The Nepal Army helicopter has left Jumla to take Dr Govinda KC who is into the 20th day of his fast-unto-death to Kathmandu.
Chief Minister (CM) of Karnali province Mahendra Bahadur Shahi said Dr KC will be taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH). "We have prepared to take him to the TUTH," CM Shahi told Setopati.
The locals had encircled the police after Dr KC was taken out of the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. The police fired four rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. Dr KC was taken to the helicopter parked at the army barrack after the crowd was dispersed.
Dr KC earlier agreed to go to Kathmandu for further treatment on request of the locals. He agreed to go to Kathmandu after a meeting between the government side and Dr KC's representatives inside the hospital. The police agreed to not further use force during the meeting while locals urged Dr KC to go to Kathmandu stating that his life is too precious to be lost.
Dr KC had earlier refused to board the government helicopter after the police used force and injured dozens inside the hospital. Dr KC had said he does not want the hospital to be vandalized and is ready to go to Kathmandu before that.
Dozens including three doctors, nurses, students and visitors of patients, and a police constable were injured after the police entered the hospital and used force. Hospital equipment and physical infrastructure inside the hospital were damaged.
A police constable in civil has received bullet injury when the police opened fire during the clash even as the police has denied firing shots inside the hospital.
Dr KC then refused to go to Kathmandu after the police used force to turn the hospital into a battlefield.
The federal government sent a team led by acting Director General of the Department of Health Services Dr Guna Raj Lohani on an army helicopter to Jumla Thursday morning after rapid deterioration in Dr KC’s health.
The ruling Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Wednesday night had decided to bring fasting Dr KC to Kathmandu for treatment. A party meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar in the evening, after Dr KC’s medical report issued by the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, had concluded that it would be better to bring Dr KC to Kathmandu on a helicopter.
“The report says Dr KC should be kept in Coronary Care Unit (CCU),” CPN Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha told Setopati Wednesday night. “The first duty of the government and our party is to save Dr KC’s life. There has been no agreement despite serious dialogue for four to five days forming a dialogue team. We have become serious after the medical bulletin.”
He said the party decided to keep Dr KC in a hospital with facilities recommended by the doctors as it may take a few more days for the dialogue to end in an agreement. “His fast and ideologies remain. We want an unbiased discussion on them. We have decided to bring him to Kathmandu.”
The government on Monday had formed its dialogue team under Education Secretary Khaga Raj Baral and including joint secretaries at the home and health ministries.
Senior advocate Surendra Bhandari, advocate Om Prakash Aryal and Dr Avishek Raj Singh held dialogue with the government on Monday and Tuesday on behalf of Dr KC, but both the meetings ended inconclusively after the government side repeated its stance that Dr KC should be brought to Kathmandu first and the medical education bill will not be withdrawn.
Dr KC on Wednesday said he will not engage in dialogue with the government unless it takes back the medical education bill and sends a dialogue team with full mandate.
Dr KC started his 15
th fast-unto-death in Jumla demanding that the ordinance brought by the preceding Sher Bahadur Deuba government be implemented as it is.
Dr KC has accused the government of bringing the bill to replace the ordinance with an intention of providing affiliation for medical college to four hospitals owned by businessmen close to the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN).
The ordinance stops establishment of new medical colleges in Kathmandu Valley for 10 years as demanded by Dr KC, limits granting of affiliation by a university to a maximum of five medical colleges, and allows affiliation to only those that have operated a hospital, taking permission from the Health Ministry, for three years among others.
