Panel to monitor MCI goes after 'ghost' faculty

The Oversight Committee appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) seems to have started cracking the whip.

MCI has issued a circular asking all medical colleges to send in details about their faculty within two days so that they can be uploaded on to the website as per the directions of the committee.

This has been a long-standing demand of those calling for greater transparency to help fight the rampant practice of 'ghost' faculty at medical colleges during inspection by MCI teams and the practice of the same professor being shown as faculty at several colleges.

The MCI's urgency is evident from the fact that deputy secretary administration A K Hair has in the circular sent on June 6 to deans and principals of all medical colleges asked them to treat it as "most urgent". The detailed proforma to be filled for each faculty member includes name, date of birth, photo, photo ID, details of qualifications, including year, college and university names, copies of degrees and details of previous appointments and teaching experience. Each completed form is to be countersigned by the principal and head of department, who will vouch for the veracity of the details.

"Not only is the website not regularly updated, currently only the first page of the declaration about faculty is put up on it. They ought to put all four pages in the public domain," said Punjab Medical Council president Dr GS Grewal. He had used forms uploaded on the website to investigate and expose the fraud being perpetrated by medical colleges in faculty hiring. He added that mechanically putting declarations on the website would be of no use unless the MCI used it to cross check the qualifications claimed and also find out whether the same people were being shown as faculty in different colleges.

MCI president Dr Jayshree Mehta and secretary Reena Nayyar did not respond to queries on the sudden urgency on the issue.
There have been several cases of medical colleges fraudulently claiming to have the required number of faculty. Though a few doctors who posed as faculty at various colleges got penalised, the colleges and their managements have gone scot-free.