Published Oct 06, 2026 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 06, 2026 | 8:00 AM
The Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited
There was a time when being appointed Managing Director (MD) of the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) was a serious posting.
Now, it appears to be a posting that comes with an unusual occupational hazard: the possibility that the appointee may not actually turn up.
The Health Department has reached the rather awkward stage of having to keep looking for someone willing to occupy the MD’s chair at KMSCL, the agency at the heart of the state’s medicine procurement and distribution system.
The latest solution is decidedly internal.
With two IAS officers appointed in succession failing to assume charge, the government has temporarily handed the MD’s responsibilities to General Manager RU Rakesh.
The order, issued on 29 September, said the arrangement will continue until a regular Managing Director takes charge.
The government’s decision followed a report from the KMSCL Administrative Officer that the absence of an MD was affecting day-to-day functioning, major operations, policy decisions and important transactions.
The curious chain of events began on 11 September, when Anu S Nair, IAS, NHM State Mission Director, was appointed Commissioner of Food Safety and given full additional charge of KMSCL Managing Director.
There was, however, one small administrative detail missing from the arrangement: the new MD did not take charge.
By 24 September, the KMSCL Administrative Officer had formally brought the matter to the government’s notice.
With the corporation functioning without its designated head, the department sought an interim arrangement.
The government then tried another IAS officer.
On 25 September, H Dineshan IAS, Commissioner for Land Revenue, was entrusted with full additional charge as KMSCL MD.
Again, the chair remained vacant.
Four days later came the third move — not another search for an IAS officer, but a promotion of sorts for the man already inside the building.
Rakesh, the General Manager, was asked to hold the fort until a regular MD arrives.
In bureaucratic Keralam, this could perhaps be described as a game of musical chairs in which the music stopped, but nobody wanted the chair.
The timing makes the episode particularly uncomfortable.
KMSCL has been under the spotlight following complaints and political controversy over shortages of medicines in government hospitals.
Health Minister K Muraleedharan had himself intervened as the issue gathered momentum, even as differing public statements over the extent of the shortage added another layer to the controversy.
At precisely such a moment, the corporation responsible for ensuring the supply chain has found itself without a regular MD.
There is another reason the post may have lost some of its glamour.
KMSCL has been facing vigilance scrutiny in connection with several matters, including alleged irregularities in the procurement of bleaching powder, transactions during the Covid period and allegations concerning the purchase of medicines at inflated prices.
The inquiries themselves do not establish wrongdoing, but the continuing scrutiny has clearly added to the sensitivity surrounding the corporation.
The result is an administrative paradox.
The government needs a strong hand at KMSCL precisely when the institution is facing questions over procurement and medicine supply.
Yet the succession of appointments suggests that finding someone willing to take charge has become a problem in itself.
For now, Rakesh has the chair.
It is temporary, the order makes clear.
Which leaves the Health Department with one requirement: finding someone – an IAS officer – who will actually sit in it.
