Teachers’ recruitment, medical council among bills tabled in LS

The National Democratic Alliance government on Thursday introduced the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill, 2019, and the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in Parliament.

As Lok Sabha took up the Homeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, it came to light that the AYUSH clinic at the Rashtrapati Bhawan has private doctors on contractual basis.

Trinamool Congress member Aparupa Poddar brought this up and sought answers from the government on why was it so and how soon can the situation be rectified. She said that if the government is keen on Make in India, then it should promote Indian medicines for homeopathic treatment and not German ones. The bill, which seeks to extend the reconstitution period of the Central Council for Homeopathy (CCH) from one to two years, was passed by the Lok Sabha.

After the Special Economic Zone (Amendment) Bill was passed Wednesday, this was the second bill to be passed. The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill will allow setting up a Board of Governors superseding the tainted medical council to fulfil its duties for a period of two years. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year and was pending with Rajya Sabha. It lapsed after the dissolution of the sixteenth Lok Sabha. The board was set up in September last year through an ordinance, which was promulgated again in February this year to ensure transparent regulation of medical education and practice till the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill replaces the current regulatory structure.

The National Medical Commission will institute four autonomous boards that will look after undergraduate medical education, post-graduate medical education, assessment and granting of licenses to medical colleges, and regulating the professional and ethical conduct of medical practitioners. The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Bill seeks to fill up more than 7,000 existing vacancies in institutions of higher education by direct recruitment in accordance with a new quota system. The system accords reservation to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the socially and educationally backward classes.