Ordinance to scrap MCI,appoint panel

In place of the present MCI team,the government intends to appoint seven eminent medical practitioners and health experts to do the job that the MCI is performing at present. The government would have no role in the new set-up.

However,the ordinance would be in effect only till the next session of Parliament and the future course or action would be decided thereafter.

The reason for the government’s decision to bring in the ordinance is that the chief of the MCI,Dr Ketan Desai,was arrested last month by the CBI for allegedly striking a Rs 2 crore deal for giving permission to a private medical college in Patiala for admission of next batch. While,Desai has been in CBI custody since last month,he resigned from the post on Wednesday.

At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting,Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad explained the salient features of the proposed ordinance to his ministerial colleagues.

Despite repeated demands for government intervention in stemming the rot at taint-ridden MCI,the Health Ministry has been unable to do anything due to lack of legislative support.

The Indian Medical Council Act,which regulates the functioning of the MCI,does not allow the Health Ministry to intervene in case of any wrongdoing by the MCI.

Out of the 120 MCI members,only eight are central government nominees.

Azad is learnt to have informed the Cabinet that a similar problem had occurred in 2005 and the ministry had not been able to do anything even then. To this,many

ministers said the government could not remain silent observer as arbitrary acts of the MCI and other similar bodies directly affected the public at large. Some ministers even went to the extent of saying that the Health Ministry could be accused of remaining a mute spectator if despite recent events it did nothing.

Sometime back,the Parliamentary Committee on Health had also recommended legislation to keep MCI and other independent bodies in check. However,at the same time,the Committee had refused to support complete governmental control over MCI affairs,saying that it could destroy the council’s autonomy.

The Centre,meanwhile,is also working on bringing in a legislation to provide for an over-reaching regulatory mechanism over and above the bodies involved in health education.

This body would be a national regulatory body over and above the Medical Council of India,Dental Council of India and Paramedical Council which have been controlling the standards of medical education so far.