Students of TNT Technical College and Syarputal Engineering College in Musikot, the district headquarters of Rukum (West), staged demonstrations on Monday citing that they were swindled by the colleges on the pretext of teaching technical education.

On Monday, the agitated students padlocked the TNT Technical College whereas Syarputal Engineering College was closed a few days ago. They have launched a street protest demanding action against their colleges and refund of their fees.

“The colleges had taken fees from us earlier citing that they had launched an 18-month-long course and a 3year course under technical education. But those courses are shorter than we were told. We have not sat for any exams in the last two years,” said Sharmila Rasaili, one of the students from the TNT College. “We got duped and that is why we are protesting. We will continue until our demands are met,”

Rambabu Devkota, the coordinator of the protest programme, said the protest programmes started in Musikot from Sunday.

“We had also notified the District Administration Office in Rukum (West) about the matter,” he said.

The District Administration Office has also formed a taskforce to conduct an investigation into the case under the coordination of assistant Chief District Officer Sher Bahadur Pun. According to Pun, the taskforce has got a time frame of 10 days to carry out the investigation.

The students of TNT College said each of them had paid Rs 3,000 to Rs 61,000 as fees.

“But the college has only taught us basic computer skills,” said Rasaili. There are 33 students studying at TNT College.

Similarly, 10 students of Syarputal Engineering College said that they had also paid Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000 as admission fees.

Meanwhile, Tilak Dangi, manager of the TNT College, denied the allegations of the students.

“Students are in protest under the influence of student unions,” said Dangi, claiming that the college has an affiliation with CTEVT to teach courses for computer operators, telecom technicians and electricians.

“The investigation of the District Administration Office will also reveal the truth in the coming days. Some of the courses are free of cost and some of them have fixed fees. We had charged fees on the basis of such courses,” he said.