The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has forwarded a plea under the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought details of the gazetting of regulations related to medical interns, to the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the NMC put the draft regulations on the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship dated April 21, 2021, in the public domain on May 7, 2021, seeking comments. K.V. Babu, a Kannur-based ophthalmologist and RTI activist, submitted his comments related to Clause 6.3 related to stipend for interns on May 24, 2021, through email to the UGMEB.
The NMC gazetted the regulations on November 18, 2021, ignoring his comments. One of his suggestions was to change the clause as “All the candidates pursuing compulsory rotating internship at the institution from which MBBS course was completed shall be paid stipend on par with the stipend being paid to the interns of the State Government Medical Institution/ Central Government Medical Institution in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located.”
Dr. Babu filed a query under the RTI Act on April 12 this year, asking if the NMC had received his comments. He was given a reply on April 29 confirming that two comments had been received. Dr. Babu filed another plea on April 24, seeking details on all the comments received on the clause. The NMC replied that Dr. Babu’s were the only comments received. They also informed him that 11 comments had been received on other clauses. They had been included in the final notification as well.
Now, Dr. Babu’s representation and RTI applications have been forwarded to the NMC for “necessary action”. The NMC has been asked to provide information directly to him. Dr. Babu said he was thinking about subjecting the above notification to legal scrutiny if the government did not add his comments.
