खबरमाला संवाददाता The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Medical Education Commission and Kathmandu University to grant affiliation to Birtamod-based B&C Medical College owned by controversial businessman Durga Prasai.
In July 2020, Prasai filed a writ petition against the commission and the varsity in the top court demanding its intervention. He had claimed that it was an injustice to bar his college, which fulfills all the criteria, from affiliation.
In October that same year, he moved the court again saying the colleges that have set up infrastructure as prescribed by the government after getting a letter of intent cannot be barred from providing medical education. Countering his petition, an individual, Shashi Bikram Karki, moved the court saying Prasai’s college should not get affiliated.
A division bench of Justices Kumar Chudal and Saranga Subedi directed the concerned authorities not to stop medical affiliation to the B&C Medical College if it fulfils the requirement. “The bench has issued the order as demanded by Durga Prasai,” said Govind Ghimire, information officer at the court.
The college, which received the letter of intent from the Ministry of Education in 2014, had long been lobbying to get the affiliation to run the MBBS program. It has all the infrastructure needed to run the medical program.
In June 2021, the commission in consent from the university had given a green signal for the affiliation. The commission, chaired by then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who was ex-officio chairperson of the commission, decided to grant the affiliation to the college once it fulfills the necessary legal procedure. Prasai was the CPN-UML leader at the time and enjoyed a good relationship with Oli. Previously, he was active as a Maoist.
The bonding with Oli, however, didn’t last long. These days, Prasai is critical of Oli and the UML, and has launched a campaign to reinstate the Hindu kingdom.
