Ludhiana, May 14
The elections to the Punjab Medical Council (PMC) are unlikely to be postponed, as demanded by the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) Association in view of the Supreme Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court directions issued in this regard.
According to a court ruling, the state government is supposed to constitute the PMC by May 23, 2003. Earlier the Apex Court had issued notices to the Punjab State Medical Council to “see that the Indian Medical Council Act is properly implemented”. The notices were issued on December 12.
In view of these directions of the Apex Court, a writ was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking the constitution of the PMC as only then the Indian Medical Council Act could be properly implemented. The court set a deadline and gave the direction for constitution of the council before May 23.
The PCMS association has sought that the elections be deferred as long as all the doctors registered with the PMC are not granted the right to vote. Of over 35,000 doctors in the state, only about 7,000 have received their votes. The PCMS association has even threatened to boycott the elections.
Some doctors have been maintaining that since the council elections were being held after a gap of 28 years, it was not advisable to boycott them.
“Let the council be constituted first, other grievances, including the missing names of doctors from voters’ list, can be redressed subsequently...let us make a beginning at least”, said a city doctor. He pointed out that it was not possible to rectify the error of the deletion of over 25,000 doctors within a week.
Meanwhile, campaigning has intensified for the three posts of the council. The Indian Medical Association Ludhiana has supported the candidature of Dr Gursharan Singh, the Ludhiana district president of the IMA. A meeting of several doctors was held here today in which they unanimously declared their support for Dr Gursharan and others on his panel.
