Kathmandu, February 25:

The All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) today lifted the lockout at the Office of Controller of Examination (OCE) and the District Education Offices (DEOs) after reaching an agreement with the OCE talk team.

Both the bodies reached an agreement that all the District Examination Co-ordination Committee (DECC) will fix the centers after having discussions with the stakeholders for the examination centers by March 2. The OCE would then set up the centers as per the DECC’s suggestion. The dialogue took place for nearly four hours today at Sanothimi between the student union headed by Lekhnath Neupane, president of ANNISU-R and Sushil Pandey, co-ordinator of the OCE talks team.

Himal Sharma, general secretary of ANNISU-R, said all the lockout of DEOs and OCE has been lifted, but if the government failed to implement the agreement, they would announce further protests.

Sharma said the examination centers would be expanded to remote areas besides district headquarters. “We are hopeful that the examination centers will be increased in number and examination centers would be set up in accessible areas,” said Sharma.

The ANNISU-R had locked out the OCE, Sanothimi, for an indefinite period saying the government made no effort to increase the numbers of the examination centers.