Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said he had directed an immediate relocation of students admitted to Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College to facilities in their hometowns.
The decision was announced a day after the National Medical Commission’s Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) withdrew the letter of permission granted to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu’s Reasi for non-compliance with minimum standards.
“I have directed the health minister (Sakina Itoo) to ensure that students affected by the withdrawal of permission to the Mata Vaishno Devi medical college are adjusted in government medical colleges near their homes,” the chief minister told reporters after addressing a district review meeting in Samba.
Abdullah said the process should be expedited so that the students can continue their medical education and later serve the people of the region.
The chief minister also denounced the celebration by the right-wing outfits of the permission withdrawal.
“What is this happiness about? The people in the country fight over getting the medical colleges, and here, a struggle was waged to shut down a medical college to play with the future of J&K children.
“If destroying children’s futures gives you happiness, then burst firecrackers … This time, out of 50 seats, 40 have gone to Kashmir. After one or two years, these 50 seats would have become 400 seats. Out of those 400 seats, possibly 200 or 250 children would have been from Jammu. Tomorrow, those children will not get medical college seats because you got the entire college shut down in the name of religion,” Abdullah said.
He said the children who will not get medical college seats in future because of the closure of this medical college. One should remember these “Sangharsh Samiti people forever,” he said.
On recent controversies over the selection of players for football and cricket teams, mostly from Kashmir, Abdullah said, “As far as I am concerned, I do not care what religion a player belongs to. I only care that the performance of the Jammu and Kashmir team should be good.”
He said that tomorrow he would be meeting the U-16 cricket team, which lifted the Vijay Merchant Trophy for the first time, to personally congratulate each one of them.
“I hope that in the future as well, the teams formed from here will go forward and return successfully,” Abdullah said.
