People's Democracy

SFI Demands Strong Action against Corruption

THE Students’ Federation of India urged the central government to undertake a proper enquiry in the functioning of all the autonomous regulatory bodies like MCI, UGC, AICTE etc. in the light of the recent arrest of the MCI president Ketan Desai.

The MCI, regulates medical education, functions under the union ministry of health and family welfare. It also recommends recognition or de-recognition of medical institutions of India or foreign countries and sets standards for medical education. This is not the first time Dr Desai has been accused of corruption. In 2002, he was removed from MCI on similar charges, but was re-elected later.On raiding his house CBI officials found crores of liquid money and kilos of gold. Interestingly, this incident has occurred around few months after the AICTE senior officials were arrested on similar grounds. The AICTE, responsible for promoting and regulating technical education, comes under the ministry of HRD. Similar news has come about the National Council for Teacher Education, NCTE, which also comes under the ministry of HRD. With progression of corruption in such autonomous regulatory bodies, technical and medical education sectors, the whole situation can now be referred to as a plague that has damaged the normal functioning of the education system as well as the faith the common man has in these systems. Inspite of the central government’s declaration to ward off such practices, strong evidences also figured in the alleged involvement of the persons at ministerial level. Immediate and proper action should be taken to nab the culprits and to avoid this sort of irregularities in the future.