one year. But during his tenure Ayush has reviewed his activities and performances and found no substantial improvement within the specified period. So the department has considered the question of discharging him from the duty," the director of Ayush said.

According to information received from certain sources, Dr Boopathiraj has filed a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) against the order of his discharging from duty. Sources said before going to CAT, he approached the Chennai High Court, but the court did not allow him to file the petition as there was no provision because the case was pertaining to Central government service.

When contacted some of the staff in the NIS, they said the director was not inclined to communicate with the staff members and spoke very little, and that was on official matters. The present director and some of the staff said they do not know the reason of the removal and added they also wonder why the department has taken such a drastic step.

During Boopathiraj's tenure the Institute has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tuberculosis Research Centre, ICMR, Chennai for evaluating the efficacies of Siddha drugs in treating Tuberculosis and MDR-TB. But no concrete progress has made so far, according to some sources.