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he fate of the controversial Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) hangs in the balance, with a government committee suggesting that it should not be made a state entity.
The committee led by Dr Guna Raj Lohani of the Ministry of Health has advised that the government should not take over the private institution, in which majority of stakes are controlled by the leaders of the ruling CPN-UML, citing lack of legal grounds and risk of setting a bad precedent.
The Lohani-led committee was formed to assess whether the MMIHS could be taken over the by government.The committee stated that there are no laws that speak on the acquisition of any private institution. It also said that a move to acquire the institution [by the government] would violate the free market economic policy adopted by the government.The committee in its report has argued that taking over the MMIHS would also mean that the government should be prepared for future acquisition of other private institutions. On December 25 last year, the government had tabled the “Manmohan Adhikari Academy of Health Sciences-2015 Bill” in Parliament, aiming at giving the MMIHS the status of an autonomous academy.The move immediately sparked controversy, with civil society members led by Kedar Bhakta Mathema, former vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University, putting pressure on the government towithdraw the bill. They argued that circumventing rules to grant the institute autonomous status would set a bad precedent.A Mathema-led commission, formed after a series of hunger strikes by Dr Govinda KC, had also recommended against new medical college
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