KATHMANDU, Nov 30: The fourth day of talks on Wednesday between the government and the team representing Dr Govinda KC also turned futile.
“We made no progress today either,” said Dr Jivan Kshetry, coordinator of Dr KC’s team.
“We did not budge from our agenda and the government did not budge either,” he added. “The talks will continue Thursday.”
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Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, head of the government team and secretary at the Ministry of Education, said that they are still searching for a meeting point. “We will try to seek a way out tomorrow,” he claimed.
As in the previous three talks, Dr KC’s team did not show any flexibility in their demand for sacking Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University Dr Tirtha Raj Khaniya and IOM Dean KP Singh. The government team also stuck to its stance.
Dr KC started his latest hunger strike after the government failed to address his demands, although it had agreed to do so. In the course of starting his 10th hunger strike, he had issued a 10-point demand. The demands include sacking TU VC Dr Khaniya, appointing the IOM dean on the basis of seniority, implementation of previous agreements and expediting the process of impeaching Lokman Singh Karki, chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
Meanwhile, the condition of Dr KC, the senior orthopedic surgeon at TUTH who is now on the 18th day of his latest hunger strike, is fast worsening. Dr KC began his 10th fast-unto-death from November 13 to protest against the anarchy prevailing in the medical education sector.
The resident doctors at TUTH, who have already boycotted academic activities at the Institute of Medicine for more than a week, have decided to boycott all services at TUTH except emergency from Wednesday, to lend support to the demands of Dr KC.