Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi

New Delhi, Jan 7: The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Tuesday withdrew the Letter of Permission (LoP) granted to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence at Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir for running an MBBS course with 50 seats for the academic year 2025–26.

The decision was taken after a surprise inspection conducted by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the NMC, following multiple complaints alleging serious deficiencies at the institution.

According to an official communication issued by the NMC, the MARB had earlier invited applications for establishing new medical colleges for the 2025–26 academic year through public notices dated December 5 and December 19, 2024. The Vaishno Devi Institute had applied under this process and was initially granted permission after scrutiny of documents and a physical inspection by expert assessors. Admissions were subsequently carried out by the institution.

However, the NMC said that over the past two weeks it received several complaints raising serious concerns regarding inadequate infrastructure, insufficient clinical material, shortage of qualified full-time teaching faculty and an inadequate number of resident doctors.

“The MARB decided to conduct a surprise physical inspection to verify the veracity of the complaints. The assessment report established that the allegations were true and substantiated. The deficiencies observed were gross and substantial in nature,” the commission said.

The NMC noted that allowing the institution to continue under such circumstances would have compromised the quality of medical education and adversely affected students’ academic interests.

To safeguard students already admitted for the 2025–26 academic year, the commission authorised the state and Union Territory authorities to accommodate them in other medical colleges within Jammu and Kashmir as supernumerary seats, in accordance with applicable norms.

The withdrawal of permission comes amid a recent controversy surrounding the admission of 46 Muslim students out of the total 50 seats in the maiden MBBS batch of the college.

Several local groups and Hindu organisations had raised objections, claiming that the medical college was built and largely funded through donations from devotees of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, and demanded reservation for Hindu candidates.

Earlier in the day, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah urged the BJP-led central government to adjust the students to other medical colleges and close the newly opened institution to put an end to the controversy. He accused the BJP of indulging in communal politics in matters related to education.

“The children passed exams and secured seats through hard work. If you don’t want them there, adjust them somewhere else,” Omar said. He added that students themselves may not wish to study in an atmosphere vitiated by politics and urged the Centre and the health ministry to shift them to other government medical colleges.

“Give our children another medical college and close this one. We don’t need such a medical college,” he said.

Reacting to BJP leader and MLA Sham Lal Sharma’s demand for a separate Jammu state, Omar sarcastically remarked that nothing was stopping the BJP from doing so. “They already separated Ladakh from J&K. If they wanted to do this, they should have done it in 2019 itself,” he said.