Wild elephant driven away

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CHITWAN, Nov 10 - A wild male elephant which has been terrorising local people for the last month in the tourist area of Sauraha and Padampur, was chased towards India from the Chure hills of the national park on Wednesday.

The wild elephant had destroyed dozens of houses, sheds and paddy crops belonging to the people of Sauraha and Padampur over the past month.

Even the foreign tourists and local hotel entrepreneurs were scared after they saw the wild elephant in Sauraha in broad daylight.

The wild elephant had also attacked two domestic elephants of the Sauraha elephant shed on Tuesday, an employee told The Kathmandu Post.

Chief warden of the national park Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya told The Kathmandu Post Friday that the elephant had come to the national park from India and was vexing the locals. It was driven back to India with the help of 30 elephants belonging to the national park.

The people of Ayodhyapuri VDC ward Nos 8 and 9 had repeatedly been requesting the national park authorities to drive away the elephant.

Road to be named after Falgunananda  

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KATHMANDU, Nov 10 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said that the road linking Damak and Chisapani would be named Falgunanda Road in the memory of the great Guru of the Kirat religion.

He was addressing the First International Conference of Kirat Religion which was held in Kathmandu Friday to commemorate the 116th birth anniversary of Guru Muhigum Angsimang Falgunanda. Stressing on the need to preserve various cultures, he said, "The soul of this country stretching from Mechi to Mahakali is made up of  various nationalities and cultures."

Guru Atmananda Lingden, taken as the present incarnation of Falgunanda, said the aim of all religions of the world is the same -- know yourself. "The root of the worldly worries and brutalities is in failing to find out the essence of one's 'self'.

The opposition party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal said cultural practices would flourish only when the country itself runs in the path of prosperity.

Balkrishna Mabuhang, the general secretary of Nepal Federation of Nationalities said the Kirat religion has been in practice since hundreds of years without any inscription.

Kirat Religion Literature Upliftment Organisation general secretary DP Sampang said Kirat religion should be made easy and practical in today's modern world.

Falgunanda Lingden was a social reformer who brought a big change in the practice of Kirat religion, popular among the Rais, Limbus, Sunuwars and other ethnic groups from the eastern mountainous region of Nepal.

The Kirats from Bhutan, India and Myanmar are also participating in the programme, the organizers said.

NC cadre beaten up in membership row

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RAJBIRAJ, Nov 10 - The observer for Saptari District Working Committee of the Nepali Congress, Gopal Prasad Sharma Kattel, a Professor of Nepali at Mahendra Morang Multiple Campus was severely beaten-up by party workers over the dispute on active membership of the party on Thursday.

Professor Kattel, who lost four teeth, was hospitalised at the Sagarmatha Hospital here. He had come here to observe the district conference and to cross-examine the list of active memberships which were brought from the centre.

Prof. Kattel accused the District Development Committee Chairman, Dinesh Kumar Yadav of bodily harm inflicted on him.

The party cadre attacked Kattel after they found a number of active memberships sanctioned by the centre unlisted. The sealed bundle of memberships was opened in the presence of the active cadre of the district. Party cadre said that some of the senior cadre with long careers in the party had also lost their active membeship.

Active membership to the party is compulsory for eligibility to vote for the Mahasamiti (convention) members who can, in turn, elect the party president.

A senior Nepali Congress leader and Chairman of Freedom Fighter Association in Saptari, Dev Narayan Yadav, opined that the date for the district conference should have been scheduled only after sorting out the dispute of the party's active membership.

The NC's Saptari District Office said that only 3,400 active memberships were issued from 114 VDCs and one municipality. The majority of the active cadre are insisting that a district conference, scheduled for November 14, should be postponed until the row over active membership is resolved.