Govt dithers on nominations to State Medical Council

The elections to the council concluded about a month ago.

According to the Karnataka Medical Council Act, the government has to nominate five members to the council within two weeks of declaration of the poll results. The Medical Education Department, however, is yet come up with names.

The council registrar said the KMC had written to the secretary, Medical Education Department, on September 6 seeking names of government nominees, and a reply is still awaited.

Principal secretary to the Medical Education department K H Gopalakrishna Gowda told Deccan Herald that Medical Education Minister Ramdas would decide on the nominations shortly.

No comments

Ramdas was not available for comment. The election to the council has been mired in controversies since the beginning of the process.

Secret ballot

The election was held after a gap of 17 years; only 12 per cent of the 54,000 registered doctors cast their votes through secret ballot and more than 50 per cent of them were considered invalid.

Many doctors had complained about not receiving the ballot papers despite residing in the same address registered with the council.

Many even wrote to the department on the irregularities in the conduct of the election. When the matter was brought to his notice, the minister had promised to take action once he received complaints. But now, he seems to have washed his hands of the issue.