The Ministry of Education (MoE) has started putting pressure on the Nepal Medical Council (NMC) to allocate seats for the Kathmandu-based National Medical College, Kathmandu.

Citing a Supreme Court order, the ministry, in a letter dispatched to the council on October 31, has asked the regulatory body to assign medical seats to the National, sources at the NMC said.

The letter from the ministry comes close on the heels of the apex court’s interim order against the Tribhuvan University decision to scrap the affiliation to run MBBS programme by National Medical College, Ghattekulo. 

Responding to a writ filed on October 17 by the NMC owner, CPN-UML leader Jainuddin Ansari, claiming that the TU decision to scrap the affiliation “is illegal and the move has done injustice to the institution”, a single-bench of Justice Dambar Bahadur Shahi on October 24 issued the order, asking the varsity not to implement its decision.

The medical college does not fulfil the basic requirements—a hospital under operation and required number of faculties and staff— to run a medical college.

The letter from the MoE is also against the agreements between the government and Dr Govinda KC, who has been demanding that no medical college should be established in Kathmandu Valley. The main argument of Dr KC is that medical college, apart from delivering quality health care, also brings along development in places where it is established and hence they should be built outside the Capital.

National Medical College, an extension of the Birgunj-based National Medical College, is not registered with the Ministry of Health.

The National’s effort to seek affiliation through a court decision is based on a 2014 inspection report, which itself is dubious in nature. The report prepared by a team led by Dr Karbir Nath Yogi, an IoM professor, is far from reality when it comes to the number of doctors and staff, number of beds, flow of patients, infrastructure and services.