‘Victims’ gear up for chakka jam
Kathmandu, January 4:
Tribhuvan University (TU) Victims’ Struggle Committee has declared a one-week chakka jam at Balkhu intersection on Ring Road from 8 am till 12 noon from Monday if the TU chancellor failed to address their demands.
Dev Chandra Maharjan, coordinator of TU Victim Struggle Committee, said the struggle committee and the locals of Kirtipur had declared struggle programmes to pressurise the government to address their demands.
He also said they would prohibit vice-chancellor, registrar and rector of TU from entering their offices from tomorrow.
Maharjan added that they would paint the walls of university with slogans from 8th to 10th January to draw the government attention towards their demands.
He said that government had acquired the land from locals to establish TU in 1956 but had failed to provide full compensation to them. The government had acquired 6,500 ropanis of land from most of the households in Kirtipur for the TU. The locals have been demanding compensation from the government, as per the agreement made in 1956.
The struggle committee will submit its memorandum to TU chancellor Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ tomorrow.
The locals have been demanding 60 per cent discount in healthcare facilities in hospitals affiliated with TU, scholarship for at least five locals in each TU faculty and 60 per cent of employment opportunities in each department of TU.
The struggle committee has also demanded the TU to make sustainable development plan of 50 years and let the locals use the unused land of the TU.
Maharjan said they would hold talks only with the government as the TU administration had failed to address their demands.