Valley
Dr KC files RTI petition at Office of President
Dr Govinda KC has filed a right to information (RTI) petition demanding to know why the Office of the President is delaying in endorsing the Health Profession Education (HPE) Ordinance.Dr Govinda KC has filed a right to information (RTI) petition demanding to know why the Office of the President is delaying in endorsing the Health Profession Education (HPE) Ordinance.
Dr KC; along with Om Prakash Aryal, an advocate, and Abhisek Jha and Toshima Karki, both medical doctors, registered the RTI petition at the Office of the President on Tuesday, saying the HPE Ordinance is a must to improve the medical education sector and ensure quality health care to all the citizens at an affordable cost.
The petition seeks to know the status of the HPE Ordinance, the cause of the delay in endorsing it and validity of statements made by some officials of the Office of the President. The RTI also questions the “source of power” that the President is exercising by not authenticating the HPE Ordinance “which is a matter of huge public importance”. The government on October 23 introduced the ordinance to enact a new law incorporating the provisions of the Health Profession Education (HPE) Bill which could not get through Parliament earlier.
The ordinance was immediately sent to the Office of the President for approval.
Stating that it is his right as a citizen to seek information on the issue public concern, Dr KC said: “We are fighting for the reforms in the medical education sector. We want to know the status of the HPE Ordinance.”
Dr KC on Monday served a seven-day ultimatum to endorse the ordinance. He has warned of launching yet another round of hunger strike, 14th in the last five years, if his calls go unheard.
The ordinance has the key provision from the HPE Bill, which aims to put a moratorium on establishing new medical institutions in Kathmandu Valley for the next 10 years.
Since this provision directly affects some institutions backed by a handful of people, especially some CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) members, the two parties had prevented the government from tabling the bill in Parliament, which was dissolved on October 14.