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PRAFULLA MARPAKWAR
FEBRUARY 12: Controller of Examinations (Mumbai University) A Y Joglekar today refused to part with any information when a high-level sub-committee of the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) probing into the MBBS marks scandal met him at his office. Joglekar told the sub-committee he had no instructions from his superiors, and as such was in no position to reveal anything.
The sub-committee comprising Sudhir Dagaonkar, Deepak Palande and A V Sawant is looking into allegations that the Mumbai University flouted rules by granting eight grace marks to all final-year MBBS students in Preventive Social Medicine paper, enabling 64 of them to pass. The justification given by Vice Chancellor for the largesse was that the paper was ``tough.''
Today, members of the sub-committee accompanied by MMC Registrar A K Karekar reached Joglekar's office at 11 am. ``Though the committee had officially intimated Joglekar that it would be visiting the Kalina office of the University, the controller of examinations was notpresent in his chamber. He arrived almost after an hour and expressed his inability to cooperate with the inquiry committee,'' a senior MMC official said.
After MMC President Arvind Sangamnerkar set up the three member sub-committee, official communications were sent to Vice-Chancellor Snehalata Deshmukh as well as Joglekar briefing them about the nature of the inquiry. In fact, the committee had asked Joglekar to appear before it on Thursday, but he failed to turn up without giving any reasons. ``It was unfortunate that the University failed to provide necessary documents to the committee, which has been set up at the instance of Health Minister Daulatrao Aher. No doubt that the university is an autonomous body, but at the same time, as per the provisions of the MMC Act, we are empowered to conduct inquiry particularly when the matter concerns quality of medical education,'' the MMC official said.
He added that in the event of more information being required the MMC would not hesitate to summon theconcerned officials. ``MMC is a quasi-judicial body and as such it is also empowered to issue summons,'' he pointed out.The official said the MMC would be failing in its legal duties if did not conduct the inquiry as desired by the government. ``Under Section 27 of the MMC Act, it is well within its jurisdiction to call for information from the examining bodies,'' he added.
Meanwhile, the sub-committee today recorded the statements of 10 more doctors. Among them were B S Rao, Professor of Preventive and Social Medicine, who was also the paper setter for the final MBBS examination; Alka Deshpande, Professor of Medicine; S Shanbagh, Professor of PSM (Sion Hospital); Daksha Pandit, Associate Professor of PSM (KEM Hospital) and S S Bandsode, Department of PSM (KEMHospital).
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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