Refugee students sit in SLC exams

Post Report

BHADRAPUR, April 21 - A total of 39, 959 children of nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been studying in 45 schools at different levels located in different camps of Nepal.

According to ‘Karitas’, the organisation which looks after the refugee children’s education, 1,006 Bhutanese refugees, including 768 males and 238 females, have been teaching them as volunteers. Of the total students, 20,900 are boys and 19,059 girls.

Chairman of the BRRRC, S.B. Subba, said the refugee children are taught Jongkha (Bhutan’s national language), Nepali and English right from infant classes.

Bhutanese refugee students have also been sitting in the SLC examination, initially as private students since the time they arrived here and as regular students over the last three years. They receive SLC marksheet and certificate with a stamp of "Bhutanese refugee", according to Jhapa District Education Office.

Maoists step up in eastern region

Post Report

KATHMANDU, April 21- The country is getting more and more entagled in the quagmires of political instability these days. To make the situation even worse, reports of Maoist activities also continue to pour in from the eastern part of the country.

The first ever attack on the police force was made in Morang when a three-man police post at Motipur-1 in the outskirts of Biratnagar was set on fire by the Maoist insurgents, Thursday midnight. All the documents and furniture belonging to the post were reduced to ashes, the District Police Office said.

The 30-40 gang of Maoist activists incinerated the post after they fired two rounds of bullets at the post when the three police personnel were on a patrol, sources said.

According to witnesses, the Maoist guerrillas quarrelled among themselves for about half an hour argueing whether to burn only the documents before setting the whole building on fire.

Similarly, the plunder of about 10 million rupees from a Rashtriya Banijya Bank branch at Ghailadubba in the neighbouring Jhapa district has forced the bank to shift its three rural branches in Morang to the headquarters at Biratnagar, Thursday.

According to Regional Manager, Krishna Sharma, the branches of Madhumalla, Letang and Bayarban were shifted to the headquareters at the directives of the District Administration.

Sharma said that while the important documents, records, cash and goods were transferred to Biratnagar, the branches would function nominally and in a limited scope with the furniture and other less important documents left behind.

In Illam, the first ever Maoist abduction took place, Wednesday, when the Nepali Congress activist, Til Bahadur Limbu, was kidnapped by unidentified men from the Laxmi Adarsha Secondary School at the southern VDC of Mahamai.

Also former Chairman of the Mahamai VDC, Limbu was an active member of the Nepali

Congress and representative to the party convention.

Two unidentified persons called on Limbu at the school while he was busy at a meeting, and took him away on the pretext of having a confidential matter to discuss. The NC activist was later seen near the Mai river, being led by a group of about 10 strangers.

The case has now been reported to the Jhapa police as reports were received of Limbu being seen at the Jhapa-Illam border.

The District Chairman of Nepali Congress, Himalaya Karmacharya, described the kidnapping as a dastardly and inhuman act.

Conservation of wildlife stressed

KALAIYA, April 21(RSS) - Minister of State for Forest and Soil-Conservation Shiv Kumar Basnet inaugurated the sixth public co-ordination seminar on wildlife Friday.

On the occasion, he said as the government alone cannot preserve the wildlife, local people should assist the government in its initiatives in wildlife conservation.

Makwanpur DDC president Rameshwar Rana, chief of Wildlife Conservation Office, Parsa, Tika Ram Adhikari, chief of the Central Region Regional Forest Conservation Directorate Chakra Bahadur Shakya, chief of district forest office, Bara, Surya Prasad Joshi, Parsa CDO Dolakh Bahadur Gurung and Simara VDC chairman Bhola Prasad Adhikari dwelt on the need of preserving wildlife at the seminar chaired by Amalekha VDC chairman Bharat Ghale.

Caste discrimination continues unabated

Post Report

KATHMANDU, April 21- Nepal is going to participate in the international conference against caste discrimination which will be held on August 2001 in Durban, South Africa.

According to the press release issued by the National Report Preparation Committee, Nepal will present the report regarding the situation of caste discrimination in the country.

The release also says that even after the restoration of democracy in 1990, the caste discrimination has not shown any sign of abatement but rather has increased.

The report which is going to be present at the meet will thoroughly be based on the atrocities committed to the people of the country in the name of caste.

The release also says that in every quarters of the country people are discriminated on the basis of caste and the report on the caste discrimination which is to be presented at the conference will play a vital role in mitigating the existing discrimination.

150 families relocated

CHITWAN. April 21(RSS) - A total of 510 families living in Padmapur VDC in eastern part of Chitwan district have been relocated in accordance with a decision of relocating all the families in the VDC.

An arrangement has been made for setting up the VDC’s office and school building and providing drinking water at Sagun Tole in Jutpani VDC where the entire Padmapur VDC is going to be relocated.

According to the chairman of the VDC Baburam Puri, relocation of 1,100 out of 1,689 families in Padmapur VDC will be completed within the end of Jeth this year.

At present, 15 to 20 families on average are being relocated every day. An arrangement has also been made to pay up compensation of Rs. 1,500 per Kaththa of land to the families who are not interested to shift to that location.

Problems in seed production discussed

KIRTIPUR, April 21(RSS) - The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Agriculture Statistics and Agro-Enterprises Promotion Division organized a two-day seminar at the horticultural centre, on Thursday.

The seminar was aimed at identifying the problems in seed production and finding out the ways of resolving the problem through coordination between the producers and seed entrepreneurs.

A total of 50 persons including farmers and seed entrepreneurs from eight districts of the kingdom and officials and agricultural experts took part in the seminar presided over by joint secretary at the ministry of agriculture Kali Bahadur Shrestha.

Deputy director-general of the department of agriculture Bhairab Raj Kaini, president of the Seed Entrepreneurs’ Association Durga Adhikari and manager of G M Enterprises Rajendra Shrestha presented working papers on the present status of vegetable production and challenges, vegetable seed production and market condition and problems of vegetable seed production, challenges and solutions respectively.

Tarun Dal denies charges of rioting

KATHMANDU, April 21 (PR) - Nepal Tarun Dal (NTD), the youth wing of the ruling party, Nepali Congress, has condemned the news story that appeared in a vernacular weekly over the NTD’s alleged involvement in the riot during the last day of Bisket Festival.

A press release of the NTD Bhaktapur Dstirct Office states that the Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party (NWPP) controlled Bhaktapur Municipality was unable to manage the festival peacefully. And instead it implecated the NTD in order to escape being held responsible for the incident.

However, Lawmaker Narayan Man Bijukchhe, the chairman of NWPP, refuted the charges, saying it is the responsibility of the adminstration and Guthi Sansthan, and not his party’s, to manage the festival.

He further said that a group of vandals including some from the Tarun Dal are responsible for the incident. "The riot police deliberately allowed some vandals to attack the municipality building, library, and a school. When the locals tried to stop it, they were shot at."

"That was altogether a plot hatched by the government," he added.

Reality versus Perception

By Utpal Raj Misra

Every profession has its own pros and cons and adventure of its own kind. Well I knew the profession I am in was filled with adventure, thrill, risk and fun of its own special kind. While keeping oneself focused on a particular subject and then telling others what one had learned can be fun but can get a bit taxing at times as well. One can find out what the real stories behind different tales are ... can really make out the motives of people while they try to make a certain impression of them and so on.

But the fun part is it is not only you who are observing others, at times you too can feel others keenly looking at you and speculating what you are after (if they know who you are) or trying to speculate who you really are.

Mixing with the party cadres of a certain party during its protest programs and observing how the leaders coordinate things was an unique experience as any other and so was finding myself in the middle of confrontation between the police and the agitators. Stones and pieces of brick flying all around you and missing your head by an inch ... or the desperation trying to explain to a infuriated policeman about to slam his thick baton on your head that you are a journalist and not among the one pelting stones at him...or entering the police hospital as one of the relatives of the injured policeman after one of the recent police massacres..... All count as once in a life time experiences.

It is indeed a thrill to be able to experience how it feels to be a different person or rather to see how others treat you thinking that you are somebody else. But sometimes it can get a bit embarrassing even though when it is a unique experience without a degree less in the fun part.

It was a day before a planned agitation program by some political parties and it was very much predictable that it would disrupt the SLC and college exams being held. So I was asked to do a story on what the students felt about the agitation programs, their views, their fears, problems and concerns for which I had to talk at length with the students.

So I went around looking for students returning home after their exams hoping to catch them in the way and talking to them. But the job was not as easy as I thought.

While walking along Bagbazar, I came across a lot of students returning home after appearing for their exams. The school students were easier to talk although they were ignorant about a lot of things and could not clearly express themselves. But at least they talked unlike the college students especially the ones from famous Padmakanya Campus.

Well at first I was taken aback when the girls gave me this peculiar looks that I had never received in my life. Their strange reactions at my first call before I could explain who I was and what I wanted made me nervous and words never left my mouth the way I wanted them to.

Most of them left without speaking a word while giving a dashing or rather threatening glare the moment I went near them and opened my mouth. I had never dreamt that I would be looked upon in that particular way for just saying- "excuse me, can I talk to you for a while."

I had heard it from somewhere or maybe I had read it in a book sometime that -Ladies don’t speak unless they are spoken to, but here they did not even utter a word when were spoken to rather when someone desperately pleaded them to.

The saucy overtures or frisky smile and twisting bodies followed by a chorus of frisky giggle whenever I tried to open up a conversation with some were matter of shock to me and so were the comments form the idle loafer who sat by a roadside shop who passed comments like - o hero, or chappal khala!

My state of bewilderment did not remain for a long time when a girl clad in one of the famous brown saris looked at me and said "loafer moro" before hastening her pace and disappearing in the crowd.

Loafer? Loafer!! I was never a loafer in my life nor was ever called one. Even in my most idle days, hanging around the streets doing nothing or teasing girls was always a taboo for me.

I looked at myself in a mirror of a tailoring shop. Clad in a T-shirt and clean jean trouser, with sunglasses on, with short hair and clean shaved with no earrings, I thought I looked fine but my opinion it seems did not count here.

Well, by the end of the day I was successful in writing my planned story with quotes from some of the students, but only after an unique and testing experience.

Youths' role in development highlighted

KATHMANDU, April 21 (RSS) - A national workshop seminar on "Contribution and role of youth in national development" was organized on the occasion of the Global Youth Service Day here today.

Inaugurating the seminar, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said that peace is the first precondition for national development. "It is sad that some youths of our country are engaged in violent campaign of the Maoists and in activities like drug abuse," he said, adding that the energy and the power of the youth should be channeled into constructive activities and not in destruction and violence.

Stressing the inevitability of dialogue to end the Maoist violence, he called on the non-governmental organisations to make peace initiatives toward this end. President of Nepal Volunteer Association Hari Man Lama said that the objective of the programme, organized in support of the UN International Volunteers Year-2001, was to appreciate the positive role of the youths in development of their society, community and the country and to encourage youths in national and societal development in future.

At the programme four youths are to make paper presentations on topics of youth and education, youth and health, youth and employment and youth and social service respectively.

Youths and representatives from various governmental and non-governmental organizations and international associations took part in the seminar organized under the joint auspices of Nepal Volunteer Association, Youth Initiative, Nepal and the Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Study.

General-secretary of Nepal Volunteer Association Madhur Rana read out a message given by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince on the occasion of the Global Youth Service day. Former Youth, Sports and Culture minister Sarat Singh Bhandari presided over the programme.

‘Media, Govt should strive for cordial relations’

Post Report

BIRGUNJ, April 21 - Minister of State for Information and Communications, Pushkar Nath Ojha, said today that his ministry wanted to establish a friendly relations with media persons.

He made this remark while addressing a function held here to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Nepal Students’ Union. Ojha further added that the government expected cooperation from the communications sector.

"The government is fully committed to work together with the fourth estate and both of us should develop cordial relations," State Minister said, adding that media should also play a positive role to protect hard-earned democracy and to maintain peace in the country.

Giving away prizes to the students winning in various competitions, Ojha urged the students that they should provide more time and energy on education so as to prove themselves as qualified citizens of the nation.

‘Jubilee with Children’ organised

Post Report

KATHMANDU, April 21 - As a part of Golden Jubilee Celebration of introduction of Jesuit education in Nepal, five organizations including St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu, conducted a program called ‘Jubilee With Children’ in the college premises Saturday.

According to the organizers, nearly 300 street children, handicapped children and other children deprived of their basic rights, but being sheltered at different rehabilitation and other centers participated at the program. The participating children were from Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN), St. Xavier’s Social Service Center, Missionaries of Charity, Bal Bhojan and People in Need (PIN).

During the program, each child was with a volunteer student of the College for the whole day. The organizers conducted various games for the children, w hile the children along with the students presented a cultural program. The plays titled Kalo Parda of CWIN children and Besahara of the children from Social Service Center, among others, were special features of the program.

Addressing the program, Head of Social Work Department of the College Fr Charlie Law said that the theme of organizing such program was hope. "Society cannot live without hope and the hope of the society are the children," he said.

"When there is no hope, the children become disappointed and die fast," said John Britto KS, lecturer at the college, adding, "we wanted to give hope to the children who have already experienced a pathetic life."

Tuberculosis control program inspected

BHAKTAPUR, April 21 (RSS) - The independent evaluation team of tuberculosis experts, who are currently on a visit to Nepal in connection with making an assessment of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, made an on-site visit to the mid and far-western development regions and acquired information on various aspects of the programme.

The team, led by Dr. Asma Elsony, national TB programme director of Sudan, inspected the DOTS centre at Tikapur Primary Health Centre in Kailali, the Kailali Public Health Office, the Seti Zonal Hospital, Dhangadhi and the Malakheti Health Post in the far-western development region.

The team acquired information on the pathological laboratory services, drug supply system, the patient recording and reporting system, and effectiveness of DOTS strategy at these DOTS centres. the team members also talked with the TB patients and the DOTS committee members.

Similarly, the team also inspected the DOTS centres at the Surkhet district health office, Surkhet and the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) DOTS clinic, Nepalgunj and Nepalgunj Medical College in Banke district of the mid-western development region.

The independent evaluation team comprised Dr. Armond Van Duen of Belgium, Ms. Elsa Dohlie and Ms. Trine Skarbovik of LHL-Norway, Dr. Emanuele Pontali and Dr. Nani Nair from Who-South-east asian region.

Likewise, the team included deputy director of the SAARC Tuberculosis Centre Dr. Pralhad Kumar, Dr. Shanta Bahadur Pandey of Nuffield Institute for Health, UK, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Panta of the UNICEF, Mr. Sharan Gopali from JICA, Ms. Shakuntala Singh from British-Nepal Medical Trust and medical technologist Dhruba Khadka of the National Tuberculosis Centre.

Another team, which includes Dr. Donald Enarson, scientific director of International Union against TB and Lung Disease-France, deputy director of rit Japan Dr. N. Ishikawa and Mr. Olav Kasland, deputy manager of Lhl-Norway, will conduct on-the-spot evaluation and assessment of the DOTS programme in the remaining three development regions of the kingdom by April 26. Such kinds of periodic evaluations are carried out every five years.