New Committee on MCI reforms, Parliamentarian Questions Intent

The issue of MCI restructuring has caused quite a ruckus in the parliament with the move of the government to appoint a fresh panel to suggest the reforms for the Apex Medical Regulator.

This has indeed not gone well with some, who have questioned the need of a new committee report, when already a larger standing committee on health is given its recommendations, earlier this year.

Parliamentary standing committee on Health submitted its report the Parliament on March 8 this year, calling for radical reforms to the system. The very next day BJP MP Om Prakash Yadav filed a petition on MCI reforms and the issue was taken up by the petitions committee.

Following this, on May 21st, 2016, Lok Sabha Secretariat announced that a petitions committee will now study the medical reforms needed in the country. The  15 member committee further sought memoranda from "experts, individuals, institutions, organisations and other stakeholders interested in the subject matter" by June 10, after which it will take oral evidence through hearings.

The move with the petitions committee has not gone well with the parliament standing committee which has already given its report after a rigorous study of 1 year.

Jairam ramesh, one of the members of the Standing Committee, is reported by TOI to have sent a letter to the Chairman of the petitions committee, BS Koshyari, clearly stating that he and fellow members "had spent almost a year and prepared the report after a great deal of consultations, deliberations and discussions". The letter added that "the petitions committee is going to virtually repeat this exercise”.

In a well worded letter, he questioned the motives behind the petitions committee taking up the issue. The letter clearly said that he hoped that this did not mean that "radical surgery of the MCI, as recommended by the standing committee unanimously and unreservedly, and the surgery so very badly and urgently needed but so very stoutly being resisted by many politically influential people, is not going to become a reality soon”.

There are many who have voiced their concerns that the recommendations of the parliamentary committee could dilute the impact of the standing committee’s report.

The question of the hour is

It is reported that the Standing committee had clearly called for radical reforms of the MCI and had not gone well with the private medical college lobby. Questions are also being raised pointing out to the growing nexus between the Indian politicians and private medical college lobby, where several are reported to have MPs have stakes in many private medical colleges.

 Besides the purpose, Questions are also being raised on the constitution of the committee. TOI further reports that Of the 15 members of the petitions committee, four are from states with the highest number of private medical colleges - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala - and three from Uttar Pradesh, which has witnessed a rash of private medical colleges being opened in the last five years, many of which have been accused of admission fraud and poor facilities. The quorum to constitute a sitting of the committee is just five. So five of the 15 MPs are enough to hold hearings and prepare a report.

With the new parliamentary committee taking up the issue ,it can be deduced that recommendations of both the Standing as well as the Parliamentary committee will be put forward before the government, who will later pick and chose points to bring out further "reforms."