The beginning of the new year, it seems, didn't bring much cheer for the employees of the Medical Council of India. Instead, for these 100-odd employees, it brought to the fore the big question—if the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, is passed, and the MCI is dissolved, what about our jobs?
On the first day of the new year, 95 employees of the MCI wrote a letter to the PMO requesting that their jobs be protected if the bill was passed. The NMC Bill, 2017, proposes to replace the MCI with a new 25-member body called the National Medical Commission.
The letter, a copy of which is with THE WEEK, says though it was for the Parliament and the government to decide the "way forward for healthcare and regulation of medical education and medical profession", the employees were unhappy with a provision in the bill that said after the dissolution of the MCI, their services would be terminated, and they would be handed a severance package.
The NMC Bill, 2017, has been drafted by a three-member committee at the Niti Aayog, chaired by former vice chairman Arvind Panagariya. This draft was based on the recommendations of a parliamentary standing committee that studied the the functioning of the MCI, and submitted a report in 2016. The committee found that the MCI had failed in its mandate of regulating medical education and the profession, and proposed restructuring the body.
The draft prepared by the Niti Aayog was then sent to the union ministry of health and family welfare, and the final version of the bill was introduced in the Parliament on December 29 by Health Minister J.P. Nadda. This week, the bill was sent to the parliamentary standing committee, following opposition in the Lok Sabha, particularly from the Indian Medical Association as well as some of the BJP's own MPs over several clauses in the draft law. The committee has been asked to submit its report before the upcoming budget session.
Meanwhile, MCI employees have been contemplating the fate of their own jobs in the event of the bill going through. An MCI, official who did not want to be named, said according to the second provision of Second 58 of the proposed law, once the new body to replace MCI came into effect, services of current employees would be terminated with "immediate effect", and they would be given three months of pay. This clause would have "disastrous consequences" for over 100 regular employees of the MCI.
"The salary that we earn is the only source of livelihood for our families. We emphasise that all employees are working with utmost sincerity and full dedication...merely because of (a) few black sheep, the entire staff cannot and should not be penalised by depriving them of their employment," the letter says.
The employees have also asked the government to either utilise their services in the new commission, or in any other establishment of the government. MCI secretary told THE WE|EK that the organisation was accused of "inspector raj" only because it had been enforcing "stringent regulations" to enforce quality in medical education in accordance with the rules of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1962.
