19 Chait, Kathmandu. The 24th meeting of the Medical Education Commission was held at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday at 4 pm. Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel, who is also the Co-Chairman of the Commission, Health Minister Nisha Mehta and members of the Commission attended the meeting.

The meeting was called with the members of the Commission on the agenda of implementing the decision of the Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Balen Shah was not present even though it was arranged that the meeting would be chaired by the Prime Minister.

In the meeting, the Vice-President of the Commission, Dr. When Anjani Kumar Jha started reading out the agenda, everyone present started facing each other. Because, Dr. The proposal in the agenda that was announced by J was outside the existing law.

The cabinet meeting held on March 1 proposed to teach MBBS under additional scholarship quota to Ekta Shah, who was injured in the Genji movement.

A commission meeting was held on Wednesday to implement the decision. Which proposal is against the law. For MBBS studies, there is a system of seat allocation, entrance examination, publication of results and selection of students based on merit order.

All these processes have been completed for this year and the students have been selected. But by breaking the law, the way has been opened for Shah to study under additional scholarship quota for MBBS studies.

According to a member who participated in the meeting, in the name of implementing the decision of the Council of Ministers, the proposal against the law was forcibly approved. According to that member, the proposal to give additional scholarship was brought to the meeting based on the decision made by the Council of Ministers on March 1.

‘Looking at the said decision, it seems that the rules and laws do not have any meaning. The number of scholarships, merit and procedure have all been determined by the Act. But giving extra seats as ‘Ghaite’ means violating the legal process,” said one of the participants Online newssaid with

According to those members, the agenda was not made clear to many members until the meeting started.

In the beginning, only the general agenda of ‘implementing the decision of the Council of Ministers’ was informed. But after reaching the meeting, the topic of additional scholarship was presented.

According to the members, after the proposal was presented, some of them raised questions about the provisions of the Act and the limits of the scholarship. Some members had objected saying that ‘decisions cannot be made by ignoring the provisions of the law’. But they claim that the proposal was advanced after the directive of the minister.

Another member says that the proposal was ‘imposed’ in the meeting in the name of the decision of the Council of Ministers.

‘We had no clear information about the agenda. After understanding, it is a matter of adding extra seats. It looked like this decision was forced,’ said the member to Online Khabar.

According to the current system, scholarships are distributed based on merit and legal criteria. But they argue that the decision to give an extra seat to a person on the basis of being injured in the Genji movement raises questions about the merit system itself.

‘This is a political matter. If the rules are broken for one person today, the same door will be opened for others tomorrow,’ says the member.

This is how the law was broken

Shah scored 57.5 marks in the MBBS entrance exam and was ranked 7640 in the merit order.

Shah’s house is Barju Rural Municipality-6 Sunsari. The Council of Ministers meeting on 1st Chait had directed the Medical Education Commission to provide additional scholarship studies in the MBBS program by mentioning that the ‘Ghaite Card’ number is 165.

According to the government’s decision, the proposal of the agenda of the commission has been approved by the Ministry of Finance for additional scholarships. It is mentioned in the agenda proposal agreed on 14th February to manage expenses from the budget under the title of grants to medical education providers in the current financial year.

In the proposal of the agenda, it is said, “According to the letter sent by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on March 3, 2082, for the implementation of the government’s decision, it has been revealed that the Ministry of Finance has agreed on February 14, 2082 to manage the additional scholarship expenses allocated for the Medical Education Commission in the current financial year through the budget entitled Grant (Bachelor’s Level).”

However, this decision conflicts with the existing law.

According to the National Medical Education Act, 2075, only the Commission has the right to determine the number of seats in educational institutions. Section 17 of the Act states, ‘The Commission shall determine a certain number of seats for universities, institutes and other educational institutions based on the criteria as determined each year.’

Similarly, in sub-section (3) of section 17, it is mentioned that ‘universities, institutes or other educational institutions must admit students selected through the entrance examination according to the matching system’.

For the academic session 2082/83, on 29th July, the commission has distributed 2,635 seats to various educational institutions.

This year the entrance exam for MBBS was conducted from 15th to 19th November. After that, the result has been published and the student admission process has reached the final stage through the matching system.

In this situation, if the decision of the Council of Ministers is implemented, it seems to be in direct conflict with the provisions related to student admission and academic calendar in Section 17 of the Act.

Another member says that creating more scholarship seats is against the spirit of the Act when the Commission has already determined the MBBS seats across the country and conducted the common entrance examination.

Seats have already been determined. The entrance exam is over. The merit list has been prepared. In such a situation, giving more seats or scholarships by saying the decision of the Council of Ministers means bypassing the law itself,’ says the member.

Although there is a provision that the agenda of the meeting should be provided to the members of the commission at least 24 hours in advance, the member says that this rule has been violated.

The meeting was said to be held on Wednesday at 4 o’clock. But the agenda was informed only the previous night. In that too, it was only written that the decision of the Council of Ministers was to be implemented, the details of the decision were not given,’ says the member.

The member alleges that the decision was brought forward by deliberately hiding the process.

‘If such an agenda is brought without informing the members of the commission, it is an attempt to make a secret decision,’ says the member, ‘the decision of the council of ministers can never be above the law.

Within the commission, some members said that they are preparing to put a formal disagreement (note of dissent) in the next meeting.

Vice President Dr. Jha says – I have no comment

Commission Vice President Dr. Anjani Kumar Jha said that there was a discussion in Wednesday’s meeting about teaching MBBS under additional scholarship quota to Ekta Shah.

He argued that the decision of the Council of Ministers was kept under discussion. On the question of why the proposal was put forward against the law of the commission, Dr. He says, ‘I have no comment on this matter.’

Dr. said that the matter is under discussion and not approved. Jha claimed. Both the co-chairmen of the commission did not come in contact to understand more about this matter.