Medical council denies info under RTI Act

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

The Punjab Medical Council has been denying information under the RTI Act on the status of registration and licences of five doctors convicted by a court in a kidney transplantation scam.

The council, which is in the middle of a controversy over differences among its office-bearers on extending the registration of these doctors, is also not giving any information on proceedings of the ethical committee on the issue.

For the past eight months, RTI activist from Jalandhar Ashwini Dogra has been seeking information from the medical council whether any action has been taken against these doctors. He has been also seeking information on the proceedings of the ethical committees, but to no avail.

The issue came to limelight last week when president of the council Dr GS Grewal objected to the extension of registration of one of the doctors. Other members of the council, including Registrar Dr Gurdeep Singh Kalyan, were in favour of extending the registration on the plea that the convicted doctor was on bail and had moved a higher court for relief.

The council cleared his case at a meeting of the ethical committee in June. After the controversy surfaced last week, when Dr Grewal wrote to the Health Department over the issue, Health Secretary Hussan Lal sought legal opinion on the issue

The council is yet to inform the RTI activist about the decision and the reasons behind it. “I read in the columns of The Tribune about the decision and the controversy. The council has been denying information to me. They told me in April that the issue of the registration of doctors would be taken up in the next meeting of the ethical committee, but they gave me no details about it later on,” he said.

Registrar of the council Dr Gurdeep Singh Kalyan did not comment on the issue despite repeated attempts.