Army to take over mission hospital in Gorkha

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Oct 13 – Royal Nepal Army (RNA) is taking over the Gorkha Mission Hospital in Gorkha district after the United Mission to Nepal (UMN) decided to leave the management on September 4, a senior government official said here today.

"The RNA will now run the mission hospital from this fiscal year," said Ram Kumar Shrestha, joint secretary of the National Planning Commission (NPC).

The NPC has already planned to hand over the hospital management to the RNA to run the hospital under the Ministry of Health, said Shrestha. The decision has been taken as part of the government’s Integrated Security and Development Plan (ISDP).

According to Bhola Silwal, spokesperson of the Defence Ministry, a team of RNA went to Aappipal and conducted a feasibility study of running the hospital ten days ago.

Despite much requests from the locals to continue support for the hospital, which is located in remote Aappipal Village Development Committee, the UMN took backed down from it after running it for nearly 32 years. The UMN had earlier decided to quit from the management citing "various" problems they have faced in the last two to three years.

However, locals feel that the UMN decided to hand over the management to them after they received serious threats from the Maoists.

Though the UMN handed over the hospital management to the locals, the latter had no idea on how to run the hospital.

Deputy Director of UMN Health Services Department, Sanu Raja Ranjit, had told The Kathmandu Post that UMN was withdrawing from the hospital mainly due to the lack of doctors.

Gorkha is the first district where the government implemented the Integrated Security Development Plan to quell the Maoists insurgency, deploying 1,200 army personnel to implement various development programmes.

Upper House rejects property rights Bill

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 13 - The National Assembly (Upper House of parliament) today rejected the controversial 11th Amendment to the Muluki Ain (Civil Code) which purported to grant a semblance of property rights to women and partially legalised abortion.

The members of the National Assembly were of the opinion that the bill was "lame" and would not be able to abolish discrimination between men and women.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the Bill amid the boycott from the main opposition CPN-UML and protests from other opposition parties.

The passage of the Bill in the Lower House had not gone down well with the communist opposition, which had decried the government’s backtracking on a key provision, which granted women rights to keep parental property even after getting married.

The proposed Bill was rejected with the majority of the members going against the proposal when it was presented for discussion. All MPs of CPN-UML, ML, Chanda Shah of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nationalist) and some of the Royal nominees voted against the Bill whereas MPs of RPP and Gajendra Narayan Singh of Sadbhawana Party were absent in the meeting.

As per the Constitution, the Bill will now be returned to the House of Representatives for further discussion and possible amendment. According to the Constitution any Bill passed by one House is rejected or is passed with amendments by the other House, the Bill shall be transmitted back to the House where it originated.

And with the opposition parties prevailing over the ruling Nepali Congress in number of MPs, the passing of the bill will face problem even if it goes back to the Lower House.

The Lower House now can again pass the Bill as it is or with amendments, if the ruling party convinces the oppositions. The Bill, which has been presented as a finance bill, if passed this time by a majority of more than fifty percent of its sitting members, will be directly presented to His Majesty for assent.

This is exactly what the ruling party most probably will do - force the Bill through the House of Representatives and present it to the King for the Royal seal. According to the sources, the ruling party is already preparing to re-table and re-endorse the Bill in the House of Representatives on Monday.

This is the second time the National Assembly has rejected Bill passed by the House of Representatives after the ruling Nepali Congress lost its majority in the Upper House. In the 18th session it had rejected the citizenship Bill passed by the Lower House.

The main opposition CPN-UML maintains that their party opposes only one provision in the Bill that says that the women will have to return the parental property after they get married but its leaders were reluctant to comment on what would happen next.

"Let’s wait and see what the Government does next," said Bharat Mohan Adhikary, a senior leader of the UML. "We will decide what to do only after the government’s move."

Nepal trample Maldives by 251 runs, meet UAE in semis

Post Report

LALITPUR, Oct 13 - The hosts’ brilliant all-round cricket inflicted a 251-run defeat to the minnows Maldives at the Engineering Institute ground A here Saturday to win all three league matches to top their Pool B under the U-19 Youth Asia Cup Cricket tournament.

Once skipper Binod Das won the toss and was elected to bat first, Nepal kept the partisan Saturday crowd cheering throughout as Shakti Gauchan and Manjit Shrestha dominated either innings with the bat and ball respectively.

Gauchan first produced a cool crisp hundred leading to a mammoth total of 307-6 and Manjit Shrestha shone with the red cherry as engineered the Maldivian collapse for a paltry 56 runs in 28.2 overs returning a match haul of five wickets.

Nepal, who were already guaranteed a place in the semifinals, made a shaky start to their innings after captain Binod Das decided to bat first after he won the toss. Yashwant Subedi, who after hitting a four off Ahmed Jamal, lost his cool in an attempt to hit another one in the next ball only to nick it and the wicketkeeper Hassan completed a regulation catch.

But Kanishka Chaugain and Bardan Chalise, took apart the Maldives bowlers hitting them all across the ground to take the score to 74 runs before Ahmed Arafat trapped Chaugain for 37 runs, which included six fours and a glorious six over the mid-wicket.

This was the time when Maldives’ team strategy to limit Nepal under 200 runs suddenly looked a possibility. "Our first target would be to restrict Nepal below 200," Imad Ismail, the Maldives team manager had said after they lost the toss.

However, a solid century partnership between Shakti Gauchan and Basudev Thapa not only cross that limit but also set up a huge target in front of Maldives. Following the dismissal of Bardan Chalise (37), Gauchan and Thapa, the teammates of Khukuri Club, Bhairahawa, frustrated the opposition bowlers with array of well timed shots and quick running between wickets adding invaluable 109 runs for the fourth wicket.

Thapa missed his half-century by seven runs when Arafat brought one another ball nipping in to trap him plumb. But Gauchan kept his cool with a wise shot selection to bring up the first hundred of the tournament, hitting seven fours in the 107-ball innings.

The ground filled with a thundering round of applause as he pushed the ball straight down the ground for a single to reach the first three-figure mark of his career. He fell two deliveries at the same score when he misjudged a Mohammed Azlee spin and was stumped by Aflam.

"This is the moment I’ve been cherishing for long," said jubilant Gauchan. "And the fact that it has come at such a big occasion only makes me feel more proud of my achievement."

And the Nepal coach, Roy Dias, too has only praise for Gauchan. "His was a gem of an innings. He played well and with straight bat and kept all his shots on the ground," he told to The Kathmandu Post after the match.

Although Nepal lost the fifth and sixth wickets in quick succession, Manjit Shrestha and Lakpa Lama launched an onslaught on the Maldivian bowlers adding 53 runs in the last 39 balls to put up 307 runs. Shrestha hit three fours and a towering six over long on to remain not out at 43.

Maldives, chasing the huge total, never looked comfortable against a tight bowling from either end. And when Hassan Aflam fell short of his ground at three, the rest of the Maldives batting caved in without much of a resistance. Mohammed Shafraz Hafiz was the highest scorer with 9 runs as their innings was wrapped up for 56 in 28.2 overs.

Captain Binod Das returned with three wickets conceding 9 runs off 9.2 overs. But it was Manjit Shrestha who broke the back of Maldives batting taking 5 wickets for 28 runs in 10 overs, which together with his contribution with the bat, brought him man of the match alongside Gauchan.

Nepal will now take on the Pool ‘A’ runners-up UAE in the semifinals at the Tribhuvan University ground on Monday.

Pro-abortion activists hopeful about its legality

By Pramod Poudel

KATHMANDU, Oct 13 – It came as a sigh of relief to many: The 11th Amendment to the Muluki Ain (Civil Code), popularly known as property rights Bill, passed by the House of Representative this past week also legalized abortion under specific cases. But with the National Assembly, the Upper House of parliament, refusing to consider the controversial Bill for discussions on Saturday, pro-abortion activists are once again worried about the face of the Bill.

Although reports said it were the provisions on property rights - and not on abortion - that foiled the government’s attempt to push to the Bill through, women’s rights activists and reproductive health experts are specially concerned about the fate of hundreds of thousands of women across the country.

And they have a valid reason to become so: Nepal’s maternal mortality rate of 539 women in 100,000 live births, 50 percent of which due to unsafe abortion, is considered as alarmingly high. Even before today’s development, reproductive health experts and activists were expressing dissatisfaction over the provisions that legalized abortion. Now anxiety - as to whether or not the piece of legislation-under-consideration will turn into an Act - has been added to that.

Said Dr Aruna Uprety, a women rights activist advocating abortion law reforms in the country, "There should have been a separate Bill for abortion under Public Health Problem and not associated with the property rights Bill". Many activists are confident that the provisions related to abortion will remain intact even if some changes are made on the provisions related to granting property rights to daughters. "No matter what changes the lawmakers make, we are confident that the provisions related to legalization of abortion will remain intact," said Uprety.

However, legal experts dispelled their fears saying that the Bill would be returned back to the lower house, which in turn might reconsider the provisions in the Bill and re-send it to the upper house or directly send for royal assent as the Bill is a Finance Bill. The Bill becomes Act after the upper house passes it and gets a royal assent.

The Bill would allow any women to undergo abortion if the fetus is not more than 12 weeks old; while in the case of rape and incest, abortion was allowed if the fetus does not exceed 18 weeks of age. It also mandatorily required the consent of pregnant women in all cases. The Bill also has a provision for punishment of up to six months imprisonment for those forcing or tempting a pregnant woman into aborting her fetus. The Bill also provides for a punishment of an additional one year for those attempting to abort a fetus after determining its sex.

In those cases where pregnancy poses danger to the physical and mental health of mothers or if medical reports prove that foetuses are damaged leading to the birth of a disabled child, abortion is permitted in any time with the consent of the pregnant woman.

But even if the Bill is passed by both of the Houses of parliament and legalize abortion, the fate of the five women prisoners, facing jail terms on charges of aborting their fetuses will remain undecided. According to data available by the Forum for Women, Law and Development, 12 women are facing jail terms on abortion charges while 54 others are languishing there on infanticide charges. Among them is a woman who underwent abortion after she became pregnant from a person who raped her.

Presently, all abortion cases are treated under homicide cases

Legal experts suggest that the cases lodged against these women be withdrawn and freed under criminal justice system. "The government should withdraw their cases and set them free, which is not impossible," says advocate Pradhan.

The experts and activists will not be satisfied even if the Bill gets through and becomes a law. "A separate comprehensive legislation has to be there to deal cases related to abortion," Malla emphasises. Under the present law, a woman is liable for a jail term of up to three years in case of abortion and she will have to face life imprisonment if she is found involved in infanticide. Many here agree that with abortion being legalised, infanticide rates would drastically go down in places where abortion services are easily available.

"There should be safe abortion made accessible easily in addition to the legalising of the abortion," says Dr Aruna Uprety. "Abortion should be made available in hospitals and health posts even in the remotest places."

She adds, "Those dying from unsafe abortion are mostly poor and down-trodden people, while the affluent ones, though illegally, have found their way out spending good amount of money. For instance, India had legalised abortion nearly 30 years back, but still abortion causes many deaths due to a lack of service and information."