KATHMANDU, July 22: The involvement of Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in holding Kathmandu University (KU)'s exams has been established. KU officials attending the meeting of the Good Governance and Monitoring Committee of the Legislature-Parliament have accepted the involvement of CIAA in the exams and said that KU and CIAA jointly prepared the question papers, ran the exams and published the results.
"CIAA has interfered while making the questions, running the exams and publishing the result," KU's registrar Bhola Thapa and Dean Narendra Rana revealed in the meeting," KU council has already accepted that the CIAA was involved in conducting the exams." The meeting of the Good Governance and Monitoring Committee on Friday over the entrance examinations for MD and MS that Kathmandu University conducted jointly with CIAA.
"We didn’t have another alternative after CIAA conducted the exams. It was already late to postpone the exams. So that we accepted the exams CIAA conducted," they said.
Lawmakers who were present in the meeting said that there could be 'give and take' between the CIAA and KU as they jointly conducted the exams ignoring the rule that allows only talented students to study.
"Is the CIAA supposed to prepare question papers for universities or control corruption? There is possibility of give and take here" one of the lawmakers said in the meeting," The Committee should investigate this matter. We should make the CIAA Chief appear in the committee and interrogate him"
The committee has directed all the Commissioners of the CIAA including Chief Commissioner Lokman Singh Karki to be present in the committee meeting to answer on that matter after lawmakers demanded.
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A student has to pay up to Rs 10 million to complete a post graduation (MD) course from KU affiliated colleges. Only those who top the exam are allowed to study MD paying the money. The Lawmakers said that CIAA misused its powers by conducting such important exams.
Sixteen thousand medical students had participated in that exam conducted on May 28. There are eight medical colleges affiliated to KU which runs MD course. All the KU affiliated colleges have more than 250 quotas for MD.
The lawmakers have demanded parliamentary investigation into the CIAA's involvement in the preparation of the question papers, conducting of exams and the publishing of the result against the notion of academic freedom.
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Professor Dr Bhagwat Nepal was involved in the examination process conducted by KU, including the selection of the question papers. His son who is "average" in studies, topped the exam surprisingly with 81% score. Bhagwat's son Shahid had passed the MBBS exam with just 65% marks. Students have been demanding the entrance exam to get cancelled after weak students obtained upper positions over intelligent ones in the entrance exam.
Govinda KC who is on a hunger strike from past 13 days, has been demanding impeachment of CIAA Chief Lokman Singh Karki accusing him of various matters including KU's entrance exam. The Good Governance and Monitoring Committee of the Legislature-Parliament had called officials of Kathmandu University (KU) to discuss this issue.
This is how CIAA conducted the exam
May 28, Saturday was fixed as the examination date. A small team of CIAA had already reached KU on Thursday to conduct the exam. On the exam day, CIAA had reached Kathmandu University School of Sciences with a team of 50 security persons. The team which also had some doctors had returned after conducting the exam.
According to a source, the CIAA team had prepared the question papers by themselves after finding the examination 'file' set by KU in the computers of exam team member Bhagwat Nepal and Dean Narendra Rana. "Most of the questions set by CIAA team were from old question papers" said a source.
CIAA's DSP Guru Krishna Kafle, Under Secretary (Accountant) Gorakh Bahadur Shahi and Doctor Suprabhat Shrestha were involved in the exam whole day. CIAA representatives who had reached KU with question papers and experts team conducted the exam in three rounds.
Nepal Medical Council's Education Committee's Coordinator Suprabhat Shrestha, ex Registrar Nilmani Upadhyaya Police Hospital's Saroj Shrestha , Kist Hospital's Rishikesh Narayan Shrestha, Sashi Sharma, Subodh Adhikari and KU Exam Controller Board office's Rajan Chhetri were in the CIAA team.
Tribhuvan University (TU)'s ex Vice-Chancellor Kedar Bhakta Mathema had resigned from KU Senate saying concerned officials of Medical Council and KU stayed silent over the exam the CIAA had conducted.
CIAA had released statement after Govinda KC demanded impeachment against Lokman Singh Karki, claiming that it hadn’t interfered in the exam. However, it did not refute the earlier news report that said the CIAA had interfered in the exam. KU and Nepal Medical Council had been saying that the CIAA conducted the exam.
