NEW DELHI: : The Centre on Tuesday tabled amendments to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 in the Rajya Sabha seeking to streamline the Council's functioning. The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, if passed, will give overriding powers to the Union Health Ministry to reject decisions taken by the MCI — the regulatory body of medical education in the country.

The Bill seeks to make provision for accommodating four government representatives in the MCI executive council instead of just one. It proposes to have the Director-General of Health Services, the Director-General of the Armed Forces Medical Services, the Director of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and the president of the National Board of Examinations as Government representatives in the council.

Representation pattern

The amendment also seeks to change the representation pattern in the MCI to create a level playing field for some States that have brought medical colleges under one university. Now,States with more medical colleges have greater representation. As per the new Bill, a State can send one representative for every 10 colleges.

Importantly, the Bill seeks to empower the Government to remove the MCI president and vice-president in case of charges of corruption or misuse of office.If a dichotomy between the Ministry and MCI arises, the Government's decision will prevail.

Explaining the reasons for bringing in the changes, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the MCI had lost its representative character due to a large number of vacancies in the elected category, lack of interactions between State medical councils and MCI and representations given to the categories which are no more in existence.

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