MCI chief Ketan Desai's arrest a result of Centre’s anti-graft stand

As the government is aggressively pursuing reforms in the education sector, it is trying to weed out corruption from bodies that control technical and medical education.

Exactly nine months after the CBI arrested senior officials of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) on charges of corruption, the agency has laid its hands on Medical Council of India (MCI) chief Ketan Desai.

Desai and two others were arrested on Thursday night for allegedly taking Rs2 crore bribe to grant recognition to a medical college in Punjab.

On Friday, special CBI judge OP Saini in Delhi allowed CBI to interrogate Desai and two other persons for five days.

This is not the first time Desai has been accused of corruption. In 2002, he was removed from MCI on similar charges, but re-elected later.

The MCI, that regulates medical education, is under the ministry of health and family affairs headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad. The AICTE, responsible for promoting and regulating technical education, comes under the ministry of human resource development (HRD) headed by Kapil Sibal.

Senior officials said both ministries are strictly toeing the prime minister’s line against corruption. “The PM has asked all ministries to take prompt action against graft complaints. The prime minister’s office is also monitoring complaints,” said a senior officer in HRD. Officials also hinted that more crackdowns are expected in other regulatory bodies.

The PM’s plan includes having one overarching body to regulate education. The HRD and health ministries have been asked to step up efforts to set up these regulatory bodies.

Accordingly, the new National Council for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) will be formed to regulate and determine standards for health and medical education and provide a framework for regulating human resources in the sector by including medical, dental, rehabilitation, nursing and pharmacy councils of India.

The HRD ministry will set up the National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which would be an overarching body for overseeing higher education and preparing and implementing norms for setting up institutions.

“Despite having autonomous regulatory bodies, technical and medical education sectors are plagued with problems. The government has now declared zero tolerance on corruption,” said an HRD official.

As soon as HRD minister Kapil Sibal took over, one of the first few files that he cleared was allowing the CBI to clean up AICTE.

Within a month of Sibal’s taking over, the AICTE chief was out of office on alleged charges of corruption. HRD officials said the CBI raids were part of Sibal’s plan to restructure and reform technical education.

Similarly, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had warned against corrupt practices in his ministry, particularly in dealing with sanctioning and recognition of medical colleges.

About two months back, Azad had issued fresh warnings after he received more complaints of corruption. Sources in the health ministry said it was Azad who had given clearance to the CBI to go ahead with its investigations against Desai, just the way Sibal had done.

Those close to Desai indicated that the MCI chief could possibly be a victim of reforms he initiated recently. They included asking doctors not to accept gifts from pharmaceutical companies.