NMC BILL SENT TO STANDING COMMITTEE

New Delhi: The contentious National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which seeks to overhaul medical education and replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) has been sent to a standing committee by Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The House Panel has been asked to submit its report on the NMC Bill before the budget session.

The bill had triggered wide protests from doctors whose apex body – Indian Medical Association (IMA) -- had called for a strike on Tuesday, as also the opposition parties.

Making a statement in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that various parties, including those from the opposition and the ruling NDA, had wanted the bill to be sent to the standing committee and the government has agreed to this.

He, however, requested Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to ask the committee to submit its report before the Budget Session, which is expected to start by this month end, as a new law has to be brought at the earliest, following an order of the Supreme Court and a standing committee report.

Following this, Mahajan made a brief statement and sought that the report of the standing committee be tabled before the budget session. Normally, committees are given a period of three months but there was already one standing committee report on the matter, she noted.

Health Minister JP Nadda had introduced the Bill in the House last Friday amid protests from Congress members, who had demanded that the Bill be sent to the standing committee.

The IMA had strongly opposed the bill, saying it will “cripple” the functioning of medical professionals by making them answerable to the bureaucracy and non-medical administrators.

Declaring “Black Day”, the apex body of doctors had on Tuesday given a call for the strike. It, however, called the protest off after the bill was sent to the committee.

While supporting the Bill, Health Minister said that the new body would be beneficial to the medical profession.

“This is beneficial to the medical profession,” Nadda said in the Rajya Sabha after members raised the issue of strike by the doctors across the country against the Bill.

Besides seeking to replace the MCI with a new body, the Bill also proposes to allow alternative medicine graduates to practise allopathy after completing a “bridge course”. Nadda had also held talks with IMA members on Monday to clear doubts about the Bill.

Earlier, raising the issue, Naresh Agarwal of Samajwadi Party said that many patients have died due to the strike called to oppose the Bill that will enable superseding of the elected medical professionals’ body.

The leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the government should take initiative to end the strike.