The Telegraph India: New Delhi: Thursday, July 05, 2018.
The Central
Information Commission has directed the Medical Council of India to place in
the public domain inspection reports of all medical colleges in the country
within six weeks, seeking greater transparency in approvals and denials to
colleges.
The directive
to the MCI, the apex regulatory authority that approves new medical colleges
and additional seats in existing colleges, is expected to reduce the
"opacity in the prevailing system of medical education" in the
country, the commission said.
The CBI is
probing several cases related to alleged corruption in finalising inspection
reports on the basis of which medical colleges are either granted or denied
approval to admit students.
Information
commissioner Yashovardhan Azad, responding to an application for an inspection
report of the Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, said leaving no room for
administrative ambiguity and countering likelihood of corruption was as
important as fighting actual corruption in all forms of governance.
"Keeping
assessment reports hidden in files away from public gaze is counter-productive
for efficiency of medical education as prevailing in the nation," Azad
said.
"Probity
demands that the MCI ought to have proactively disclosed assessment reports on
its website so that stakeholders, the government, the promoters of medical
institutions, surveyors, existing and aspiring medical students get to know a
real-time crystal clear report card of a particular medical institution,"
he said.
The case
pertained to a Right to Information application filed by Deepak S. Maravi, who
had demanded the inspection report of the Gandhi Medical College that was
denied by the MCI saying the assessment report is under consideration of the
council's postgraduation committee.
Maravi
approached the commission, the highest adjudicating body on RTI matters.
When prodded
by Azad,an MCI official said inspection reports of medical colleges were not
made public as per prevalent practice. When asked for the reason and legal
justification under Section 8 of the RTI Act to keep inspection reports as
classified, the public information officer was unable to cite any reason.
Azad said as
on date, a common citizen does not know the input, assessment process, the
parameters of evaluation by the MCI or the precise reasons for decisions to
grant or reject recognition to medical colleges. What is available in the
public domain is the end result of the assessment process, he said.
On the basis
of MCI recommendations, the Union health ministry had earlier this year denied
82 existing medical colleges permission to accept students for the 2018-19
academic session and disapproved proposals for 68 new medical colleges.
The head of a
proposed new medical college denied approval had last month expressed
disappointment at the MCI's decision and claimed that the council's inspection
report had misleadingly claimed the institution did not have enough patients.
Information
commissioner Azad said medical education was a "completely regulated
sector" and the inspection report was a statutory assessment. The
assessment report cannot be denied to Parliament and hence, the commission sees
no reason to keep the same precluded from public glance, he said.
"The
commission strongly feels that by placing the MCI-recognised medical
institutions' periodic assessment report in the public domain, the opacity in
the prevailing system of medical education in India would be reduced,"
Azad said.
He said
regulatory bodies like the MCI had much to do to keep the faith of millions in
their tasks performed to uphold the highest standards in medical education. The
commission has directed the MCI to place on its website state-wise arrayed
inspection reports from the current academic year within six weeks.
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