D P Karade and K G Agarwal, medical officers of Arthur Road Central Jail, have been transferred to the government-run G T Hospital and St George's Hospital respecively. They have been replaced by K S Dange and U P Hendre.

S A Deshmukh and M S Patil of Yerwada Central Jail, Pune, have been shifted to the local government hospital, with M B Gadwe now taking their place. S S Wabale of Nasik Central Jail will be replaced by R N Kanodkar, while Nagpur Central Jail's medical officer K G Rokde has been transferred to the Government Medical College and Hospital. D K Rathod has been posted at Aurangabad Central Jail on a vacant post, and B S Baviskar of Thane Central Jail shifted to G T Hospital. S S Khandelwal will take Baviskar's place.

``The committee comprising G C Tripathi and medicaleducation secretary T C Benjamin had recommended that the tenure of medical officers attached to central jails should not be of more than a year. In accordance with the recommedations, the government has shifted them with immediate effect,'' a senior official of the health department said.

The high-level committee was appointed by the Sena-BJP government to probe the reason for the escape of dreaded gangster Firoz Konkani last year. For a minor ailment, Konkani had been brought to the JJ group of hospitals from Thane Central Jail under heavy police bandobast. However, at JJ, Konkani opened fire at police officials on duty and escaped.

Though the committee failed to fix responsibility in its report, it recommended that the tenure of medical officers attached to central jails should not be of more than one year and that basic medical facilities should be provided to prisoners in the jail premises itself.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the medical education department expressed surprise over thedepartment's failure to take disciplinary action against nine doctors for their alleged nexus with criminals.

Following a series of reports in Express Newsline, the then chief minister Manohar Joshi had appointed a five-member committee headed by KEM Hospital Dean Pragnya Pai to probe the underworld links of a section of doctors attached to the government-run Grant Medical College. The committee confirmed that at least nine doctors were linked to criminals. Though the report was submitted to the government in November last year, barring a show-cause notice, no action has been taken so far against the nine doctors.

``The doctors were given seven days' time to reply to the show-cause notice. That was in December, when the Nagpur session of the legislature was in progress. Subsequently, there has been no progress. In fact, one of the doctors has already retired from government service,'' the official said.