Hetauda, March 30 :

Students of the Pokhara-based Institute of Forestry returned to Pokhara today after spending 10 nights near a cremation site.

The team of 39 certificate-level students, eight teachers and employees had come here 12 days ago on an educational tour.

The Himalayan Times in its issue today had carried a photograph with a caption stating that the Hetauda campus chief of the Institute of Forestry, Shamshul Haque, denied them accommodation on the campus premises and that they were forced to take the examination on the temple premises.

The team cut short its two-week tour and returned to Pokhara after 12 days.

The members of the team said they were disappointed by the visit, according to the coordinator of the team, Ananta Prasad Shrestha. The team members expressed their gratitude to The Himalayan Times for highlighting their plight. They said they were relieved that the media paid adequate attention to their misery that was caused by Haque’s callousness. A student in the team Poonam Khaniya said: “You extended us great cooperation by highlighting our state.”

Meanwhile, Haque told this daily that the students unnecessarily played politics and levelled charges against him. “The team misinterpreted my suggestion that I would arrange their accommodation either at Makawanpur’s Daman or Bara’s Hattisar. I told them that for their convenience. The team spent two nights at Bara’s Amlekhgunj and 10 nights in a guest house near a cremation site across the Rapti river in Hetauda.”