KC adamant on Khaniya's ouster as bid to convince continues

KATHMANDU: Talks team representing the government and Dr Govinda KC have prepared an agreement draft to convince the fasting surgeon to end his strike; but Dr KC said he would not budge till the ouster of Tribhuvan University Vice-Chancellor Tirtha Khaniya.

The teams handed over a 12-point draft to Dr KC, who has been staging a fast-unto-death at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for 21 days; but he refused to sign it arguing Khaniya should be ousted to establish "a system" in Nepal's medical education sector.

Earlier, it was expected that Dr KC would break his fast today after the University appointed Dr Jagadish Prasad Agrawal as the Institute of Medicine Dean on the basis of seniority as Dr KC had demanded.

Dr KC, however, agreed on other points of the draft agreement, according to the sources.

Earlier, the two teams had held a meeting at the Ministry of Education today.

Minister for Education Dhaniram PaudelĀ and Minister for Health Gagan Kumar Thapa were also present in the meeting besides the assigned government negotiators Education Secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha and Health Secretary Senendra Raj Upreti.