Ex-Kamaiyas’ rehabilitation discussed

NEPALGUNJ, April 28(RSS)- A meeting of chiefs of different government and Non-Government Organisations in Banke district was held here Friday in the presence of Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare Kamala Panta.

Matters relating to the programmes being carried out for the rehabilitation of the former Kamaiyas were discussed during the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, Panta pointed out the need for government and Non-Government Organisations to work together for the rights and well-being of the former bonded labourers.

"Besides providing land, the government has also been carrying out programmes for their residence and skill development", she added.

The meeting also discussed the problems coming across the programmes being carried out in the district for the ex-Kamaiyas.

Bhairab awards given away

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KATHMANDU, April 28 - On the sixty-fourth birth anniversy of satirist Bhairab Aryal, Bhairab Awards were given away to artiste Bashundhara Bhusal and Krishna Murari Gautam (known as Chatyang master and Bhajrapadi).

They were awarded cash prize of Rs 10001 each. Speaking at the function Bhusal said humorous acting never dies and assured the audience that she would continue to entertain the audience till her old age .

"This kind of award will encourage those who are engaged in the profession," says Chatyangmaster.

Addressing the function organised by Bhairab Puraskar Guthi, litterateur Satya Mohan Joshi said humour and satire can equally be effective to bring about revolution in the country.

TB : Major health problem in Nepal

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KATHMANDU, April 28 - Prof Ashma Elsonly, the leader of External Review Team today presented an independent in-depth review report on the present situation of the activities being conducted to promote Direct Observation Treatment Short Course (DOTS), the most preferred method to cure tuberculosis (TB) in the world.

Talking about the achievements of Nepal Tuberculosis Programme (NTP), Elsony said that there is a political will to control TB and the team had observed good examples of collaboration with local partners and social mobilization. "We have witnessed remarkable success in the programme," she said.

Prof Elsony is the director of National Tuberculosis Programme of Sudan and vice-president of International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.

She also presented her recommendations for the government for future action plans.

Minister for Health, Ram Krishna Tamrakar, said that the government has identified NTP as one of the priority programmes in general health services. He,however,made cautious saying, " We have still to go a long way to cover every TB patient under DOTS and to ensure cure of all detected TB patients to achieve our objective of TB Control."

Dr Dirgha Singh Bam, the director of NTC said that TB is a major public health problem in Nepal; 8,000 to 11,000 people die of TB every year in Nepal. "Now DOTS has been implemented in all 75 districts covering nearly 85 percent of the total population and 90 percent of diagnosed TB patients."

In Nepal now, the free DOTS service is available all over the country through 224 treatment centres and 785 sub-centres.

This method was first introduced in Nepal in 1996 in Bhaktapur, Parsa, Nawalparasi, and Kailali districts, as an experiment.

The two-day seminar was jointly organised by Ministry of Health, Heart and Lung Association, Japan International Cooperation Agency and World Health Organization.

Poetry symposium held

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KATHMANDU, April 28 - The Society of Writers in English organized a poetry symposium at the Royal Nepal Academy today.

Poet Toya Gurung the chief guest at the function released an anthology of poem entitled OF Nepalese Clay amidst a function organized here.

The book consists of poems written by various professors and some aspiring youths.

Professor Padma Prasad Devkota and Peter Karthak commented on the anthology of poetry.

The anthology also consists of the works of Laxmi Prasad Devkota.

The president of the Society of Writers in English, Khem Aryal said that the main objective of the society is to promote creative writings of Nepali writers in English.

‘All ex-Kamaiyas are landless and viceversa’

By Razen Manandhar

GULARIYA (Bardiya) - After living a wretched life for nine months, the freed Kamaiyas are now hopeful that their days of hardship are soon taking an end, thanks to some international donors, NGOs and the government’s initiation. But still, the problem of squatters who have been living in different Terai regions see no rays of hope.

Now, for them mixing themselves with the ex-Kamaiyas is the only means to claim land-ownership in the fertile Terai.

Though the predicaments of the squatters and that of the ex-Kamaiyas have never been similar, an obscure juxtaposition is seen in the bank of Babai river, at the backyard of Babai Multiple Campus of Gulariya Municipality, a mid-western Terai district.

When I heard that the squatters wanted to be listed in the ex-Kamaiyas programme and they are raising a movement also, I wished to have a visit there.

In the over 36 degree temperature, the squatters are given shelters in rows of huts, made with sticks and straw. They are so low in height that one can hardly sit inside it without touching the "roof" with head.

Life can be various: Some seem well-dressed and others did not have enough even to cover their private parts. Some did not have tooth brushes and some had lipsticks and eye-liners.

They cook what they have, either by begging or by working as labourers in the local area, by making a fire-wood stove, digging a shallow hole in the dry ground.

Each of them have separate stories to tell any visitors. They even pose for a photograph with a shabby look. But you have to make them sure that you are not an NGO-man. They believe that you are a journalist only after giving a sharp look in your press card.

The whole area is their "own land". They can use any corner of it as their toilet, kitchen or a tobacco shop, or a bicycle workshop. They let their infants make water in the hut and sleep beside it.

During my visit to the squatters camp at the Babai, the locals said that all the Kamaiyas had been shifted to their relevant Village Development Centre. But when I entered the camp, all had the voice — "We are ex-Kamaiyas. The ex-Kamaiyas need to be rehabilitate becuase they lost their right over the land and they thus became landless. So we are."

Chanadra Devi Malla, 45, said that the government has shown an ridiculous discrimination on the issues of ex-Kamaiyas and landless people. She has a tricky philosophy: "All ex-kamaiyas are landless and all landless people are ex-Kamaiyas,"

However, some others were found that they were landless people and their solution needs extra attention than those ex-Kamaiyas who came to the street just because of a minister’s speech. "We have been living a life of bhikhari for a decade but no solution was sought. And the ex-Kamaiyas, thrown to the street just half a year ago are drawing more attention than us," said a landless youth.

Purnima Shah, a girl of 20s with her hair red-dyed, said that there is a union called Krishi Majadoor Sangh which is going to raise their issue.

She further showed her agitation that she would throw the citizenship and go and live in India as a refugee.

They are specially hurt when the local Chief District Office (CDO) charged them of squatting upon Terai land becuae they found it difficult to live in their original hilly villages.

They, however, never give the name of the exact village they had migrated from.

I wanted to meet the CDO of Bardiya and also the mayor of Gulariya Municipality but neither of them were in the city on that day.

In the CDO office, where I was ordered to leave my bag in the open ground outside the office, I was told that the CDO sahib would return from the capital only after a week. And the only person I could see there, the Administrative Officer Chiranjibi Sigdel, had not reported in the office till 10.40 am.

The unsolved problem of the landless people has drawn nobody’s attention so far. The problem is like that which can hardly find a solution once it erupts. Prevention of it is the only thing the administration and the local authority can do. Turning a blind’s eye when the people from other districts squat upon unsystematically and running away from the Karmabhumi at the time of solution will never make the local representatives earn credit and credibility.

Public schools overcrowded in Lamjung

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LAMJUNG,April 28- Students in Bhorletar area of this district vex their mothers to give them morning meal at 7:00 a.m. so that they could rush to the school well before the school time and occupy the front rows of their classes, some local housewives told The Kathmandu Post on Saturday.

Mother of a student of class seven in Kushumakar Higher Secondary said, school requesting anonymity, "Our son sits with his book for some time in the morning and continues to ask whether it is 7 o’clock. When he comes to know that it is 7 a.m. from Radio Nepal he asks me to serve his meal immediately and starts crying if he does not get food immediately."

The reason is that the government schools are currently too crowded after the private boarding schools have been shut down by the Maoist insurgents and all the boarding school students have been accommodated in the public schools.

A girl student of class eight said, " If we sit behind fourth or fifth row, we can hardly hear the teacher’s voice. If we don’t go to school early, we cannot sit on the front rows."

Maoist insurgents have shut down four private boarding schools running at Bhorletar. After these schools were closed, all the students were admitted particularly in Ishaneswor Higher Secondary School and Kushumakar Higher Secondary School. There were about 800 students in each of these schools but the number of students has exceeded 1500 in each of these schools these days after students from private boarding schools joined them, according to teachers.

These public schools are facing problems in almost every respect, in terms of class room, furniture, teachers, sports materials, library, sports ground etc. "But since we have not found appropriate place to report the matter and find solutions and since we have not, in fact, seen any solutions to these problems we are keeping quiet, a member of the school management committee told The Kathmandu Post.

Birat Nursing Home announces facilities

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MORANG, April 28 - Birat Nursing Home, Biratnagar, has announced that it would provide special facility to the people from this year to mark the seventh anniversary of the nursing home.

Chief of the nursing home, Dr. Gyanendra Karki, told journalists at a ‘meet the press’ programme in Biratnagar on Friday that anyone who deposits Rs 2,000 with the nursing home in advance would be examined free of cost round the year irrespective of whatever disease it is, offered 25 per cent discount in the investigation of the disease and the whole amount would be returned at the end of the year.

In fact, a bearer cheque for Rs 2,000 to be cashed after one year will be given at the time when the amount would be deposited, he added.

Similarly, the nursing home will examine free of cost for 20 years to anyone who deposits Rs 5,000 but the amount will not be refunded.

In the case of workers who are employed in different industries, the worker and his wife would be examined and treated free of cost for one year and the amount would be returned after one year if they deposit Rs 3,000, Dr Karki said.

Regarding the journalists,two members of their families would be examined free of cost, no matter whatever disease they are suffering from, offered 25 per cent discount in the diagnosis of any major disease and the amount will be returned to the concerned journalist after one year.

Similarly, if anyone deposits Rs 100,000 with the nursing home, four members of his family would be examined and operated upon free of cost, offered 25 per cent discount for the diagnosis of any major disease round the year and the amount would be returned at the end of the year. The same facility would be provided for a person, who deposits Rs 10,000, and the amount would be returned at the end of the year, he added.

The nursing home was established seven years ago at a cost of 35 million rupees including loan assistance of 11 million rupees from Nepal Industrial and Commercial Bank.

The 50-bed nursing home is to start neurology service in the next few days, he added. He informed that the nursing home had so far provided services to 5,400 gynaecology and maternity patients, 4,680 orthopaedic patients and surgical service to 4,320 people apart from carrying out 556 general operations and 444 major operations related with gynaecology and maternity.

Dr Karki also informed that the nursing home had suffered a loss of nearly 2.5 million rupees during this period.

Man eating tiger not captured yet

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GULARIYA, April 28 - Authorities at the Royal Bardiya National Park (RBNP) have not been able to capture the tiger that devoured two people over the last one month, a report here said.

Ranger of the RBNP, Ramesh Kumar Thapa, said a team of wildlife experts, led by Dr Kamal Gaire, has built up a camp at Motipur Post to identify the tiger since it killed two locals.

People living close to the national park, which is the second home to Royal Bengal tiger, elephant and one-horned Asiatic rhino after Royal Chitwan National Park, seem scared to walk alone nearby the park due to the menace of the man-eating tiger.

Employees of the park said that the number of tourists venturing the jungle safari here has not declined inspite of the incident.

A tourist who also knew about the incident said he was not scared of visiting inside the park. Locals from Lathuwa village blame the hoteliers for the incident as the tourists had disturbed tiger habitat and it lacked food inside the jungle ravaged by fire during the dry season.

"Hoteliers earn dollars by showing the tiger that killed our men. But the hotel is not ready to provide relief to us," said a local, Manohar Tharu from Shivapur village.

Baby sitters missing

TULSIPUR, Dang, April 28 (PR)- A couple from Satbariya VDC-4 have alleged that their two daughters went missing from the houses of Dorna Bahadur Khanal from Dharna VDC and Asha Khanal from Tulsipur Municipality since the daughters were employed at their houses as baby sitters some two years ago.

Issuing an appeal today, Ghanashyam Barala and his wife Parbati said that their two daughters - Gothi and Patali - went missing from Khanals’ house for the last two years. Although the parents of the daughters had filed separate complaints at district administration office and area police office in Tulsipur against the landlords two years ago, no investigation has so far been carried out regarding the missing of their daughters.

Delay in upper Sagarmatha road construction flayed

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KATHMANDU, April 28- The multi-million dollar environment friendly country road project funded solely by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which had been under way in the upper Sagarmatha has been brought to standstill for the last ten months.

The MPs and the representatives of the DDC from upper Sagarmatha toady in an interaction program flayed it as the utter negligence of the government.

ADB official said the government was informed time to time about the delay of project. However, Govinda Gyawali, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture cited a technical problem in the standstill of the work.

The survey team from the ADB which visited upper Sagarmatha in January 2000 had ordered the officials to stop the further work following the irregularities they found in the work. The officials said that the work has been hindered after the Ministry of Agriculture had not taken any decision about the deal.

Around seven lakhs inhabitants of upper Sagarmatha have been facing serious problems in transportation due to the delay in the construction of the road.

Of the total loan of around 9.3 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 6.7 million rupees have so far been spent on the construction of roads undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture. Only a 55-km road has been completed so far resulting 40 per cent works incomplete.