KATHMANDU, Dec 8: Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has admitted that it wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education (MoE), under pressure from the ministry, stating the preliminary requirements of B & C Medical College to be satisfactory.
This decision is against the deal reached with Dr Govinda KC only three days ago as it paves way for the Jhapa-based B & C Medical College to get university affiliation. In the agreement reached with Dr Govinda KC, the government had agreed to halt affiliation to any new medical colleges until a new Medical Education Act is in place.
"The NMC board has not sent any letter to the medical college. We are not the authority to issue affiliation," said Dr Dilip Sharma, registrar at the NMC. "We issued a letter to the MoE just to inform about the status of infrastructure of the medical college after the MoE frequently requested us to do so," he added.
Following pressure from Education Minister Dhani Ram Paudel as per the instructions of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the NMC, a monitoring and regulatory body of the medical sector, gave its go-ahead to BNC Medical College owned by Maoist leader Durga Prasain to receive university affiliation.
Even though a full house meeting of the NMC on Monday rejected the proposal, the government mounted pressure on NMC officials and forced them to write a letter, paving way to receive university affiliation. In the letter, the NMC has said that BNC Medical College has the necessary infrastructure to receive university affiliation. With the permission, the B & C can now apply for affiliation with any university.
Meanwhile, issuing a statement, Dr KC has warned the government not to issue any affiliation before endorsing a new Medical Education Act.
SC summons govt over EC letter to parties
