Music Nepal Awards presented

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 18 – Music Nepal today gave away Music Nepal Award – 2057 to singer Yam Baral and musician Alok Shree for the album Maan. On the occasion, the Bro-Sis Band was also awarded for their collection of modern songs in the album entitled Bro-Sis.

Likewise, Khem Raj Gurung was awarded for his album Jeeban- Part 2, a collection of folk songs and Gopal Karmacharya, director of Laxmipuja Films and musician Sambhujit Baskota were awarded for the film Ashirbad.

The awards were presented amidst a function organised to celebrate the 18th anniversary of Music Nepal here today. Devi Bhakta Shrestha,Sangeet Saugat, from Birtamod was honoured with best seller award.

At the function, litterateur Satya Mohan Joshi released the cassettes and the CDs Antaral and Lahana of senior artistes Ganesh Rasik and Manoj Siva respectively.

Addressing the function, litterateur Kali Prasad Rijal remarked that Music Nepal succeeded in fulfilling the demands of music lovers by producing new cassettes and CDs.

"Music Nepal last year released 138 albums (folk 26, modern 77 and others 35)," said Santosh Sharma, managing director of Music Nepal. "This year Music Nepal paid 5.7 million rupees as income tax to the government with the annual increment of 63 percent."

"The future of upcoming singers is bright because every year new singers are entering the field of music," remarked Rijal.

Clean-up campaign for SAARC summit

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - The Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office in preparation for the upcoming SAARC summit has started to wash out posters and banners pasted all over the walls of the city.

Strict supervision and facilities have been arranged to keep the valley clean and healthy, states a press release issued here. At a time when there has been lack of transportation facilities for garbage dumping, the office has finalized to buy 10 vehicles to pick up the littered garbage and to provide quick service in the process.

Chief at the Environment Department of the KMC, Shanta Ram Pokhrel said, "The vehicles will be plying in the valley soon".

KMC has time and again requested the general public through the print and electronic media to keep the city clean and green. The KMC has also issued a notice that anyone found putting up posters or banners would be duly fined.

Despite this people have not been cooperating with them. According to the press release issued here, KMC had a staff of the Hotel Woodland arrested by the police for dumping garbage at public places. Likewise, Ruchi Chowchow and Special Language Institute have also been fined for putting up posters all over the valley.

KMC has requested the people not to litter the valley and help them in keeping the city clean.

Greener, cleaner Kathmandu : All for SAARC’s sake

By Bhaskar Sharma

The dust is in the air presently. And that is especially in the Tinkune area where the Department of Roads undertook a massive "greening-campaign" to create a park demolishing all wacky and dirty structures including some impressive looking hoarding boards. The large road-triangle in Tinkune now looks like a land tilled, ready to sow. Certainly, the Tinkune road junction will get a major facelift once grass begin to grow and flowers blossom.

And coming a little towards the Bagmati bridge that crosses over to the Baneshwor side, at the bus-stop in Tinkune, other changes are visible. Commercial vehicles, especially the city buses, whose drivers are well-known for the disregard they have upon other drivers or riders, stop not on the road, but behind the stop shed. That too puts off a lot of dust in the air for now, but hopefully not for long.

There are other interesting developments to note too. The city got news of the preparations to demolish the structures at the Maitighar road-island as well. And the plan is the same – changing the area into a traffic-island-park. Well, that is yet to be done, but the word is – "It will definitely be
done." And once it is done, the three flowery road-triangles that surround the so-so looking structure in the large island will certainly add to the area’s glamour.

However, going further up towards Pulchowk, the nature of the Kathmandu-facelift programme changes. Unlike the demolition in the Tinkune area, the activities here are more constructive, though not completely dust-free while the work was actually being done. Instead of the flattened structures, one can now see tall electric poles sticking up from the middle of the road in the section that lies in front of the Sajha Yatahat bus park. At first glance, one might muse over the purpose as to why the poles were erected. They are for street lighting. And it is the people living in the area that are real happy. After all, the dark nights would be over soon.

In addition to all above, the capital city is experiencing a cleaning spree – with a high level of energy of the authorities who are working to change the city-face. The usually poster-pasted electric poles and the red pan splattered walls, in addition to the dented roadside railings, are getting better looks. Washing, painting and denting is what is being done to give them fresher and nicer appearance. And this is going on in the major thoroughfares of the city, and along the main roads.

Likewise, some bridges too will have attractive looks soon – though the black-muddy water that flows beneath it is not going to change. For one, the Thapathali-Kupondole bridge over the Bagmati river is all set to see some new structures. The traffic flow in Kupondole-Thapathali road may have been affected when the construction was recently underway, but that the Kathmanduities would surely bear, given the efforts put in by the authorities to give the bridge a good mien.

Last but not the least, despite the dust that is presently flying in some areas, the torturous smell that Kathmanduities had to inhale in most areas have subsided down impressively. Thanks largely to the municipality garbage ferrying trucks that are visiting the garbage dumps on time, and disposing the stinking roadside mess promptly.

And all the above are as a result of the eleventh summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that is scheduled to be held in the Himalayan capital from January 4 to 6. Certainly, the summit deserves the credit for the latest steps initiated by the government to upgrade the city-looks.

Govt to announce social reform programmes

Post Report

GHORAHI (Dang), Dec 18 - Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka today said that the government would announce social reforms programmes in the Maoist-hit districts within a few days.

Minister Khadka, who arrived at his home district for the first time after the declaration of the state of emergency to take stock of the security arrangements launched in the mid and far-western region, disclosed this while addressing a press conference organised by Nepal Press Union, Dang.

"The government wants to make sure that no innocent people are killed during the emergency period and we have cautioned the security wings in this regard," Minister Khadka told the reporters.

The Home Minister said that a team led by the Vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, Prithvi Raj Ligal, was carrying out an extensive homework about the modalities of the social reforms programme which would be announced by the government in the near future.

Replying to a query, Khadka claimed that the right to information had not been snatched away; rather the temporary suspension of the right was aimed only at the "terrorists." He said that the people were feeling secured after the army mobilisation. The government was satisfied with the improvement on security from across the country, the minister added.

Home Minister Khadka arrived at his home district on Monday after completing his marathon inspection tour to the neighbouring Terai districts of Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

Khadka also inspected all the government facilities destroyed by the rebels in the district headquarters about three weeks ago. About a dozen security personnel were killed when the rebels made the surprise attacks.