Campus Chief of Maharajgunj Campus Dr Ram Prasad Uprety and 14 students were arrested while around 20 including Dr Uprety were injured in clashes between students and police during the entrance exams for Doctor of Medicine/Master of Surgery (MD/MS) and Master of Nursing (MN). [break]
The exams at one of the four centers was affected due to the clash. Students who boycotted the exams claiming the question papers were leaked, stormed out of the fourth center at the yellow building at Maharajgunj Campus.
The students claim that the entrance exams were rigged with the involvement of Dean Dr Sayami, Assistant Dean Dr Ratindra Narayan Shrestha and others and are demanding cancellation of the exams.
Dr Sayami, however, was adamant that Saturday´s exams would not be canceled and separate exams for students at the fourth center would take place on another date. Sunday´s exams for Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and biochemistry would be held on schedule.
The students, on the other hand, maintain that the exams should be canceled and re-examinations held by a new body after the resignation of the current IoM management.
“There is no question of conducting separate exams for the fourth center as the exams are competitive for a limited number of seats and all the students should answer the same questions,” Campus Chief Dr Uprety argued.
Synopsis of incidents
The students have been claiming that even last year´s postgraduate entrance exams were rigged and have demanded cancellation of this year´s exams.
“Those who topped last year´s exams have been faring very poorly in their semester exams and we knew this year´s exams would also be rigged,” secretary of the Free Students Union unit at the campus Sudan Thapa said.
“There is no concrete proof Dr Sayami took any bribe as such but a few students have come to me and claimed they had paid Dr Sayami for the question papers last year,” Dr Uprety claimed.
“There has been general consensus that the process of examination is not transparent and we all had met in Chautara, Sindhupalchowk and passed a resolution to make the process more transparent,” Dr Uprety added.
But students and the campus chief argue that Dr Sayami hasn´t taken any step to modify the process. Students had padlocked the Dean´s Office Friday evening and Dr Sayami called in the police to break the lock.
“The police even entered our hostels last night and beat us up. They used force today also when we were demonstrating peacefully,” FSU campus president Manoj Kumar Poudel said.
“The fact that Dr Sayami was desperate to conduct the exams by any means, even if it meant smashing students´ heads, shows that he wanted to publish the results anyhow and keep the bribe money,” Dr Uprety argued.
Dr Sayami refutes allegations
Dr Sayami refuted the allegations of exam rigging. “They claim that I took a bribe of Rs 10 million last year while my own daughter failed the PG entrance exams that year and is currently studying at Kathmandu University. My younger daughter also is studying MBBS at Nepal Medical College after she failed the exams here. All this is a campaign by Dr Uprety and others to malign me,” Dr Sayami countered.
“They have been demanding cancellation of this year´s exams since months back while the question papers were set only yesterday. Even the campus chief (Dr Uprety) was invited [for the questions setting] but he didn´t turn up. We selected the questions and none of us, not even the peons, left the office. How could we leak the questions?” he asked.
Campus Chief Dr Uprety claimed that he didn´t go to set the questions Friday in order not to get involved in the shoddy business as they had already set a pool of questions that were leaked and just wanted me there to get my endorsement.
FSU president Poudel argued that there is no proof the questions were set Friday and they could have been leaked through the internet and by fax even if they were set Friday. “How can copies of the questions be found outside the examination hall immediately after the start of the exams,” Poudel argued.
Dr Sayami countered that the students, who left the fourth center after being enticed out by Campus Chief Dr Uprety, exited the hall with the questions, got them copied and distributed them.
Poudel acknowledged that Dr Sayami´s daughters were studying elsewhere but called that a strategy to portray him as clean.
Police released all those arrested later in the afternoon after detaining them for around five hours. FSU treasurer Himal Kandel has sustained head injuries while others have minor injuries.
Meanwhile, according to students, police presence at the campus has been stepped up this evening.
The entrance exams were held for around 100 seats for postgraduate students in different subjects and there are full scholarships for around two-thirds of the quota.
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