KATHMANDU, JULY 23: Four different sister organizations of the erstwhile Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Communist party of Nepal (Maoist Center) have jointly come up with a nine-point demand which includes nationalizing all medical colleges or transforming them into non-profit trusts to bring reforms in the country's health sector.
The demands come in the wake of Dr Govinda KC continuing his 15th hunger strike demanding reforms in the medical sector for the 24th consecutive day on Monday. Although the suggestion to nationalize the medical colleges or run them as non-profit trusts is a new one, many other issues put forth by the sister organizations of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) appear to support the cause championed by Dr KC.
Nobel-worthy
The Youth Association Nepal (YAN) and All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) of the erstwhile CPN-UML and Young Communist League (YCL) and ANNFSU (Revolutionary) of the then CPN (Maoist Center) in a joint statement have demanded that all medical colleges in the nation either be nationalized or be converted into non-profit trusts in order to ensure a socialism-oriented set up in the country's education system as promised in the party's election manifesto.
The youth wings have shown their support to the cause championed by Dr KC by asking the government to take immediate action to address the demands of Dr KC and put an end to the political intervention and anarchy shown in the protest of Dr KC by the opposition parties.
They have also asked the government to start the process to establish at least one state-of-the-art public teaching hospital in each province and provide scholarships to medical students from low income, poor and backward communities.
The sister organizations have also demanded the formation of a high-level medical education commission in order to come up with a long-term solution to the malaise seen in the medical education sector.
Other demands of the organizations include taking action against governmental health workers, who are negligent toward their duties and carrying out investigation into medical education institutes including NAME and Vibrant and taking strong action against their owners if they are found involved in sending medical students to foreign countries under various pretexts.
