LETTERS: Operation quack begins

We have heard the news story about over a dozen doctors being arrested on charges of possessing fake certificates. Strangely, they attempted to sit for the licensing exams of the Nepal Medical Council (NMC) not once or twice, but 33 times.

Indeed, health is the most sensitive issue as it is related to human life.  Due to these quack doctors people are deprived of getting appropriate medical treatment. Even though these doctors were using fake certificates to get medical degrees from various universities and working at hospitals, the law enforcing agencies did nothing for such a long time. Instead of trying for the thirtieth times such persons should have given up getting the license for medical practice. They should have realized that they would be caught by law enforcing agencies one or the other day even it takes a long time. The universities should have first scrutinized their certificates carefully before their enrollment. Most of the quack doctors have been found to have studied abroad unnoticed by the Ministry of Education here in Nepal where it is not that easy to get admission in medical colleges with fake academic certificates. What the investigation bodies are doing is praiseworthy and the operation ‘quack’ should not be discontinued.

Saroj Wagle, Bara

Publicity

Fighting corruption has been one of the cheapest slogans of all the political parties in Nepal. Likewise, wiping out corruption from the country used to be one of the main manifests of the Prachanda-led UCPN-Maoist when they were outside the mainstream of politics. Soon after they joined the parliamentary system, curbing corruption for them remained to be merely a distant talk. Their influential leaders were found to be deeply involved in huge amounts of irregularities. However, none of them have been so far formally charged with corruption. Corruption has been very much institutionalized in Nepal. Even in the government and semi- government organizations, service seekers are compelled to bribe the concerned officials while seeking their services. This is completely shameful on the part of the government. No concrete measures are found to be in place to punish the culprits. Albeit, the CIAA seems to be doing its jobs, it, however, has so far completely failed to catch big fishes in its net. People are eagerly waiting to see  the CIAA catching the big ones and put them lawfully behind the bars. Nepal has been labelled as one of the most corrupt countries in the world according to the recently published Transparency

International’s annual report. It is good to know that the Chand-led Maoists have started publicly saying that they will launch a campaign against the corrupt and traitors, “Chand-led Maoists to fight against corrupt” (THT, March 29, Page 5). Let us hope that they will convert their

slogan into action.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj