Artworks by Nepali and British painters on display

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 – A group of artists, Nepali as well as British joined hands to present their works in a group exhibition. The exhibition entitled Nepal – England Art Exchange kicked off on Nov 1 and will continue till Nov 8 at the Nepal Art Council Gallery (NACG).

"The main aim of this joint exhibition is to promote and establish a good cultural relation between the two countries," says Shant Kumar Rai, Secretary of the NAC-Group who is also one of the artists in the exhibition.

The paintings put on display are that of Nepal’s villages, terraces, Himalayan journey, hillsides and many more among others, which the painters have captured in their paintings after their visit to different places of the Kingdom.

The two woodcut paintings – Buffalo Wallowing and Oxen Ploughing with their attractive and natural form were made from wood plate printed on the paper. The other attraction put on display is Nepali paper used for painting.

Says one of the Indian spectators and buyer of a collage painting entitled Rooftops of Kathmandu that the painting is bit disturbing but will give remembrance of the Kathmandu Valley after leaving the place.

Organised by NACG and New Art Circle- Group, the exhibition consists of altogether 60 paintings. Among the 60 paintings, 27 are from England and others are the works of the Nepali artists from New Art Circle (NAC) – Group.

The paintings of the British painters are the unique presentation of woodcut, collage, etching among others present in the exhibition such as acrylic, gouache and watercolour.

The exhibition has already been organised in countries like England, Scotland, and Ireland, where around 30 paintings of Nepali artist were sold in five different cities of the countries.

"In every place where the exhibition was held, the people’s response was very positive and appreciated Nepali art," Rai said. "Here also people appreciate our work but we have no Nepali buyers, this makes us a bit sad."

"The main problem here is that the government doesn’t pay attention towards developing this field", laments Rai, adding that the government has separated only 1.4 million rupees for Nepal Association of Fine Arts and 2,90,000 for NACG.

"The money allocated is very few for the development of fine arts as it is enough only for official expenses," Rai said. "Government calls art the nation’s pillar and the main source for tourism promotion but does nothing for its preservation."

"This field has been preserved only from individual efforts", artists said. And artists’ group like NAC is working hard toward this objective, presenting art in new form. "We have tried our best to present Nepali art in new form as majority of artists follow the same old track," said Rai. "The Group comes at certain intervals with exhibitions that present colour revolution (with changes in the ways of using colours).

From the amount of money raised in the exhibition NAC has a plan to organise another exhibition in the near future.

Rai is optimistic that only in this field the Nepalis can achieve success if competition is held at the international level.

The former chancellor of Royal Nepal Academy Lain Singh Bangdel in his message has said that the artists of today have to work with new vigor, ideas, and energy and also they require a lots of experiments.

Govt to confiscate misused Guthi land

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - The government has decided to confiscate hundreds of ropanis of land belonging to the Guthi Sansthan, which is said to be currently in the hands of land-encroachers.

The Minister for State, Assistant Minister and Secretary at the Ministry for Land Reforms have urged the concerned authorities to take strong action against the "land encroachers."

Government officials said the Guthi Sansthan should take stern action against all those illegally encroaching upon Guthis’ land. The remark was expressed at a function organised to mark the 38th anniversary of the Guthi Sansthan here today.

State Minister for Land Reforms Ram Janam Chaudhary said that the Guthi Sansthan should take strong action against those who have used the land of the Guthi Sansthan for personal benefit. "Guthi Sansthan must now take strong action against the "land encroachers," he said.

While Dilli Raj Sharma, Assistant Minister for Land Reforms accused some of the officials of the Sansthan for their involvement in the misuse of the land that originally belonged to the Guthi Sansthan.

The officials at the programme claimed that no official statistics are available to date as to how much land the Ministry has demarcated for the Guthi Sansthan.

There is no single record available on the total land area in the Ministry for Land Reforms and the Guthi Sansthan. Unofficial sources, however, say that there is about 60,000 ropanis of land belonging to various Guthis in the Valley.

Speaking on the occasion, Khadga Man Shrestha, Chairman of Pachali Bhairab Development Committee said that it was going to file a case against the Timber Corporation for encroaching and bringing out a tender call for the sale of land belonging to Nava Durga Bhawani Temple of Teku.

Kantipur FM: The harbinger of communication in the East

By Purushottam Kattel

Har pal ko saathi Kantipur FM 96.1, the popular FM station is all set to capture the hearts of the listeners in the eastern region after making its mark in the Kathmandu Valley. The people in Jhapa, a frontier district bordering India, are delighted. The broadcast from the station can be heard at the roadside shops, restaurants and houses wherever one happens to pass by.

The monopoly of the state-run Radio Nepal seems to be over. At long last competition is on to capture the attention of the listeners. And the Jhapalis are not complaining.

Gone are the days when you had no option but to tune in to the state-run Radio Nepal for news and information in Jhapa. The recent endeavour of Kantipur Publications to broadcast its Frequency Modulation (FM) network to the eastern part of Nepal brought Jhapalis closer to information unlike in the past.

Considered country’s one of the developed districts, Jhapa was very backward in terms of information and media. Just six years back Indian national television channel Doordarshan was the only medium (besides Radio Nepal) as sources of news and entertainment, if you can call that. With the Aitabare (Sunday-based) station of Nepal Television Jhapali somehow quenched their thirst for news, but that was not so reliable as the frequent disconnection of the telecast was the cause of worry for them.

The scenario I came across last week was totally different from what I saw a year back.

On my journey from Kathmandu to Bhadrapur, I listened to Kantipur FM for the first time outside the Kathmandu Valley as the bus driver tuned it when we were near Lahan (Siraha district ) around 5 a.m. Some passengers asked the driver to increase the volume, when it was 6:30 a.m. to get the hugely-popular news-based programme ‘Kantipur Diary’.

At my locality, I found ‘Kantipur Diary’ and ‘Teen Baje’ (3 p.m. news broadcast) as the most popular programmes of Kantipur FM. Some health-conscious people were holding mini transistors during their morning walk to catch the latest news of the world. The prime time news of 7:00 O’clock that Radio Nepal broadcasts is marginalised since during the time people discuss and analyse the new aired by ‘Kantipur Diary’.

"It’s too much! America is violating the human rights", says an old man of my village but another gentleman counters, "What about those 5000 innocent people the terrorist killed?" The debate goes on about the legitimacy of the US-led strikes on Afghanistan. It was indeed heartening to see the fierce argument that was sparked by the news just aired.

Kantipur Diary almost serves the whole gist of Kantipur daily which we get at 10 a.m. whereas earlier we would not see it until 5 p.m.," says Keshab Kafley a lecturer of Mechi College, adding, "We are abreast of the latest happenings very early in the morning."

Go inside a restaurant or a saloon or whatever it might be, and you will find the tunes of Kantipur FM.

"Previously different clients used to ask me to play different cassettes and sometimes it was very difficult to cool them down, but now with the advent of Kantipur FM, I don’t have trouble in silencing my customers and they are happy too," says barber Rajkumar Yadav.

Furthermore, Kantipur FM brought a real sense of Dashain for the sellers of transistors and cassettes players, who are selling five times more than their previous sale. Shyam Jyotishi of Kiran Electronics, Bhadrapur says that almost all the customers visiting his shop ask for the FM compatible sets these times.

A major change as even a month back, such queries were unheard of.

Kantipur FM has made its mark in West Bengal, India as well. It is equally popular among the Nepali community of the neighbouring town of Siliguri India, says Govinda Bhattarai, a resident of Kakarvitta - another easternmost border town.

Anyway, the introduction of private FM station is in a sense revolution in the field of information and mass communication, which will certainly be beneficiary for the eastern region people in particular and the whole Nepali in general.

Over 50 PC of rural people do not use iodised salt

SIRAHA, Nov 3 (RSS) - Fifty percent of people living in urban areas and 60 percent people in rural areas of Siraha district do not use iodised salt and thereby are affected by various diseases caused due to iodine deficiency.

One reason for the low intake of iodised salt in the district is the lack of extensive publicity on the physical deformities that might result from iodine deficiency.

Large number of cases of goitre, abortion of fetus, high infant mortality, high rate of mental retardation among children and other such physical deformities are seen in Siraha district in comparison to other districts due to the low intake of iodised salt, it is learnt.

In this connection, the child health division of the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation, the district health office and Salt Trading Corporation Ltd, Lahan, jointly organised a day-long seminar of high-level officials of the district in Lahan on Friday.

Shedding light on the status of iodine intake in Siraha district, chief of the district health office Dr Murali Prasad Singh disclosed that most people in the district were suffering from diseases resulting from iodine deficiency because of the low intake of iodised salt.

He also pointed out the need for the police and customs officials at border check points to stop the import of non-iodised salt from India since the use of non-iodised salt imported in large quantity from across the border was one of the reasons for causing iodine deficiency among the people of the district.

Chief of the department of health services nutrition division Sarada Pandey spoke on the importance of iodine for healthy human growth.

The participants of the seminar stressed that the use of iodised salt should be promoted by various means such as extensive publicity, providing iodised salt at subsidised rate and curtailing the importation of non-iodised salt from India.

Chief of Salt Trading Corporation Lahan branch Surya Kumar Gelal made a presentation on the ways of checking the iodine content in the salt.

From the chair, DDC chairman Bisweshwar Prasad Marwaita spoke of the need to raise public awareness about the use of iodised salt.

At the seminar, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Ltd Brajesh Jha, Journalist Bijaya Misra, public health officer Ramesh Kumar Singh and others underlined the need to promote the intake of iodised salt.

Chief District Officer Bhola Prasad Shivakoti was also present on the occasion.

Regular electricity supply in Dhaulagiri soon

Post Report

PARBAT, Nov 3 - After years of impatience finally the rural villages and district headquarters of Dhaulagiri zone will be getting a regular supply of electricity in near future with the establishment of a sub-center.

Nepal Electricity Authority Transmission Line in a joint effort with sub- station construction department will soon be building a sub-station hoping to eliminate the unpredictable load shedding problem persisting in the different parts of the zone.

According to the technicians at the Modi Khola Hydro power project a sub station with the capacity of 4.5 megawatt will be built adjacent to the power house of the hydro power project. "Tender has already been called to establish the sub station and final decisions have already been made. The project will be completed within two years period", said Kaniya Kumar Manandhar, Chief of the Modi Khold Hydro power project.

According to District Development Committee government has already allocated 2.5 million rupees this year for the commencement of the project. "Though late government had taken an appreciable step towards ending the chronic problem of load shedding in the districts", said Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, President of District Development Committee Parbat.Till now the estimated 10,000 electricity consumers in the Dhaulagiri zone have been distributed with electricity produced from 2 megawatt Tatopani Hydropower plant.

However the capacity of the power plant has reduced down to 1.5 megawatt in recent days making a power crisis in the zone.

But the technicians from the Baglung small hydropower project remark that construction of substation will not be the remedy to the problem and only one substation will not be able to withstand the growing demand of electricity.

"Problem can be minimised to certain extent but not eliminated", said Krishan Bahadur Dhakal, Chief of the project. The problem can be only solved if government establishes some more facilities in the Baglung, Myagdi and Parbat districts in order to fulfill the crisis.