Reports on irregularities in SLC exams pouring in

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KATHMANDU, April 19- Reports of irregularities and disturbances in the ongoing SLC exams are pouring in from several districts despite denials by authorities in Kathmandu of any malpractice.

According to our Phidim correspondent, today’s examinations were delayed by 45 minutes at Tharpu, 45 kms from the headquarters, in a fracas that ensued from a protest against the action taken by the Supervisor against a copying student, yesterday.

The examinees refused to enter the exam halls to rally against Bidur Tiwari, who had seized the chits of an examinee during Tuesday’s mathematics examinations. Their parents were behind the agitating students, claiming it to be improper of the invigilators to obstruct students to refer to their chits during the exams.

DSP Purna Singh Khadka said that the exams could be conducted only after District Development Chairman, Upendra Dangal, prevailed upon both the students and the parents to give up their stand.

In Parbat, the 20-year-old student, Sanjaya Thakuri, was arrested when he was found to be acting as an invigilator in a teacher’s name at the centre of Nava Jagriti Secondary School, Tilhar.

Thakuri was feigning himelf as Om Bahadur Poudel, teacher at Vishwa Shanti School, in order to get his sister-in-law, Bindu Hamal, get opportunities to copy during the exams. He had colluded with the head master of Mahendra Sikhari Secondary School in the case.

A report received from Rautahat says, likewise, that a student was rusticated from the SLC exams for having another student write her papers by pretending to have fractured her hand. The Supervisor at Suvalal Secondary School, Santapur, agreed to let Astha Giri to have another student write for her as she produced a document by the doctor at Chandranigahapur confirming that she was unable to write herself because of an accident.

A total of 119 examinees have already been expelled from 11 centres here since the SLC exams began last Thursday.

Similarly, when our Arghakhanchi reporter reached the Balkot centre where massive irregularities have been reported, the Supervisor asked his invigilators not to let the students copy their chits for the time being as journalists had arrived at the place.

Policeman abducted

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TULSIPUR, April 19- Assistant Sub-Inspector, Shyam Kumar Adhikari, was abducted by the underground Maoist insurgents at Chereneta in Ramdi VDC of Pyuthan district, while he was rushing back home on a motorbike to Khaira after receiving the news at his duty station in Rukum of his father’s death.The incident took place on Wednesday evening.

With only a few hours left to reach home, the grief-stricken Adhikari was stopped by a group of about 10-12 Maoists, who abducted him by hinting the act as their commander’s order.

Meanwhile, the 70-year-old mother of the kidnapped policeman issued a press release today demanding the release of her son at least for thirteen days for mourning his father’s death.

Trade Mill Testing machine in Birgunj

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BIRGUNJ, April 19 - A very sophisticated medical instrument for checking heart diseases was installed here on Wednesday.

The machine is known as Trade Mill Testing ( T.M.T.). This is the first time that such a sophisticated and latest machine was installed anywhere outside the capital, proprietor of Shah Nursing Home Dr Ashok Shah told the journalists at a press conference organised here on Wednesday.

The instrument which cost 1.7 million rupees can tell everything about heart disease, such as what is the condition of heart, what is lacking in the heart, which arteries and veins are blocked or what kind of treatment is needed to set it right.

Dr. Shah said patients were asked to pay Rs 2,000 for having their heart examined by such a machine in Kathmandu, but his nursing home had decided to charge only Rs 1,200 for the examination plus Rs 200 as machine fee from a patient.

At the press conference, the machine was operated and journalists were shown the functioning of the machine, by conducting the heart examination of a journalist.

After a technician works in the computerized machine for about 15 to 20 minutes, the machine is ready to show the palpitation of the heart for every second and is able to diagnose the heart diseases.

Shah Nursing Home also has lung-measuring and endoscopy machines, which are not available in any nursing home in Birgunj.

Bir Hospital in need of improvement

By Pragya Ghimire

KATHMANDU, April 19 - Due to the lack of CT Scan and various other proper test and medical equipment in Bir Hospital, a patient who had a serious road accident had to wait struggling between life-and-death for a long time till he was referred to other hospital today.

Ram Kumar Sapkota, 25, a cyclist hit by a three wheeler tempo at 1:30, midday, only received a primary care though he was in need of intensive care. Doctors examining Sapkota, say, " A patient is in a critical condition and needs emergency head surgery but if CT Scan is not done in time, there will be no hope of his survival".

Doctors working at the Emergency Department in Bir Hospital said, " The condition of this goverment hospital is very poor and should be improved. Indoor and even outdoor patients who come for various medical treatment are referred to other hospitals and nursing homes.

The number of beds in emergency department is 32 including that of medical and surgical ward and the number of beds should be increased to meet the increasing demand. At times even we have to refer pathological tests to other medical shops and the condition of X-ray machine is also very poor.

Police officials say the tempo driver of BA.A.HA.1152 is in police custody and necessary investigation is going on.

Girl rescued from brothel in Calcutta

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HETAUDA, April 19 - A girl from Hetauda sold in India 10 months ago, has been returned to Nepal by an organisation belonging to the Nepalese living in India.

Kanchhi Nepali, alias Seeta Magar, 14 of Hetauda municipality-1 was rescued from Calcutta, India by an organisation named Shramik Nepali Ekta Sangathan.

Two people who introduced themselves as Bikas Thakuri and Laxmi Gurung of Pokhara, had sold her to a brothel at Sungachhi of Calcutta on the pretext that she would be employed in their homes in the month of Shravan in 2057 BS.

When members of the Shramik Nepali Ekta Sangathan came to know about the arrival of a girl from Nepal at the brothel operated by a Nepali woman, Rekha Tamang they succeeded in rescuing the girl with the help of local police, general secretary of the organisation, Harka K.C. said.

General Secretary K.C. brought Kanchhi Nepali to the District Police Office in Hetauda and handed her over to her guardians through the police office on Thursday. She was re-named as Seeta Magar at the brothel.

It may be recalled here that the older sister of Kanchhi Nepali also returned home after escaping from a circus company in India three weeks ago.

Directives to lift tax on timber

BIRGUNJ, April 19 (PR) - The Department of Value Added Tax has recently sent directives to the District Forest Office (DFO) not to go on with levying VAT on timber.

The DFO in Parsa had earlier been charging the owners of private forests Rs 18 and Rs 31 as VAT on per sq feet of mango and sisau timbers respectively.

The tax lift has come one month after a local advocate, Dipak Rajbhandari, filed a writ petition at the Appelate Court in Hetaunda, demanding cancellation of VAT on timber produced in private forests by charging the practice as being contrary to the declared government policy of encouraging individuals to grow trees on private lands. The court had issued a show-cause notice to the VAT department to establish a legal basis of its directive to levy taxes on private forests.

Traffic congestion and public conscience in Kathmandu

By Damakant Jayshi

The capital city needs many things for the welfare of its citizens in lieu of the taxes they pay. But they do not bother about their own rights. While in the West, a citizen can drag the civic authorities to the court, for even tripping over a stone (if there is one rare one!), here even if someone is killed, nothing happens.

This is what happened to Bhagwati Shrestha of Bhaktpur last year when a tree fell on her at Babar Mahal, killing her instantly. There were no protests from the citizens. Even the political parties, which otherwise seize every single opportunity to turn the streets into a battlefield whether or not there is a valid reason to take to the streets, were conspicuously absent.

As citizens, we are not aware of our rights. We will either depend on the media to highlight an issue or wait for others to do what we should do ourselves. Listlessness and passivity are the hallmark of Kathmanduites.

It is precisely for this reason that the power-that-be go on conveniently forgetting their responsibility with impunity, confident with in the thought that we are not going to do anything about it. Our leaders are really fortunate that they have got such a pliable and holy cows as citizens.

Go to Bhadrakali crossing. It is nearly impossible and dangerous to cross the road by navigating through the constantly moving vehicles moving either towards Sigha Durbar or towards Sundhara, semi-circling the Bhadrakali temple.

If you want to cross the road to go to either Sundhara or to RNAC building through Tundikhel ground, you have to walk all the way to the over-bridge near the Nepal Electricity Authority office, inhaling more of the poisonous smoke of the ever-streaming vehicles, like Tennyson’s brook that goes on forever (as in his Brook’s Song). Or close your eyes and run for your life. Keeping your eyes open and crossing will be more difficult.

However, for once the authorities seem to have awoken to the problem. They are at last constructing not one but three overhead bridges. In a city held to ransom by political parties and making our experience on the city roads nightmarish, this comes really as wonderful news.

An overhead bridge at that section should have been built long time ago as it is one of the busiest crossings through which people frequently cross the road. Mercifully the authorities did not wait for a big disaster to happen.

Hopefully, the overhead construction will not become another Melamchi. The policy-makers and planners have indeed done a commendable job by taking into account the serious problem existing in that part of the city. It is to be hoped that their good job will not end in the half job done.

Indeed, the overhead bridge will be constructed and that is neither being challenged here nor doubted. The apprehension raised is only about its timeliness. Each passing day sees more and more vehicles on the road that could lead to a serious accident.

As most of the plans of our policy-makers remain in the pipeline, the latest one could also meet the same fate, with the file gathering dust on one of the office shelves. There are numerous examples on this front. Melamchi drinking water project itself is one such example.

Even the traffic police personnel feel the heat. After all, part of their time is spent on helping people cross the road at that point. This at the cost of managing the flow of the traffic at that point. They indeed face a tough time doing both their scheduled duty as well as the unscheduled one.

Hetauda remains closed for 2 hours

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HETAUDA, April 19 - Six leftist parties, including the main opposition in Parliament, closed down all commercial and industrial establishments in Hetuda Municipality for two hours today afternoon, demanding Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation.

The entire bazaar and vehicles here remained closed down from 1 to 3 in the afternoon and the organisers took out a protest rally and held corner meeting in the down town area.

The meeting was addressed by CPN-UML lawmakers Kedar Neupane and Bir Bahadur Lama and Makawanpur District Development Committee Chairman Rameshwor Rana. They said that the six leftist parties would continue their movement until the Prime Minister stepped down from his post.

District hospital, PHCs sans doctors, technicians

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DIKTEL, April 19 - Khotang District Hospital, where there is provision for five doctors, is without a single doctor for about a month.

The Auxiliary Health Worker examines patients in the hospital, located in Diktel, headquarters of Khotang district.

According to Health Education Technician Mohan Raut, the government has been providing doctors for the examination of the dead but not for the examination of the living people in Diktel.

A doctor from Koshi Zonal Hospital in Biratnagar, Dr. K.N.Singh, was brought for a post-mortem about two weeks ago, but he returned to Biratnagar after conducting the post-mortem.

Dr. Mukund Dahal, who was assigned to the District Health Office in Diktel, left the office in the month of Asar, about 10 months ago. Since then, no other doctor has been transferred here as his replacement.

Similarly, there is a provision for 17 technicians in the hospital, but only 7 technicians are present. Moreover, there is not a single lab technician despite the fact that there is a provision for two lab technicians.

Technicians are not available in sufficient number to run the 24-hour indoor service, to examine patients, to dress them up and sell medicines, an employee said.

Although there is a Health Assistant, he has been suffering from a fractured hand and it is the Auxiliary Health Worker who has to examine the patients.

According to Diktel VDC Chairman Narayan Joshi, many local patients are carried on a bamboo basket to Lamidanda airport from where they are flown to Kathmandu or Biratnagar by plane. Many patients, however, cannot afford to pay for air travel and are deprived of medical facilities due to the absence of doctors in this hospital.

Hospital employees said some students came to the hospital a week ago and threatened to lock the hospital if doctors were not available in the hospital.

Similarly, the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) of Aiselukharka and Chisapani in this district do not have doctors right from the establishment of these PHCs. There is a provision of one doctor in each of the PHC.

Local social workers have alleged that the Regional Health Directorate has not sent doctors to the health institutions of this district by undermining the people of this district.

Free plastic surgery camp to be organised

BENI, Myagdi, April 19 (PR) - The District Hospital in Beni and International Nepal Fellowship (INF) will jointly organise a three day free of charge plastic surgery camp here at the district headquarters on the third week of April, according to the hospital.

Specialists from Canada and Australia will perform plastic surgery to the people from the neighbouring areas, said Chairman of the hospital cooperation committee, Mukti Rokka.

Meanwhile, the hospital conducted another three day free of charge surgery on hydrocele, hernia and minor bone fracture from April 16 to 18.

A group of surgeons from Manipal College in Pokhara and Gandaki Zonal Hospital carried out surgical operations to 28 people suffering from hydrocele, hernia and minor fractures.

Armed group attacks house

JALESWOR (RSS) - An armed group of unidentified persons launched a fatal attack at the house of Sonelal Raya Yadav, a resident of Fulkaha VDC ward No. 3 in Mahottari district Tuesday night and looted property worth Rs. 63,000. A group of ten persons manhandled Yadav, 62, and his wife and looted property including cash Rs. 45,000.

Both have been undergoing treatment at the primary health centre at Gaushala and investigation is underway, the district police office Mahottari informed.

Tourism, cultural festival begins

NEPALGUNJ (RSS) - The three-day Thakurdwara Tourism and Cultural Festival of Bardia began here, yesterday. Chief guest Thaggu Tharu, 84, inaugurated the festival organised for tourism promotion. There are 21 stalls for display on agriculture, education, arts, culture and environment.

Various dances depicting Nepali culture were presented on the occasion. People in large number including from neighbouring districts had thronged the festival. Chairman of Bardia DDC Chitra Bahadur Shrestha and Gulariya municipality mayor Govind Prasad Pandey expressed the view that the festival will help create infrastructure for development and to preserve art and culture of the district.

‘Include disabled in Census’

RAUTAHAT, April 19 (RSS) - Lawmaker Dr. Banshidhar Mishra while inaugurating the regional mobilisation seminar on count and participation of the disabled in National Census - 2058 organised by the National Disabled Federation Nepal said that the disabled should be directly included in the national census.

Rautahat DDC vice-chairman Rajiuddin Alam said it is the duty of all citizens to give better treatment to the disabled.

At the function presided over by treasurer of the federation Sanjaya Bantawa, various other speakers including district census and statistics officer Gehendra Raj Panta, general secretary of the federation Kiran Shilpakar, democratic fighter Punya Prasad Dahal, Chandranigahapur VDC chairman Uddhav Regmi and president of the disabled association, Rautahat, Prem Narayan Jha also expressed their views. Altogether 70 persons from various districts had participated in the programme.