PM opens BP Cancer Hospital

By a Post Reporter

CHITWAN, Sept 26 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala inaugurated here today the country's only well-equipped BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital built under the Chinese grant assistance.

The Chinese government had provided Rs 820 millions to build the hospital and His Majesty's government had arranged necessary infrastructure worth Rs 750 million.

The 100-bedded cancer hospital was built as per the agreement reached between PM Koirala and his Chinese counterpart Li Peng during Koirala's first ever official visit to China in 1992.

The hospital started its regular service since 1998 after the Chinese government handed over it to His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1997.

Inaugurating the hospital, PM Koirala said that nothing can be achieved without clear vision and goal adding one must be committed to his set goal.

"I wished I could only set up a cancer hospital in Nepal while  my elder brother Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala suffered from cancer in Bombay," Koirala said.

Koirala said BP Memorial Cancer Hospital was built in Chitwan taking in view the location accessible from all cornors of the country.

PM Koirala said the government would raise tax from one to four paisa per cigarette in the coming fiscal year so as to control and cure the most expensive cancer disease.

Koirala also thanked the Chinese government for extending cooperation to Nepal's infrastructure development in health, hydro-electricity, sports and road transportation.

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Jeng Chu Yong said the cancer hospital would stand forever a highest symbol of friendship between Nepal and China. Ambassador Yong said the Chinese government would continue its economic and technical support for Nepal's overall development.

Director of the hospital Dr Sampurnanda Dhugana revealed that more than 30 thousand cancer patients have already taken advantage of the hospital since last year.

PAC undecided on RA aircrafts deal

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Sept 26 - The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today failed to decide on the case involving the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC)'s bid to purchase two French-built ATR aircrafts.

Even after four hours of discussion on what was supposed to be a decision-making meeting, PAC members failed to reach a decision on the controversial proposal to purchase the two aircrafts without calling tender bids as required by financial regulations.

RNAC officials have claimed that since the aircrafts that were supposed to be flying on domestic routes needed no tender calls as per the RNAC Financial Regulations, they had opted for directly purchasing the crafts from the company through direct negotiations.

PAC had frozen RNAC's attempt to pay the first lockup money and has been investigating the case for the past few weeks. Civil aviation authorities have accused PAC of obstructing the working process of the ailing airline that would further push it towards  near collapse.

In the process of investigating the case, PAC had run into conflict with another committee,too. PAC severely criticized the Finance Committee for intervening in and taking a decision on the case being investigated by PAC.

PAC had been in the process of investigating into the deal to purchase two French-built ATR aircrafts and had ordered RNAC to present all the papers in this deal.

The Finance Committee stepped in and ruled RNAC to get the aircraft through proper process. This committee,however, made no mention of the fact that the controversy-ridden airline had violated financial regulations.

While PAC is dominated by members of the opposition parties, the Finance Committee has more members from the ruling Nepali Congress.

PAC has set this Friday as the final date for review of the case and is expected to decide on the case on that day just before the members leave for home for Dasain festival.

School closed after threat

By a Post Reporter

KHAR BAZAR (Baglung), Sept 26 - The Welfare Boarding School located at Khar Bazar of Gwalichour VDC, about 38 miles from the district headquarters, has been closed after the school received  threat from All Nepal National Free Student Union (revolutionary) which is close to CPN (Maoist).

The student union had sent the warning letter to the boarding school about two months ago. The school which had its own 16-room building, a playground and more than five ropanis of land was closed 5 days after the warning was received, Principal of the boarding school Dhan Prasad Shrestha told The Kathmandu Post.

The student union has been building pressure to reduce school fees in private and government schools by 50 percent, to close the boarding school, to stop teaching Sanskrit and singing national anthem.

Principal Shrestha said students of the school are facing additional problem after the boarding school was closed.

According to him, about 20 percent of the students have already been admitted to the boarding schools of different districts including Palpa while the rest have joined the government schools.

Shrestha complained that they should not have  closed the school all of a sudden without talking to the school proprietors and listening to their views.

Govt asked not to curtail press freedom

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Sept 26 - Senior journalists today said  a democratic government should always refrain from thinking about curtailing the freedom enjoyed by the press.

Speaking at a Reporters' Club face-to-face programme here Tuesday, they also called on the Fourth Estate to exercise self-censorship while dealing with sensitive issues as the Maoist insurgency, crime and violence.

"A democratic government should not talk about censoring the press," said senior journalist and president of Nepal Press Institute, Gokul Pokharel. "It should rather think about monitoring the news-items published in the papers before thinking about curtailing the press freedom."

President of Nepal Journalists Federation (FNJ), Suresh Acharya, said such moves will give rise to revolt, warning: "We journalists will not sleep if, in any case, the government attempts to cover up its failure (to curb Maoist insurgency) by attempting to curtail the freedom of press."

Acharya, however, said that the Federation and the Press Council were ready to sit for dialogue with the government and subsequently take measures to make the press more responsible.

The media personnel's such remarks came more than a week after Minister for Information and Communications Jay Prakash  Gupta called on the country's press community to decide on their roles while dealing with sensitive issues like the nearly five-year-old Maoist insurgency.

General Manager of the state-owned Nepal Television said journalists should exercise self-censorship and be more responsible. "Journalists should always be able to foresee the impacts of the news or write-ups they publish," he said. "One who cannot gauge the impacts of their news upon the masses is not a journalist."

 Editor of Ghatanara Bichar vernacular weekly, Dev Prakash Tripathi warned of severe consequences should the "so-called most democratic party's" government attempts to censor the press.

Director General of Department of Information and Communications, Yuvraj Pandey defended the government's position, saying the government was not going to curtail the freedom of those presses who are delivering pro-peace and pro-freedom news-items. 

Maoists force VDC chiefs to resign

By a Post Reporter

MUSIKOT (Rukum), Sept 26 - Maoist activists recently forced local representatives of two Village Development Committees of this district to resign, a VDC chief said here.

Mane Budha, Syalakhadi VDC chairman and Pashupati Thapa, Gotambot VDC chairman resigned in July because of the pressure from the Maoists. Budha, a Nepali Congress worker was elected unopposed as VDC chairman. He was forced to announce his resignation at a mass meeting held by the Maoist guerillas.

According to Budha, he was forced to sign a paper by the Maoists. Besides, ward members from 3,4 and 5 of Syalakhdi VDC were also coerced to announce their resignation at the same public gathering.

Likewise, Pashupati Thapa, Gotamkot VDC chairman from CPN--UML, and ward members from 1,2,3 and 7 were forced to quit from their respective posts at the VDC office. The Maoists rebels have also warned them not to go to the district headquarters without taking permission from them.

This mid-western hill district has been in the grip of insurgency waged by Maoist rebels for the last four and half years. Local representatives of almost all of the VDCs have either surrendered to the Maoist dictates or fled their homes. More than 14 hundred people including Maoist rebels and police have lost their lives in the insurgency.