Student unions have urged the prime minister to keep in mind the welfare of the country and the people while signing any agreements during his official trip to India that begins on Thursday.

In their eight-point demand, student leaders on Monday asked Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to hold the Free Students’ Union election scheduled for February in consensus, control hate speech in social media, improve the quality of medical education, control black marketeering of goods during the festive season, and implement the earlier government’s decision to provide loans on the basis of educational certificates.

“We urged the government to safeguard the achievements of student protests, control the rising number of road accidents in the country and work towards holding local, provincial and federal elections within the constitutional timeframe,” said Nepal Students’ Union President Nain Singh Mahar.