Says new Dental Council of India chief while promising to address pending issues

Dr Debyendu Majumdar

The Dental Council of India (DCI) recently elected its new president Dr Debyendu Majumdar. In an exclusive interview with MiD DAY, Dr Majumdar, who is also the principal of Dr R Ahmed Dental College and Hospital in Kolkata, talked about his priority to get duration of BDS course reduced and also to restore the image of the Council that was tarnished by the cases of corruption during the tenure of the previous president.

What will your priorities be as the President of the Council?
For now, my foremost priority is to look after the academic issues of the dental students. In 2007, a gazette notification mentioned that the Bachelor for Dental Surgery (BDS) course should be of five years after which the students will go for an internship. But, I will definitely try to change this rule. We will conduct workshops with the students, faculty members and other departments of the colleges where we will discuss the reduction of the course from five to four years followed by one year internship. The bright side of this long duration course at present is that students get a stipend during their internship.