Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramdoss told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that life imprisonment might be considered at the December 12 meeting of the Central Advisory Committee on the issue.
The Health Minister also observed that more cases of female infanticide were reported from the affluent states of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

The Central Advisory Committee at its meet on December 12, will discuss amendment to Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act 1994 to make the punishment more stringent.
“It is, nevertheless, recognised that mere legislation is not enough to deal with this problem that has roots in social behaviour and prejudices,” said Ramdoss.

The Minister also informed the House that the Government was planning to set up a unified body for regulating post-graduate medical courses in the country.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said while Medical Council of India was responsible for under-graduate medical courses in the country, post-graduate courses are conducted by the National Board of Examination and MCI.

The MCI regulated post-graduate education has not been recognised in many countries while National Board of Education courses are widely accepted including in the Middle-East and UK. To harmonise these, Dr Ranjit Roy Choudhary Committee was constituted which has suggested a unified body for conducting post-graduate medical courses. “We have not yet taken any view,” he said.

College management
Ramadoss said with two-third of medical colleges in the country being concentrated in six states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Government is planning to change regulations to allow government hospitals to start medical colleges.

Uttar Pradesh has only 16 medical colleges while Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have just eight each.

“There is a big lacuna for which we are going to change the regulations,” he said.

The Minister said of the 700,000 modern system doctors in the country, only 10 per cent are serving in rural areas.

On vacancies in MCI, he said on the High Court direction, 110 out of 130 vacancies of members of MCI have been filled up.