NMC Constitution: Members Selected Through Draw Of Lots

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday set the ball rolling for the establishment of the proposed National Medical Commission with the selection of 25 members to the body.

The selection was conducted through a draw of lots (to maintain transparency) in the presence of Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey, senior officials from the Ministry and media persons.

Once the NMC is set up, the existing Medical Council of India will cease to exist.

The members were selected from the nominations sent by each of the state governments to the Medical Advisory council under NMC. It is a larger body with representations from all the state governments and the state medical councils.

According to a report by news agency PTI, 10 vice-chancellors from Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Punjab and Haryana were selected through the draw of lots.

They are Professor Rajendra Pandey, VC of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences; Himanshu A Pandya, VC of the Gujarat University; Professor Mahesh Verma, VC of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi; Rajababu Panwar, VC of the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences and Raj Bahadur, VC of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Punjab’s Faridkot among others.

Nine representatives from the state medical councils of Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Manipur were also selected.

The National Medical Commission Act, 2019, which seeks to bring about a paradigm change in the country’s health care sector and medical education, was passed by the Parliament in August this year. It also has the provision to regulate fee in medical colleges.