Dr Jagdish Prasad Agrawal, who was appointed as the vice chairperson of the Health Profession Education Commission (HPEC), has refused to assume the responsibility.

He was appointed to the post on September 18. He tendered his resignation before the 18-member commission began its work.

Dr Agrawal said he could not take the responsibility as the government is not clear about his Terms of Reference. He also mentioned that he had agreed to assume a post in HPEC, provided that the commission will execute the report prepared by Dr Kedar Bhakta Mathema.

He said he decided to quit after realising that the government was intending to put aside the report’s recommendations.

“The government is yet to send me the letter. Even if it does, I cannot work in a position where my efforts will be curtailed,” he said.

His decision comes at a time when the health condition of Dr Govinda KC, a senior orthopaedic surgeon at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital who has been staging yet another round of hunger strike, is deteriorating.

On September 5, the government had reached an 11-point agreement with Dr KC, ending his 14-day hunger strike.

According to the agreement, the HPEC would be formed to execute the report prepared by the Mathema-led panel, which proposed radical reforms in the medical education. The agreement had also stated that the Prime Minister would chair the HPEC. However, going against the recommendations of the report, the Social Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam, had picked Education Minister Chitra Lekha Yadav as the commission’s chairperson.