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Dissolution of MCI undemocratic: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Describing the dissolution of the Medical Council of India as undemocratic, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday said the removal of Ketan Desai as president of the MCI was a much belated, but required step.

The prima facie evidence of corruption at the top level of the MCI required government intervention. The CPI (M) had urged the government in Parliament to remove Dr. Desai and ensure accountability in and parliamentary oversight of the MCI through amendments to the MCI Act while protecting the Council's autonomy, the party said in a statement here.

However, utilising the occasion to remove Dr. Desai, the government brought in an ordinance to dissolve the council shortly after the parliament session. The government should have taken the House into confidence before dissolving an autonomous body set up through an Act of Parliament, it said.

Furthermore, since health is a State subject and medical education is on the concurrent list, the Centre should have consulted the State governments by calling an emergency meeting of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, the party said. The State governments had their representatives in the dissolved Council. The seven-member Board of Governors appointed through the ordinance consisted entirely of the Central government nominees. This, it said, was a violation of federal principles and injustice to the States.

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