Festival of colours 'Holi' today

Today (Saturday) is "Holi", the festival of colours. Holi will be celebrated throughout the country today and Sunday.

According to Hindu mythology, Holi is being observed since the days of Prahlad, a devotee of Lord Bishnu in "Satya Yuga."

Sister of Prahlad's father, Holika tried to burn Prahlad keeping the child on her laps. With the grace of Lord Bishnu, fire did not hurt Prahlad but burnt the evil spirit woman, Holika, to death, it is stated in the "Puranas."

Since that day, Holi or Falgu Purnima is being marked as a triumph of truth over falsehood and evil spirits. 

In modern days, people flash colours on each other, exchange gifts and eat delicious foods to mark the festival. 

"Lola" culture is also becoming common among youths and children of Kathmandu nowadays. Lola is a local name for a balloon filled with normal water or coloured water to be hit on others. nepalnews.com mr Mar 6 04

Blast rocks Thamel

Suspected Maoists Friday evening exploded a bomb at a guest house at Thamel, a tourist hub in Kathmandu, injuring one policeman and one civilian, the local police told Nepalnews.

The bomb went off at a massage centre housed inside the guest house "Down Town Guest House" at 7:20 pm in the evening, a duty officer at Sorha Khutte Police Station told Nepalnews.

The injured were a police constable Prem Giri and a civilian Bishnu Acharya, the officer said. Giri was wounded, as he rushed to the incident site after hearing about a suspected bomb from the locals, the officer said.

Acharya was the husband of Neeta Acharya, the owner of the massage parlour, it is learnt. Security forces are highly mobilised in the area and hunt for the culprit(s) is going on, according to the officer.

This was the second blast within 12 hours in the capital after Ward No 17 office building of Lalitpur sub-metropolis was bombed Friday morning. The explosion has partially damaged the office building.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry, in a press meet today, said locals have arrested and handed over one suspect involved in the explosion at the ward office. nepalnews.com mr Mar 5 04

Related News
- Bomb goes off at Lalitpur Sub-metro City’s ward office 

‘Malaysia Sales Mission 2004’ to be launched

The Nepal Association of Travel Agents, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) are jointly organizing a tourism promotional program from March 11-14 with a dictum Malaysia Sales Mission 2004. 

At a press conference called by the NTB on Friday, the required fund for the campaign will be met from Rs.25 million allocated by the government for Regional Tourism Promotion, NTB said.

A high-level Nepali delegation headed by Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sarvendra Nath Sukla will carry out different programs from March 8-16. 

However, as a main part of their promotional campaign on March 11, the delegation will have an interaction program with different travel agents, journalists and other officials of Malaysia.

In related news, 10 Nepali companies are participating in the Malaysia International Trade Fare (MITF) to be organized by the Malaysian Association of Travel Agents (MATA) from 12-14 March, the organisers said.

According to officials concerned, MITF is a very good opportunity for Nepal to showcase its products, as it draws a large number of tourists worldwide.

Commenting on tourist arrivals, CEO of NTB, Tek Bahadur Dangi said, “There was an encouraging 42 pc growth in tourist arrival in February in comparison to last year because of ‘Pashupatinath Darshan Package’.” 

Corporate Director of RNAC, Gautam Das Shrestha said the campaign will be successful in attracting more tourists to the country.

He added that the RNAC has offered 75 percent discount on air tickets for the first 40 Malaysian tourists under the particular campaign. nepalnews.com rs March 05 04

Five parties stage protest rally

The five agitating political parties staged an anti-regression rally in the capital on Friday. 

The rally attended by leaders and cadres of the five political parties proceeded from Ratnapart at 3pm to convert into a mass meeting at Lagantol after marching through city streets.  

Addressing the gathering, leaders said that the anti-regression movement that was relaxed for a few weeks in view of the student elections would now go in full swing.  

Repeating what they have been saying from the very beginning of ‘regression’ for over a year, leaders declared that the next phase of protests would be decisive.

CPN-UML leader J.N Khanal, central committee member of Nepali Congress Narahari Acharya, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party’s Prem Suwal and leader of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Ananadi Devi) Govind Choudhari addressed the program.

The five agitating parties have called an assembly of former parliamentarians, chairmen and vice-chairman of District Development Committees, mayors and deputy mayors on March 11-12 in the capital. nepalnews.com mbk March 5 04

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Arson at PN Campus, two professors hurt

Two lecturers were injured as an unidentified group set fire at the building of Prithivi Narayan Campus, Pokhra Friday afternoon.

A group of arsonists sprinkled petrol on the furniture and the office documents at the election office of the Free Students Union and set the building on fire. 

According to reports, assistant professors Ramesh Poudel and Nirmal Kumar Karki who were locked inside.

The five-room building has completely been destroyed while one computer, furniture and various documents were gutted in the fire. It took nearly an hour for the fire brigade to douse the fire. 

Students have charged the Maoists for the arson; there are no reports of the Maoists or any other group taking responsibility for the act. nepalnews.com mbk March 5 04

Bomb goes off at Lalitpur Sub-metro City’s ward office 

Suspected Maoists detonated a bomb at the office of Ward No.17 of Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City on Friday morning. 

The blast occurred at 9.30am at the office secretary’s room when the officials were coming out after a board meeting. Ram Gopal Shrestha, the office secretary was injured while the blast caused partial damage to the office building. 

One of two men who planted the bombs was captured by the locals while trying to run away. 

Police said search operation is underway to track down the Maoists and security has been beefed up in the area. nepalnews.com mbk March 5 04

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- Three injured in a bomb blast at Kalanki

Construction of Mid-Marsyangdi hydel resumes

Construction of the Middle-Marsyangdi Hydropower Project that had stalled following row between the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and the contractors resumed from Thursday, reports Friday said. 

Construction work at the 70-megawatt power project have resumed amidst tight security. DDC-JV, the contractor the project has agreed to carry on construction works, Nepal Samacharpatra reported today.

The construction project had come to a standstill from October 8 after, last year when two workers were killed in a blast carried out by Maoists on October 1. 

The company had stopped construction work citing security problems 

The cost of the project that was earlier fixed at Rs.13.65 billion has almost doubled. The project that began on June 25, 2001 is expected to finish by mid-December 2006, two years later the stipulated time. 

The Mid-Marsyangdi project, the second largest hydropower project in the country, has 75 percent stake of the German government and 25 percent of the Nepal government. nepalnews.com mbk

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US for Govt., Maoist talks

First secretary of the American Embassy in Kathmandu, Constance C. Jones Thursday stressed on the need to hold peace talks and search of a possible outlet to the current insurgency in Nepal, a daily reported Friday.

Jones, who was speaking in Nepalgunj, said the American view regarding the conflict in Nepal has been misinterpreted, according to the Nepal Samacharpatra report.

She further said her country believes in dialogue and political options.

Jones was speaking in an opening ceremony of American Information Center in Nepalgunj, the daily said. nepalnews.com pd Mar 05 04

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CIAA wins 90 pc of cases

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has won 90 percent of the corruption cases filed at the Kathmandu Special Court in the last one and half year, a report said Friday.

According to a report on Annapurna Post, in the first year, 96  of 110 cases were settled in favor of the CIAA while in the first six month of the current year, CIAA had won 43 cases out of 55 cases receiving partial success in five other cases.

When the Appellate Court used to look after the corruption cases earlier, the CIAA won only 5 percent of the cases, the report said.

"The success achieved by the CIAA after the establishment of the Special Court is encouraging," the report quoted CIAA chief, Surya Nath Upadhaya, as saying.

“The success is the evidence that the CIAA is becoming powerful
gradually,” he said.

He also gave the credit of the success to all the staff of CIAA, saying that the success was possible because of the genuine effort, dedication and courage of the CIAA officials.

Assistant Attorney General, Yuvaraj Subedi said the success of
CIAA was historic, according to the daily. nepalnews.com rs March 05 04

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- Politicians are responsible for corruption: CIAA
- 17 out of 21 corruption cases filed at CIAA found valid

Panta appointed Director of NHRPC

A Cabinet meeting on Thursday appointed Diwakar Panta as the Director of National Human Rights Promotion Centre (NHRPC), Anapurna Post said Friday.

The Judicial Service Commission meeting on February 13 had recommended Panta’s name for the post but PM Surya Bahadur Thapa held up Pant’s appointment using his special authority, the daily said.

The report, quoting sources, said that the appointment of Pant could
have been delayed because he is an American Green Card holder and also that he was on three years leave. nepalnews.com rs March 05 04