Saralnama
A report by Ezhilan Naganathan, MLA and State Planning Commission member, submitted to Tamil Nadu's High-Level Committee on Union-State Relations, highlights increasing centralisation in health and medical education sectors by the Union government. It identifies six key areas of encroachment, including the shift of medical education from the State List to the Concurrent List, creating policy-implementation gaps. The report recommends restoring medical education to the State List and reinstating State authority over public health and medical education. It criticises the replacement of the Medical Council of India with the National Medical Commission, arguing it limits State roles in curricula and guidelines, and raises concerns about NEET and NEXT exams favouring CBSE/NCERT syllabus and disadvantaging government school students. The report also addresses centralisation in organ transplantation via NOTTO, drug regulation, Centre-funded health schemes, and uniform health communication policies, warning these undermine State-specific needs, linguistic plurality, and regional identity. It advocates a dual-tier organ allocation system and financial and institutional empowerment of States for better health systems. (Updated 21 Aug 2025, 18:34 IST; source: link)