Controversy has recently heated up regarding the enrollment of the first batch in Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Institute of Medical Excellence located in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir. Organizations associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) alleged that about 90 percent of the students taking admission in medical colleges are only Kashmiri Muslims, while the number of local Hindu students is very less.
Because of this, organizations associated with Sangh Parivar demanded cancellation of admission and also protested.
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal demonstrated outside the college on Thursday. They also burnt the effigy of the Chief Executive Officer of Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. This demonstration was organized by BJP MLA from Udhampur R.S. Pathania also supported. He says that it is not fair for Muslim students to dominate the college built with the donations received from Vaishno Devi Temple and seats should be reserved for Hindus. However, as per rules, Vaishno Devi Medical Institute is not a minority college, hence separate reservation for any community is not applicable.
Enrollment and number of students
According to media reports, Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination had made a list of total 50 students in the college. Of these, 42 students were from Kashmir region and 8 from Jammu region. Out of these, 36 Kashmiri Muslim and 3 Jammu students were successful in taking admission in the college. For this reason a controversy arose.
college side
The college administration quoted officials as saying that the admissions were done as per the rules. According to National Medical Council (NMC) rules, all 1,685 seats in 13 medical colleges of Jammu and Kashmir are filled as per NEET ranking. Additionally, 85% seats are reserved for UT domiciled students and the remaining 15% seats are open for students from rest of India.
Effect of delay in enrollment
The college said that the approval of NMC was received on September 8, after which the admission started. At that time, the first round of counseling in other medical colleges of UT had ended and the second round was also about to be completed. Therefore, the list of Vaishno Devi Medical College was prepared after the third round of counselling.
Why the dominance of Kashmiri students?
JKBOPEE shortlisted a total of 5,865 UT domiciled students for 13 medical colleges. Of these, 2,000 students were called for counselling. More than 70% of the students in this list were from Muslim community. This is the reason why the dominance of Kashmiri students was visible in Vaishno Devi Medical College also. Officials said this pattern is not new. In the last few years, most of the seats in the colleges of Jammu region have been filled by the students of Kashmir. While seats are more in Jammu region, still according to the trend the number of Kashmiri students remains more.