Govt Dissolves Medical Council Of India, New Doctors-Led Body To Replace It

On September 26, the government of India dissolved the Medical Council of India, the body that regulates medical education in the country and with an ordinance, replaced it with a seven-member Board of Governors (BoG).

The BoG will be in charge of medical education for one year and then the National Medical Commission, which was meant to replace MCI after National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017 is cleared in the parliament. The Bill is still pending in Lok Sabha, reported The New Indian Express.

The seven members in the BoG include three doctors from the AIIMS- Dr VK Paul (former HoD paediatrics and current member, Niti Aayog), Dr Randeep Guleria (director) and Dr Nikhil Tandon (professor of endocrinology), reported Hindustan Times.

Dr Jagat Ram (director-PGI Chandigarh) and Dr BN Gangadhar (director- National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) are the two other doctors and there are two ex-officio members Dr S Venkatesh (Director General of Health Services) and Dr Balram Bhargava (Director General- Indian Council of Medical Research).

Charges of corruption

Top officials in the Union Health and Family Welfare ministry, exclusively told The New Indian Express, that the step had to be taken after a Supreme Court-appointed oversight committee(OC) that was looking after the MCI ‘resigned in disgust’ earlier this month.

A senior surgeon while talking to The Logical Indian said, “They say they are dissolving the body because of corruption, as if, BJP government is not corrupt. Anyway, the interests of doctors and surgeons like us were not being served by the MCI. We hope that after the National Medical Commission is formed we would be benefitted.”

“The MCI was non-compliant and non-cooperative throughout, and it was the second time an apex court-appointed OC (the first one was headed by former CJI RM Lodha) put in its papers — so urgent action was needed,” an official in the ministry said. The SC appointed the committee due to the prevalence of rampant corruption in MCI.

The BoG in its first meeting said “We discussed several administrative issues today. Government has found this to be an appropriate measure at this point in time, so we welcome it…”

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said: “The term of the elected body of the MCI…ends in the first week of November. Since there is no parliament session in-between, the issue had become an area of uncertainty. So, the government decided to form an interim committee on the lines of the Supreme Court-nominated oversight committee.”

Also read: Under Criticism Of Corruption, Union Cabinet Approves Bill To Replace Medical Council Of India With National Medical Commission