The Government on Thursday approved the reconstitution of Medical Council of India (MCI) with former Director General Health Services RK Srivastava replacing KK Talwar as Chairman of the Council’s Board of Governors.
The tenure of the BoG headed by Talwar was mired in controversies beginning with the exit of former MCI Secretary Sangeeta Sharma who had alleged that the former’s behaviour was “insulting” and “humiliating”.
“The formal notification in respect of the MCI reconstitution would be issued tomorrow by the Health Ministry,” said sources in the Health Ministry.
The new seven-member board to run the apex medical regulator, approved by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, will have a term of six months within which MCI elections is to be held and the original democratic structure of the Council restored. The Government has already moved a new bill in this regard which is yet to be passed in Parliament.
An ordinance was on Thursday issued by the Government for putting in place the new MCI Board of Governors (BoG) to run the medical regulator. The Union Cabinet had approved the issuance of such an ordinance.
The term of last BoG expired on May 13, necessitating issuance of an ordinance to form a new board until Parliament passes the new Indian Medical Council Amendment Act, which provides for restoration of elected MCI and fixes the tenure of its President to root out corruption.
Besides Talwar, the Ministry has also dropped renowned cardiologist Dr Puroshottam lal, who is also Director, Metro Hospitals, NOIDA from the BoG while those retained are Kailash Sharma of Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai and K Mohan Das, Vice-Chancellor, Kerala University.
The other new members of the Board of Governors are Raja Babu Panwar, Vice-Chancellor, Rajasthan Health University; B K Rao, former chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi and current chairman at Gangaram’s Critical Care Unit, A K Bardan, a West Bengal-based cardiologist and Manoj Singh, Professor of Pathology at AIIMS, New Delhi.