Jammu, Jan. 7 -- The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Tuesday withdrew the Letter of Permission (LoP) granted to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence, Reasi, for running the MBBS course with 50 seats for the academic year 2025-26. The decision comes amid the recent controversy erupted over the admission of 42 Muslim students out of a total of 50 in the maiden batch for MBBS course at the medical college. The decision follows assessment report submitted by a team which conducted a surprise inspection following complaints regarding inadequate infrastructure, insufficient clinical material, shortage of qualified full-time teaching faculty and inadequate number of resident doctors, NMC officials stated. The Medical Assessment & Rating Board (MARB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC), vide public notices dated December 5, 2024 and December 19, 2024, had invited applications for the establishment of new medical colleges for the academic year 2025-26. "Pursuant to the said notices, the NMC received an application for the establishment of a new medical college, namely Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence, along with several other applications. After following the due process, including scrutiny of documents and physical inspection by expert assessors, the MARB granted a LoP to the said college. Accordingly, admissions were made by the institution. However, over the past two weeks, the NMC has received multiple complaints containing serious allegations against the institution, inter alia, regarding inadequate infrastructure, insufficient clinical material, shortage of qualified full-time teaching faculty and inadequate number of resident doctors," read a letter issued by NMC. "The MARB decided to conduct a surprise physical inspection to verify the veracity of the complaints. The assessment report submitted by the team established that the complaints were true and substantiated. The deficiencies observed were gross and substantial in nature. Continuation of the institution under such circumstances would have seriously jeopardised the quality of medical education and adversely affected the academic interests of the students," it stated. "Accordingly, in exercise of the powers conferred under the provisions of the National Medical Commission Act, the MARB has decided to withdraw the LoP granted to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence. To safeguard the interests of the students already admitted for the academic year 2025-26, the state/UT authorities have been authorised to accommodate such students in other medical institutions within the Union territory, as supernumerary seats, in accordance with applicable norms," it concluded. Earlier during the day, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah had asked the BJP government adjust the students to other medical colleges and close the newly opened medical college to end the controversy. Omar accused the BJP for its alleged communal politics on education, sports and food habits. Omar said, "The children passed exams and secured seats on their hard work. None did any favour to them. If you don't want them there then adjust them somewhere else." "In the given scenario, I don't feel that students themselves would like to study there. We request GOI and the health ministry to adjust these children in other colleges. Had I been a parent of these students, I wouldn't have sent them. We wouldn't want them to study where there's so much politics," he added. "Give our children another medical college and close that medical college (Vaishno Devi). We don't need such a medical college. Adjust these children in good government medical colleges," he asserted. When asked about BJP's senior leader and MLA, Sham Lal Sharma's demand to make Jammu a separate state, the CM sarcastically said that who has stopped the BJP from doingso. "They have already ruined Ladakh by separating it from J&K. Now, if they want to make Jammu a separate state then who is stopping them. They should have done it in 2019 itself," he said....