New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the government to make its stand clear on a plea seeking a three-year course on primary health to allow non-MBBS doctors to practise in rural areas.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Mukta Gupta directed the government to file a detailed affidavit specifying whether it has accepted the recommendations given by the Central Council for Health and the Task Force which recommended a three-year course for medical practitioners.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) informed the court that it has not accepted all the recommendations of the Task Force and will file an affidavit on this by April 7.

The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by a public health specialist, Meenakshi Gautham, who said a person can practise modern medicine only after completing an MBBS course. It sought the implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force.

MBBS graduates, the petition said, either rush to big cities or go abroad, and thereby deprive a large majority of people of proper medical treatment. People in rural areas are forced to depend either on untrained and uncertified rural medical practitioners, or on quacks.

'The irony is that 80 percent of the common medical problems and ailments can be treated at the level of primary healthcare and do not require attention of a professional trained in highly academic, sophisticated, five-and-half-year-long course like MBBS,' advocate Prashant Bhushan said.