Lack of transport service hinders rural population

By a Post Reporter

SYANGJA, April 16 - People living in Naudanda in Syangja district to Karkineta in Parbat district are facing tremendous hardship as the public transports are not operated in the 29 kilometre section of the rural road between these two places.

Syangja-based Gandaki Medium Mini Bus Entrepreneurs’ Committee and Prithvi Highway Bus Operators’ Committee had agreed to operate the buses under them by the 1st of Baishakh(April 13) for the benefit of the general people.

However, they are hesitating to operate the buses under their committee arguing that the risk involved was greater than financial gain in operating the transports in this rough road charging 2 rupees 50 paisa per kilometre.

The road was inaugurated jointly last month by Member of Parliament elected from Syangja-1 Hit Kaji Gurung and the DDC presidents of Syangja and Parbat Ram Bahadur Thapa and Ganesh Timilsina. Inaugurating the road they had said the road will be named "Ganeshman Road" and public transport would be operated by the 1st of Baishakh in this route, Chairman of Karkineta VDC Babu Ram Dhungel said.

Construction of the rural roads from Karkineta to Pulamkhani and Karkineta to Aruchaur is going at full swing with the dozer provided by MP Hit Kaji Gurung and the active initiative of local people.

Students barred from taking SLC

By a Post Reporter

RAUTAHAT, April 16 - Sanju Kumari Lopchan, who had reached the SLC examination hall weaving many sweet dreams of her future and praying to God for her success returned home without appearing at the SLC examination and with tears in her eyes.

She could not enter the examination hall because she had filled up the forms but she had not paid the fee for her SLC examination. None of her teachers or friends told her that she should pay fees for SLC examination prior to appearing in it.

Four of her classmates were also deprived of the opportunity to appear at the SLC examination due to the same reason though all of them had passed the SLC test and filled up the forms.

It is estimated that there are hundreds of students who could not appear at the examination all over the district due to the negligence of concerned teachers.

Another student Dev Raj Adhikari who could not appear at the examination said their teachers were trying to shirk responsibility and had told irresponsibly that the students were barred from the examination because of non-payment of examination fees.

District Education Officer Ram Niwas Thakur, when asked about the number of such students who were deprived of the opportunity to appear at the SLC examination said they had the list of only those who had paid fees for SLC examination.

Teacher of Jan Jyoti Higher Secondary school and President of Nepal Teachers’ Association Yogendra Prasad Yadav said if any student delays payment of fees or if he does not know that he has to pay fees for SLC examination, the school should pay the fees immediately and refund it from the student later as the future of the student is at stake.

Chief of Jan Jyoti Higher Secondary School Centre Jay Mangal Pandey said he had withheld the admit cards of the four students and did not allow them to enter the examination hall because he had received a wireless message from District Education Office, Gaur to prevent the four students from appearing at the examination.

UNESCO to help heritage conservation

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 16 - The Municipality of Bhaktapur is set to initiate a programme to revitalise its heritage as part of the action plans drawn by the city through UNESCO’s ‘Culture, Heritage Management and Tourism’ conference which closed here, today.

The UNESCO and the Government of Norway sponsored action plans will compel Bhaktapur Municipality to improve its natural environment and revitalise traditional building techniques.

In response to the set guidelines, the municipality, according to their publicity office, ‘will undertake environmental initiatives to upgrade water areas surrounding the city and rehabilitate forest areas.’ They will also introduce ‘heritage building codes’ to ‘incorporate traditional techniques into new structures within the greater Bhaktapur area.’

To financially help the extended project, the municipality has also planned to initiate specialised heritage tours operated by a local heritage committee, to ‘promote sustainable heritage tourism practices within the community.’

"The implementation of entrance fees to foreign visitors since 1993 and to SAARC members till recently has contributed alot to the preservation of the city," said Om Charan Amatya, coordinator of the UNESCO conference. "Similarly, the specialised heritage tours will help in the same way."

The overall project, ‘Culture, Heritage Management and Tourism: Models for cooperation Among Stakeholders’ is set to span three years beginning with an 18 month implementation period. It will be financed through the Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Norway.

The nine day conference brought together more than 150 heritage and tourism professionals from 24 countries to review and create action plans for nine heritage sites from the Asia-Pacific region. Bhaktapur being one of the nine heritage sites within the region.

UML to make public corrupt list in Syangja

By a Post Reporter

SYANGHA, April 16 - The CPN-UML yesterday announced its decision to "innovatively" carry out the process of making public names of corrupt people in the district, according to the District Secretary of the party Prem Narayan Poudel.

Poudel claimed that the party has all the necessary proof about the corrupt officials working in the governmental offices of the district.

"We won’t notify the names of the corrupt to the public at once," said Poudel. He said the party will first warn the those corrupt-listed people and if they do not make any improvement, then it will publicise the names of the corrupt people’s offices.

If they still ignore it, then the party will report it to the Chief District Officer and then lastly it will end up in publicising the names of the corrupt people.

This way of publishing the names of corrupt people is pshycologically effective and democratic, according to Poudel.

The CPN-UML started their process of publicising names of corrupt people through out the nation since April 8.

Woman held responsible for disappearance of another

By a Post Reporter

SYANGJA, April 16 - A woman who is running a hotel business at Pragatinagar of Putali Bazaar Municipality has been charged of tempting a married woman with a promise to send her to gulf countries for a good job and being responsible for her disappearance, according to Syangja District Police Office.

The woman, Chandra Kala Poudel, has told the police that she had handed over the woman to a man of Bag Phadke in Syangja engaged in providing foreign employment to provide foreign employment to her.

Chandra Kala who was deserted by her husband had also gone to Oman (a gulf country) in connection with foreign employment. She had persuaded Bhim Kala Sharma, mother of a child and despised by her husband. Chandra Kala was arrested from Ram Bazaar, Pokhara when the father of Bhim Kala informed the police about the whereabouts of Chandra Kala.

Bhim Kala was leading a difficult life because she was despised by her husband and in-laws. She was staying at her father’s house along with her one-year-old daughter for the last two years. Chandra Kala came to her house and convinced not only her but also her father Him Lal Lamichhane that she would be able to earn fabulous wealth and lead a happy life in future if she was sent to a foreign country to work there. Her father had then given his consent to send Bhim Kala to the foreign country.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Purna Singh Khadha, Lamichhane has said he had paid 80 thousand rupees to Chandra Kala including his own cash money and the loan he incurred. However, Chandra Kala told the police that she had received only 20 thousand rupees.

With tears in his eyes, Him Lal said he would be very happy if only his daughter, the mother of his one-year-old grand-daughter were to return home safely.

Chandra Kala has been released from custody to locate Bhim Kala on condition that she would be present as required.

Decision to dissolve district committees condemned

KATHMANDU, April 16 (PR) - The Bhaktapur District Working Committee (BDWC) of the Nepali Congress, today condemned party’s Central Working Committee (CWC)’s decision to dissolve the district committees, according to a press release.

"The decision to dissolve the working committee in the first place was biased," states the release. "On top of that the CWC did not act according to the recommendations made in the probe committee’s report."

The release signed by the chairperson of the dissolved BDWC, Radheshyam Jhhonche has demanded that the actions carried out by the party be made transparent. "The report submitted by the probe committee on this issue be made public," Jhhonche said.

‘Poverty killing human rights’

KATHMANDU, April 16(RSS)- Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations Dr Shambhuram Simkhada has said that poverty continued to spread and deepen in spite of the initiations by the international community and it persisted as a threat to peace, security and human dignity.

Dr Simkhada made the observation while addressing the opening of a special dialogue on "Poverty and Enjoyment of Human Rights" organised on the sidelines of the on-going 56th session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on April 12.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said the poor were made vulnerable to abuse and vulnerable to cyclical patterns of poverty that could keep them and their children in the same state for generations.

The reality of poverty is that the poor are denied almost all their human rights, she said.

In his concluding remarks on the social dialogue, Dr Simkhada said that poverty was a world of darkness, but it was not unconquerable. He said given the resources the world had in its hands, the scourge of poverty could be eradicated in one decade.

He also said that tackling poverty was a fundamental human rights issue and the realisation of human rights was the primary goal of poverty reduction.

Poverty should be a central focus of the commission’s work, he added.

At the seminar led by chairman of the current session of the commission Dr Simkhada, presentations were made by a panel of experts including UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubin Ricupero, Director of UNDP Geneva office, O Sorgho-moulinier, independent expert on human rights and extreme poverty A M Lizin and other experts of international repute.

According to the Royal Nepalese Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, the purpose of the special dialogue organised by the commission as part of its topical dialogues every year was to hold meaningful and productive discussions on the scale of global poverty and its devastating consequences for human rights globally.