The TOI expose: Part 3 – Is MCI hand in glove with the erring colleges?
More from the Times of India- Times Now expose:
Even as questions swirl over the impunity with which private medical colleges are charging illegal donations the Medical Council of India (MCI) — themselves have strong links with the offending institutions. ( Watch )
Two senior officials of MCI, the authority tasked with keeping a vigil on medical education, are currently board members of one of the colleges caught demanding capitation fees in a TOI-Times Now investigation. MCI president Ketan Desai and vice-president P C Kesavankutty Nayar are on the board of management of Sri Ramachandra University, which demanded Rs 40 lakh from students seeking MBBS admission.
Incidentally, Desai was asked to step down from the MCI president’s post in 2001 following corruption charges, but was re-elected in March.
‘‘It’s not surprising that we have not had a strong reaction from MCI even three days after the expose,’’ said Dr Sunil Pandya, a member of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society based in Mumbai, which has been fighting for transparency in the functioning of MCI.
Asked about his presence on the SRU board, Desai denied any conflict of interest. ‘‘I am the UGC nominee and my colleague, Nayar, is the MCI nominee. It’s just like how the Dental Council of India members are on the board of several dental colleges. But I have never attended board meetings of SRU for at least three years now. We are there only as ex-officio members,’’ he said.
Dr Sunil Pandya, a member of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society based in Mumbai, which has been fighting for transparency in the functioning of MCI says that these connections are the root cause for the lack of adequate oversight in medical education. ‘‘Why should heads of MCI be members of any medical colleges? There will be bias. An undoctored version of the minutes of the meeting with regard to decisions taken on SRU will probably show how MCI is biased,’’ Dr Pandya said.
Interestingly, he is seconded by former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who agrees there is no need for MCI members to be on the board of any college. When asked why he had not made an attempt to reform the system during his tenure, he said, ‘‘I have won many battles including the one against the tobacco lobby. But I failed with a corrupt body like MCI.’’
MCI’s role in overseeing the sector includes issuing licenses of recognition, reviewing infrastructure and quality of faculty. The TOI bemoans the state of affairs thus:
Six years ago, the Supreme Court ordered an unambiguous ban on capitation fee. But as you can see, it is still thriving — seats in medical colleges are still being sold or even hawked to the highest bidder. This is making a mockery of merit in education and eroding trust in specialized studies in India. And all concerned parties seem to be complicit in this ugly money-making racket that passes off as education.
According to the Delhi High Court, MCI is a ‘den of corruption”, and yet the government has done nothing to clean it up and add moral fibre to the regulator.
Actually, the government is possibly more culpable than just being negligent. It has granted “deemed university” status to unproven and at times questionable educational bodies. The status of “deemed university” is usually given to an institution which has been attached to a university, and over a period of time, proved to be sufficiently efficient, mature and responsible to be able to work autonomously. There are now instances of educational institutions starting off as deemed universities! This makes sarkari recklessness, if not complicity, pretty apparent.
In 2002,Dr Sunil Pandya and Dr Samiran Nundy wrote a piece in the Issues in Medical Ethics . What they said then still holds true-
As is common knowledge, elections to our national and state-level medical councils are fought with just one aim: to enrich oneself personally. Expenditure of huge sums; a total lack of scruples; political connections; a compulsive desire to grab power by any means, both fair and foul and finally, ruthless pursuit of the goal of personal enrichment are absolute necessities.
Given these conditions, it is not surprising that our medical councils are hopelessly corrupt, incompetent and disinterested in the common good. No wonder, the Delhi High’ Court in a recent judgement labeled the Medical Council of India as ‘a den of corruption’.
The reported sum spent by candidates for election as President of the Medical Council of India exceeds a crore of rupees. Were the actual figure even a tenth of this amount it is easy to see how no honest individual can ever aspire to serve in this position. It is also obvious that a person spending such a huge sum will have as his primary goal the recovery of his capital investment along with ‘adequate’ returns on it in the shortest possible period. The seeds of corruption have already been sown.
People who are in this field are quite aware of all that happens in the domain of the MCI. A cursory look through the reader comments responding to the TOI article will be an eye opener. There are names of colleges, there are names of people— all in the open, but yet, nothing will be done. The puppeteer who handles the strings makes the decisions. And the puppeteer is corrupt!
#respond14 Comments
maxfaxgp on August 30th, 2009
Dr Anshu,
I have been pursuing the issues affecting Medical and Dental Education for a few years. We have a trust called HMA Trust through which we have repeatedly petitioned the Government on various instances of corruption and Nepotism in the medical regulatory bodies. It would be great if we could link up and form a broad front to petition the government on various issues affecting medical education. Great Blog!
George Paul
Dr.Anshu on September 1st, 2009
Thanks George. If the themes are of interest to me, I am game to your plan.
dental ce on September 4th, 2009
Great post. This is a real eye opener. Will keep coming back for updates on the issue.
mangesh on September 18th, 2009
Hi friends. The key goal should be to have a programme on News channels regarding how the medical education in this industry is? And then deal with the other topics such as MCI , DNB and other courses.. this will be a very rewarding way of dealing with this issue
rahul on November 12th, 2009
thiis is nice expose but then it is all that nothing else
does it have any impact on power brokers — NO!!
will it make MCI scrapped —- NO !!!
will it improve functioning of MCI— NO!!
I believe media can play an extremely positive role provided itfoolows up with their investigations.
Untill then this is like any other sandal;news ITEM;Scoop;—–
sanjaydewal79 on January 22nd, 2010
As the above story unfolded there was another story done by Sahara TV wherein it exposed how the Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad was given recognition by (the great!!!) MCI. It opened another pandora box in middle of Sept 2009. The fact as exposed are that the minutes of Executive Committe of MCI in June 2001 or so had approved this college, but the minutes had remained un-approved, because Dr Ketan Desai then President was asked by Uttranchal High court ‘not to function’ or something like that, but his stooge-the then Secretary Dr (Mrs) M. Sachdeva sent a letter within 6 or 7 days of the meeting telling the Central Govt. and the College that it was recognised-naturally a vested interest of both Dr Ketan Desai and Dr Sachdeva. This matter was taken up by the Executive Committee of the MCI under the Presidentship of Dr Ketan Desai some time during last year (obviously after Sept 2009 expose’) and the MCI office was ‘directed’ to treat the matter as “closed”, because the Sahar TV did not supply them the tapes more so in original. On similar more or less grounds the expose’ of SRU – the MCI under Ketan Desai constituted a ‘committee’ who submitted a ‘report’ – naturally absolving Ketan Desai and second-in-command;Dr Kesvankutty Nayar of their involvement in cash for seat scam and report decidedly (by Executive Committee of MCI) sent to Central Govt. All the matters where Ketan wants a legal cover he puts them before Executive Committee and under his own chirmanship or instructions to interim chairman gets the stamp of Ex. Comm. and plays safe for himself. Moreover, members of such committees are always chosen in a way that the concerned Minister has no way not to accept e.g. a person close the the minister from J&K was made a member, given BCRoy Award, sent abroad on MCI expenses and this fellow will sincerely obey dictates of Ketan Desai. But the irony is in the country of nearly 7 lakh doctors-no one dare raise his/her voice for fear of torture at the hands of Ketan Desai or his stooges by way of court cases/complaintsof ethical nature. What happened to Dr Rangabhashyam ? – an adhoc committe member appoinred by Delhi High Court in 2001 when Ketan was removed as president of MCI by the same judgement pronouncing him a corrupt man. This Dr Rangabhashyam raised his voice and he was slammed with ethical complaint by a person brought all the way from Chennai, admitted in Pushpanjali Hospital owned by Dr Vinay Aggarwal (made IMA President later and sent on tours abroad on IMA expenses – another stooge of Ketan), in Delhi and through this fellow complaints against Dr Rangabhashyam were lodged in Delhi High Court and MCI and consumer forum. This resulted in Dr Rangabhashaym withdrwing himself from any anti-Ketan activity/comments to the extent he became a routine absentee in Ex. Comm. of MCI. What did Ketan do to employees of MCI-he not only did not promote the honest person as Secretary, he demoted him, placed under suspension, slammed charges of corruption against him because he was honestly duty conscious assisted the Administrator appointed by Delhi High Court while removing Ketan Desai as President. What did he do to another officer, he terminated him from service altogether because he also assisted the Administrator. What was the fault of few low level employees of MCI-they were close to these two officers and were suspended. But those who are his stooges/comrades in corruption are either appointed even when they are not eligible, and those who do not deserve promotions are given promotions even when they have no qualification and experience for the said post-all the rules are kept aside and relaxations of more than 18 months in experience and qualification of only Secondary school is accepted, some more are given raise in salary of very senior level officer when they are not at all eligible for that. Then who will raise voice- there are very few Satyender Dubeys/ Manjunaths/ Ashutoshs in the country to be ready to get slaughtered openly/clandestinely or to meet the fate of officers and officials in MCI as noted above. Is there any one to rise above petty vested interests to fight for those tortured /terrorised by Ketan Desai? Is there any doctor who would rise beyond Ketan’s move of producing “quacks” in the country in the name of rural practitioners officially announced by him by imparting 3 year training and calling them BRMS graduates with registration and sending them for PG after 5 years experience. Compare this with poor foreign qualified Indians lurching for registration to practice in India to earn livelihood for them and their families-are they any worse than 3 year BRMS No they are bad because they did not contribute the the corrupt kitty. Such is the fate in this countryif you have money power, muscle power, political power you are the best and respected person else you are nobody. This forum is a good platform provided it takes things seriously and goes further by using the RTI and exposing the real culprits…..Sanjay Dewal, Bhopal (MP)
sanjaydewal79 on January 22nd, 2010
Hope Dr Sunil Pandya and Dr Simran Nundy read it and some like minded journalists to take action.
sanjaydewal79 on January 24th, 2010
Hi Anshu,
I don’t think any one reads ur blog, else there should have been some comments on such an eye-opener story. I am sure even u r not keeping a watch on your own efforts and the blog, though it was a good idea.
sanjaydewal on April 3rd, 2010
I have a strong feeling after so many months that yours is bogus blog, as you yourself have failed to read and comment. That way I am with Dr Sunil Pandya and Dr Simran Nundy who have openly condemned the Dr Ketan Desai the mafia king in medical education. They really are gutsy. You talk to any medico in Ahmedabad, no one likes Ketan Desai since every one is aware of his mafia activities. I know all this because I am close to some of MCI members and they share their feelings with me but are afraid to speak openly.
Sanjay Dewal
Bhopal
SITA on April 25th, 2010
GOD IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!
hope will have justice as far as DNB STATUS IS CONCERENED.
SITA on April 25th, 2010
ALL DNB HOLDERS SHOULD WRITE AS MANY COMMENTS AS POSSIBLE, AS I AM SURE WE HAVE LOTS TO EXPRESS ABOUT RIGHTS IN TAECHING INSTITUTES.
Anna on May 4th, 2010
Students who are returning from foreign countries
after completion of MBBS, instead of MCI sctreening test why MCI cannot place them for rural posting. Students say MCI test is useless to test their knowledge.
after completion of 6 years hard work why the students are harrased again. Since we have shortage of doctors let them practice in rural hospitals or in some other hospitals under the
supervision of some good doctors. Because of MCI
screening test India will be loosing so many
good students. After completion of MBBS they go
abroad for further studies and work. My suggestion is to please stop MCI screening test.
Anna on May 4th, 2010
Why reading the above comments and recent arrest of Ketan desai showed that there is a lot of corruption in the Office of MCI. So please stop MCI screening test and test the students under the su[pervision and guidance of good doctors in good hospitals.
Dr.Vanajakshi on June 10th, 2009
This is quite obnoxious. People like ‘Ketan Desai’ are thriving so happily, inspite legal bodies like Supreme court & High court warned him years back. Medical seats are sold like hot cake, but very, very costly. This is one of the vital reason that post-graduate degrees like DNB is ruthlessly and illegally snubbed. Multiple money games are continuously happening in many Pvt. medical colleges. Now, many doctors are interested to join MCI board, as there is lot of easy and lavish money. Are we losing our Democracy? Even the country’s main legal forts (Supreme court) fail, then, who will survive?Money & non-curable Disease?