The bill recommends imposing monetary penalty on errant medical colleges up to 10 times the annual tuition fee to correct standards
In yet another twist in the debate to overhaul medical education system of the country, the National Medical Commission Bill 2017 has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health for comments.
Introduced in Lok Sabha at the fag end of December last year, the bill was initially slated to come up for discussion in the lower house on Tuesday. Instead of taking it up for discussion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anant Kumar informed the house, "Those who opposed the bill demanded that the bill should be sent to the standing committee. The government is ready to send the bill to the standing committee. I would request the speaker to ask the standing committee to give their recommendations before the budget session."
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in reply said, "This is the second time that the bill is being sent to the Standing Committee. So the committee should give its recommendations before the budget session."
After the bill was referred to the Standing Committee, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) doctors who had earlier called for a strike from between 6 am to 6 pm on Tuesday to oppose the provisions of the bill, called off their strike prematurely before evening.
The bill recommends imposing monetary penalty on errant medical colleges up to 10 times the annual tuition fee to correct standards. Currently, the Medical Council of India is empowered to cancel recognition/renewal of license to admit students.
As per the provisions of the draft bill, no permission would be needed to add new seats or start postgraduate courses in a medical college. The bill states that NMC can appoint third party agencies for carrying out inspections of medical instituitions.
The NMC bill is being opposed by doctors across the country for being 'weak.'
The draft bill states that NMC permission is only needed for establishment and recognition of under-graduate courses and not for annual renewal. An automatic increase of seats is allowed. Furthermore, a college will be able to start post-graduate courses on it's own.
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