Interaction on role of media held

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25: An interaction programme on the role of media in the state of emergency period was organised here today to explore the situation of news, reporters and credibility of news releases dispatched in the past three months.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Hom Nath Dahal said that the duty of the government is to assist the press dispatch unbiased and true story to the public during the state of emergency.

Nevertheless, he also warned that the government cannot allow the people do anything against the national interest just because they hold licence of being a journalist. "If somebody, a journalist or otherwise, acts to promote the terrorists, the government cannot forgive them," he said.

Similarly, a parliamentarian from the CPN-UML Pradeep Gyawali said that the government should honour the press for its role in bringing out the fact about the Maoists.

"The press did not leave any stone unturned to find out the reality about the extreme activities of the Maoists even when the ministers were praising the Maoists," said Gyawali.

He said the security forces should be informed which book is the document of the Maoists and which book discloses the brutal reality of the terrorists adding one of the journalists were arrested because he possessed a book written by him on the reality behind Prachadaism.

President of Federation of Nepalese Journalists Suresh Acharya said altogether 59 journalists were detained in the past three months of emergency period and 20 are still in custody.

Most of the participants expressed that the regular press release dispatched by the Ministry of Defence lack supporting facts and the news based on the releases would have been stronger if the journalists were given chance to interact with the ministry officials.

They said the International Media Support Fund (IMSF), an international-funding organisation, working for the benefit of journalists worldwide, would offer assistance if the Nepali journalists demanded.

IMSF president Torben Krogh said the organisation was providing security to the journalists who protest against mistreatment and advocate professional journalism.

"We can provide a long-term or a short-term assistance to strengthen journalism in the state of emergency," he said.

The programme was jointly organised by IMSF and Nepal Press Institute.

Public Works Directives to be ready next month

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25: The Public Works Directives (PWD) intended to strengthen the implementation and management of the already frail public works projects have been in the final shape.

Initiated in August 2000, the directives will be out next month, said Mukti Prasad Kafle, deputy team leader of the Strengthening Project Implementation Practices, during a seminar held here today.

"Project implementation and management are very week in our country. With the approval of the directives by the government, we hope that they are strengthened," said Kafle highlighting the objective of the seminar.

The directives, which incorporate some of the selected procedures and guidelines from donor countries and international best practices for strengthening management and implementation of the public works projects have been authored jointly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works. Three other firms-NDLea Consultants Vancouver Canada, ITECO Nepal and Integrated Research and Application Nepal have also been involved in preparing the directives, which when implemented is expected to help the government significantly in planning and implementing public works projects.

However, team leader Kafle maintains that preparation of directives alone is not sufficient. "It is their approval and application that are significant," he added.

Highlighting the PWD, Janusz Sobieniak, team leader of the Strengthening Project Implementation Practices handed over the CD ROM containing the PWD documents to the Minister of State for Physical Planning and Works Keshab Thapa during the orientation seminar.

Government to focus on population management

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25: The government is in the process to draw up a long-term programme to curb population growth rate in the Tenth Plan especially focusing on the young people, government sources said Monday.

Speaking at a discussion programme on "Population Management Policy and the Tenth Plan" jointly organised by the Population Association of Nepal (PAN) and United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA) at the capital today, Mukti Narayan Shreatha , secretary at the Ministry of Population and Environment said the government would give prominence to the Ninth Plan’s population policy to prepare a long-term programme to curb the high rate of population growth, which has thwarted poverty alleviation efforts of the government.

"The government will give special emphasis on population management in the Tenth Plan with a particular attention towards the young in the age group of ten – twenty years," said Shrestha. He informed that "the Ministry has also opened a separate branch to deal with the cases related to young people."

Professor Bal Kumar KC, Head, Central Department of Population Studies, Tribhuvan University, however, said the government has established the MoPE with a 20-year-long prospective plan on national population strategies but has lived far short of expectations. "MoPE has not yet been able to draw up a long-term national policy on population although it was set up seven years back," he said.

Speakers at the discussion forum said there is a need to integrate population, environment and development into a whole to help reduce poverty in the country.

Dr Nirmal Prasad Pandey, member of the National Planing Commission said the government has given a top priority to poverty alleviation in the Tenth Plan through a multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional population policy.

Prithvi Raj Ligal, Chairman of the National Planning Commission also spoke on the occasion.

Two Nepali students bag designing awards

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25: Two Nepali students were selected as winners for the International Design Competition held by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Headquarters in Rome. The two students were awarded the cash prizes of Rs 3,800 at a prize distribution function held at the WFP office in the capital, states a press release issued here today.

Pashupati Thapa, grade 5 of N.R Primary School, Khaprengkhola Pyuthan was declared winner in the Christmas card designing category while Shiva Raj Kunwar, grade 5 of Shree Prithvi Primary School, Lekhpokhara, Salyan won the Calender designing competition.

The Nepali students competed globally with students from many other countries around the globe, the release states. The winning students’ designs were published in the WFP international calender 2002 and on the 2001 Christmas greeting cards.

On the occasion, the principals of the winning schools were also awarded with Rs 7,600 to be used for the welfare of respective schools.

Left parties raise concern over state of emergency

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25: Eight small left parties today expressed their deep concern over the recent endorsement of the state of emergency for next three months and the liquid political situation of the country.

"At a time when the questions are at rife regarding the rationale and significance of the state of emergency, its endorsement is unfortunate for both the country and the people," a press release jointly undersigned by the representatives of the left parties has said.

The left parties expressing the concern are Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre), CPN (Masal), CPN (Marxist), CPN (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), CPN (United), Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party, National People’s Front and United People’s Front.

The release has added that the assessment of the political situation of the country in the last three months has proven that the state of emergency cannot solve the problems faced by the country.

"Therefore, we strongly urge the government and the Maoists to give way to the existing problems through negotiations," the release said.

Poverty alleviation: Still a distant dream

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DOLAKHA, Feb 25: Like many aspirant youths, Ram Bahadur Tamang at Paltle of Okhaldhunga district had left home 19 years ago in pursuit of a good job. But his dreams of greener pastures and keeping his parents in comfort melted away like the sunshine at eventide and he finally landed up breaking stones at the edge of Tamakoshi river,37 kilometers away from Kathmandu along the side of Jiri-Kathmandu highway.

Around eighty families in the region share the same fate of Ram Bahadur.

The eight-member family of Ram Bahadur are all engaged in breaking stones and the situation is such that even his two year old daughter helps her father in his work. However much the grilling labour, income is barely enough to feed the family with no money spared for the future.

Thus, the poor family has only a hut as the sole property that stands at fifteen meters off the Jiri-Kathmandu road. Even these huts owned by such poor families in the region is in threat as the Department of Roads has the policy of clearing any sort of constructions that stand along the roadside within a distance of fifteen metres from the road.

These poor ignorant people are neither aware of government policies nor of any kind of donor agencies who may help in such circumstances. How long will their wretched fate continue is still uncertain as there has not been any initiation from the government side, or any other bodies targeting these people that fall far below the poverty line.

Three-fourths VDCs deprived of telephone service in Rapti

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DANG, Feb 25: Although the government has a special plan to provide at least one telephone line to each of the Village Development Committees across the country by the end of the fiscal year 2059/60 BS, three-fourths of the VDCs in Rapti zone are still deprived of telephone service.

Bishnu Poudel, Chief of the Rapti Zonal Office of the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation at Tulsipur, said that the programme of extending telephone lines in the remaining VDCs has been suspended for an indefinite period for security reasons.

Out of the total 229 VDCs in the zone, 171 VDCs lack the communication facility. Most of the VDCs, which are still deprived of such facility, are in the hill districts of Rukum and Salyan, said Poudel. He said that the telephone extension programme in Rukum and Salyan was postponed after the Maoist rebels destroyed the two repeater towers at Holeri and Ratmata of Rolpa before and after the emergency. Following the destruction of the two repeater towers, most of the telephone lines that are operated under the VHF and Marts systems in Rolpa and Rukum have gone out of order. In Salyan, there are only five telephone lines still functioning, said Poudel.

Likewise, almost half of the VDCs situated to the northern part of Pyuthan district lack communication facility. People of these VDCs have to trek almost for two days to make a telephone call. Two telephone booths installed in Lung and Maranthana VDCs of the district were removed by the Telecom office, fearing that the facility could be misused by the rebels for their violent activities.

Situation in the inner valley of Dang is not so different from that of the neighbouring hill districts. Of the total 600 telephone lines distributed in the district, most of them have been distributed in the two municipalities – Gorahi and Tulsipur. Whatever the telephone lines that are available in the rural areas do not operate properly in most of the time, and technicians rarely visit the rural areas for their maintenance.

Poudel conceded that he could not mobilise his technicians to the rural areas for fear of the Maoist attacks. He further added that the Corporation was facing losses of over Rs. 60,0000 per month after the rebels destroyed the Ratmata-based tower in Rolpa.

Dairy reeling under crisis

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DOLKHA, Feb 25: A dairy, the first of its kind established in the district, at the joint venture of local bodies and the private parties, is reeling under crisis as the farmers ceased to supply
milk to it just after a month of its operation.

The dairy is established at Jilu, near to the district headquarters Charikot. Jilu is popular for milk in the district. The farmers in Jilu say that they decided not to supply milk to the dairy, as the pay system of the dairy, based on fat of the milk is low in sharp contrast to the payment by the hoteliers.

"The technicians came up with different results in testing the fat of the same milk at different time and we are suspicious over the testing of the milk," said a farmer at Jilu requesting anonymity.

The dairy had called a joint meeting attended by Lal Kumar K.C, the chairman of the District Development Committee (DDC), Chok Bahadur Dahal, the Mayor of Bhimeshwor Municipality, Ram Bahadur Thapa, the chief at the Animal Husbandry Office and the farmers, to come with the solution measure last Saturday. However, the meeting ended in deadlock.

The hoteliers in the Municipality rejected the idea of buying the packet milk produced by the dairy saying that the milk is dilute.

"We had launched the dairy to the benefit of the farmers at Jilu but they didn’t cooperate us," said Yagya Raj Dhungel, a member of the Dairy Management Committee.

"The dairy has been producing 340 packets of milk along with other dairy products like ghee, cream, curd and ice-cream and this, we will continue in the days to come by collecting milk from the other parts of the district," said Bishnu Ghimere, the manager of the dairy.

The dairy is set up at the total cost of Rs 2 crore and 85 lakhs in the conjunction of DDC, all the VDCs, Bhimeshwor Mnicipality, eleven cooperative institutions and 53 individual stake holders in the district.

Border demarcation almost over in east Nepal

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BHDRAPUR, Feb25: Ninety-five per cent of the work on the fixation of boundary along the eastern Nepal-India border has been completed, said a government official here today.

Addressing a programme Purna Bahdaur K.C, official at the Department of Surveyor, informed about the progress made so far on the border demarcation in the eastern Nepal-India border. The programme was held at premises of Scout Bhawan, Chandragadhi, Jhapa.

K.C. also said that the work is still going on and will be completed soon. "We have identified the damaged border pillars and have focused on their maintenance," said K.C.

He said that the controversy that is being raised on the encroachment of the land along the Nepal-India border would be resolved after the work is completed. "The strip map has been made to check the encroachment of border lands," said K.C.

It was also revealed that many of the border pillars are missing along the border. "Border pillars are really important in demarcating the borders. Hence, we will keep the border pillars according to an agreement reached earlier by the authorities of both the countries," said K.C.

A well equipped hospital and no patients

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PARBAT, Feb 25: With resumption of the twenty-four hour emergency service facility, the District Hospital in this district is winning the hearts of the populace from this district and the neighbouring ones.

People rarely visited this hospital in the past as the doctors posted at the hospital often stayed away from it.

"The emergency and OPD service in the hospital remains open for twenty-four hours at the convenience of its visitors," said Krishna Prasad Poudel, a doctor in the hospital who has been serving in the hospital since the past three months.

He added that though the hospital is equipped with modern tools in treating infants and maternal patients, very few cases of this sort appear at the hospital, as people are not acquainted with the services being provided by the hospital.

Deprived of property, Thakur turns barber

By Manoj Shrestha

KHOTANG, Feb 25: Harinarayan Thakur of Diktel, headquarters of the district, who had joined the Royal Nepal Army (Government Home Gaurds, then) in 1940, is an iota of inspiration for the youth of the country, whose life itself is a message that parental property means nothing if one beleives in personal effort and the dignity of labour.

Turned out by his brother, depriving him of his share in parental property, he started his own business of trimming hair, adopting his ancestral profession. 

He is continuing this profession for the past forty-five years and it is flourishing well in Diktel. "I started the business with the service charge of one Paisa per head and now I charge Rs 30 for the same," he says proudly, " My business has never declined and now I earn ten to twelve thousand rupees in a month."

However, Thakur, the father of four sons and a daughter is distracted by the situation
of the country. His third son, serving in the Nepal Police, was killed in an encounter with Maoist rebels.

The thought of what he will tell his grandchild, now in the womb of its mother, his daughter-in-law, is a gnawing wound in his heart that worries him the most, says an old dejected Thakur.