KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 10

Gopi Prasad Mainali, coordinator of the government’s talks team formed to hold dialogue with representatives of Dr Govinda KC, today put out a statement urging Dr KC to end his hunger strike even though the issues raised by the latter were not addressed.

Mainali, who is also secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, issued the statement after Dr KC’s talks teams accused the government team of reneging on promises made in the dialogue held on Thursday night. The statement of the government’s talks team indicates that it is in no mood to hold further talks with Dr KC’s team to address the issues raised by Dr KC.

Dr KC has been on a fast-unto-death for the last 27 days demanding reforms in the country’s medical education and health sector.

The ministry said the authorities concerned were trying to address issues raised by Dr KC. Mainali stated that the Medical Education Commission had been formed as per the legal provisions in the Medical Education Act and Regulation.

The ministry said the commission was conducting integrated entrance exams, fixing medical education seats, enforcing integrated academic year and providing 75 per cent scholarships in government institutions.

The government team said Geta Medical College building had already been constructed and other infrastructure were in the process of being built.

The government team stated that land plots had been acquired in all the provinces to construct government medical colleges and the master plans of these projects had been approved. It also said that Rapti Health Science Academy had approved its plan to conduct MBBS classes.

The government team stated that feasibility study for opening medical colleges in Doti-Dadeldhura, Udayapur, Ilam and Panchthar districts had also been completed.

It also said the authorities concerned had already received the report on office bearers’ selection criteria to appoint office bearers in schools and academic institutions.

The government team said that a task force had already been formed to suggest amendments to the Medical Education Act.

Member of Dr KC’s talks team Advocate Om Prakash Aryal told THT that his team had taken the government team’s statement positively but that alone was not enough to convince Dr KC to end his

hunger strike. “Dr KC has demanded there should be time-bound programme to build hospitals in the provinces, conduct MBBS classes in Karnali region and other places and to build necessary infrastructure.

The government team’s statement does not address all these issues,” he said and added that his team had reached verbal understanding on Thursday, but the team deviated from its pledge as the prime minister and line ministers did not endorse their decisions.

Feature image: File

A version of this article appears in print on October 11, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.