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Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangarsh Samiti members held a protest on Saturday outside Lok Bhawan in Jammu against admission in Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical College.
The protesters burned an effigy of the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha. They carried Vaishno Devi flags and chanted "Go back, LG, Go back" slogans to affirm their demand to cancel admissions to the medical college. A protester exclaimed that the authorities are testing their patience and reaffirmed their demands. "All we want is to shut the medical college. Why do they want a medical college in Katra? Take it anywhere else. In the shrine of India's Sanatan Dharma, this college is not acceptable," the protestor stated. As the police tried to control the protesters, gathered in large numbers, a scuffle erupted between the two sides. Last month, the National Medical Commission (NMC) rejected a proposal from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence, Katra, seeking to place 100 per cent of its MBBS seats under the All India Quota (AIQ) to be filled through the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), following a row over MBBS admissions. An NMC official said the move goes against existing policy. "We cannot have one institute in isolation to put 100% into MCC because there are government policies that this percentage of seats goes to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and this percentage of seats goes to the state counselling," a National Medical Commission official told ANI. "We cannot deviate from one organisation in isolation or randomly. If we have to issue this specifically for this organisation, an amendment is required. When we make a policy amendment, we must keep similar institutions in mind. If there is a change in policy or percentage, the institute can make changes in admission norms," he added. The official emphasised that any criteria must be uniformly acceptable across states. "We have to draw a criterion. And this criterion is to be acceptable to the state, also to other states," the official said. There have been calls for changes to the selection criteria for medical seats from some right-wing groups following this year's MBBS admissions. (ANI)
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