Srinagar: With J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) refusing permission to University of Kashmir for carrying out admission to B Pharma course, the Board is now the sole authority for carrying out entrance examinations and counseling for all medical and paramedical courses in J&K.
Last week, the University of Kashmir withdrew the admission notification for four year B Pharma course, eight months after it was issued.
The aspirants of the course had submitted application fee and waited these months for the entrance and subsequent admission to the prestigious course.
The cancellation of notification has come as a jolt to the candidates who rue wasting precious time. However, BOPEE has said that the University of Kashmir had been informed well in time that it would not be allowed to hold entrance examinations as per the new rules.
Chairman BOPEE, Vivek Bhardwaj while speaking to Greater Kashmir said that the changes have been brought in to make the system more transparent and purely merit based. “SRO 505 of 2019 has made J&K BOPEE the nodal agency for making admissions to BSc Nursing, B Pharma, and other courses.
BOPEE is also the central agency for admission to MBBS, BDS and other medical courses, although the entrance is conducted by National Board,” Bhardwaj said.
He said that a number of communications had been sent to the University during the year 2021, seeking details of intake and approval by Pharmacy Councils of the UT and India.
In November 2021, a letter from BOPEE to the University of Kashmir clearly forbade the former from making admissions to B Pharma courses at the University level. “We have made it clear, time and again, that the University would not be allowed to carry out admissions as was the norm. They have to respect SRO 505,” Bhardwaj said.
Since 2020, J&K BOPEE has been carrying out the entire admission process for paramedical courses in SKIMS Soura and other Government run institutions.
“The admission process has been made smoother, more transparent and this in turn reflects in the quality of trained manpower for the healthcare that we are producing these institutions,” he said.
As per a letter from Health and Medical Education to University of Kashmir, dated 04 April 2022, “It may not be possible at this stage to grant relaxation to the University of Kashmir for making admissions to B Pharma course at its own level as it would defeat the very purpose of SRO 505, especially when similar requests from other institutions have been turned down by the Government and when the University of Kashmir has been repeatedly informed about the issue.”