Over six months have passed since Professor Suresh Chandra Sharma, the head of ENT head-neck surgery department of AIIMS, was appointed as Chairman of the National Medical Commission (NMC) for a tenure of three years but notification to his appointment is yet to be issued. Murmuring has started in the power corridors over the inordinate delay in the notification of the appointment of Professor Sharma.

Contrary to the murmuring higher authorities recently told Indianmandarins that NMC itself it yet to be constituted and selection committee recommendations are still under consideration for the other posts and hence Chairman can be notified only when NMC is constituted.

NMC, the new medical education regulator to replace scam-tainted Medical Council of India, came into existence following President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent to NMC Act, 2019 for development and regulation of all aspects of medical education, profession and institutions.

The Commission will have chairperson, 10 ex-officio members and 22 part-time members. Rakesh Kumar Vats, the Secretary-General in the board of governors of the Medical Council of India (MCI), was appointed as the secretary of the Commission for a similar term.