Chennai: The Central government’s Bill for creating the National Medical Commission (NMC) in place of Medical Council of India (MCI) continues to draw criticism with members of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association (TNGDA) condemning the government’s decision.
The MCI, which has been monitoring the registry, ethics and medical education for decades, has been receiving serious opposition from Central government for its alleged ‘corrupt’ practices.
“To our knowledge the only incident in decades to allege corruption in MCI is the case of an office-bearer (former president) of the council having been pulled up, and later arrested for alleged corrupt practices. It was alleged that crores of rupees were seized from his house,” said president, TNGDA, K. Senthil.
Terming the Central Government’s decision ‘hideous’, a government doctor said “When a political party member is deemed corrupt, the party is not abolished, but the member is made to leave the party. Why then is the government trying to abolish MCI?”
Reports against MCI have alleged that the council failed due to many factors including lack of medical graduates, (1:1000 ratio not reached); faculty shortage for which the council has not taken steps; lack of interest on the part of faculties in certain specialties as the council failed to ensure adequate salary, uneven distribution of medical colleges in the country and capitation fee and selling of UG and PG seats and lack of ethics among practitioners.
“We have done our best to ensure there is no corruption in medical colleges. In the past two years, we denied license to a number of colleges due to various reasons, including improper infrastructure. However the Lodha Committee gave its approval to some of the colleges without inspecting them. It claimed that it had checked their website and they seemed good,” said a source in MCI.
With the government accusing the council of corruption, the source demanded that it identify the specific corrupt practice instead of being vague.
Expert says
According to Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association (TNGDA) president K. Senthil, due to MCI's strict supervision, it is ensured there are no medical colleges without proper buildings for hospital, faculty and college block, hostel or even without an air-conditioned library and examination hall. Though manipulations exist with temporary or part-time faculty, no faculty can be registered in more than one college.
Though there is manipulation of census or lab data, however, during inspections no one is spared in case of deficiency in percentage with regard to out patient bed occupancy. High-end equipment are there in all colleges.
MCI brought in Neet in 2013, which was quashed by Supreme Court. It appealed for the same again in 2016 and Neet is being implemented for private colleges this year.
