At a function organized at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), sweeper Mohan Nepali and Chairman of Nepal Resident Doctors Association (NRDA) Dr Badri Rijal jointly offered him juice to break his fast.
Dr KC had started the fast at two Thursday afternoon after the TU administration did not fulfill the demands forwarded by agitating doctors and students. Demanding merit-based appointments in the vacant posts, doctors at TUTH and students at the Institute of Medicine (IoM) have been staging a series of protest programs for the past four months.
Earlier, a meeting of the TU executive council held on Saturday evening had appointed Dr Kumud Kumar Kaphley as the dean of IoM. However, Dr KC had refused to end his fast.[break]
After Dr KC broke his fast, hospital services resumed after 10:15 in the morning, Dr Binod Sinha, director of the hospital, said. A meeting of the agitating doctors, teachers and students held on Saturday had decided to halt all services at TUTH until Dr KC´s demands were met. "We have called off all the protest programs from today. Our key demand has been met, and we hope that another dean will be appointed on the basis of competence and qualification after Dr Kaphley retires," Dr Dinesh Binod Pokharel, chief of University Teachers Association at Maharajgunj Campus, said. Dr Kaphley is retiring in five weeks.
KC had started a fast unto death on May 14 before ending it in the evening after TU, under instruction from Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai who had called Dr KC to his residence two days earlier to withdraw his decision to fast, wrote a letter asking a search committee to select three merit-based candidates for the post of IoM dean. The doctors again started protests and Dr KC announced the fast after TU refused to extend the term of the search committee by a month. The agitating doctors then halted their protests after TU sacked acting dean of IoM Dr Arun Sayami on June 25 and assured appointment of a new dean by July 4.
Six top positions at IoM, including that of dean, have remained vacant for the past eight months. The doctors have also been demanding action against the IoM officials, including Dr Sayami, who were implicated in several irregularities by the Jayaram Giri-led committee formed after the 17-day TUTH strike in March 2010.
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