Emergency ward
The only thing surprising about the arrest of Ketan Desai, the supra-babu type president of the Medical Council of India (MCI) really was why the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took so long to arrest this man. Over the
years information had been pouring in from all over to the CBI against Desai. He had monopolised all powers to approve new medical colleges through a set of babu-like inspectors who were only his men. Desai had everyone on his payroll. Luckily, the health minister and his bunch of new officers have worked hard to protect their reputation and turf, and taken a serious view and now set up a team to probe corruption in MCI.
The health minister’s opinion is that, clearly the provisions of the India Medical Council Act, 1956, are inadequate to ensure transparent, healthy and constructive decision-making within the council. The law governing the MCI is more than five decades old and the latest attempt to amend it failed following “adverse comments” by the parliamentary standing committee.
Government has now pinned its hopes on a proposed overarching body to regulate all genres of medical education in the country. The ministry’s proposal for the new body — National Council for Human Resources in Health — that will help stem the rot in the system was tactically announced in the President’s address last June. The amendments that minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s babus, led by Sujatha Rao, health secretary, had proposed dealt with issues such as limiting the tenures of MCI president and vice-president to two terms, according the Centre the power to dissolve the council’s executive committee and remove its president and enabling the government to issue directions to the council.
Mr Azad wants an over-arching body not only for medical education, but also for the Dental Council, for Ayurveda, for nursing and for our paramedical staff. Consultations are on with state governments on the proposed National Council for Human Resources on Health Bill, which provides for exactly such an over-arching body. Once this body comes into being, existing bodies will be subsumed in that.
The only question that will remain then is, will babus get too powerful in the new set up? But, more importantly, we will be watching how fine will Mr Azad’s broom sweeps through these dirty stables of medical education, or will Kapil Sibal’s education babus fish in these wards of shame?
Post new comment