Special Correspondent
NewsBits.in
Bhopal: In what is being termed as rerun of Vyapam scam, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet on Tuesday approved a controversial proposal to conduct diploma medical courses for government medical officers from a controversial Mumbai-based institute.
According to a government press release, the Mumbai-based College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) would conduct postgraduate diploma courses in specialty fields for the medical officers posted in selected district hospitals in the state.
The release said that the diploma courses would be conducted in six medical specialties – anaesthesia, gynaecology, pediatrics, general medicine, radiology and critical care. Pertinent changes in rules of MP Medical College would be brought in to allow conduction of these courses.
The CPS however has been in midst of huge controversy since year 2009 when the Medical Council of India (MCI) cancelled its recognition. The courses of the institute therefore should be recognized anywhere in the country.
Already activists including Vyapam whistleblowers are up in arms against the move of the MP government, calling it a way to create ‘Munnabhai-specialists’ after ‘Munnabhai-MBBS’ through Vyapam.
Munnabhai refers to the character in a Bollywood movie of same name where the protagonist uses unfair means to gain entry to medical college.
The proposal to run the courses of CPS was reportedly placed before the cabinet on July 12, but was shelved after some of the ministers reportedly raised serious objections to the proposal saying that it would further dent the image of MP Government reeling under Vyapam and DMAT (Dental and Medical Admission Test) scams.
The CPS has a checkered history. The Maharashtra Medical Council threatened not to register the medical graduates having postgraduate certificate, diploma or fellowship from CPS.
The College – registered as a non-profit educational organization under Maharashtra Charity aid Commissioner’s office - faces allegations of not complying with admission and academic norms. It does not conduct the required common entrance test (CET), takes indiscriminate fees and the institutes affiliated to it do not have requisite academic infrastructure, sources said.
Also it faces allegations of irregularities in examination and evaluation – apparently done without any third party scrutiny. Earlier this year, the Income Tax department served demand notices on the CPS indicating irregularities worth crores, added sources.
Speaking to NewsBits.in Vyapam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai said that the Shivraj government was clearly under pressure to have a tie up with the controversial Maharashtra institute that has no infrastructure to conduct PG medical courses. “MP government again seemed to be paving away for monetary gains of some people by bringing in such proposals,” he charged.
Dr Rai also said that they have been suggesting posting of UG and PG doctors from private colleges to rural areas to glean over shortage of medical officers and specialists. “But the government has no guts to do this because kin of big shots study in private medical colleges. Now they are trying a backdoor way, which is also equally contentious,” he said.
He said that he receives numerous complaints about the CPS taking heavy donations to give admissions. Also the Maharashtra Resident Doctors’ Association has demanded action against it, he said.
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