New Delhi:
Mamata Banerjee has taken on the government over another piece of legislation - her party, the Trinamool Congress, voted against a bill related to the Medical Council of India (MCI) in the Lok Sabha. The bill was passed, but the government has to deal with the embarrassment of an ally serving as the opposition.
Ms Banerjee has however told the Congress that her party will not vote against the bill in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling coalition that Ms Banerjee belongs to is in a minority.
Trinamool leader Kalyan Banerjee said his party is opposed to the parity that the bill proposes between ayurvedic practitioners and doctors with MBBS degrees. Minister of State for Health Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who is from the Trinamool Congress, was not in Parliament for the vote.
The Indian Medical Council Act was amended after the board of the MCI was dissolved in 2010 following the arrest of its then president Ketan Desai by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of corruption. The government wants the new bill to extend the term of the current Board of Governors by another year beyond May 14. The Act currently gives the seven members of the Board, all eminent doctors, a two-year term; Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad wants to change that to three years. The Board is in charge of regulating medical colleges and education.
Opposition parties and Ms Banerjee's Trinamool have described this as undemocratic. They want elections to be held within six months for the Board.