When a City Celebrates the Loss of Its Own Medical College
Anmol Ohri and Kanwal Singh | 12 January 2026 | The Wire
As climate justice activists, policy analysts and socially conscious citizens from Jammu, we have closely observed how our mountainous, disaster-prone region marked by its remoteness and difficult terrain continues to suffer from an overstretched and inadequate public health system. The doctor-to-population ratio remains low and the number of medical seats available to local students remains abysmally low.
In such a context, the closure of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME) in Katra is not just an administrative decision, it is a serious setback to public health capacity in a fragile region…