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 a policy-implementation gap. The report recommends restoring medical education to the State List and returning sole authority over public health and medical education to States. It criticises the replacement of the Medical Council of India with the National Medical Commission, arguing it limits States’ 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 standardisation of health communication and curricula, which it terms 'cultural centralisation.' It calls for a dual-tier organ allocation system, financial and institutional empowerment of States, and protection of State policies for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients. The report warns that centralisation risks inefficiency by flattening diversity in healthcare delivery. (Updated 21 Aug 2025, 18:32 IST; source: link)