The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has announced that the medical colleges which do not comply with the government’s directive to enrol postgraduate medical students only on merit basis will have their registration scrapped.

A meeting of the PMO, which was headed by Chief Secretary Som Lal Subedi, on Thursday also directed all medical colleges to enrol students on merit basis within a week or be prepared to face action. 

The PMO has asked the concerned authorities to make arrangements for admission of merit listed students as per the government’s decision of September 18, 2015, and 

the Supreme Court’s decision of December 1, 2015 and of July 5, 2016. 

Universal Medical College in Bhairahawa and National Medical College in Birgunj have been accused of enrolling only those students willing to pay hefty tuition and admission fees while denying entry to merit listed students. 

With the pressure mounting on these colleges to do as bid by the government and the Supreme Court, it is learnt that their operators are lobbying the corridors of power these days to increase the students’ quota in postgraduate course to accommodate merit listed students as well as tuition-paying students.