Srinagar, Nov 19: The Jammu and Kashmir State Medical Council, which besides overseeing the medical profession in the state provides registration certificates to doctors, has been headless for past 16 months.
“Government has not appointed the president of the Council since the day its ex-officio head Dr Parihar completed his tenure in July 2010,” sources said. “In fact the Council is non-existent as nothing has been done to make it functional.”
Insiders said that they have sent repeated reminders to the higher ups about the Council being defunct in absence of a president. “Till date we have not received any response,” they added.
An official of the Council said the doctors who complete their degrees from foreign colleges have to qualify Medical Council of India (MCI) exam to make them eligible for the registration. “Before giving them registration we have to cross check the authenticity of their degrees. We have received many applications since 2010 to provide registration certificate to the doctors who have completed their degrees from other countries, some of the cases have been cleared but many cases are pending. We are unable to take a final call in absence of a president and this has led to piling up of many cases,” the official added.
Every year thousands of doctors from the Valley based medical colleges as well as outside apply for registration in the council. “It has to undertake various processes in registering doctors especially those who pursue their studies from outside universities,” the official said.
He said due to the headless council it takes more than four months for any doctor to get his registration certificate. “The same process usually used to get completed in a month,” the official added.
When contacted, Health Secretary G A Peer said a letter has been sent to the Law Department in this regard some months back. “We have to prepare an SRO in this regard in consultation with the Law Secretary. It will take some time,” he said.
Minister for Health and Medical Education R S Chib said the file had been cleared long back. “But I will definitely seek the status report why the Council has not been constituted as yet,” Chib said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST