Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal among NE states selected for National Dental Commission

The Union Health Ministry has selected 19 part-time members of the National Dental Commission (NDC) and its three autonomous boards through a draw of lots, according to an official statement.

Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava participated in the selection process. The appointments will be for a tenure of two years and include 10 members representing state and Union Territory governments and nine representing state dental councils.

The 10 representatives of state and UT governments have been selected from Sikkim, Jharkhand, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The nine representatives of state dental councils are from Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Puducherry.

The ministry also selected the second part-time member for each of the three autonomous boards from among the nine state dental council representatives.

Telangana has been selected for the Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate Dental Education Board, Karnataka for the Dental Assessment and Rating Board, and Madhya Pradesh for the Ethics and Dental Registration Board.

Additional Secretary Vinod Kotwal and other ministry officials were also present during the selection process.

The ministry said the draw of lots followed the statutory procedure prescribed under the Act for appointing part-time members to the commission and its autonomous boards.

In a major reform aimed at improving the quality of dental education in the country, the Centre earlier this year notified the constitution of the NDC, replacing the Dental Council of India (DCI) with a new framework comprising three autonomous boards.

The new framework became operational on March 19.