VB to probe fake medical council

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 19

Taking cognisance of The Tribune story on fake paramedical council selling thousands of degrees, Minister for Health and Medical Education Brahm Mohindra today ordered a vigilance inquiry into the matter. He has told the officials to submit the report in three months.

The minister said it was a serious matter as thousands of innocent people had been duped in the past one decade. “We will take it to the logical conclusion,” he said.

The Tribune had highlighted that a fake body named Council of Paramedical (Punjab) was functioning from Phase 7, Mohali. It had reportedly sold more than 6,000 fake degrees of BAMS course alone.

It was highlighted how the successive governments turned their back on the scam and eventually, the fraud swelled to crores of rupees as the council was offering degrees/diplomas in 41 courses by charging Rs 1-2 lakh per certificate.

The fraud was going on for over a decade and instead of taking a stringent action, the Department of Medical Education and Research couldn’t go beyond issuing public notices regarding the “unrecognised council”.

As per eight registers confiscated by the Punjab's Board of Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicine, a government body with which all ayurvedic doctors get themselves registered, the fake council issued 6,136 BAMS degrees alone. Earlier in July last year, Mohindra had ordered a vigilance inquiry into a similar fraud being operated from Hoshiarpur.