Dr Govinda KC who is into the 20th day of his fast-unto-death at the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences in Jumla has agreed to go to Kathmandu with the government team.
Dr KC has told Chief Minister (CM) of Karnali Province Mahendra Bahadur Shahi that he does not want the hospital to be vandalized and is ready to go to Kathmandu after the federal government sent a team with instructions to take him to Kathmandu at any cost. Dr KC will address a press conference before leaving for Kathmandu.
Dozens of persons including doctors and nurses, and visitors of patients inside Karnali Academy of Health Sciences were injured after the police used force to take Dr KC to Kathmandu. “Don’t resort to thuggery and vandalize the hospital. I am ready to go to Kathmandu,” Dr KC told CM Shahi. “I will go to Kathmandu instead of seeing such violence.”
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.
