Chandigarh
Tribune: Chandigarh: Saturday, 20 December 2014.
The Punjab
Medical Council has been denying information under the RTI Act on the status of
registration and licences of five doctors convicted by a court in a kidney
transplantation scam.
The council,
which is in the middle of a controversy over differences among its
office-bearers on extending the registration of these doctors, is also not
giving any information on proceedings of the ethical committee on the issue.
For the past
eight months, RTI activist from Jalandhar Ashwini Dogra has been seeking
information from the medical council whether any action has been taken against
these doctors. He has been also seeking information on the proceedings of the
ethical committees, but to no avail.
The issue
came to limelight last week when president of the council Dr GS Grewal objected
to the extension of registration of one of the doctors. Other members of the
council, including Registrar Dr Gurdeep Singh Kalyan, were in favour of
extending the registration on the plea that the convicted doctor was on bail
and had moved a higher court for relief.
The council
cleared his case at a meeting of the ethical committee in June. After the
controversy surfaced last week, when Dr Grewal wrote to the Health Department
over the issue, Health Secretary Hussan Lal sought legal opinion on the issue.
The council
is yet to inform the RTI activist about the decision and the reasons behind it.
“I read in the columns of The Tribune about the decision and the controversy.
The council has been denying information to me. They told me in April that the
issue of the registration of doctors would be taken up in the next meeting of
the ethical committee, but they gave me no details about it later on,” he said.
Registrar of
the council Dr Gurdeep Singh Kalyan did not comment on the issue despite
repeated attempts.