KATHMANDU: The District Administration Office, Kathmandu, has written to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj, asking it to immediately resume essential services in the hospital. In a letter handed over to Dr KP Singh, Executive Director of TUTH, the administration office said the closure of services was against the Essential Services Act-2014 BS. Talking to The Himalayan Times, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, the Kathmandu CDO, said the letter was handed over to Dr Singh. Services in the hospital, including emergency ones, have been halted for the past 16 days. The local administration is empowered to send the accused behind bars for up to six months if convicted in this connection. The hospital had warned of action against those who ignored a call to return to work from March 14, but in vain. Residential doctors, surgeons, nurses and students had gone on strike, accusing Dean Dr Arun Sayami and his deputies of leaking exam question papers to some candidates for hefty sums of money. On an average, 1,100 patients are at the receiving end following the service disruption in the biggest teaching hospital in the country. Professors’ Association of Nepal under TUTH, Nepal Resident Doctors’ Association, Free Students’ Union, FSU at the Nursing Campus, Maharajgunj, and employees at the TUTH have joined hands in staging a protest accusing that Dean of the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and his assistant Dr Ratindra Nath Shrestha of taking bribe from candidates appearing for entrance exams. However, Dr Sayami has refuted the allegations levelled against him. Though the entrance exams have been scrapped, the agitating doctors are yet to return to work.