Jammu, Feb 12: It may sound strange, but it is true, for last over fifty years the Medical pass outs of Valley are coming to Jammu to register their MBBS degrees- courtesy   the failure of  Medical Council of India (MCI) to open its office in Kashmir.
 Sources said opened in late sixties, Jammu and Kashmir State Medical Council (JKSMC) office, affiliated with (MCI) in Jammu is presently catering needs of all the MBBS qualified students. In absence of the office in the Valley, the medical graduates from Kashmir province have to come to Jammu for registration of their degrees since last more than five decades.
 Every year more than 200 students qualify MBBS from Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, while 100 from Government Medical College Srinagar, besides many others from other states and countries including Russia, Bangladesh, Nepal. “It is mandatory for all the MBBS qualified students to get themselves registered with Jammu and Kashmir State Medical Council (JKSMC) to carry Medical practice” sources said, adding that without JKSMC’s registration, the doctors can not prescribe medicine to the patients.
 They further informed that more than 13,000 MBBS doctors have been registered themselves with JKSMC till date. The MBBS doctors of Kashmir region have to file an application for registration and then were asked by JKSMC authorities at Jammu to come back after one month. “The registrar of JKSMC comes from Delhi and he stays at Jammu only for few days in a month. There is no phone contact of JKSMC office on which the applicants can know about the presence of Registrar, consequently the applicants have to wait for many days in Jammu” an applicant on the condition of anonymity said.
 Muhammad Yusuf, who had also come from Srinagar to Jammu to get registration of his son’s MBBS degree said that on January 6 he had come to Jammu and filed an application. “The officials at JKSMC office Jammu   told me to come again after one month. There is no phone contact of JKSMC office Jammu while the employees don’t give their phone number to applicants, so I have been staying in hotels since last eight days as the Registrar is not coming for past one week” he said.
 He said that his son has to appear in MS/MD course examination being conducted by Board of Professional Entrance Examination on February 19.
 “The BOPEE will not issue the admit card (Roll Number) to my son, until the registration certificate will not be submitted to them” he said, adding that like him there were hundreds of applicants who come to Jammu for registration and stay in hotels for many days. He said that it was all wastage of time and money of hundreds of people of Kashmir region, Leh, Kargil, Ladakh while others only due to absence of office in Kashmir region.
 While criticizing the concerned authorities, another applicant said that if there would be an office of JKSMC in Kashmir region, then huge money and time of hundreds of people of other side of Jawahar tunnel would be saved. He appealed to Indian Medical Council authorities to open an office in Kashmir valley also for the convenience of Kashmiri masses.
 When this correspondent visited the office of JKSMC at 3 PM, Registrar of Council, was not in his room, while the employees present in the office simply declined to give phone number of Registrar.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST