NEW DELHI: It has been three years since the formation of the National Medical Commission (NMC). However, its members, including its chairman, have failed to disclose their assets on the website in violation of the NMC Act 2019. Despite repeated RTIs and appeals, the 31-member NMC — whose terms will be over by September 25, 2024 — continues to stonewall the issue.
Non-compliance with the NMC Act is professional misconduct and means that in addition to their removal from the posts, their license to practise can be suspended.
Speaking to this paper, Kerala-based RTI activist Dr K V Babu said he had flagged the issue with the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and wrote to him on August 15. Apart from that, he has also filed three RTI applications, followed by two appeals.
“I have written to the Union Health Minister. I have filed three RTIs and two appeals regarding the assets disclosure stand of the NMC, including its chairperson Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma. But there has been no reply from them. They are stonewalling the issue,” said Dr Babu, an ophthalmologist.
In fact, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 25, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, had said that Section 6(6) of the National Medical Commission Act 2019 provides that the chairperson and every member of the commission shall make declaration of his assets and liabilities at the time of entering the office and while demitting the office.
“As per the information provided by NMC, the chairperson and members have submitted the prescribed declaration,” the minister said.
However, Babu said that the minister’s reply in Parliament was incomplete. “She said copies of assets were submitted but was silent regarding uploading on the website, which is the laid regulation,” he stated.
“It took over 75 years for the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) to be non-transparent. But it took NMC three years to become an opaque body,” Babu added.
The MCI was replaced with NMC after sharp criticism from the Supreme Court and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health in 2016 that the medical body that monitored medical education in India was not transparent in functioning and was plagued by corruption.
