New Delhi:
Parliament Tuesday approved a bill that seeks to extend the period for reconstitution of the Central Council for Homoeopathy (CCH) from the existing one year to two years, with the Rajya Sabha passing the measure by a voice vote.
The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.
The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill 2019 will replace the ordinance issued in this regard by the previous government.
The bill will enable the government to extend the tenure of the Board of Governors in the council for a further period of one year with effect from May 17, 2019.
Speaking on the bill, Ayush minister Shripad Yesso Naik said, “The CCH was not functioning properly. The CCH head was caught in corruption. We asked the Council to go digital and it never did. The retired members of the Council never allowed to hold election.”
The government had dissolved CCH following allegations of corruption against the CCH chief, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2016 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh as part payment for granting approval to a homoeopathy college.
The Minister said the affairs of the Council have been entrusted to a Board of Governors comprising eminent and qualified homoeopathy doctors and administrators till such time the council is reconstituted.
“The tenure had to be extended since the Council could not be reconstituted within one year due to non-updation of state registers of homoeopathy during general elections,” Naik said adding that one more year extension will help reconstituting the Council.
Naik said that the government will complete the inspection of all homoeopathy colleges by July-end.
Already 80 per cent of 230 colleges have been completed and the remaining will be done in the next 15-20 days, he said.
On members demand to tackle corruption in CCH, the Minister said, “We have just started the work. The government will take action against those people who are found doing wrong during inspection. We will weed out all loopholes in the system.”
He also said that the seventh post in the Council, which is lying vacant, will be filled up soon.
CPM member Binoy Viswam — who moved a statutory resolution to disapprove Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 promulgated on March 2, 2019 — alleged the government has least consideration for Parliamentary democracy and has been bypassing Parliament by issuing ordinances.
Participating on the debate on the bill, Congress leader P L Punia supported the legislation but raised doubts whether corruption would be curbed by way of extending the tenure of Board of Governors.
He also asked the government to do something about research in the homoeopathy.
Rising to support the bill, Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) asked the government:”Whether you would bring a bill to set up National Commission on Homoeopathy.”
Ajay Pratap Singh (BJP), A Vijaykumar (AIADMK)and Santanu Sen (AITC) also supported the bill.
However, some of these members criticised the government for taking the ordinance route to implement their decision and said Parliamentary democracy should not be bypassed.
Ramnath Thakur JD U, Manoj Kumar Jha RJD, Tiruchi Siva DMK, Rajmani Patel of the Congress, Vikas Mahatme of BJP, K Somaprasad of the CPI M, V Vijayasai Reddy YSRCP, Ram Kumar Verma of the BJP, Vandana Chavan NCP, Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur (BJP), Sushil Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party, Madhusudan Mistry and Husain Dalwai from the Congress supported the Bill.
