Non-starter: Centre's new legal shield for health workers after Kolkata rape

THE Centre had proposed a model state law to protect healthcare workers following the nationwide protests after the rape and murder of a trainee postgraduate student in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata.

- KAVITA BAJELI-DATT @ New Delhi

However, despite the government's proposal, the Union Home Ministry and the Union Health Ministry are yet to hold a meeting to discuss the modalities of the law.

This comes as the Centre has retracted from its earlier proposal of a separate central law to deal with offences against healthcare professionals in 2019. Kerala-based RTI activist Dr K V Babu, who has been pursuing the issue, said the Home Ministry has acknowledged in the RTI that the model state law was proposed last year.

However, since the proposal was made in September, he said that both the ministries seem clueless about its status.