Essential medicines fall short in capital

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KATHMANDU, Aug 13 A prolonged strike on drug imports initiated by druggists last Thursday in response to tariff hike, and road blockage due to landslides have begun taking their toll as the supply of essential drugs have fallen short in the capital. If the strike is continued, the impact could be disastrous, warn medical professionals.

The stocks of saline and IPD-fluid that is used for peritoneal dialysis in kidney patients have dipped precariously in many of the hospitals in the capital. Subendra Rajbhandari, pharmacist at B&B Hospital said customers are facing severe inconvenience owing to insufficient supply of saline.

According to Rajbhandari, on an average, 50-60 bottles of saline are consumed daily at B&B alone. "Since saline is used extensively in emergency cases, things could easily have far-reaching consequences if supply is not resumed soon," he said.

Agyani Tuladhar of New Road was spotted by The Kathmandu Post queuing at the pharmacy outside the Teaching Hospital to purchase saline. "My mother is to undergo a kidney operation at a private nursing home in Maharajgunj, but I could not find saline there," said Tuladhar.

Similarly, many kidney patients have been returned disappointed from hospitals and Nursing Homes as IPD-fluid is no longer in supply. Binay Giri, administrator of the hospital said despite maintaining stocks for regular contingencies, the impacts of a strike as prolonged as this one could not be checked.

Meanwhile, the Maternity Hospital and the Model Hospital have been facing an acute shortage of Phenargan, the widely preferred anti-allergic injection in the country. C.M. Niroula, pharmacist at the Maternity Hospital said at a normal consumption other indispensable drugs would run short the next day if supplies were not resumed.

One of the pharmacists of M.N. Pharmacy, Chabahil, produced a long list of drugs that were already out of stock. These drugs included local anesthetics, painkillers, stimulants and antidotes used in emergency.

A doctor at OM Nursing Home said under conditions of anonymity, "If the strike is to carry on even for a day or two more, unfortunate consequences will be hard to avoid".

Meanwhile, diabetics may have serious reasons to worry as the supply of insulin has fallen scarce in the market. Salil Shrestha, 47, of Kalanki was unable to find the injection today despite making rounds of various pharmacies in the valley. "My father desperately needs it. I tried many medical shops but to no avail," he said.

An official at a general medical store at the Bir Hospital said under conditions of anonymity that customers have been swarming in huge numbers to the store looking for medicines of all sorts. "A number of people have come to our store after they could not find injections for diabetes, rabies and salines in other stores," he said. The store has, however, managed to maintain sufficient supplies till now.

There are about 6,000 drugs sold in the market and more than 70 percent of the drugs including most crucial life-saving medicines are manufactured in India. Only oral medicines like antibiotics and tablets are manufactured in Nepal.

Focus on quality education

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KATHMANDU, Aug 13 Speakers at a programme organised here to mark the 41st anniversary of Nepal University Teachers’ Association (NUTA) stressed the need for raising the quality of education in the country to keep in pace with the fast developing world. On the occasion, they emphasised the need for increasing grant for the higher education to compete with the international standard of education.

Speaking at the programme, Dr. Govinda Prasad Sharma, vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University, said the budget allocated does not meet university expenses. Pointing out the need for world-class education he said, "it is high time to think about our credibility and make necessary changes"

Speaking in the similar vein Dr. Homnath Bhattarai, chairman of the University Grant Commission said, "Since Nepal is soon to enter WTO, improvements should be made to sustain universities of Nepal among other universities in the world." At the function, intellectuals also stressed the need for peace and raised concern over the current turmoil in the country.

On the occasion another speaker Dr Mangalsiddhi Manandhar said, "Professors should play an active role to resolve the current political stalemate in the country."

Customers attempt to rape two waitresses

BY SANGEETA RIJAL

KATHMANDU, Aug 13 Restaurants staging Dohari ( a form of group singing) performances are considered to be safer than cabin and dance restaurants in terms of security.

However, in ironic twist of fate, owners of such Dohari restaurants themselves turn tormentors with some of them even compelling their lady workers to go out with customers.

Take the case of these two girls Anita and Sarita (name changed). Reporting for duty as waitresses at New Vetghat, Chabahil, the duo were sexually abused by two customers on the very second day. Anita originally hails from Hetauda while Sarita is from Charikot. They are currently staying at Baudha and Jorpati respectively.

Hoping for a more safer working environment than the restaurant where the two were then working, the two girls joined New Vetghat Dohari.

With tears in their eyes, the two girls said it was their owner Shyam Shrestha who assured them that they could reach home safely with those two customers.

"Go with these brothers. They will drop you home safely, " the owner assured them.

Their ordeal began on Sunday when they got on the car that was meant to drop them home safely after work at ten in the night.

While in the car, the girls turned suspicious when the vehicle instead of proceeding towards

Jorpati, headed in the direction of Gaushala.

After crossing the Bagmati pool, the hapless girls were driven to an unknown destination where the two men, aged around 29 years, pulled Sarita out of the car and tried to rape her.

After the two girls up a spirited resistance, the two men packed them into the vehicle and dropped them off near Tilganga around midnight. From here, the two girls went directly to the restaurant and confronted the owner who feigned ignorance about the entire episode and after due apologies dropped the two at their residences. Incidentally, a few policemen, who were drinking beer along with the owner turned a blind eye to the woes.

The next evening when the two victims approached the women’s cell located within Kalimati police station, the lady constable refused to register their complaint on the plea that the police lawyer has left for the day, asking them instead to come the next day.

Tuesday being a public holiday, the two girls finally managed to lodge a complaint on Wednesday, a good three days after the incident.

"Today we have registered our case but Meera Chaudhary, inspector of the women’s cell branded us as being of bad character and blamed the entire incident as arising out of a monetary dispute," said Anita pitifully.

"We are not prostitutes. As a police officer, it was her duty to inquire properly. How did she hurl such an accusation against us," she questioned.

However, when The Kathmandu Post contacted Meera Chaudhary, she flatly denied saying anything derogatory against the two girls.

Currently both the girls, who are sick, are under the care of Mit Nepal, an organisation involved in the welfare of women working in special sectors.

‘Depoliticise education sector’

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KATHMANDU, Aug 13 Minister of Education and Sports Hari Bahadur Basnet said that politicisation of the education sector has thwarted the advancement of educational achievements despite tremendous money being funneled into the sector every year.

"Don’t politicise the education sector. Leave this sector alone from the influence of party politics," he told a gathering of District Education Officers (DEOs) at a weeklong workshop, which got underway here today.

He said that politics is the significant factor that thwarts advancement of education sector in Nepal though the donors are willing to lend any amount of money for the sector.

"If the political parties de-politicise the education sector, it could make a great stride forward to achieve the goals for universal education," he said.

Minister Basnet said that the government has no dearth of money and that many donors have assured financial support to the government.

He said that the implementation of the National Plan of Action for achieving the ambitious goal of "Education for All" by 2015 requires nearly three trillion rupees, still the donors and international communities have assured financial support to achieve the goal.

"When it comes to implementing, it’s you, not us," he told all the 75 DEOs who have gathered here for a workshop, which is annually held in Kathmandu to ‘review the progress made in education in the districts.

Speaking on behalf of Nepal’s development partners, Susan Dotson, representative of the European Commission (EC) said that implementation was the biggest bottleneck in Nepal to realise the plans and objectives of education sector. "Implementation is the key to the education of children in this country," she said.

"You are the key persons to implement education programme. You have a big job to do," she told the DEOs. She said that over the last few months donors’ representatives have visited some districts. "The message they brought us was that you need to be more effective and that you need to increase the quality of education in Nepal."

"We have also found that in some cases, there are not enough teachers, in some cases, they are not qualified," she added. Satya Bahadur Shrestha, director general at the Department of Education, which organised the workshop, said the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) has increased to 81.1 per cent for children in the six to ten years age group.

He also said that access has increased and that awareness on education in mountains and hills has risen over the last few years.

Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), said enrollment itself is not an indicator of progress in education unless cycle completion rate has increased.

He said that a great deal of educational wastage has occurred till date, which needs to be minimised.

Maoists’ extortion, recruitment drive still on

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KATHMANDU, Aug 13 Maoist cadres have continued with recruitment and extortion in the rural areas despite the fact that their leadership has agreed to sit for the third round of talks with the government in Nepalgunj on Sunday.A report from Taplejung has it that the Maoists have recruited unemployed youths in their militia from the areas under their control.

A teacher who arrived in Fungling, the district headquarters of Taplejung, told The Kathmandu Post that the rebels have recruited many youths in the Maoist militia assuring them of merging in the government forces once the peace talks were concluded. The teacher, who did not want to be named, said the rebels were also conducting regular military training at Niguradin and Sagrante of Tehrathum district.

"The villagers are required to provide either money or man for the cause of the Maoist movement," the teacher quoted the rebel leaders as saying.

Meanwhile, a report from Bajura stated that youths of the mountain district of Mugu have fled home in groves for fear of forcible recruitment by the Maoists.

A group of six people from Kalaigaon Village Development Committee who trekked for three days to arrive in Martadi, the district headquarters of Bajura, said they fled their home to go to India after the Maoists insisted them to join their party. But they were unsure where they would end up in India.

"We may end up as porters in any part of India," Jalanath Yogi said, adding that he left behind his children and wife at God’s mercy. He further added that life was very expensive at his village because price of all daily consumption is more than double.

Talks on curriculum development held

RSS

BIRATNAGAR, Aug 13 The Eastern University, Biratnagar, organised an interaction programme here on Wednesday with the objective of developing the right curriculum for M.SC.

programme for "Population Management, Gender Studies and Rural development" to be included from this year under the university.

Some 30 persons including concerned subject experts, representatives of the university and the organisations providing cooperation to the development of the curriculum are taking part in the two-day interaction programme.

The discussion aims to help develop a curriculum that would help face the problems of the country, such as alleviating poverty the in the nation, producing skilled manpower, development of villages and providing suitable education and training to the students which will be an added assest for the overall development of the country.

For the curriculum development and enforcement, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has agreed to provide a financial assistance of 130,000 US dollars for a period for four years.

Speaking on the occasion, vice-chancellor of the university Toran Bahadur Karki said the curriculum that would be enforced from this year will be very relevant to Nepal and would help stop the existing trend of producing literate unemployed in the country.

Also expressing their views on the occasion were national assembly member Ashok Koirala, chief judge of Biratnagar appellate court Sharada Prasad Pandit, registrar Dr Krishna Raj Sharma and others. Dean of the Department of Management of the university Kulshekhar Adhikari presided over the programme .

Tuladhar positive about talks outcome

BY J PANDEY

BANKE, Aug 13 Kamal Thapa, Minister for Information and Communications and one of the members of the government negotiator, is learnt to have assured the Maoist negotiators that outcomes of the third round of talks would be acceptable to the King.

Minister Thapa is learnt to have made this assurance during a secret meeting with Maoist negotiators Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Krishna Bahadur Mahara held yesterday at the residence of Dhawal Shumsher Rana, the former mayor of the Nepalgunj Municipality.

"It seems that the King is also committed to the outcomes of the peace talks," said Padma Ratna Tuladhar, one of the facilitators for the peace talks, who was also present during the second sitting of the secret meet. He also said that both the sides also held discussions on the King and the army.

Suspecting the government’s role, the Maoists had earlier demanded the King’s involvement in the peace process.

"The Maoists have an impression that they are going to hold talks with the government on Sunday as the King’s representative," Tuladhar said. He also added that both the sides agreed that sporadic incidents of violence at grass-roots level would be automatically controlled provided that there was a mutual understanding at the highest level. Maoist side is learnt to have expressed that they did not want to waste time and energy on technical and minor issues.

He said both the sides agreed to follow all the procedures and maintain records of the decisions taken during the third round of peace talks.

7-year-old innocent girl languishes in jail

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KAPILVASTU, Aug 13 Ajbira Saiyad Musalman, a girlchild studying in the third standard at a local school here, is now spending her days in the Kapilvastu prison.

She is in the jail not because she committed some crime, but because her parents are lodged inside this prison.

Since she had nobody to take care of her after her parents were arrested, she was left with no choice but join them as well.

Ajbira, who is a resident of Bhalward VDC-8, had been pursuing her education at Bal Kalyan Primary School situated in Bardawa village.

The down-to-earth, simple, intelligent, yet hardworking student who stood first in the class one final exam , had just recently been promoted to class two.

Recalling the event, she said that she had been gifted with pencil and copies for doing so well in the final exam. She concedes that though she had an intense desire to carry on with her studies, she is forced to live inside the prison of four walls, in the absence of a guardian to take care of her.

Her parents are languishing in prison for the past one month after they were charged with involvement in girl trafficking.

Her father Jalkari Saiyad Musalman and her mother Bakali Saiyad Musalman had been sentenced to imprisonment by the Kapilvastu district court, on the charge of selling 20-year-old Lakshmi Beka. Lakshmi, who was sold at Matwan-nagar in India, however, had managed to escape
and narrated her ordeal of having being sold for Rs 5,000 by the Musalman couple, which landed the duo behind bars.

A case is underway at the court against the culprit couple, and if a guilty verdict is passed, they are liable to face punishment of anywhere between 10 to 20 years of imprisonment.

According to the jailer, Surya Bahadur Yadav, all efforts made to provide some familial custody to the girl went in vain. If some proper custody is not provided to this innocent child in time, it might have terrible consequences on her psychological and future growth, reiterated the Chief District Officer (CDO), Modraj Dotel.

Locals demand transfer of APF barrack

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KHOTANG, Aug 13 Residents of Diktel, the headquarters of Khotang district, are incensed with the government for putting up a barrack of Armed Police Force (APF) at the heart of Diktel bazaar.

Though the government justified its act stating that the move was taken in view of security measures, locals worry over the occurrence of any untoward event due to the presence of the APF barrack.

The barrack was placed as per the decision of the security committee for better security measures of the district, according to security sources.

However, the locals are terrorised by this development and want the barrack to be shifted immediately, according to a merchant.

Around three dozen Diktel residents signed a document demanding immediate transfer of the barrack and submitted the same to the various concerned bodies through the District Administration Office (DAO).

The application is addressed to the District Police Office, Regional Office, Dhankuta,
Regional APF Office, Biratnagar, Ministry of Home, Office of the Prime Minister among thers.

However, Rabi Kumar Thapa, the additional inspector general of APF feigned ignorance over the issue.

Dalits to boycott carcass feeding

By Dil Bahadur Chhatyal

DIPAYAL, Aug 13 Dalits in remote villages of Doti district are gearing up to boycott the age-old practice of feeding on carcass. Backed by various organisations, the Dalits have started awareness campaigns to uplift their lives.

As part of the campaign, Dalits in Sanagaon staged a rally chanting slogans against carcass feeding recently. They chanted slogans such as "I shall neither eat carcass nor dispose a dead animal of so-called higher class people." The rally was initiated by National Dalit Society.

It is a common practice in the hilly districts of far-western Nepal that each Dalit family has contact with an upper class family called Rithi or the master. Whenever a cattle of a Rithi dies, the concerned Dalit family is informed. The family drags the dead cattle to their house with the help of neighbours. The carcass is then cut into pieces for consumption, informed Janaki Devi Nepali of Mudhbhara area.

"Sometimes Dalits here eat a cattle even two days after its death," said Nepali. "It has been the duty of Dalits to dispose off the dead cattle of upper class people. This is the very reason why Dalits are viewed as untouchables."

Feeding on carcass is the psychological reason why the upper class society regards Dalits as untouchables, according to Raju Nepali, a member of Dalit Women Organisation, Doti.

Due to lack of awareness and illiteracy, Dalits consider that they are destined to feed carcass and subjected to stay in a dirty environment, opined intellectuals. As the Dalits consume carcass, they are found infected with various types of diseases. Epidemics often surface in Dalit communities due to carcass eating, according to Rajendra Kandel, a health assistant at the Regional Health Directorate.