Gandaki Medical College has refused to provide vouchers for the fees students paid to the college.
Students at the medical college have been agitating after the college administration defied the government instruction to return the extra payment it charged over the fee set by the government.
The agitating students and the medical college had a dialogue on Monday. "They said they had not received the government instruction to return extra money. They added that they will talk once they receive the instruction," Sumit patel, a student who participated during the dialogue, told Setopati.
The students also demanded vouchers for the fees they paid to the college during the dialogue. "They argued how can they issue vouchers for the money received in 2016," Patel revealed. "We told them to at least give a document stating we have paid fees on the letterhead of college."
Patel claimed the college administration dallied about issuing vouchers. "Board members were not present during the dialogue. The administration staffers are not in a position to take decisions. The dialogue, therefore, ended inconclusively," he added.
The Cabinet meeting on October 14, 2018 had set a fee of Rs 3.85 million for MBBS students inside the Kathmandu Valley, and Rs 4.245 million outside the Valley. The colleges can only charge Rs 2,500 and Rs 500 in registration fees on top of that, and hostel and mess charges if the students stay at their hostel. But colleges have been charging up to Rs 5.50 million from each student.
The Education Ministry on March 26 had instructed private medical colleges to return the extra money if they have overcharged after agreement reached in the meeting of agitating students of Gandaki and representatives of the association of private medical colleges including chairman Basuruddin Ansari and promoter of Chitwan Medical College Haris Chandra Neupane called by Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel.
But the colleges including Gandaki and Chitwan Medical College have yet to return the extra money and are still putting pressure on students to pay above the fee set by the government.
Chief District Officer (CDO) of Kaski Ramesh Kumar KC, meanwhile, told Setopati that Gandaki has defied the government's instruction. "The students have complained that the college has not even issued vouchers for the fees they paid," CDO KC said. "We have requested them to not stop hospital service during agitation."
KC revealed that the college claimed that it has not received the instruction given by the Education Ministry. "We have written to the Tribhuvan University about the decision and instruction, and asked them why the medical college did not receive the letter about instruction," KC stated.
He assured that the administration will initiate action if the colleges have charged extra money immediately after receiving the Home Ministry circular.
A meeting at the Home Ministry on Monday including Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel and officials of the two ministries took the decision to initiate action if private medical colleges do not return the extra payment they charged over the fee set by the government within a month.
The meeting also publicly urged the medical colleges to return the extra money within one month, and decided to take action against the colleges for failing to do so within the deadline.
Home Minister Thapa said political resolution and legal action both will be moved forward to get the extra money returned. Education Minister Pokharel pointed at the Cabinet decision taken last year that allowed registration of complaints against the offending college at the local district administration office concerned, and proposed that action be taken accordingly.
