Students staged a demonstration for the first time against a private college in Itahari for charging fees even for the duration when the classes were halted COVID-19 pandemic. They allege that college has threatened them to pay fees of 12 months when they have only studied for 7 months. It has been revealed that the private colleges in Itahari charged fees from students but did not pay their teachers. The students' movement is further supported by three political student associations.

Meanwhile, in a press statement issued on March 14, Mukunda Ghimire, president of the Sunsari Higher Education Secondary School Association (HISAN), an umbrella organization of a private college, and Sagar Bhattarai, secretary, termed the students' movement a 'sophistry'.