Pitting bureaucrats against the medicos, Kaimur District Magistrate Jai Singh earlier this week directed officials to display the pictures of the best and worst five doctors on the basis of their performances.

Furious, the Bihar unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) asked the state government do the same for district magistrates and department secretaries on the basis of their performance.

The Bihar State Health Services Association (BSHSA) also expressed its displeasure and demanded immediate withdrawal of the directive.

"The order is nothing but a diktat to demoralise government doctors, who are working hard to improve healthcare facilities," IMA secretary Rajiv Ranjan said at a press conference.

"If performance is the criteria, it should be applicable to doctors as well as bureaucrats," he said.

IMA president Arun Kumar Thakur added that the district magistrate's directive was illegal and would "badly affect the health delivery system in the state".

IMA officials said the government must prevent bureaucrats from issuing such directives in the interest of doctors and patients.

BSHSA general secretary Ajay Kumar echoed the demand. The directive, he told reporters, had "again exposed the increasing bureaucratic interference in the state's health sector".

Bureaucrats had failed to provide healthcare facilities to the people, particularly the poor, he said.

"District magistrates, being the head of district health societies, treat civil surgeons and medical officers as their peons."