MCI bill introduced in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The central government Wednesday introduced in the Rajya Sabha a bill to extend by another year the tenure of the board of governors of the Medical Council of India (MCI), two days after it was passed with difficulty in the lower house amidst opposition from ally Trinamool Congress.

The bill will further extend the tenure of the board of governors, which replaced the elected body of MCI in May 2010, following its president Ketan Desai being arrested in a graft case.

The opposition BJP, however, questioned the government for not having an elected body for the MCI, terming it the government's attempt to dissolve the statutory body.

"For the last two years, the fate of the MCI is hanging and the government says it is waiting for the National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH). Is it so that the MCI will not be needed after NCHRH is formed," BJP member Maya Singh said while initiating discussion on the bill.

"The government is trying to control the MCI, to impose its own agenda and nominating its own members," Singh alleged.

She also alleged that the present board of governors was not taking required action in several cases.

The passage of the MCI amendment bill was not so smooth in the Lok Sabha where ally TMC voted against the bill. The TMC has, however, assured that it will not oppose the bill in the upper house.