The government has agreed to the demands of the protesting doctors and the talks with the teachers have also reached an agreement, he said. Private medical college operators have agreed to provide government-like living allowance to resident doctors on the condition of increasing the seats and fees of undergraduate medical education including MBBS, BDS.

On the other hand, the discussions held on Monday between the leaders of the ruling party Congress, UML and the officials of the Nepal Teachers' Federation have come close to an agreement. A leader who participated in the discussion said that after the government presented positively on addressing the demands raised by the teachers' federation in the

discussion, the 27-day-long teachers' movement is headed towards an end. There was a discussion on three drafts regarding addressing the demands of the teachers and suspending the protest. Some of the demands of the teachers will be met by a decision from the Cabinet, commitment from the political party's senior level regarding the issuance of the School Education Act and the teachers' federation suspending the protest and returning to school were discussed.  According to the leaders participating in the

discussion, there has been an effort to reach consensus around the 7-point proposal prepared by the then Education Minister Vidya Bhattarai. There has also been a conversation about adding some topics to point 7. As the conversation has gone in the direction of meeting, there is a possibility that it will be resolved in 1/2 day,' said one of the leaders.  The participants also said that the discussion was more focused on issues that could be decided by the

cabinet.

Congress Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka's residence included Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, Home Minister Ramesh Ukhar, Education Minister Raghuji Pant, UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, Congress General Minister Gagan Thapa and Vishwaprakash Sharma, while officials from the teachers' federation including president Laxmikishore Subedi participated. A meeting of the Council of Ministers was held after the discussion. The teachers' federation also informed about the meetings and discussions with the leaders. 

Government spokesperson and Information and Communication Minister Prithvisubba Gurung said that Education Minister Pant informed the cabinet meeting about the dialogue with the representatives of the teachers' federation. The Minister of Education has held talks with the President, Vice President and General Secretary of the Federation of Teachers. We have received information that the talks are positive. "After the Ministry of Education brings a proposal to the Council of Ministers, the demands of the teachers are addressed within 1/2 day after making a decision," he said.

On Monday, led by the main opposition Maoists, RSWP, United Socialist Party, Jan Morcha and Aam Janata Party jointly filed a 'Proposition of Urgent Public Importance' saying that the demand of teachers should be discussed in the Parliament. The government did not show any seriousness towards the teachers' movement. "The government's neglect of an important issue like school education is a sign of irresponsible behavior," the proposal states. The proposal of the opposition party mentions that it is necessary to discuss in the parliament regarding the implementation of the agreements made between the government and the teachers' federation, to improve the quality of public schools, to resume the education of millions of students and to conduct examinations at the scheduled time. Maoist's chief whip Hitraj Pandey is the proponent of the proposal, Santosh Periyar of RSVP, Sher Bahadur Kunwar of United Socialist Party, Chitra Bahadur KC of Jan Morcha and Prabhu Shah of Aam Janata Party are supporters of the proposal.

In the 7-point proposal of the then Education Minister Bhattarai, the budget is estimated at 278.78 million for providing relief, sick leave to teachers working in former Umawi posts and 867.878 million for arranging treatment for teachers and school employees in the civil hospital. Similarly, it is estimated that 6.5 billion will be needed to provide a minimum salary (17,500) to child development teachers, 13.9 million to adjust civil grade 6 and 13 to teachers, and 400 million to provide local/remote allowances to relief teachers like other teachers.  It is mentioned in the proposal to take temporary teachers and school employees who do not need the

budget to the social security fund and to maintain the dignity of teachers. Bhattarai resigned saying that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Finance Minister Poudel did not cooperate in the proposal. After his resignation appointed Minister of Education  The teachers' federation has proposed 9-point demand as a subject to be passed by the cabinet for

pant. If the partial demands of the teachers are addressed by the Council of Ministers around the 9-point proposal, the federation has been saying that the nature of the movement can be changed. The federation has made its 'bottom line' the demand that the School Education Act be promulgated as per the prior agreement. 

Similarly, an agreement has been reached between the government and private medical college operators to provide subsistence allowance to resident doctors. The Prime Minister and Chairman of the Medical Education Commission, Oli, had instructed to start the process of increasing the seats and fees of undergraduate medical education according to the demand of private medical colleges. After the instructions of the Prime Minister, the 19th meeting of the commission held on Sunday decided to start the process of review of the number of seats and fees, and the private medical college will give subsistence allowance to the resident doctors as per the government.  It is a regular process of the commission to allocate fees and seats as per

criteria. But the Prime Minister had formed a task force under the coordination of Education Secretary Deepak Kafle to review the seats and fees. According to the provisions of the Medical Education Act, 2075, the working group formed a technical committee and suggested to review the number of seats and fees based on the level and criteria. A technical committee has also been formed under the coordination of Sujanbabu Marhatta, director of the Commission's Planning, Coordination and Academic Upgrading Directorate for the implementation of the suggestions.

The Prime Minister's Secretariat has informed that the process of determining MBBS seats and fees has proceeded based on the recommendations of the task force. In order to provide subsistence allowance to resident doctors, private medical college operators have demanded that the seats and fees of graduate level including MBBS and BDS should be reviewed. A member of the commission said that the decision was made according to the demand.

The 16th meeting of the commission held on January 25 decided to give 48 thousand 700 monthly subsistence allowance to resident doctors of private Mekidal College. However, the private medical college owners had put forward the condition of increase in seats and fees of MBBS, BDS, saying that resources should be ensured to give such subsistence allowance. After the medical college refused to give the allowance, the doctors from all over the country have left their services except for emergencies and have been on the streets since Friday on the call of the Nepal Doctors Association, while the resident doctors have been protesting since then.

 Even though private medical colleges have promised to provide allowances, they are not sure when, said Anilvikram Karki, president of the association and member of the commission. "It has been decided to provide allowances to resident doctors, to start the process of seat and fee review for MBBS, BDS," he said. Now it is possible to create up to 150 seats. He said that the medical college management has withheld the allowance so far to increase the number of seats. Karki said that the movement of doctors will stop once they are assured of subsistence allowance.

After the process of increasing fees and seats on the initiative of the Prime Minister, the experts in this field have stated that the legal procedure of the Medical Education Act and the Commission have been violated. 6 experts including educationist Kedarbhakta Mathema issued a statement on Sunday and suggested that the fees and seats of the graduate level should not be increased to give subsistence allowance to doctors of postgraduate (PG) level of medical education. They say that it is wrong to set conditions for allowance. 

The former chairman of the commission, Mr. Krishna Giri, commented that it would be wrong to review the fees and seats of MBBS and BDS to manage the finances regarding the issue of subsistence allowance for PG. The commission has been doing the seat determination process every year. Decisions should be made from the bottom up by the experts from the standards directorate," he said. "Now it's the other way around. The committee of experts was defunct. All the powers of the Commission were concentrated in the Prime Minister. The role of skilled experts has been weakened. He pointed out that there are criteria for allocating seats based on the number of beds, number of patients, faculty, labs and other infrastructure of the medical college. The fee increase committee system is also determined by the Act itself.