Kojagrat Poornima: Night of vigil and prayers to Mahalaxmi

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 – With Kojagrat Poornima observed across the length and breadth of the Hindu Kingdom Wednesday, it’s time to bid farewell to this year’s Dashain festival. People are now getting back to work with the festival hangovers.

Five days after they celebrated Bijaya Dashamee or Dashain putting on red Tika and Jamara on their foreheads, people in the capital city and elsewhere are back to work. The festive mood is almost over, and the empty streets of the capital city are seeing short and long distance buses, taxis and automobiles back.

The perfect blue autumn sky of Kathmandu Valley is slowly beginning to collect dusts and emissions in its air. Kojagrat Poornima literally means the night of full moon when people stay awake.

On the last day of the festival Wednesday, people were seen disposing the Jamara (barley shoots) and withered flowers offered to goddess Durga Bhawani at holy places, mainly the holy rivers, as the moon waxed to its full size high up in the sky.

Theology Professor Dr Ram Chandra Gautam explains the tradition thus: "Jamaras are disposed only at holy places like river, trees and any other sacred places--clean and holy places because these are the remnants of the offerings made to the goddess of power and prosperity."

Many devout women also fast during the day and pray for Goddess Mahalaxmi (the goddess of wealth). It is widely believed that such a hard penance would bring the goddess to their house, which means more wealth and prosperity.

"I am fasting and staying awake the whole night to welcome the goddess to my house," said, Rekha Sharma, a housewife from Kalankisthan, as she decorated her Pujakotha featuring a large portrait of goddess Mahalaxmi at her house.

And it’s not only the women who fast. Even men stay awake all the night to welcome the goddess. While the women folks spend the night offering prayers to the goddess, their male counterparts play cards and gamble.

Legends have it that goddess Laxmi came to see the earth from Baikuntha (heaven) in the night of full moon. However, when she landed it was already mid-night on the earth with all the people gone to bed and there was no light.

Then she went in search of a house where there was light and the house where people were awake. In a short while she located a house with burning light. It belonged to a poor farmer. The goddess was apparently pleased to find a house with light, and she rewarded the poor farmer with wealth and property. Then onwards the full moon night is observed as Kojagrat Poornima.

Newars of the Valley have their own tradition and style. "There is a very old tradition among the Newar communities, according to which, they lit oil lamps on the top of a bamboo stick to make sure that the path leading to their houses is perfectly visible," says Hari Ram Joshi, a culture expert.

Whatever the colours and importance of the tradition, the younger generation are shying away from all these practices. "But modernisation has led to some sort of societal transformation and few members of the younger generation are keen to follow or respect such traditions and cultures, " laments Joshi.

Kidney hospital awaits permission for operation

BHAKTAPUR, Oct 31 (RSS) - A kidney care hospital established at Sallaghari, Bhaktapur some nine months ago has not come into operation because of the permission not being given to import necessary equipment from abroad.

Although some equipment and an ambulance have been provided by generous donors free of cost for the Dr Iwamura Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, the hospital has not been able to bring in these equipment and ambulance from the Indian port for a long time because of the lack of valid documents. The hsopital has been facing problems procuring other surgical equipment.

The hospital was set up by private sector in memory of Prof Dr Noboru Iwamura, a Japanese surgeon who had contributed to advancement of health and education in the remote areas of Nepal.

The hospital aims at providing quality health services to the local people at a minimum cost and rendering special services for the patients suffering from kidney and tissues disorders.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had laid the foundation stone of the hospital that sprawls over 11 ropanis of land and consists of 25 beds.

In spite of the permission granted by the Ministry of Health to run the hospital, the hospital has not yet come into operation due to delay in obtaining necessary equipment and a long-standing road dispute with the Bhaktapur Municipality.

The Department of Health Service has refused to renew the registration of the hospital, causing impediments in importing necessary equipment on concessional customs rate from abroad.

The department argues that as the hospital has not come into operation yet, its renewal is impossible. Purnima Gurung, chairperson of the hospital constructed at a cost of Rs. 30 million, asked how the hospital could be run in the absence of necessary surgical equipment.

The hospital management aims at expanding its bed capacity up to 250 in the future. Spokesman of the Ministry of Health Dr Benu Bahadur Karki said that an early solution to the problem will be found after conducting a detailed study of the hospital.

Cooperation sought for road construction

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 - All agencies should work together giving emphasis to the maintenance of the local infrastructure which includes roads of District Development Committee(DDC), Village Development Committee (VDC) and other local communities, said experts.

A planning workshop for next phase District Roads support Programme(DRSP) was organised by His Majesty Government (HMG) and SDC.

Krishna Prasad Sapkota, chairman of District Development Committee(Quaver), said, the roads of rural areas should be maintained properly because it not only plays the major role for the development of the country but also for the human development.

He further said, to make the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) fruitful in local level government should design more road maintenance programmes for the local development.

Similarly, Dr. Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, member of National Planning Commission, says, Ministry of Local Development along with donor agencies and local communities should work together for holistic approach.

He further added that the clear cut plans should be introduced for strengthening the local bodies, the engineering management, decentralisation and transparency of fund is the must to achieve the goal of maintenance of roads in rural areas.

Maoists cordon off villages to capture looters

Post Report

LIBANG (Rolpa), Oct 31 - Underground Maoist cadres have cordoned off a large part of the district to search out two persons who allegedly looted more than half a million rupees and other valuables from a man returning to his home from a Gulf country last week.

The two masked-men had looted the cash and valuables from the person of northern part of the district on the banks of Egu Khola of Gairi Gaon. The victim, whose name has been kept secret, reportedly said that the people looted 700,000 rupees, seven tolas of gold and seven wrist-watches. He was returning to his home via Dang-Rolpa road to celebrate the Dashain festival.

A Maoist source said their cadres had been mobilised in various entry points leading to the district headquarters of Libang, Gairigaon, Jungar, Ghartigaon, Holeri and neighbouring villages.

Locals at Kotbada Gaon said that the rebel Maoists intensified their search campaign even in the jungles.

The source added that the search campaign would keep on going in the area until the culprits were brought to justice in a Maoist-formed court.

Shukla Phanta Reserve begins evacuating people from extended area

By Chitranga Thapa

MAHENDRANAGAR, Oct 31 - As planned earlier, the Shukla Phanta Reserve administration finally started evacuating more than 1,000 families from the 150 square km of its extended area beginning Wednesday.

The Reserve administration has set up a camp at Badhani Kheda of Rauteli Bichawa Village Development Committee-1, one of the extended areas, in order to gear up the evacuation process that was lingered for over a decade. A large number of Reserve employees and security personnel have been deployed there to carry out the evacuation.

The Reserve had, a month ago, notified the locals occupying the extended area that they should voluntarily leave the area within a month. The administration had also warned the people against tilling land and building any houses in the extended area of the Reserve.

Chief Conservator of the Reserve, Surya Bahadur Pandey, said the people would be removed from the eastern part of the extended area under its first phase. Pandey also added that he was receiving sustained cooperation from the Royal Bardiya National Park authorities and the local administration for his mission.

"We have mobilised six elephants, three vehicles and half of the Reserve staff to evacuate the people from the area," said he, adding that he would also request the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) force in the Reserve if needed be.

Currently, more than 200 RNA personnel have been deployed in the Reserve for its protection. The Reserve administration seems to be determined not to retreat without accomplishing its set goal.

The area is being extended up to the Chure mountain range in order to provide room for the endangered Royal Bengal tiger and other rare wildlife.

The Reserve is believed to be one of the densely populated habitat of the tiger in the world. Pandey said various commissions formed in the past had already provided the affected families with land for land in other areas but the families refrained from shifting to the areas as the administration never exercised its authority effectively.

The Reserve administration has also assigned one employee from the land measurement office to identify the land the families are supposed to resettle.

But the affected families maintain that the land they were provided by the previous commissions had been occupied by unauthorised families.

Pandey expressed his commitment that the families who have illegally occupied the land that was kept aside for the families of the extended area would also be removed from there.

"We have set our target of evacuating the families from the occupied area by end of December," Pandey said.

Locals said the Reserve administration had only two options left for it: either to re-demarcate the Reserve by allowing the encroachers to settle inside the extended area or remove them from there.

The affected families, who are yet to be compensated land for land, said that the Reserve should cooperate with them to find out new land for their survival.

Two arrested on Dharan mayor case

DHARAN, Oct 31(PR) - Police on Tuesday night arrested two persons on charges of attacking the mayor of Dharan Municipality, Manoj Kumar Meyangbo.

Two othesr who were also arrested in connection with the incident were released after necessary inquiries.

Those arrested on charges of the attack have been identified as Raju Tamang, 19, and Lattu Pariyar, 25, both from Dharan-8. Police suspect that 11 people were involved in the attack of the mayor of this plain city.

The hooligans on Monday attacked the mayor with a sword while rescuing a hearing-impaired girl from being assaulted by the hooligans. Mayor Meyangbo rushed to the site after hearing screams of the helpless girl. He, however, survived the fatal blow and was immediately rushed to the B P Koirala hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, an all-party meeting was called by the municipality on Wednesday to take stock of the security situation in the municipality. Incidents of hooliganism are on the rise since the start of the Dashain festival.