Ludhiana, May 13
The Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association has threatened to boycott the Punjab Medical Council elections in case all 34,000 doctors in the state are not granted the right to vote. The PCMS Association and representatives of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have alleged gross irregularities in the process of ongoing election for three vacancies and demanded to stop this election till the 34,000 doctors registered with the council, were given the right to contest and vote.
In a joint statement here today, Dr Hardeep Singh, state president of the PCSMA, and Dr Surinder Singla, state general secretary of IMA, Punjab, said PMC officials had prepared voting list of only 7,500 doctors only at the cost of democratic rights of 26,500 doctors. While, electoral list contains the names of many doctors who have qualified in 1908. But the Registrar of the PMC seems to have denied the right to vote and contest to 26,500 registered doctors, a majority of whom are in government service or serving in medical colleges as teachers, junior doctors and leading private practitioners of Punjab residing in state.
The PCMS representatives demanded to stop this “undemocratic” process immediately and demanded voting right to all doctors. They also demanded a high level inquiry into the “suspicious functioning” of the officials. Otherwise, they warned, the medical fraternity would be compelled to boycott this “undemocratic process”. They also appealed to the candidates to keep aside their self interest and join the majority medical fraternity to boycott the election process in order to
restore complete democracy in PMC.
The PCMS Association has already appealed to the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, and the Minister for Medical Education, Choudhry Santokh Singh, to intervene and stop the ongoing “monopolised” election process, which is aimed to favour only a few candidates and denying the constitutional right to a majority of doctors in Punjab. He also demanded a probe into the functioning and financial expenditure of the PMC.
