Kathmandu, July 5 (IANS): Students organisations of two of the largest parties in Nepal's ruling alliance went on the warpath Sunday, triggering violence, arson and vandalisation in one of the oldest colleges in the capital.
The All Nepal National Free Students' Union, affiliated to the ruling Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, clashed with Nepal Students' Union (NSU), loyal to the largest party in the government, the Nepali Congress.
The clash was over the construction of an additional storey at the Trichandra College, a 99-year-old college that is among the capital's landmarks.
During the fight over which contractor should be given the building job, an NSU leader, Bhimsingh Gurung, was shot in the leg.
His organisation claimed the shooting was done by the Youth Force, the youth outfit started by the ruling party recently to combat the dreaded youth wing of the opposition Maoist party.
In retaliation, NSU cadres vandalised the office of its rival union in the college and in the ensuing violence, the offices of the campus chief and administrative head were also set on fire.
The warring students then took their fight to the streets, burning tyres on the road and disrupting traffic.
The violence comes as the two allies exchanged angry notes last week with the Nepali Congress accusing the communist party's Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, of disbursing largesse from the state treasury without consulting the other partners.
Cracks have started to surface between the two biggest ruling parties even though they are under attack from the Maoists.
The Maoists have kept up a blockade on parliament since May 5, a day after their government fell.
Though after several rounds of talks between the three big parties, the house was to have convened Sunday, it could not as the former guerrillas called a boycott.
They are demanding an admission in the house by the prime minister that the President, Dr Ram Baran Yadav, had acted unconstitutionally by reinstating the chief of the army, whom the Maoists had sacked.
The fracas led to the fall of the Maoist government two months ago.
The house obstruction since then has prevented the new government from tabling its budget.
If it fails to table the budget by July 15, the government will run into a severe funds crunch. It will be unable to pay state employees, let alone carry on with its projects.