Question

What is the full form of RMPs? Where are they found?

Answer 1

Hint: Panchayati Raj refers to units of local self-government in rural areas. In a diverse and vast country like ours, Panchayati Raj institutions are required for democratic decentralisation. Although Panchayati Raj institutions in India have a long history going back over a thousand years, it was only 1992 that a bill incorporating provisions related to Panchayati Raj was enacted as the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act and it came into force in 1993.

Complete answer: RMPs are registered medical practitioners who work for rural residents and people living in urban slums. Although only MBBS graduates are registered by the Medical Council of India and have a license to practice allopathic medicine, a village doctor who practices modern medicines without any formal registration/ approval or legal sanction uses RMP as the suffix, which is illegal. People in rural areas or urban slums cannot afford to go to a private doctor or hospital and thus have to depend on such local practitioners.

Note: Under the 11th Schedule, the Panchayati Raj institutions are responsible for the following matters—agriculture, land improvements, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, fisheries, social forestry and farm forestry, minor forest produce, small-scale industries, Khadi and other cottage industries, rural housing, drinking water, fuel and fodder, rural infrastructure, rural electrification, non-conventional energy sources, poverty alleviation programmes, education, technical and vocational training, libraries, health and sanitation, family welfare, women and child development, social welfare, the welfare of weaker sections and maintenance of community assets.