Robbery cases on the rise in Bhairahawa

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BHAIRAHAWA, Rupandehi, June 21 - People from the rural areas of this Terai district have been terrified due to the growing incidents of robbery over the last couple of days, according to a report received here. Police said that organised gangs of bandits have so far robbed more than a dozen houses in seven VDCs.

The incidents of robbery have taken place especially in the VDCs like Chiliya, Hati Bangai, Parroha, Tikuligadh, Anandaban and Karahiya.

All these VDCs are located at about the distance of half an hour's drive from here, the district headquarters, and Butwal, another industrial city of the district.

Locals accused police administration of being failure to nab and bring them to book for robbery.

Police said bandits have robbed property worth millions of rupees from dozens of houses in these VDCs and three people sustained serious injuries in clashes with the armed bandits in Anadaban and Karahiya VDCs. The injured persons are undergoing treatment at Butwal Zonal Hospital.

Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Puskal Regmi, however, said that additional police patrol had been escalated in the areas to control the further incidents of robbery.

According to Butwal based areas police station, an organised gang of 25 bandits looted Pitambar Gyawali’s and Shobhakhar Acharya’s houses at Karahiya VDC-3 on Wednesday midnight. The bandits robbed property worth Rs 40,000 from both houses, police said.

In another incident of robbery, another gang of bandits looted 11 tolas of gold and Rs 33,000 in cash from Bhakta Prasad Gautam’s house at Anadaban VDC-6, a neighbouring VDC of the Karahiya VDC.

But nobody has so far been arrested in connection with these incidents.

Youths attracted to foreign land for job

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SALYAN, June 21 - A large number of youths from this hill districts in the mid-western region have obtained passports for overseas employment since the beginning of Maoist insurgency six years ago.

This is one of the most insurgency hit districts in the region where the government has decided to implement its Integrated Security and Development Package (ISDP) to contain the insurgency.

It is not because they lack any land to till but because of lack of unemployment opportunity in other sectors than in agriculture.

The number of youths seeking passports grew obviously after the government made arrangement of giving passport from the district administration office about four years ago.

Before this facility was handed over to the district level, people from all over the country had to come to the capital simply to have their passport made.

According to the District Administration Office, 440 people have obtained their passports since the authority of awarding the passport was decentralised at the district level.

Bhupendra Devkota, an employee at the district administration office, said that most of the youths obtained their passports with a view to getting seasonal employment in foreign countries, especially in the Gulf region.

A local who was waiting his turn at the office said he would save a little bit more money than what he would normally do here if he was employed in the foreign country.

It does not necessarily mean that all of those who obtain their passports will be able to get employment abroad. Contrary to their expectations, some of them have been cheated by the brokers in Kathmandu in the name of foreign employment.

A local said he had abandoned the idea of going to foreign country after a foreign employment agent made up with his money he gave him in the capital.

Orientation on domestic child labour held

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KATHMANDU, June 21- A one-day orientation programme on domestic child workers was jointly organized by Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Social Welfare Department and International Labour Organization (ILO) at the Capital on Thursday.

An estimated 800 million adult labourers are currently unemployed in the World while over 250 million children are replacing their jobs in the market, experts on child orientation said.

Speaking at the occasion, ILO representative pointed that 2.6 million children between the age of 5-14 are currently working as child labourers in Nepal of which as many as 1.7 million children are under hazardous condition.

Various experts said that a large number of them have been deprived of their rights to health and education and crippled by long hours of work.

Social awareness and commitment towards elimination of child labour by various organizations such as KMC, ILO, IPEC, CWIN was discussed at length in the forum.

Speaking at the occasion, Keshav Sthapit, Mayor of KMC highlighting the critical issues of homeless and migratory children said that unless the children are encouraged in sports and games and other new kinds of alternative activities, their future is at stake.

Programmes such as registration of child labourers, identity cards, social awareness programme, establishment of "Drop-In-Center, radio relay programme and establishing Child-Cell Unit were discussed during the forum as strategies to contain child labour in Nepal.

Tourists inflow up in Jiri

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JIRI, June 21 - The number of tourists visiting this area has increased in the first season of this year despite the speculation that tourists arrival would decline due to Maoist activities.

Jiri is the gateway to Sagarmatha (Everest), the highest peak in the world. All the tourists who trek up to Sagarmatha for both mountaineering and sight-seeing purposes pass through this route.

The period of March, April and May are considered to be the appropriate time for tourists to visit this area every year and it is in this season that tourists visit this area.

A total of 2,192 tourists visited this area during the first five months of the current year whereas only 1,697 foreign tourists had visited this area in the same period last year, Kumar Bahadur Katuwal, Police Inspector in Ilaka Police Office in Jiri, told The Kathmandu Post.

There is a provision under which all the foreign tourists passing through this point must register themselves before proceeding on their journey.

People feared that the number of foreign tourists would drop in Jiri after the Maoist insurgents torched the helicopter belonging to Air Ananya. The number had actually dropped initially, but now it has increased to the level of the past.

The rumour that the number of tourists visiting Jiri would decline after this incident has proved false, said Nurbu Sherpa, Chairman of Jiri VDC.

Most of the tourists are from Germany, Israel and Switzerland and they come to climb Sagarmatha and enjoy the scenic places including the mountains and monasteries from the base camp, trekking guide, Jiwa Sherpa, told The Kathmandu Post. The official records also corroborate this fact.

Visitors may suffer from high altitude sickness if they travel up to the high altitude on the same day. They, therefore, like to travel 188 kilometres by bus and climb the rest of the mountains gradually, acclimatizing themselves and making them fit for travelling in the high altitude. At the same time, they conduct various studies on the way to utilise their time.

As the tourists complete their journey from Jiri to the base camp, they have to pass through 14 different stations including Shivalaya, Kinja, Painya, Namche and Labuche and come across many Buddhist monasteries on the way.

Committee to renovate Mechi stadium

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BHADRAPUR, June 21 - A 21-member committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of secretary of Jhapa District Sports Development Committee, Tahal Das Mainali, to renovate and repair Mechi Rangashala (Mechi Stadium) at Bhadrapur.

Members of Parliament including Ministers from the district, DDC president, chief District Officer, Senior Superintendent of Police and Mayors of all the three municipalities in the district have been named as advisors of the committee.

The committee was constituted at a gathering attended here on Thursday by sportsmen, businessmen, industrialists, police personnel, local people’s representatives and representatives of different political parties.

The stadium which was established in 2025 BS ( nearly 33 years ago), is on the verse of dilapidation over the last one decade due to lack of funds. On top of this, its compound walls, some parts of the stadium collapsed in 2053 BS following a heavy storm, virtually turning the stadium into a pasture land.

The stadium encompasses the total area of four bighas of land, and 400 metre track and field can be easily developed in the stadium. To the west, lies a parapet with the capacity to accommodate 2,000 spectators but it is in urgent need of repairing.

District Sports Development Committee president Ganesh Nembang said since it was not possible to hold any district, zonal and national level sports competition in the absence of compound wall the committee was formed to renovate and repair the stadium with new initiative.

The committee is expected to construct compound wall, improve the ground, repair the parapet and perform other necessary works by collecting funds at the district and central levels.