Various student unions and locals of Lalitpur today shut down private Plus Two colleges, Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and schools in various parts of the country.

All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) close to CPN-Maoist today shut down all private Plus Two colleges across the country for the second consecutive day.

Ratna Dhakal from ANNISU-R said that the second phase protest programme was largely successful and peaceful except for incidents in Dharan and Nawalparasi.

He said that till date, neither Plus Two colleges nor Higher Secondary Education Board had shown any concern about the demand to give Nepali names to the private Plus Two colleges by changing the foreign names and decreasing students fee.

“We are going to talk to other student unions such as Nepal Student Union (NSU) aligned to Nepali Congress and CPN-UML aligned All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) and others to jointly launch protest programme,” he said. He also said if student unions refused to go together ANNISU-R would launch the third phase protest programme on its own, tomorrow.

Likewise, the NSU and ANNFSU units of Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) have padlocked the office of vice chairman, member secretary, administration section, Office of the Controller of Examination and Accreditation Division stating that the question papers of exams for awarding scholarship in nursing and general medicine were leaked before exam and that exams needed to be cancelled.

U P Lamichhane, spokesperson, NSU, said that around 200 students scuffled with security personnel in front of CTEVT. He said that some cadres were injured and five cadres — Sushil Khadka, Min Kathayat, Kapil Neupane, Karna Oli from NSU and Govinda Giri from ANNFSU have been arrested by police.

He further said that they would be launching stern protest programme in future against CTEVT and Plus Two colleges.

Meanwhile, schools in Lalitpur district have been shut down due to the bandh called by Lalitpur locals against government decision to resettle squatters in Sundarighat area.

Mahendra Chhetri, an officer at District Education Office-Lalitpur said that almost all schools in Lalitpur were shut today due to the bandh. He said that it had affected hundreds of students studying in 522 schools in Lalitpur.

source: The Himalayan Times,24 July 2012