The CPI(M) Politburo has urged the Government to withdraw the “regressive” National Medical Commission Bill and Higher Education Commission of India Bill.
In a statement, the CPI(M) Politburo said that intellectuals, academicians, teachers and students must resist the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, intent to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), citing the draft of the new bill. The party also observed that the National Medical Commission Bill (NMC) Bill is an attempt to bureaucratise and corportise the health care, medical education.
“The Polit Bureau called upon educationists, intellectuals, teaching fraternity, students and all other concerned individuals and organisationsto build a broad resistance to the proposed Higher Education Commission of India. The NDA-II Government has repeatedly targeted Public-funded Higher Education and Research in the last four years. It has been asking public-funded Higher Educational institutions to generate a part of their costs through internal resources and loans, drastically reducing seats and fellowships for M.Phil and Ph.D. research programmes, further curtailing SC/ST reservations, andpromoting short-term contractual employment of faculty and administrativestaff instead of permanent recruitment,” said CPI(M).
Urging the Government to withdraw the Bill, the CPI(M) alleged that the proposed National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill is a systematic attack on whatever little achievement we have made in the realm of medical education, science, research and health care system. Instead of reforming and strengthening the Medical Council of India (MCI),what is sought to be put in place is a bureaucratic organisation negating the federal structure of our Constitution, said CPI(M). “In its attempt to appease the giant MNCs, corporatisation of health system and suppressing dissenting voices, the all-important ‘patient’ is criminally ignored. Both medical education and health care system will be costlier and beyond the reach ofthe poor, backward and marginalised sections of our population,” said CPIM).