Major boost to Nursing education
Sanctions 1st installment of Rs 3.75 crore for each school
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 5: In a major boost to the Nursing education in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today approved the upgradation of five Nursing Schools of the Union Territory into Nursing Colleges and sanctioned an amount of Rs 3.75 crore as 1st installment in favour of each school for their upgradation.
Official sources told Excelsior that to improve the nursing education in J&K, the Health & Medical Education Department had submitted 10 proposals along with Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, for upgradation of 10 General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) Schools into Nursing Colleges, including one at Kargil, which is now part of UT of Ladakh.
They said Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare today approved the upgradation of five Nursing Schools i.e. GNM School Akhnoor, GNM School Kulgam, GNM School Pulwama, GNM School Shopian and GNM School Budgam into Nursing Colleges whereas upgradation of remaining four Nursing Schools at Kathua, Rajouri, Doda and Udhampur into Colleges is under active consideration of the Ministry.
“Sanction is hereby accorded to the release of Rs 3,75,00,000 towards 1st installment of non-recurring Grant-in-Aid (General) to Principals of GNM Schools, Akhnoor, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Budgam into Colleges of Nursing under the Central Sector Scheme ‘Development of Nursing Services’ (Plan) for the year 2019-20,” said a communication of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As per the communication, the grants released will be utilized by the respective Principals of 5 GNM Schools of J&K UT by March 31, 2020 and the UT Government will bear the recurring expenditure for running the upgraded colleges of Nursing. Once the BSC (Nursing) programme is started in these upgraded colleges, the GNM programme would be stopped, it further added.
Meanwhile, sources said a batch of 60 students for BSc Nursing shall be admitted every year in each upgraded Nursing College once the infrastructure is completed and faculty is provided. They said Rs 3.75 crore has been sanctioned as 1st Installment for upgradation of each colleges, out of total Rs 6 crore (Rs 5.21 crore Non-Recurring and Rs 0.79 crore Recurring) meant for each college.
They said five Nursing Colleges at Jammu, Kishtwar, Baramulla, Anantnag and Sopore have already been sanctioned under PMDP and are in advance stages of their establishment whereas a batch of 60 students of BSc Nursing at Jammu has already been admitted from this year.
“The inspections for affiliation by the University of Kashmir for Nursing College Baramulla and Nursing College Anantnag have already been conducted and these two colleges are expected to be made operational in the year 2020-21 while as Nursing Colleges Kishtwar and Sopore would be ready by next academic session,” they further disclosed.
Sources said Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working for upgrading the health infrastructure and improvement of medical education in the country, specifically in the UT of J&K. They said Centre has already sanctioned seven new Medical Colleges in J&K, out of which four are functional while Government Medical College Doda is likely to get “Letter of Permission” (LoP) in this session.
“The process for establishment of remaining two newly sanctioned Medical Colleges at Udhampur and Handwara has also been initiated,” they said, adding, this will provide a major boost to Medical and Nursing Education in J&K and to overcome the shortage of trained doctors and nurses.
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