CM writes to union health ministry to stop NMC Act on PG medical education

Chennai

Describing as ‘unacceptable’ the draft regulation which seeks to “undermine” and “unilaterally remove” the role of states in admission of students for states quota of PG medical seats, Stalin said, “It is unfortunate that such draft regulations have been formulated without a proper understanding of the current predominant role of State Governments in this domain.”Stating that clause 11.2 of the draft PG Regulations attempts to centralize and designate the Directorate General of Health Services, union health ministry as the designated authority for counselling for State quota seats, the CM, in his letter to the union health minister, said the section was clearly contrary to the proviso in the section 15 of the Main NMC Act, 2019, which explicitly mentions that “the designated authority of the State Government shall conduct the common counselling for the seats at the State level”.

Asking the GoI and NMC to appreciate the fact that only States have heavily invested their own resources to create most of the PG seats, Stalin said that Tamil Nadu has consistently been opposed to centralization of States’ powers and it was against the proposed National Exit test as well as the proposal to make it as the basis of admissions to PG seats.

Remarking that section 10.1 of the proposed draft regulations and its sub-clauses were a brazen attempt towards giving effect to the yet to be introduced licentiate examination for enrollment in medical registers and making it serve as a NEET for admission to PG Courses, the CM said, the state has a transparent policy for admission to state quota of PG seats and a robust mechanism of incentivizing medical service in rural, remote and difficult areas for the in-service candidates that act as the bedrock of its well-functioning public health system. “The draft regulations, if implemented, will grossly harm our State,” Stalin said.

“Any hasty attempts, as brought out in the draft regulations, aimed at changing the present methodology of counselling for the State quota seats against the provision of the Main NMC Act and the proposal to make the National Exit test as the basis of PG admissions in future, should be immediately stopped,” Stalin said, reiterating his opposition to the draft PG Medical Education Regulations, 2021, which hit at the very root of the federalism.