Jammu and Kashmir’s first Unani medical college has been made operational with the admission of first batch of 30 students in Bachelors in Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) course.
An official said that the college situated at Nawabagh, Ganderbal has been made operational after it got the approval from Union ministry of AYUSH in December last year for grant of permission to start 1st batch of BUMS course from the current academic session of 2020-21 with an intake capacity of 60 seats. The Ministry had issued the ‘Letter of Permission’ in this regard.
Talking to Greater Kashmir Director Indian System of medicine (ISM) Dr Mohan Singh said that the unani medical college Ganderbal is functional and so far atleast thirty students have got admission in the college for the BUMS courses. He said that the infrastructure and manpower has been ensured for the college.
Official sources said that there was no AYUSH educational institution in public sector of J&K and students either had to go outside J&K or take admission in private colleges for seeking AYUSH medical education. “The Government of J&K felt need for establishing a quality Ayurvedic/Unani Medical Colleges to produce qualified Ayurvedic/Unani graduates and accordingly proposals for establishing Government Ayurvedic/Unani Medical Colleges were submitted to Government of India in 2008,” an official said.
Accordingly, the Government of India (GoI) in 2009 approved establishment of Government Ayurvedic Medical College in Jammu and Government Unani Medical College in Kashmir on 50:50 basis with an estimated cost of Rs 25.80 cr and Rs 32.50 cr, respectively. In the year 2010-11, GoI accorded sanction to both Ayurvedic and Unani Medical Colleges.
In the year 2011-12, the construction work of the building of the Unani Medical College was started by J&K Housing Board on 78 kanals of land at Nawabagh (Ganderbal). In 2016, when almost half of the structure of the Unani Medical College was ready, the J&K H&ME Department applied for grant of permission from the GoI to start 1st batch of BUMS course in Unani Medical College on make shift basis and accordingly the inspection team of CCIM visited the College campus and Associated Hospital (Government Unani Hospital, Shalteng, Srinagar) in February 2017 but due to several shortfalls, the permission was not granted and the Department was directed to apply fresh.
Accordingly, after completing all the requisite formalities, a fresh proposal was submitted to Ministry of AYUSH by H&ME Department vide its application dated 28-05-2019 seeking permission to start 1st batch in Unani Medical College and in the meantime most of the gaps as per CCIM regulations were filled. Moreover, Associated Hospital of the College was made fully functional, 129 posts of teaching and non-teaching staff were created and OPD services in the hospital located in new college campus was started. And later the permission was granted accordingly.