Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Council of Medical Registration (OCMR), a state government body responsible for the regulation of medical practice in the state, has stumbled upon a racket involved in supplying fake registrations to medical practitioners across the country.
The registrar of OCMR, Kamal Kanta Das, has written a letter to Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch, seeking action against the people behind the racket. The cyber cell at the Crime Branch in Cuttack has registered a case and started a probe.
The OCMR is the official body to issue statutory permissions such as registration certificates, NOC and other testimonials necessary for practicing doctors. It also frames rules and keeps a watch on any mischief in connection with the medical practice in the state.
The OCMR discovered the fraud after Dr Shritosh of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar informed the body about a fake website. An aggrieved applicant sent a complaint to the OCMR requesting it to make necessary rectifications in the website. He was, however, informed by the OCMR that the website, https://www.ocmr.org.in/ was a fake one and OCMR has not yet developed facilities for online registration.
Later, the OCMR received a letter from the deputy registrar of Uttarkhand Medical Council alleging the presence of the fake website. The deputy registrar also sent a copy of the fake MBBS registration certificate issued by the bogus council. He also sought action from his counterpart in Odisha to bust the racket.
Sources claimed many people have secured fake certificates from the bogus council and are carrying out practice in other states. The fake website mentioned the office of OCMR at Nandankanan instead of the original location of OCMR at Unit-V of the City. The fraudsters recently claimed on the fake site that doctors can apply for registration /renewal /transfer process online in view the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Das informed the crime branch that the council had developed a website back in 2004-05 ‘www.ocmr.org’ which has been lying defunct now. The OCMR is currently working along with NIC to develop a new website to provide online registration facilities to medical practitioners.