Doctors’ countrywide strike against National Medical Commission Bill

New Delhi: A bill that seeks to replace the apex medical education regulator, the Medical Council of India (MCI), with a new body National Medical Commission (NMC), is being opposed by the private and government doctors all over the nation, who are on a strike for 12 hours on Tuesday. This comes after Government presented NMC bill in the parliament on last Saturday. Speaking on the same Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “The bill has many problematic provisions”, and demanded that the bill be referred to a parliamentary standing committee. The senior Congress leader has demanded that the bill be referred to a standing committee for examination in letters to both Union Health Minister J P Nadda, as well as to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Ramesh has urged the Centre not to "hurry" with the important legislation while noting that waiting another three-four months will not be "disastrous" and can improve the bill substantially. In March 2016, the Standing Committee presented its 92^nd report on the MCI in which it had made a large number of recommendations. Clause 49 of the Bill calls for a joint sitting of the National Medical Commission, the Central Council of Homoeopathy and the Central Council of Indian Medicine at least once a year "to enhance the interface between homoeopathy, Indian Systems of Medicine and modern systems of medicine", a point, reports have suggested to be as controversial. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) too has strongly opposed the bill and has appealed to the prime minister to revise it in the larger interest of the medical profession. According to the IMA, the NMC will "cripple" the functioning of the medical profession by making it completely answerable to the bureaucracy and non-medical administrators.