Three hurt as truck hits house

By a Post Reporter

DAMAULI, Aug 12 - A Pokhara - Narayangadh bound truck hit a house at a place between Tallo Gunadi and Mathillo Gunadi of Tanahun district on the Prithvi highway and injured three persons sitting in the compound of the house on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

According to police, the injured are 3-year-old Sagar Shrestha, Krishna Bahadur Ranabhat, 25, and Toran Bahadur Thapa, 26, of Jamune VDC ward No 3. Sagar Shrestha is in critical condition while the condition of the other two is normal. Some parts of the house have been damaged due to the impact of the truck.

The truck had hit the house which was located at a distance of about 75 feet from the highway and the truck had overturned in the paddy field.

According to Police Inspector Diwakar Thapa, the truck had hit the house belonging to Sagar Shrestha. The accident had occurred due to the high speed of the truck and negligence of the driver, police said.

Local people had barricaded the highway until midnight demanding medical treatment and compensation for the injured and the highway opened at midnight when an agreement was reached between local people and police.

Truck driver Madhav Thapa has been kept in police custody for necessary action.

Tikapur remains haven for drunkards

By a Post Reporter

TIKAPUR, Aug 12 - Though the town at Kailali district constituency No 1 was declared alcohol-free area about seven years back, alcohol can be found openly here, limiting the propaganda in papers only.

"Hotels and restaurants in Lamki and Satti, including Tikapur sell liquor as late as midnight," a local in Tikapur said.

According to locals, the prohibition remained futile because of the inaction of police administration and women’s group which were active in the beginning.

The declaration of "dry area" has been fruitful for liquor sellers. As it is declared illegal to sell liquor, the restaurants sell it in the black market charging additional 100 to 35 percent of its actual price.

Moreover, people claim that taking advantage of the declaration, locals even produce liquor using harmful raw materials to make it more intoxicating. "I have seen some locals distilling alcohol with materials like uria, battery, tree bark and even human urine," says a local woman. On the other hand, the makers of liquor say the police does not destroy the liquor they confiscate. "They (policemen) come to us when the stock of liquor finishes in their rooms," says a restaurant owner.

Nepali Congress Regional Chairman and Chairman of Dhansinghpur VDC Janga Bahadur Saud sees no use of such prohibition. "Since drinkers outnumber drinks, it would be better to quit double standard and the prohibition should be withdrawn now," he says. Mayor of Tikapur municipality remarks the very declaration which was once the pride of the whole town has become a nuisance for all.

Foodgrain crisis in farwest region

By a Post Reporter

TIKAPUR, Aug 12 - Foodgrain crisis has hit the three hilly districts of Bajura, Bajhang and Achham in the Far Western Region of Nepal this year as in the past.

Nepal Food Corporation Dhangadhi branch has been entrusted with the responsibility to supply foodgrain to people of this hilly region at a concessional rate. It had purchased 70 thousand quintals of paddy and 35 quintals of rice for the fiscal year 1999-2000 and it has 50 thousand quintals of foodgrain at its stock. But the foodgrain quota for the current fiscal year has not been approved as yet.

An officer of the food corporation Bishnu Hari Nepal said the foodgrain crisis had been caused particularly because of the difficulty to transport foodgrain to Mangalsen, Binayak and Kamal bazar of Achham, Kolti in Bajura and Judi Nimouna in Bajhang. There is no foodgrain stock except in Bajura and Sanphebagar in the Achham district. In Bajhang there is a stock of about 150 quintals but it is also not distributed because there is no arrangement for fresh supply.

Nepal said in other hilly districts of Darchula, Baitadi, Doti and Dadeldhura of the Far Western Region where there was food shortage last year, the foodgrain of the corporation has not been sold because foodgrain is available from the "Food for Work" Programme implemented this year under the Rural Infrastructure Development Programme. The condition of 500 quintals of rice is so bad at Gothalapani of Baitadi that it may get rotten if it is not sold soon, according to Nepal.

Farmers worried for lack of market

AMARGADHI (Dadeldhura), Aug 12 (PR) - Farmers of Khalta in Nagarkot VDC-7 and Chirkitte in Amargadhi municipality-3 are worried because the apple and walnut which they grow are ripening and going to be wasted due to lack of market.

About 25 families are engaged in apple and walnut growing. The fruits are growing abundantly but due to lack of road facility it is difficult to carry these products to the district headquarters for their marketing, according to local farmers.

Gopi Paneru, a farmer asks, " How much apple and walnut can I carry in this uphill track which stretches up to 15 kilometres?"

He says he could sell these fruits and earn 40 thousand rupees by carrying them on the basket on his back. However, it is not always possible to carry fruit products every year in this uphill track. He expresses his disappointment that the fruits are bound to get rotten in the absence of market. People of Chirkitte and Khalta had heard 10 years ago that a motorable road would be built soon and with this hope all of them had planted and carefully nurtured 200 apple and walnut trees each, but they are worried because they have not been able to sell their products.

"Our trees will perhaps dry up by the time the road will be constructed here," says Kamali Paneru.

Private schools charge fees at will

BUTWAL, Aug 12(RSS)- Complains about financial exploitation by private schools in Rupendehi has been increasing day after day.

Guardian Laxman Dhital says he has to pay fee of Rs. 700 every month for his son who is undertaking his studies at Grade 5 at a local private school.

How can I send my son and fulfil his requirement in the days ahead ? He asks. According to the District Education Office, a total of 50 pre- primary schools, 13 lower secondary schools and 46 secondary schools are in operation in this district.

The private schools are charging fees under different headings at will. Though such schools charge fees for sports, health care and library, they are not providing such facilities to the students, another guardian Kailash Kashodhan complains.

Local Rajendra Lakoul says some of the school which possesses its own building at its disposal also charges fees for that.

Though such a tendency is prevalent in the district, the District Education Office is turning a deaf ear. School inspector Baburam Gautam says he is ignorant of the fees being charged by the private schools of the district.

The Education Office has an authority under Education Regulation, 2049 BS to inquire into the monthly tuition fees and other fees raised by all schools.

Cases of transference of the students from private school to public school have also seen here.

Madhavi Khanal is a guardian who admitted her child to a public school after she failed to pay the monthly tuition fees raised by the private school where her daughter undertook her studies.

Ram Prasad Sharma says that he is compelled to curtail the expenses made for his kid to meet a need for tiffin.

A bad tendency of being upset and quarrell has cropped up on my son after the amount provided for tiffin has reduced.

According to education officer Gautam, the District Education Office has no record about the rate of tuition fees and other fees charged this year by the schools.

This is the outcome of the lack of co-ordination among private schools and lack of standards for determining the maximum and minimum limit of the fees for such schools, it is stated.

Clause 16 under the Education Regulation enunciates that any school must seek approval from the District Education Office while charging tuition fees and other related fees to its students.

There is also a provision of fines of Rs. 2,000 or scraping of permission of the school in case of violating the provision, but, till date, there is no record about the action against such defaulters.

Though there is an arrangement of 10 resource persons in addition to one school inspector to monitor the schools running in the district, they are indifferent towards such practice, guardian Rajendra Parajuli said. However, the education inspector is hopeful that such tendency will disappear upon the introduction of the New Education Regulations.

Police arrest misguided youth

KATHMANDU, Aug 12 (RSS)- Police here have arrested 26-year-old Anup Singh of Kathmandu metropolitan city, ward No. 29, Samakhusi who identified himself as the son of a distinguished man and who used to cheat people and walked out of hotels and restaurants without paying his bill, sometimes even threatening the hotel people.

A police team which included police inspector Raj Kumar Baidawar of the Ward Police Office, Darbar Marg, arrested the youth and sent him to the District Police Office, Hanuman Dhoka for necessary action, according to the Central Police Newsroom.

The youth has been accused of non-payment of bills at restaurants at various intervals, flirting with different girls and duping them of money and refusing to pay taxi fare after hiring the taxi cabs for long distances.

According to police inspector Baidawar, after receiving information that a youth calling himself the son of a distinguished man and who went around cheating and harrassing people was found, the police initiated investigations and finally ended up arresting Anup Singh.

Anup’s parents who wish that their wayward son would improve are hoping that he would mend his ways after police action.

"It is but natural that one is hurt when a member of the family gets arrested. But still we are hoping he will improve," one of his family members said.

Requesting anonymity a member of the Singh family who does not remember Anup being arrested before this says, "we’ll try to correct him after ‘teaching him a lesson’ through legal action first."

"May be his friends are also like him. But his peers and the society should provide cooperation for his correction and not to spoil him."

Before Anup went the "wrong way", he was employed at two places. But later he left service and started drinking. During his childhood days Anup was said to be well-mannered.

According to family sources, Anup completed his schooling at St. xavier’s school and later went to Delhi and passed grade 12 from there.

Thereafter Anup Singh went to Russia for Engineering through private expenses. He studied there very well but suddenly altered his behaviour and became wayward in the fourth year at college and returned to Nepal, the family source says.

Married and with a child, Anup’s latest misdeed is that he went to the Bhadgaon Guest House with a girl on August 4, stayed overnight there but walked away without paying Rs 2,700 charge. Moreover, he is even said to have threatened the owner. On the following two days, Anup stayed at local Shivapuri Guest House and there also did not pay Rs 1,500 and on August 8 he walked away without paying a bill of about Rs 2,600 at Benjala Mokswa Restaurant at local Naxal.

Similarly, he is also learnt to have visited various restaurants in the Gongabu area and did not pay for the food and bevearages he had.

Anup has admitted about the bad activities that he was habituated. Police