Union Cabinet approves bill to replace MCI

It will also have 11 part-time members of which five will be doctors who are elected to the commission.

According to a statement from the government, between 16 and 22 members of the commission will be doctors.

The selected members are to be picked by a search committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

The new bill also does away with the annual renewal previously needed for medical colleges — another source of corruption.

“This is the end of heavy handed regulatory control over medical education institutions and a shift towards outcome based monitoring is one of the prominent aims of the bill,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.

The NMC bill also introduces a national licentiate examination which every candidate, who completes five years of MMBS course, will have to clear to become a medical practitioner or get entry into post-graduation studies.

Currently, a candidate clears National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) to get admission in a medical college, completes five year course and gets registered in the State Medical Council to practice medical profession.

The national licentiate examination will bring even those students who do medical education from abroad at par with those who graduate from Indian institutions.

The National Medical Council will also have the power to regulate the tuition fee for at least 40% of the seats in private medical colleges.

It also has the power to charge colleges that flout any of its rules a penalty of up to ten times the annual tuition fee. The news report, ‘Joyride turns fatal....’ carried in Friday’s edition of Hindustan Times, erroneously mentioned that Raghav Mehra, who died in the accident, was a student of DPS Indirapuram.

The error is regretted.

THE NEW BILL ALSO DOES AWAY WITH THE ANNUAL RENEWAL PREVIOUSLY NEEDED FOR MEDICAL COLLEGES — ANOTHER SOURCE OF CORRUPTION