The Indian Medical Association (IMA) wants the Centre to introduce more stringent laws to clamp down on medicine practice without licence, which is very common in the rural hinterland of Jharkhand and other states.

National president of the association Dr S.S. Agarwal was speaking at a news meet before an internal meeting of the IMA's state chapter at IMA Bhavan in Ranchi on Tuesday.

"An anti-quack act is the need of the hour to plug gaps that remain in the Clinical Establishment Act.

"The old act had been formulated to benefit corporate entities. It will be better if the government introduces an anti-quack act to make medical practitioners more accountable," he said.

Agarwal said that IMA was ready to walk along with the Union government for the implementation of national health programmes and reach out to the last man of the society, provided a central act for protection of medical practitioners was introduced.

On the issue of keeping away panchayati raj institutions from monitoring health services in rural areas, the IMA president said, "Involving them in health monitoring will lead to poor services. To strengthen health services in rural areas, the government should consider strengthening of referral systems. There is a fear of political pressure, which lurks on medical practitioners in rural areas while treating patients."

Regarding the issue of supporting the demand of Jharkhand wing of IMA for implementation of the Medical Protection Act in the state, Agarwal said that the government must protect medical practitioners and provisions of punishments must be introduced in the Indian Penal Code for taking action against manhandling of doctors.

Dr Agarwal while talking about adopting a suitable lifestyle to stay healthy said that yoga was not a method of treatment but only a way of life. "The IMA neither backs nor opposes yoga."

Asked whether the IMA, which had been doing nationwide campaigns for implementation of Medical Protection Act, ever asked the government to constitute a multi-disciplinary board to probe into cases of medical practitioners accused of wrong diagnosis or charging exorbitantly, he said, "Yes we are very much open to the idea of constituting a multidisciplinary board and have suggested the same to the Union government too."

The IMA has a pan-India presence with 30 state chapters and 1,800 local branches. It has over 2.5 lakh members across the country.