The National Medical Commission (NMC), instead of the Medical Council of India (MCI), as the country’s main regulator of education and the medical profession, came into existence as of Friday.
With the creation of the NMC, the Board of Governors (BoG) that replaced the MCI on September 26, 2018 to perform its functions, was dissolved and the nearly 64-year-old Indian Medical Council Law was abolished.
Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma, former head of the ENT department of the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, has been appointed Chairman for a three-year term starting on Friday, while Rakesh Kumar Vats, who was Secretary General on the Board of Governors of the MCI, is the secretary of the commission.
The NMC Act, which seeks to usher in mega reforms in the medical education sector, received the assent of the president on August 8, 2019 and was published on the same day.
The law provided for the creation of an NMC in place of the Indian Medical Council tainted by scams.
The four autonomous boards under the NMC Act – the Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), the Medical Qualification and Evaluation Board, and the Medical Record and Ethics Board – have also been constituted and enters into force as of Friday, according to notifications issued by Nipun Vinayak, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Health on Thursday.
“In compliance with the provisions of subsection (1) of section 60 of the National Medical Commission Act of 2019, the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 is repealed with effect from September 25, 2020.
“The Board of Governors appointed under section 3A of the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 to replace the Indian Medical Council established under subsection (1) of section 3 of said Act shall be dissolved.” said one of the notifications.
The NMC is composed of a president, 10 ex-officio members, and 22 part-time members.
The ex officio members include the presidents of the four autonomous boards.
“In compliance with the provisions … of the 2019 National Medical Commission Law, the central government constitutes the National Medical Commission,” read another notification.
“Now, then, in the exercise of the powers … the central government notifies that all the remaining provisions of the Law of the National Medical Commission, 2019, will come into force as of September 25, 2020”, another read.
Dr. Sharma, on January 2, was appointed president of the NMC after the Cabinet Appointments Committee approved his appointment for a three-year term.
“Under subsection (2) of section 4, the chairman of the National Medical Commission (Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma) is appointed for a three-year term beginning September 25,” according to a notice.
Vats, secretary general of the MCI Governing Board, was appointed secretary of the commission for a similar period on January 2.
This story has been published from a news agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the title has been changed.
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