The cabinet on Friday has endorsed the written agreement between the government and Dr Govinda KC.
Unlike in the past when the agreements were limited to written commitments alone, a cabinet meeting held today at Singha Durbar has endorsed the deal raising hopes for its implementation.
"This is the first time the agreement has been endorsed by the government, so we are hopeful that it will be implemented," says Mukti Ram Shrestha, General Secretary of Nepal Medical Association (NMA).
Not only has the agreement been endorsed but a three member committee comprising Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel, TUTH Professor YP Singh and Anjani Kumar Jha, Chairman of NMA has also been formed to monitor the implementation of the agreement.
Likewise, a separate probe committee headed by former judge Haribabu Bhattarai has been formed to investigate the alleged irregularities at universities and medical council.
This is the first time the government seems to have taken the initiative to implement the deal with Dr KC. In the past, the lack of implementation of the agreement had prompted Dr KC to go on a fast-unto-death for the fifth time.
Dr KC ended his hunger strike on Thursday following a deal with the government to address the 11-point demands.
The demands that government promises to fulfill include not allowing affiliation to new colleges unless a new medical education policy is passed, forming a probe committee within seven days to investigate the irregularities, a bill about medical education within three months, implementation of recommendations by Mathema panel, law to appoint officials within four months, cancel affiliation of medical colleges that have not met requirements, mandate to the Mathema panel to fix fees of medical college, make all post MBBS courses free, establish at least one medical college in each development region, manage students of colleges whose affiliations are cancelled and address all demands raised by NMA.