Ordinance to supercede MCI gets President's nod
New Delhi, Sep 26 : An ordinance seeking to replace the existing body running the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a government-appointed committee has been signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
"In a Cabinet meeting, a proposal was made to the President, which he has signed... its purpose is to replace the existing body and allow it to be run by a committee composed of eminent persons," Jaitley said.
The committee or the 'Board of Governors' has now been appointed by the government in "supersession of the MCI".
The Board members include persons of eminence in the medical field: Dr V.K. Paul, member, NITI Aayog, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh, Dr B N Gangadhar, Director, NIMHANS, Bangalore, Dr Nikhil Tandon, Professor, Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism, AIIMS, New Delhi, who were the members of second Oversight Committee.
Dr S. Venkatesh, DGHS and Professor Balram Bhargava, Secretary, DHR and Director General ICMR will be the ex-officio members," the government said in a statement.
A bill to replace the MCI with a National Medical Commission (NMC) has already been presented in Parliament. A parliamentary standing committee has also made its recommendations, but due to time factor the bill "has gone into an area of uncertainty", Jaitley said.
Pending Parliament's approval to the bill, the government has chosen to go for the ordinance since the term of the existing committee running the MCI ends in November.
In 2016, a committee to oversee the working of MCI was formed by the government at the direction of the Supreme Court, whose term expired in 2017. Another committee was then formed for the same purpose for another year.
"On July 6, 2018, Oversight Commitee (OC) cited instances of non-compliance of their instructions by MCI and said MCI has not only misinterpreted orders of the Supreme Court but has also challenged the authority of the OC. Subsequently all members of OC have resigned," the government said.
"In such circumstances when the Supreme Court-mandated Oversight Committee is unable to function due to non-cooperation of MCI and the NMC Bill is pending in Parliament and its passage is likely to take some time, certain immediate steps are required to be taken," it said in support of its decision to go for the ordinance.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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