Bhat Yasir
Living in the border district of Jammu Kashmir, remorseful Neeru Devi is squandering her days as the registration agency has refused to permanently register her entire batch rendering her degree incomplete.
Devi, a resident of the Rajouri district, enrolled in the Sai Tirupati University of Rajasthan’s Venkateshwar College of Nursing in 2017 with the goal to pursue a Bachelor of Science (BSC) degree. She passed in 2021, but the Rajasthan Nursing Council has accused their college of failing to obtain a state government NOC, as a result, she never acquired the permanent registration certificate that the RNC was meant to provide.
She sobbed at her fate when she learned that her ineligibility stemmed from not having a permanent RNC registration, even after passing the AIIMS NORCET exam, a national entrance exam for hiring nursing officers in various AIIMS facilities throughout India.
“My family and I are in an immense amount of distress,” Devi said, recognising that it was a college problem.
“Why are we, the students, being punished?” she asked. The registrar of Nursing Council clearly told us that they won’t give us certificates until NOC is submitted by the college, Devi recalled.
This 2017 batch of ninety students is running from pillars to post to get the issue resolved but no one is paying heed to their matter. Among ninety students, 23 are from Jammu Kashmir who were selected under PMSSS scholarship scheme.
At the beginning the students were informed that the Venkateshwar college is approved in Rajasthan Nursing Council and Indian Nursing Council, the affected students said while narrating the story. They said that their four years in college passed well but their ‘fate changed at the end.’
“When we applied for registration in the RNC after completing our degree, initially the RNC delayed it for over 6 months,” stated Umair Shafiq, classmate of Devi. Then RNC informed us that the college hasn’t obtained NOC so we won’t get certificates, he claimed.
But what is our fault? Questioned students while asking why they are being troubled in the middle of this. “If college hasn’t obtained NOC how it was allowed to run, why is it still running,” asked Shafiq.
The students had protested a few months before in the college campus to press their demands. But college authorities called the police who started the lathi charge on us, Shafiq recalled.
“We have never thought that this will happen at the end.”
Saima Chowdhary, another affected student, said that in the initial days they were assured that problem will be solved within days but nothing concrete happen. We can’t even go for higher studies or apply for a job, she said.
“We are mentally disturbed now.”
Role of College and RNC
In an order on 13.01.2022, the Rajasthan Nursing Council while cancelling affiliation of Venkateshwar College of Nursing said, “By office letter number 1374 dated 16.12.2021, a temporary list of approval for affiliation/recognition of RNC for B.Sc Nursing course in the academic session 2021-22 was issued on serial number 05 for 100 seats of Venkateshwar College of Nursing, Udaipur. Approval for affiliation/recognition of RNC is through NOC of the State Government. It is canceled due to non-availability.”
Later, the college filed a petition in the Rajasthan High Court and the court after hearing took suo moto action and ordered provisional registration for students, Shafiq said. We received a provisional registration certificate in June 2022 which is valid for 4 years and 6 months, he said.
“We thought we would get a permanent registration certificate but it didn’t happen. Even though we didn’t receive the hard copies of provisional certificates,” he said.
College authorities are saying we have all the documents and even they claimed that the college was paying fee in the RNC, Shafiq said expressing helplessness.
“It’s a political issue between the college authorities and RNC and unfortunately students have become victims of it,” he alleged.
Court orders:
The High Court of Rajasthan in one of its order on 25th August in 2022 while directing RNC to provide provisional registration to the students said, “In the meantime and till the next date of hearing, the respondent-Rajasthan Nursing Council is directed to register the students of the petitioner/institution provisionally. It is made clear that while granting the provisional registration to the students of the petitioner/institution, the pendency of the present writ petition be shown in the order.”
“The grant of provisional registration shall be subject to the outcome of the present writ petitions.”
In another order, the Court mentioned previous judgements: “This Court also observes that issuance of the NOC for the Course in question by the State Government is necessary for running the Nursing Institution, and that, the State Government have powers under the law to grant or cancel the affiliation/recognition, if the institution concerned is violating the requisite norms. In the present case, the petitioners-institutions were being run without any NOC from the State Government, and the respondent-RNC cancelled affiliation/recognition, on that count.”
“This Court further observes that the role of the State Government in determining whether the NOC is to be granted or not, because the State Government, amongst other regulatory bodies, has to ensure fulfilment of each and every norm laid down for the institutions,” it said.
“The education, more particularly pertaining to the Course in question, is quite significant for the country, and that, the institutions imparting such education, must have proper management, infrastructural facilities etc. for the same.”
In a desperate tone, Devi asked, “this is the question of our life, what should we do now?”
Like Devi, Udhay Singh, her classmate from Rajasthan also faced the same problem when selected in AIIMS as Nursing Officer. “We are in depression as no one is paying attention towards our career which is almost ruined,” Singh said.
“After hardship and struggle we came to know that said college hasn’t taken NOC from the government.”
Since they want to make sure that their time is not wasted, the students are hopeful that the Court will deal with them fairly and settle their issue as soon as possible.
The Kashmiriyat tried to speak to the officials of Venkateshwar College and Rajasthan Nursing Council, however the officials didn’t respond to our repeated calls and messages.