Dr Govinda KC, an othropaedic surgeon at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, called off his plan to start his hunger strike from Saturday but gave the government until Monday to fulfil his demands.

Dr KC, who has in the past staged hunger strikes nine times, the last one lasting 12 days from September 26-October 7, decided to call off his fast-unto-death on Saturday after the government rolled back its Wednesday’s decision on granting affiliation to the Jhapa-based B&C Medical College.

The Cabinet, however, on Friday decided not to implement the decision on granting affiliation after Dr KC warned of hunger strike from Saturday. 

Dr KC’s other demands still remain to be addressed, and he has warned of going on fast-unto-death if the government fails to appoint assistant dean and campus chief based at the Institute of Medicine on the basis of seniority. He has also called for expediting the process to endorse the Health Profession Education Act. 

“The government has already agreed with us that no new medical colleges will be established until the Health Profession Education Act is endorsed by Parliament,” said Dr KC. “Any decision against the agreement will not be accepted.”

Amidst report of exorbitant fees charged by medical schools for MD/MS courses, Dr KC has also demanded that fees should be decided by the IoM and not its parent university—Tribhuvan University. 

Medical schools affiliated to TU have been enrolling students arbitrarily and charging as high as Rs 10 million for some courses. 

Dr KC has said that the fees for the MD/MS programmes should be set at Rs 2,350,000. 

Dr KC has for the last six years crusading against malpractices in medical schools and calling for sweeping reforms in the medical education sector. 

After Dr KC’s repeated protests, the government finally tabled the bill on Health Professional Education Act but it has been gathering dust in parliament for the last six months. Dr KC has been demanding that new medical colleges should be granted affiliation only after the Act comes into force. 

The bill prescribes a 10-year moratorium on the establishment of medical colleges in Kathmandu Valley and calls for giving priority to establishing medical colleges in rural areas and new urban centres.