Probe panel formed over MBBS quota row; B’desh Embassy denies wrongdoing The Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has formed a panel to look into the dispute over the decision of the Bangladesh government to award MBBS scholarships to students other than those recommended by the MoES. The three-member probe committee headed by Dr Mahesh Khakurel, director of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj, will investigate into possible irregularities in the selection of students who did not appear in the merit list sent to the Bangladeshi Embassy in Kathmandu. The committee has been given seven days to submit its report. The probe committee was formed after students who were denied scholarships by the Bangladeshi authorities despite being selected by the MoES started sit-in protest in Kathmandu. The MoES has said that only qualified students were recommended for the 12 seats that include 11 MBBS one BDS (dental) and that the list was prepared on the basis of open competition. Talking to Nepalnews, Hari Shankar Manandhar of the scholarship section of the MoES said the decision of the Bangladesh government was surprising. The ministry’s selection of students for the scholarship quotas had been fair and transparent, he added. Out of the 12 recommended names, only two students had their names in the list published by Bangladesh while two others appeared in the ‘wait list’. Earlier, news reports talked about corruption behind the decision of the Bangladesh government, saying that a ‘Mafia’ was active in Nepali Embassy in Dhaka and the Bangladeshi Embassy in Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Post daily devoted its Friday editorial on the scholarship row. “….The protesting students have also exposed that a Mafia has been active in Dhaka in collusion with the Nepal Embassy there and the Embassy of Bangladesh in Kathmandu. The Mafia is playing with the future of the students for monetary interest, and they have the support of corrupt staff in the embassies of Nepal and Bangladesh.” In the wake of the dispute, the MoES, it is learnt, has written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to issue travel documents to students who have been ‘mysteriously’ selected by the Bangladeshi side. Meanwhile, a senior official with the Bangladeshi Embassy claimed that the 12 seats were under the ‘self-finance’ scheme and that provisions allow the Bangladesh government to select candidates from among the names forwarded by the MoES. “As per the Joint Economic Committee’s agreement signed in 1998 no changes shall be made in the name list forwarded by the education ministry regarding the full scholarship quotas but there can be changes in the list of names recommended by the education ministry under the self-finance scheme,” said he. Citing a statement of the Embassy, he claimed that no irregularities were involved in the selection process and argued that the media reports were ‘unfounded’. Meanwhile, eight students whose names disappeared in the list published by the Bangladesh government were taken into custody while carrying out protests Monday afternoon. They have been kept at the Mahendra Police Club, it is learnt. The disgruntled students have been carrying out protests since last few days.