Calcutta, March 4: At least 50 government doctors are working with fake degrees.

Health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra made the startling revelation today with the promise that measures would be initiated to weed them out.

?I handed over a list of fake medical practitioners to the director-general of police and the city police commissioner some time back. There are 20 such doctors in Calcutta,? Mishra told reporters at Writers? Buildings.

He also claimed that the police have already arrested some of the fake doctors and initiated legal measures against them.

The health department, the minister said, will now on be strict in enforcing the Clinical Establishment Act, 1997. ?The health department will not allow any doctor to practise in medicine shops. I feel it is unethical to run a doctor?s chamber on medicine shop premises. We will not issue licence to any doctor found practising from a medicine shop,? Mishra said.

The minister also unveiled a plan to improve rural healthcare. ?The finance commission has sanctioned Rs 40 crore and we will utilise the funds to better rural hospitals. In the past three years, we have appointed 2,500 doctors for rural Bengal. We will construct residential units for them in 927 block primary health centres,? he said.