Call to shun party interest

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KATHMANDU, May 5 - Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) today inaugurated the first general convention of the Nepal Municipality Employees’ Association, KMC Unit.

He shed light on the role of employees in the all-round development of the metropolis.

Deputy Mayor Bidur Mainali said that the new committee should work together beyond the limits of the political parties they favour.

Acting secretary Surya Silwal, Chief of Envirionment Section Santaram Pokhrel, Gangadhar Gautam, Pramod Adhikari, Krishna Prasad Soti and Ram Prasad Paudel also expressed their views on the present condition of the metropolitan office.

Religious convention opens

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KATHMANDU, May 5- A two-day Nepal Religious General Convention was inaugurated today in the capital marking the 2600th birth anniversary of Lord Mahavira, 302nd anniversary of Sikh Khalsa, and in the memory of Lord Rama’s concert

Sita amidst the presence of various celebrated saints, religious leaders and devotees from neighbouring India and abroad.

The two-day historic and religious meet was inaugurated by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala who was the chief guest of the function.

The Students of DAV Sushil Kedia School sang a Sanskrit song in five different outfits representing different religions of the country. In this way, they also reflected the unique feature of Nepal that is unity in diversity.

The two-day conference is expected to pass a declaration amidst a mass gathering of hundreds of religious leaders and devotees at the Tundikhel ground on Sunday.

Besides, seventeen separate seminars will be held on religion and harmony.

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said this type of conference would help maintain peace and harmony in the country. "The essence of all religions is one," he said and asked every one to recognize himself before thinking of the religion he represents.

Speaking on the occasion, he appealed to the Dharma Gurus to allow such religious practices that would not affect rational scientific thinking at the same time.

At the function,various religious leaders who gathered here for a two-day conference expressed concerns over Western culture that is constantly at work to damage Hindu religion and culture.

At the function,the saints and religious Gurus also bemoaned the inhabitants of the Himalayas for becoming slaves to superfluous wealth and going material forgetting the Hindu Code of Conduct.

Questions leaked out before exams

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NUWAKOT, May 5 - Question papers of four subjects of class 8 district level examinations were in the market two days before the examinations were scheduled to start on Friday.

Question papers of English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies were leaked before the examinations. These question papers were prepared by the District Education Office as usual whereas question papers of other classes were prepared by Sangh, Sangathan and Parishad (of teachers) for the academic year 2057/2058.

The district level class 8 examinations started one day after the examinations of other classes began. The first day examination on Nepali subject went smoothly. But the question papers of other subjects, which were scheduled to be held regularly from Sunday were leaked out in the market. Students were seen busy in getting the question papers by paying Rs 200 for one subject and Rs 500 for all the subjects on Friday and Saturday.

The District Education Office said although it had prepared question papers, it had handed over the question papers to the teachers of concerned schools and it was their responsibility to ensure safety of the question papers.

DEO Mahakant Jha said all the question papers had been cancelled and the schools had been asked to prepare new questions.

Activists threatened for rescuing children

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JANAKPUR, May 5 - Some of the unidentified people have manhandled and warned of physical assault to woman activists who played a leading role to rescue more than two dozen children from being trafficked to India by four brokers last week.

According to Bindu Gurung, coordinator of Woman Rehabilitation Centre, a non-governmental organisation working for the welfare of downtrodden women, two unidentified people manhandled one of her employees near Hanuman Talkies while she was travelling with her friend.

Gurung said that she has also received several threats of death on the telephone after the four men were arrested on charges of attempted child trafficking. She added that she has already filed a complaint at the District Police Office asking for personal security.

A total of 23 children aged between eight to 15 from Mahottari district were rescued from being trafficked to port city of Bombay, India via Jayanagar railway station at the NGO’s initiation a couple of days ago.

Babu Chhiri was in favour of age bar for climbers

By Surendra Phuyal

Little did the Alpine world converged at the Everest base camp last Spring for millenium expeditions imagine that Nepal’s young mountaineering hero, Babu Chhiri Sherpa’s name is in the hitlist of the killer mountain that has already taken the lives of over 800 climbers. In fact, it was in the Spring of 2000 when an astounding 14 team attempted to climb the world’s tallest peak, Babu Chhiri had set his fastest Everest climbing record in just 16 hours and 56 minutes. Then, he literally sprinted up the mountain’s treacherous slopes successfully crossing innumerable crevasses and leaving those closely following his movement utterly shocked. That was his tenth graceful climb and the third world record.

But one year later, he is no more with us – more important still, with his family members and mountaineering rookies who need his guidance and counselling most. Last Sunday (April 29) he met with an accident near Camp II at an elevation of 6,200 meters, a place notorious for its illusive crevasses of varying width and depth. He slipped 200 meters into a crevasse that, according to those who were with accompanying had been obscured by snow. The plunge cast him several storeys down into the belly of the Khumbu glacier.

By now the hero’s last rites have already been performed on the foot of Swayambhunath hill where Buddhist prayer flags flutter with the blowing wind. Actually, now there is nothing more left than his memories, his glorious world records, and a primary school constructed by him in the remote village of Taksendu in Solukhumbu, his birthplace.

Last week when the news of Babu’s sudden fall started circulating, the entire mountaineering world was aghast and shocked, let alone Nepali community. In fact, that was the most tragic and sad news that poured in from Mt Everest in the aftermath of the 1996 tragedy, which saw a dozen mountaineers perishing on the mountain’s unpredictable slopes.

Both tragedies were widely covered by the media from Australia to America.

"Snow bridge plague all mountaineers and have taken dozens of lives on Everest. Yet it seems an ill-fitting end for Babu, who had tempted fate in so many ways and delighted so many with his courage," USA’s National Post reporter, Charlie Gillis, who covered the progress of the millenium Everest expedition teams from the Everest base camp last Spring, wrote on May 1. "He deserved a better finish…"

As newspapers and media the world over began narrating the sad story of Babu’s tragic fall, I started recounting vividly the memories of my brief encounter with him last May. He had just returned from the mountain setting his fastest Everest climbing record, and Kathmandu was celebrating en masse the newest feat of Babu, and several other Nepali climbers, notably women. I was assigned to cover the post-Everest-ascent euphoria gripping the city.

I fixed an appointment with Babu over telephone, but I did not know where in Lazimpat his residency was. He told us to come to a temple near the Nepal Rastra Bank in Baluwatar. We took a taxi and reached there. Babu, who drove a motorcycle, was waiting for us. I waved from inside the taxi and he recognized us, after which he asked us to follow his motorcycle. But hardly had we covered a hundred meters distance on our way to Babu’s apartment, I saw Babu’s motorcycle falling on the road. The culprit was a careless stray dog, and Babu was too late too jam on the brakes. The event threw Babu onto the road which left his right knee slightly injured. I can still remember, Babu quickly regaining his composure when I helped him stand up.

Undisturbed, he kind of towed us to his apartment, where his wife welcomed us with a broad grin and helped Babu plaster his fresh wound. "He never tripped like this even on the highest mountain, but the careless stray dog collided with his bike and led to the minor accident here," I can still remember myself telling Babu and his wife in an apparent bid to console him.

Babu did his best to extend his hospitality putting before us some chocolates and cold drinks, which we enjoyed very much. Also, he did his best to answer my queries that, needless to mention, revolved around Mt Everest and his village Taksendu, where he has constructed a school for his fellow villagers’ children. Already a world famous celebrity, on that day Babu was exceptionally well in furnishing replies to queries from journalists.

He said he had no words to express how much faith, honour and love he had for Everest, much like other Sherpas and Nepali people, and so on. He narrated how he sprinted up the slopes, and stayed for 21 hours on the summit boiling water and singing his national anthem - "Shreeman Ghambhira Nepali…" But most important, Babu Chhiri raised serious reservations over youngsters’ - like 14-year-old Temba Chhiri Sherpa’s – tendency to vie for the top of the world, an extremely adventurous and difficult task which is at the same time expensive.

"There has to be an age bar," his loud and clear statement still buzzes around my ear. "One has to be really strong or physically fit in order to climb mountains. But here young boys like Temba and Aravin (Timilsina from Pokhara who failed to climb Everest in the Spring of 1999) are assuming mountaineering so easy. The government needs to set an age bar for mountaineering before it will be too late."

Now, although the famed mountaineering here does not exist any more, his legends live on. And the primary school set up by him in Taksendu will definitely help educate, and elevate, many underprivileged children to the world of awareness, light and prosperity. It would have been better had the government - which hurriedly responded with a purse of Rs 100,000 for Babu’s family – diverted the amount to the remote village school. Time has not yet run out to do so, though.

'Surgarcane farming profitable'

JANAKPUR, May 5 - Farmers here have been advised that they would reap greater benefit from agriculture if they grew sugarcane and mango crops in their plain and irrigated land in Dhanusha.

The advice was given by Dr Dev Bhakta Shakya, Director of Agriculture Enterprise Centre,which is being run by the Federation of the Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Dr Shakya was speaking as the chief guest at an interaction "Transactions of agricultural goods and opportunities of the occupation" organised here jointly by the Centre and the Federation on Saturday.

He said that the local farmers who were carrying out agricultural activities such as growing wheat and paddy in the traditional manner had not been receiving benefit in proportion to their investment in growing these crops. He therefore suggested that sugarcane and mango crops which suited best to local climate and which have wide accessibility in the market and which gave higher returns in proportion to their investment be grown in the district on priority basis.

He said a high-yielding variety of mango would give up to 60 tons (600 quintals) yield per bigha earning Rs 60,000 per bigha. When we sow paddy, the income would be even less than half.

Among the neighbouring countries, Nepal is third among the major sugarcane growing country, after India and Pakistan. There are also big sugarcane mills in Nepal and a wide market for sugarcane, he added.

He however, cautioned that the traditional sugarcane growing was not very profitable, just like paddy and wheat and added that only one kilogram of sugar was produced from 11 kilograms of sugarcane.

Sugarcane is grown in Dhanusha district on four thousand to five thousand hectares of land and is too insufficient to meet the demand of local sugar mills.

Dr Dev Bhakta Shakya said the lower belt was suitable for fruit growing. As the climate is hot and mango is popular with customers in the market worldwide, mango farming will be highly profitable for farmers.

Stating that there was shortage of mango orchard he said it was unfortunate that mango was imported in Nepal from outside despite the fact that mango farming was a profitable occupation in the country.

A high-yielding variety of mango can produce 10 to 12 tons of fruit per hectare, he said and urged the government and the individuals to carry out mango farming in an institutionalized manner. He informed that mango was grown here on 10 to 12 hectares of land for personal consumption.