MBBS counseling in offing, no admissions to AIIMS Kashmir this year

 MBBS counseling in offing, no admissions to AIIMS Kashmir this year

Transit campus not finalised; ‘Awaiting Central Government communication’

Srinagar: With counseling for MBBS seats set to begin soon, no admissions may be made for the AIIMS Kashmir this year as well due to the unavailability of campus and the absence of manpower preparedness.

In 2019, NEET UG was made the sole examination for admission to AIIMS, scrapping its own entrance system. The counseling process for allocation of seats in various medical colleges of J&K is set to begin soon, as per the J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations and currently, the merit list of aspirants is being finalized.

Although the seat matrix has not been published yet, the officials feel AIIMS Kashmir would not be in the list of colleges to which admissions would be made this year.

While the officials in the Health and Medical Education Department of J&K have been awaiting an inspection from a central team to finalize a location for a transit campus for AIIMS Kashmir, the academic year has gone by without any progress on the matter. The delay in progress for arranging a transit campus for the premier institute came as a shock to aspirants who had pinned their hopes on securing a seat in AIIMS Kashmir this year, on the same pattern as AIIMS Jammu admitted students last academic session.

A senior official in the department said that the Government has sent many communications to AIIMS Rishikesh to take a call on the five buildings in Srinagar that have been shortlisted to act as a temporary campus. However, till date, no team has visited, nor has a date been proposed for the visit. “Earlier J&K was told that due to COVID19, a visit would not be possible. Now, we don’t know what the reason for the delay is,” the official wishing anonymity said.

Dr Yashpal Sharma, J&K Nodal Officer for new medical colleges in J&K said that J&K has submitted all documents about the proposed sites to AIIMS Rishikesh but has not received a decision. “We have been told that the documents have been forwarded to Union Health Ministry and AIIMS Rishikesh awaits a communication from them,” he said. He said that taking a batch of students for makeshift campus “may not be possible immediately” due to unpreparedness. “We can still hope that a new batch, if decided for, could be accommodated at some other medical college,” he said.

In February 2020, J&K Government initiated the process of setting up temporary and transit campuses for the two AIIMS and facilitating admission of MBBS students. This decision was taken to pave the way for preparing human resources for the upcoming institutions and help in starting these when they reach their completion. The Project completion date for the AIIMS Jammu is 2023 and for AIIMS Kashmir 2024.

Subsequently, AIIMS Jammu was set up in a Guest House in Jammu after a Central Team inspected and gave a nod to the set-up. Its first batch of 50 students will be admitted at the tail-end of 2020. Currently, the batch is undergoing education at AIIMS Rishikesh, the mentoring Institute for both the AIIMS in J&K.