Ganga, Jamuna arriving today
But future remains uncertain, say doctors

By Seema A Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Nov 17 - The Nepali Siamese Twins, who captured the headlines throughout the world last year, are coming back here on Sunday after undergoing a tumultuous operation in Singapore last April.

The twin girls, Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha, are returning home for the first time after nearly 13 months of treatment in Singapore hospital, their grandparents said.

"We are very happy to hear that they are returning home after more than a year," Netra Bahadur Khatri, grandfather of the twins, told The Kathmandu Post over the telephone. "They left Nepal with conjoined head and are now returning home with separate heads."

Khatri, who lives in remote Salyan district in West Nepal, was elated to hear the news of the homecoming of his granddaughters. But his family members are equally worried about their future in Nepal as they will now have to live in the capital instead of going back to their home in Khalanga of Salyan district, almost a 24-hour bus ride away from here.

"The twins, their parents and grandfather will not come here as there is no major hospital," said Avay Kumar Shrestha, the twins’ uncle.

The girls, who were born with conjoined head, were separated during a 97-hour record-breaking operation in Singapore General Hospital last April.

Though the twins are returning home, their future remains uncertain as Nepal lacks proper medical facilities. "We can’t really tell for sure what type of disability they will end up with, but there will be some kind of disability," said Prof. Ho Lai Yun, a member of the team of doctors who operated on the twins.

According to the Associated Press, surgeons in Singapore, who attended the pair’s traumatic operation of the joint heads, said that the 18-month-old girls will not be "like other children when they grow up." But the doctors have not given up hope that the girls will be able to do most things other children do, such as playing or going to school.

Dr. Keith Goh, who co-ordinated the marathon surgery, said in a press conference in Singapore on Friday that the operation had left them with heads shaped differently from those of other children, and that they could face social challenges as a result. Jamuna can sit up and is quite a social child while Ganga has trouble propping herself up and is more introvert, said Dr. Ho. "Before the operation, Ganga was more lively of the two."

The two girls captured the hearts of thousands of Singaporeans, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay their medical expenses. Doctors performed the surgery for free and the country’s national carrier, Singapore Airlines, paid for the family’s trip from Nepal. A team comprising chief of the Neuro-surgery Department of the hospital Dr Champon Chan, Dr Keith Goh, Dr Vivian Balkrishnan and others had separated the twins conjoined at the head setting a new medical history.

Nepali doctor Basant Pant, who is in Singapore to bring the twins back, is taking charge of them after they arrive in Nepal. "I do not see any major problems," Dr. Pant said at a press conference in Singapore.

"The doctors from Singapore would be brought to Nepal if complications arise," said Pant. "The children can be brought back to Singapore for treatment if necessary."

Meanwhile, the Consul General of Nepal to Singapore, M.N. Swami, said in a press statement that any money left over from the girls’ expenses in Singapore would be put into a trust fund to pay for their future medical treatment.

"I have recommended to the Nepal government that the Singaporean medical team be given Nepalese State awards for their tireless work to save the twins," Swami further stated in his press statement.

China urges Nepal, India to solve disputes on Kalapani

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 17 - China has urged Nepal and India to resolve their territory disputes on Kalapani through friendly consultations and negotiations.

"China wishes India and Nepal could solve their territory disputes on Kalapani through friendly consultations and negotiations," a newsreport carried by the People’s Daily online, quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Quiye as saying at a regular press conference Thursday.

She also said China has noticed the territory dispute on Kalapani between the two South Asian neighbours. "Both Nepal and India are friendly neighbours of China," she said. "China wishes they could solve the disputes through consultations and talks, so as to seek a fair and rational solution."

Situated in the western frontier of Nepal, Kalapani has been a disputed territory, which both Nepal and India claim is theirs. According to Buddhi Narayan, the former director general of the government’s Department of Survey, as much as 57,000 bighas of lands are under dispute in the strategic tri-junctino between Nepal, India and China, where Indo-Tibetan border police have been stationed by India since the 1962 Sino-India war.

Shrestha, who is also the author of Nepalko Simana, which won a prestigious Nepali award recently, claims that he has "solid evidences" of the Kalapani area falling in Nepalese territory. All his collections of the old maps of the western frontier maps of the Indo-Nepal border sketched on various occasions by the Survey of India during the regime of East India Company show Kalapani falling in the Nepalese territory in Darchula district.

According to him, aside Kalapani, Nepal and India need to look into border disputes in 53 different places - in 21 districts - along their 1,808-km border. Shrestha puts the total area of the disputed border at 110,550 bighas, an area equivalent to the size of Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts.

Yeti airlines plane suffers bird-hit

JUMLA, Nov 17 (PR)- A chartered twin-otter of Yeti Airlines narrowly escaped a fatal accident Saturday after a hawk hit its cockpit on its flight from Surkhet to Jumla near Lamra village in this remote district.

The mishap occurred just a two minutes before its landing on the Jumla airport, said the Civil Aviation Office at the airport.

There were only four crew members on board the 9N-AFD twin-otter. Captain Kosh Bahadur Thapa sustained minor injuries on his head. However, other three crew members are unharmed. However, the plane was badly damaged.

The plane was carrying food of Nepal Food Corporation to Jumla when the bird-hit occurred. The glass of the cockpit was broken and left wing damaged when the left door near the seat of the captain fell down.

According to Captain Thapa, the accident took place as the pilots could not see the hawk due to the light reflected from the glass of the cockpit. All the crew members returned to Nepalgunj Saturday afternoon.

Equipment arrives from B’desh for search of missing three

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 17 – The equipment for the scuba divers from Bangladesh navy arrived today from Bangladesh while the search for the missing three persons continues at the local level, said a statement released by the Research Co-ordination Centre of the Tribhuvan International Airport today.

On Monday, the 9N-AFP Fishtail Air helicopter crashed into the Rara Lake in the Rara National Park in Mugu last Monday. Princess Prekshya died in the crash. Three others – Ishwor Basnet, an acquaintance, Dan Bahadur Shahi, managing director of the company owned by the Princess near Nepalgunj and the pilot, Rabin Kadaria – are still missing and presumed dead.

However, two passengers, Lt Col Dr Rishi Khatri and Sharada Singh Suwal, the personal physician and the personal attendant of the Princess respectively were rescued when they were found swimming.

The RCC statement said that the equipment has been given to the team leader, Captain Mustafizur Rahman. The scuba divers from Bangladesh arrived in the capital on Wednesday. Seven of them are in Nepalgunj since then.

Bikash Rana, owner and executive chairman of Fishtail Air, told The Kathmandu Post that the team would begin the search operation from Monday. "The rescue operation by the Bangladeshis will begin from Monday. But they will not dive for the purpose. Since the wreckage is below the 50-metre mark, it is not possible."

Rana informed that the team would use the motor boat that arrived from Bangladesh today, and anchor for the search mission.

Meanwhile our reporter from Banke said that Captain Rahman inspected the lake area three hours. He had visited the area yesterday too alongwith the officials from the civil aviation ministry. He returned to Kathmandu today and is expected to leave for Nepalgunj tomorrow.

The report also said that a bag of late Princess Prekshya with Rs 17, 005 and other personal belongings was found yesterday.

Besides the rescue equipment, the RCC statement added, most of the other locally-available equipment has been provided to the team leader of the scuba divers and they are expected to go to the site tomorrow. Seven of the team members are still in Nepalgunj while one is at Rara and two, alongwith the captain are in Kathmandu.

Yesterday, besides the money, chopper’s gas outlet, some medicines, perfume, nail-cutter, among other things were recovered, said the RCC statement.