A Grave Scam In Medical Education Surfaces In Bengal: Centre Must Order Quick Probe And Punish Guilty Doctors

Yet another scam, this time in medical education, has surfaced in Bengal.

In the wake of the horrific rape and murder in Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College Hospital, a number of allegations of corruption and wrongdoing have surfaced. 

One particularly grave one — and it has not received the attention it deserves — is that a powerful lobby of doctors had been extorting money from medical students and postgraduate interns in exchange for good marks and even to successfully clear the examinations.

Government doctors say hundreds of medical graduates and postgraduates scored good marks and even cleared their exams and obtained their degrees by bribing this powerful lobby who have close links with the Trinamool Congress. 

This ‘North Bengal lobby’, called so because it is headed by a doctor from North Bengal who is reportedly close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had been calling the shots in the state health department and all government medical colleges and hospitals in Bengal this past decade. 

Though named the ‘North Bengal lobby’, this group included some senior and junior doctors from the rest of the state as well. So powerful was this lobby that even top health department officials had to do their bidding. A Trinamool member of the legislative assembly (MLA), who is also a physician, is one of the kingpins of this lobby. 

One first-year postgraduate intern who was a key member of this lobby used to dictate terms to principals of government medical colleges and ask them to pass or fail examinees. This intern is facing disciplinary proceedings and a probe into his activities now. 

A group of junior doctors who spoke to Swarajya said members of this lobby, especially this postgraduate intern who was a top functionary of the Medical Cell of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) until recently (he was suspended earlier this month), used to take huge sums of money for undergraduate and postgraduate medical students to not only clear their exams but also for scoring high marks. 

Students who refused to pay up were given poor marks or even failed in the exams.

Allegations are also surfacing against some members of this Trinamool Congress-affiliated lobby for taking huge sums for admissions in medical colleges in the state. 

Undergraduates and postgraduates affiliated with the Trinamool Congress or those who had paid bribes to members of the ‘North Bengal lobby’ were allowed to cheat rampantly in exams. Invigilators who objected were threatened with transfers and even bodily harm and silenced into submission. 

Members of this powerful lobby are also being accused of having forced students and junior doctors to align themselves with the TMCP and other organisations affiliated with the ruling party in the state. This lobby also determined postings and transfers of doctors in government hospitals and medical colleges. 

All this means that a good number of medical graduates and postgraduates who have passed out of government medical colleges in Bengal are underqualified and lack the requisite skills to become doctors because they have cleared their exams by giving bribes. 

That puts the lives of tens of thousands of people at great risk. Such doctors are ill-qualified to treat patients. 

“It is well known that many of our colleagues cleared their examinations by paying huge sums of money as bribes to members of the infamous ‘North Bengal lobby’. They would have never been able to clear the examinations otherwise,” said a second-year postgraduate intern at a government medical college in Kolkata. 

Those who paid bribes to clear their exams to score good marks were usually poor in academics or lacked the requisite attendance to take their exams. 

“This means a large number of recent passouts from government medical colleges in Bengal are unqualified. It is dangerous to allow them to practice, and thousands of lives are being put at risk because of this,” said a senior cardiac surgeon attached to a private hospital in Kolkata. 

Senior medical professionals told Swarajya that the results of medical graduates and postgraduates passing their exams through fraudulent means have become apparent in recent years.

“Many of these new graduates and even postgraduates don’t know even the basics of the profession and are clearly unqualified to become doctors. I come across many of them and have become wary of them,” a senior oncologist attached to a top private hospital in Kolkata told Swarajya. 

Administrators of nationwide private hospital chains say they have become wary of recruiting medical graduates and postgraduates from government hospitals in the state, especially those who have scored high marks. 

“We ask our senior doctors to keep fresh recruits who have passed out from government medical colleges in Bengal under strict watch. These fresh recruits are not allowed to handle even simple and routine cases on their own till they pass scrutiny and are cleared by our senior doctors,” a senior administrator of a private hospital chain admitted to Swarajya. 

These grave allegations of corruption and malpractice have underlined the necessity to conduct a thorough probe, which should result in the identification of medical graduates and postgraduates who passed exams and obtained their degrees by offering bribes. 

It goes without saying that since powerful people with close links to the ruling party are involved in this cash-for-degrees and cash-for-good-marks scam in medical education, a probe by a state agency will never uncover the truth. If the guilty are Trinamool Congress leaders and people close to the netas in power in the state, a probe by a state agency will be a mere eyewash.

So it is imperative that a central agency undertakes a comprehensive investigation into the issue and questions all those who asked for, accepted, and offered bribes. All those who obtained their medical degrees through fraud and bribery need to be prosecuted, and the competent authorities should cancel their degrees. 

The well-being and even lives of lakhs of people are at stake, and there can be no compromise here.