Kathmandu: Cadres of the UCPN-Maoist-aligned All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) today rallied against the Maoist-led government for not publicising reports on the fee structure of medical colleges and nursing colleges affiliated to the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT).

The students took out a rally from the Tri Chandra College in Ghantaghar to the Ratna Rajya College on the Exhibition Road demanding that the government publicise the reports. Jagrit Rayamajhi, vice-president, ANNISU-R, said, “Our genuine demands remain unfulfilled, though our own party is in power. In this situation, we had no option but to stage a rally against the Prime Minister Babu Ram Bhattarai-led government.”

He said ANNISU-R activists will stage a two-hour sit-in in front of the Ministry of Education from 10 am tomorrow to compel the government to publicise the reports.

Rayamajhi said strident protests will follow if the government does not address their demand by tomorrow evening.

He warned that students will shut down all nursing colleges and medical colleges if their peaceful agitation fails to work.

On December 13, the ANNISU-R had issued a three-day ultimatum to the government to publicise two reports on the scientific fee structure of medical colleges in Nepal and the nursing colleges under CTEVT.

The erstwhile government had formed separate panels after ANNISU-R and other student unions launched weeks of protest demanding a committee for fixing fees to prevent nursing and medical colleges from imposing exorbitant fees.

A committee formed under Joint-secretary Khagaraj Baral had prepared the report on nursing education and National Planning Commission member Shiva Kumar Rai had prepared the report on medical colleges.

This daily has obtained a copy of the report on nursing colleges’ fee structure, which puts the yearly operation cost of a nursing college fulfilling government-set criteria at Rs 1,58,54,420, which means cost per student comes down to Rs 3.96 lakh each if 40 students have enrolled at the three-year Bachelor of Nursing programme, inclusive of seven per cent profit and payment of fees in annual installments.

The medical college report has recommended charging each student Rs 31 lakh for four-year MBBS course.

However, the medical colleges have been charging students up to Rs 40 lakh.

source: The Himalayan Times,22 Dec 2011