A group of around six led by central committee member Madan Chudal vandalized Sunsari Technical Center at Dharan-4 for refusing to pay Rs 1.2 million the group had demanded. [break]The group smashed tables and glasses in the administration and accounts sections and a computer. President of the school management committee Lekhiraj Subba put the material loss due to the incident at around Rs 250,000.
Subba said the ANNISU-R students resorted to violence after he expressed inability to pay more than Rs 100,000. "The group had come at around 10 in the morning and bargained for about an hour. They got out saying they can go to any length after I expressed inability to pay the demanded sum and immediately started to vandalize," Subba added.
Subba complained that police came only about an hour after the incident despite immediate request by the school. The ANNISU-R students had been demanding the amount, Subba said, for about four months and student leader CP Bajagain had even taken Rs 50,000 from the school around a month ago.
The institution affiliated with the Council of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTEVT) offers CMA, Assistant Nurse Midwife (ANM), Lab Assistant and other courses. It had even started diploma in food technology in affiliation with the Tribhuvan University from last year.
ANNISU-R owned up the incident but denied that it had asked for the sum. "The allegation that we asked for donations is false," central member Sudarshan Shrestha said. "A single institute cannot get affiliations from both TU and CTEVT. We had gone there to discuss the issue but Subba verbally abused us and threw us out of the office," Shrestha said attempting to defend the act.
Meanwhile, ANNISU-R, Sunsari apologized for the act issuing a press statement later in the day. But the statement, signed by vice-president Laxmi Pradhan, accused Subba of instigating the incident by misbehaving with the students.
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