Sir,
I would like to oppose both of these Bills in one speech. I will make one
general observation and four quick points to save time because of the late
hour. Sir, first this Government has this habit of repeatedly relying on the
Ordinance route to bypass the scrutiny of Parliament. In 2017, such repromulgation
of Ordinances was upheld by the hon. Supreme Court as a fraud on the
Constitution which is fundamentally at odds with the principle of Parliamentary
supremacy. Sir, we are meeting here in late hour to assert that Parliament
should be heard on this kind of subject, and I must say, it is
necessary that the requirement spelt out under Article 123 of the
Constitution must120 be met
before resorting to the extraordinary step of promulgating an Ordinance. But
before I get into the subject, I140
would like to direct the attention of the hon. Minister towards the National
Commission for Homoeopathy Bill passed by the160 Parliament this week. Section 57 of the
Bill calls for the Homoeopathy Central Council Act, 1973 to stand
repealed, and the Central Council of Homoeopathy constituted under
Section 3 of the said Act to stand dissolved. This defeats the whole objective
of the discussion we are having on this Ordinance today because if the Central
Council shall cease to exist in the first place, why are we bringing in
a law that extends its tenure? If you look at the240 Statement of Objects and Reasons
of this Ordinance, the Central Council is responsible for the regulation of the
educational standards of Homoeopathy. This function of the Central
Council shall be encompassed within the functions carried out by
Homoeopathy Education Board280
which is stipulated in the National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill. This is
apparently something that says that it will determine the standards of
education and oversee all aspects relating thereto. The President of
Homoeopathy Education Board and the Heads of320
various institutes specializing in Homoeopathy are Members of the National
Commission for Homoeopathy itself. Given all this, we have just
passed a law this week. The main question to the hon. Minister is this.
Is the Central Council not redundant?360
I think, the hon. Minister should please give a clarification on this
fundamental point. Then, I would like to point out that there is
repeated extension and supersession of both Councils. The Central Government
Act in 2018 sought to supersede the Central Council, and appoint a Board
of Governors in its place. In 2018, the Ordinance, and the Bill that420 replaced it, said that the Central
Council will be reconstituted within one year. A year passed, and in 2019, the
Government promulgated another Ordinance, seeking to extend the time period for
reconstitution of the Central Council to two years. They had been unable
to establish the Central Council within a year. Another year passed, and in
April this year, the480
Government promulgated yet another Ordinance, this time extending the time
period to three years. They still had failed to elect a Central Council for
Homoeopathy, even though two years had now elapsed since the decision was first
made. Who knows for how many more years the Government plans to keep up this
annual charade? This year, it has started the same process with the Indian
Medicine Central Council, providing for it to be superseded and reconstituted
within one year.560 Should
we expect that process also to suffer from the same inordinate
delay that the Homoeopathy Central Council has done? Then, the initial
move to supersede the Central Council in 2018 was meant to bring transparency,
accountability, and quality within the600
Homoeopathy education system. The Government has achieved the opposite, by not
following any democratic procedures in establishing the Board of
Governors, and then exercising complete control over it. There are too many
instances of the Ministry of AYUSH taking up640
the role of regulator in lieu of the Council, which is an overreach by
the Ministry into roles that should be delegated to autonomous bodies. The
directions of the Central Government to the Board stand final with regard to
policy direction. That means that the Government is giving itself the
final decision-making power over the reconstituted Central Council. This
is700 further evidence of over-centralization
in this Government taking away the autonomy of the regulatory bodies.
Similarly, there is no specific720
criteria or adequate representation of the Board of Governors. But in the
interest of time, I would try and wrap up with the final concern which I
know the hon. Minister is aware of, and which I had also mentioned
in an earlier debate, that is, the potential legitimisation of quackery. The
Ministry of AYUSH is in-charge of permitting persons and colleges to offer
Homoeopathic courses, and to expand such courses. It has also been
promoting Clause 49 of the800
National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, which focuses on bridge courses that
allow Homoeopathic professionals to prescribe Allopathic treatments in rural
areas. The Bill to constitute the National Commission provides for an
interface between the Indian system of Medicine, Homoeopathy, Yoga840 and Naturopathy, and modem systems of
medicine. This essentially means that the Indian Medical Association is
concerned that giving such AYUSH Doctors the ability to prescribe Allopathic
medicines and perform Allopathic procedures will officially amount to legitimization
of quackery, and lower the standards of rural health. Allopathic treatment
cannot be delivered by Homoeopathic practitioners who have taken a short cut
instead of taking an MBBS, and this could absolutely reduce the
efficacy of medicine. I would like the hon. Minister to kindly address this
concern. The regulatory mechanism is unclear. Thanks to the setting up of
National Commissions for both these areas, I would urge the Government
to put an end to this process of extensions and supersessions once and960 for all. I would also request the
Government to either subsume the function of the Central Councils within the
respective980 National
Commissions or establish a single body for each of these fields with adequate
representation from the States and from all relevant institutions. This
alone will ensure greater transparency, better accountability, and a
higher quality of practice and education in these fields of medicine in
the country.
Hon.
Speaker, Sir, I rise to oppose these two Bills –the Indian Medicine Central
Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment)
Bill,2020. My objections regarding the first Bill is that it is a direct
assault on the State’s right. This Bill is one in the line of many other Acts1080 that this Government has
introduced to appropriate more power to itself. Sir, the Central Council
for Indian Medicine, which this Bill seeks to dissolve, was a democratic body
constituted by the Indian Parliament where the States were represented
through elected1120 Members
and were able to iron out problems associated with the ISM system. However, now
owing to clause 3A, Members will be nominated by the Central Government and
this democratic system will come to an end. Even the Standing Committee had
recognized the specific healthcare issues and challenges of every State.
How can this Bill address these specific State issues when the Council
is being replaced by bureaucrats? As has been said by the previous
speaker, I must reiterate that1200
we must give importance to the fact that health is a State subject and
medical education is a subject in the Concurrent List. You have to give equal
responsibility to the States in this arena. Here, I have to make some
suggestions. At present, there are more than 200 Ayurveda colleges. There is a
Central Council for Research in Ayurveda1260
and similar Councils for Unani, Homoeopathy, Yoga and Naturopathy. These
could have been clubbed together to make it an Institute1280 of National Importance. I am now coming
to the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill. Tamil Nadu is a pioneering
State in Homoeopathy System of Medicine. In Tamil Nadu, there are 20,000
doctors registered in the Council after passing the degree or diploma
from recognized Homoeopathy Medical Colleges in India and having a thoroughly
successful practice. Though India is becoming the global hub for
homoeopathic education and training, what we see today is a progressive
deterioration of quality due to myopic implementation of educational
standards. Sir, I find one of the biggest lacunae in this Bill. When the
AYUSH system is in such a grave situation, it is surprising how the National
Medical Commission Bill would allow practitioners of alternative medicines1400 like Homoeopathy and Ayurveda to
practice modern medicine after attending a short-term bridge course. This is a
very grave lacunae and I would request the hon. Minister to consider it. I would like to
urge the Union Government to allocate1440
Rs. 100 crore for the development of National Institute of Siddha in
Chennai. I would also urge the Government to give more funds and a free
hand to State Governments, which create, govern, and protect the AYUSH colleges
and dispensaries in Tamil Nadu. The Central
Council of Homeopathy regulates and controls the education and practice
of Homeopathy. The Government intends to supersede the Central Council of
Homeopathy and it wants to reconstitute another council in a timebound manner.
But it is not happening and so, the Government keeps extending the tenure
before which the Central Council has to be constituted. As a stop-gap
arrangement, the affairs of the Central Council are entrusted to the Board
of Governors. Through this Amendment, the Government is extending the existing
period from two years to three years. The Government has brought this Amendment
with this limited purpose.1583
