FM stations sign accord

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KATHMANDU, Oct 9 - Kantipur FM, one of the leading FM stations, signed an agreement with the Pokhara FM station to exchange technical and physical support on Monday.

Binod Gyawali, director of Kantipur FM signed the agreement with the chairman of Pokhara FM, Pritam Buddhacharya to exchange technical and physical support.

While signing the agreement, Gyawali said that the main objective of the agreement with the newly stationed Pokhara FM is to share experiences. Kantipur FM has already started its transmission from the eastern region of the country on a trial basis.

Water and food-borne diseases on the rise

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KATHMANDU, Oct 9 – A majority of population in Nepal are suffering from various water and food-borne diseases largely due to the drinking of contaminated water, consumption of stale and rotten foodstuff, eating of unhygienic meat and living in poor environmental conditions.

Medical experts speaking at a two-day "Multi-sectoral Workshop to Co-ordinate Activities in Response to Water & Food Borne Diseases" stressed the need to adopt preventive safety measures to avoid water and food-borne diseases that are growing in recent days due to uncontrolled population growth and lack of sanitation.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. M.B. Bista, Director, Epidemiology and Disease Control Department (EDCD), emphasised on the need to establish the Epidemic Committee to combat the problem which in the recent years has been growing in the rural and urban areas of Nepal.

Epidemic disease cholera, which is most common, has also been discovered in tourists visiting Nepal. "It’s a pity that 55 per cent of the cholera cases are reported from the Kathmandu Valley alone which happens to be the major tourist hub and embassies in the Valley are inquisitive about the scenario.", said Dr. Bista.

Similarly, other medical experts highlighted about the meat-borne and milk-borne diseases.

The main objective of the programme is to prevent and control the water-borne diseases through multi-lateral efforts.

Headmasters share their experience on running schools

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KATHMANDU, Oct 9 - Headmasters from Chitawan shared their bitter experience of running schools at an interaction programme organised here today.

The headmasters’ represen-tatives from the middle Terai district of Chitawan also shed light on their working experience under the pressure of the government in running schools as well as Maoistsaligned students’ pressure not to collect fee.

"We are not in a position to run schools as the government does not allocate sufficient fund to meet the expenses of schools," said Bhawani Prasad Poudel, Chief Co-ordinatator of Struggle Committee, a committee formed to pressure the government to meet their demands.

The headmasters were forced to come to the Capital as the concerned bodies failed to address their demands either to allow the schools to collect fees or provide sufficient budget to run the schools. Altogether 31 headmasters from Sankhuwashabha and 39 from Nuwakot had last month tendered collective resignations.

The headmasters also criticised the Maoists-aligned students for treating them unfairly. However, the rebellious student leaders denied it.

"We have not launched our programmes unfairly to particular schools of particular places," said Lekhanath Neupane, Vice-President of All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union- Revolutionary, who was released recently by the government.

At present,there is some confusion in the policy on collecting fee in the schools. The Government maintains that the school-level education is not free of cost. However, the students close to the Maoists are persuading students and guardians not to pay fees as well as putting pressure on the headmasters not to collect fees.

However, Tirtha Khaniya, a renowned expert in the field of education said that the issue of free education is not that important. " Education never becomes free, we must give more importance to quality education rather than free-of-cost education," he said.

SPD files cases against Land Revenue officers, among others

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KATHMANDU, Oct 9 - Special Police Department today filed a case against Krishna Kumari Thapa, Prem Bahadur Thapa, four officials at the Land Revenue Office, Kalankisthan among others for defrauding government revenue.

Besides Thapa duo, those charge-sheeted by the Special Police Department (SPD) includes Chandra Prasad Joshi, Hikmat Bahadur Bhattarai, Narayan Ojha and Mohan Prasad Pokharel of the Land Revenue Office, Kalankisthan, and Hari Shrestha of Survey Department, Kalankisthan.

They were charged as per the Corruption Control Act- 2017 BS (Nepali Calender) for defrauding the government revenue by carrying out house transaction at a value much below the required rate. The value of the house was done at Rs 328,500 instead of the required value of amount Rs 1,088,601.

If convicted the officials and Thapa duo will have a jail term of two to three years besides a fine of cash worth Rs 27,299.

In another case, SPD wrote Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Baluwatar to carry out departmental action against those involved in defrauding of Rs 600,000 about six months earlier while transferring cash from NRB - Birgunj branch to Thapathali branch.

Upcoming photographers come together in ‘The Galleria’

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KATHMANDU, Oct 9 – Three young and talented photographers joined hands and presented their treasure of collection in an exhibition called "The Galleria" here today.

Ashesh Dangol gave the theme "Light within Darkness" and presented his collection of 26 remarkable photos. Relating himself with his pictures he says, "I found my soul in the darkness. It looks dark when one looks at it. It is actually full of light within."

Chandraman Maharjan, one of the three artists, presented 27 of his exquisite works with the theme "Art of Camera and Culture". Chandraman has shown his interest more in capturing the festive moods and spirits and has successfully displayed his efforts in a class of his own. Describing his works he says, " I want to give a message to the people about so many rich festivals in Nepal that haven’t got as much recognition as others".

"Faces and Places" is the theme that the third artist, Prasant Shrestha, has come up with for his collection of 26 pictures. He has hunted the secret faces and places with the vigorous travelling that he has done. "I have been travelling a lot for the last three years and thus have been successful in completing my collection," he says. Most of his photos focus on the remote districts in north-west Nepal, Humla.

The chief guests for the programme were the renowned and senior photographers of the country, Min Bajracharya, Nati Kaji Maharjan and Mani Lama. They all expressed their sincere appreciation and were full of praises for the enthusiastic efforts of the upcoming stars of Nepal and commented on their excellent presentation.

The exhibition is held at the Nepal Art Council Gallery and will continue till Oct 16.

Bhutanese leaders call for movement

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BHADRAPUR, Oct 9 - Bhutanese leaders in exile have called for a joint movement to establish democracy in Bhutan. The leaders pointed out the need for an integrated movement in a condolence meeting of late leader R K Budhathoki organised at Birtamod today.

Leader of the Bhutan People’s Party (BPP), Balaram Poudel, called for a joint movement while addressing a condolence meeting of Budhathoki, who was killed by some people at Damak 30 days ago when he was holding a meeting with a group of Bhutanese refugee students.

Poudel also said his party was ready to play a coordinator’s role of an alliance comprising all political parties in exiles and human rights organisations. Addressing the condolence meet, chairman of the Druk National Congress (DNC), Thinley Penjor said that the movement should be developed as Bhutan’s national movement. Penjor said the Druk government has been describing their movement as merely an agitation of the people of southern Bhutan to the international community.

He pointed out the need for defining the nature of Bhutanese movement.

General Secretary of the Bhutan National Democratic Party, D N Dhakal said the Bhutan government evicted people from southern part of Bhutan under the ethnic cleansing policy and termed them as the immigrants of the Nepali origin. He also said his party would make its position clear after holding discussions in the party.

Representatives from all seven refugee camps were present on the condolence meeting held at the residence of late leader Buhdathoki.

More than 150 families left homeless in Saptari

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RAJBIRAJ, Oct 9 - More than 150 families have become homeless while property worth 20 million rupees has been damaged in 26 VDCs of Saptari district due to the floods that engulfed the eastern region of the country last week.

The flash floods and incessant rain inundated around 200 bighas of land in the district, government officials said.

Officials at the Department of Meteorology said that the unexpected rains occurred in the eastern parts of Nepal due to a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

A total of 165 families became completely homeless in Daulatpur, Inarwa and Hangman Nagar and around 200 others were forced to leave their houses to safer area as a result of the flash floods. Locals said their houses came under the flooded waters for over a couple of days.

The District Police Office said some domestic cattle were also killed in the floods.
The flood victims have been taking refuge in various VDC offices, on the road side and public schools, waiting for immediate relief to come from the government for the last three days.

Most of the families taking refuge on the roadsides and schools are so poor that they could not repair their huts even after the flood was over.

Chandra Narayan Khang, a local of Launiya VDC, who is taking refuge along with his family at a local school, said he was penniless and had nothing to eat. He said that the government should meet the cost of repairing his hut that was collapsed in the floods. "I can collect myself the construction materials like bamboo and straw in my village," Khang said, adding that his family members were depending on a single meal a day since they became homeless.

Those people whose survival depends largely on agriculture labour have been facing hardships these days because there is no job to do in the rural areas for next two months.

Heads of these destitute families used to migrate as seasonal labourers in the Indian State of Punjab and Hariyana until there is a demand for their labour in the villages. But they could not migrate to India leaving their families stranded on the roadsides.

Government officials said they were collecting data of the flood victims in various villages and it would take sometime to provide relief materials to the victims. Administrative officer Radha Krishna Sharma said an all-party meeting held on Monday demanded that the government provide relief to the flood victims as soon as possible.

District Agriculture Office said paddy production in the district would decrease by around 30 per cent because of the drought during the plantation period and heavy rainfall during the harvesting season.

Future of Surkhet to be made bright

By Motilal Poudel

SURKHET, Oct 9 - Future of this city is not as bright as the government’s policymakers had conceived to develop it as the regional headquarters some 30 years ago. Surkhet is one of the five regional headquarters that were developed as per the concept of regional development.

Most of the regional offices are no longer there and shifted to Nepalgunj.

It is an irony that the inner valley of the mid-western region practically ceased to be functioning as the regional headquarters once the Ratna Highway - popularly known as Kohalpur-Surkhet road - was completed around 20 years ago.

The possibility of its revival as the regional administrative centre further diminished since the restoration of multi-party democracy in the country in 1990. No post-1990 governments thought about reviving the concept of regional administration and development until a Bill on Regional Administrator was introduced through the royal ordinance that also received widespread criticism from all opposition parties.

Hundreds of bighas of land was acquired by the government in the city area for various regional level offices. But they have already turned into grassland with no offices set up for the last three decades. Such a large amount of land was acquired to provide space to the government’s regional level offices and institutions.

Locals are of the view that either the acquired land be used properly or returned to the families with whom the land was obtained.

An office was established under the leadership of Madhav Bhakta Mathema to develop Surkhet (Birendranagar) as a planned city. But the master plan of the city has been receiving dust for the last three decades with no construction going on as envisaged.

Presenting the budget estimate for the current fiscal year, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat proposed the parliament to scrape or merge some of the regional level offices to cut in the government’s expenditure. An effect of the budget speech is seen in the Regional Road Office, which will no longer remain in existence after a year.

Interesting to note is that the Regional Administrator, under the new law, will be stationed in Surkhet whereas most of the government offices, including the security organs, are located in Nepalgunj, around 100 km south of here. Concerned official said there would be practical problems for maintaining coordination among the regional offices that are situated far away from each other.