Grief-striken monks receive Rimpochhe’s body with heavy heart

By Sudha Shrestha

KATHMANDU, June 12 : With sadness writ large on their faces, over three thousand people including monks from 41 monasteries thronged the premises of Tribhuvan International Airport this afternoon to receive the dead body of their revered Buddhist monk, Sheychokuso Rimpochhe. There was also the presence of distinguished guests like mother of Bhutanese King and some members of the Raj Parishad Standing Committee.

At around 1:00, late Rimpochhe’s body was flown in today from Thailand where he had undergone medical treatment at Bumrung Hospital in Bangkok. The 86-year-old religious leader had long been ailing from asthma and heart problems.

As soon as the pick-up van decorated with flowers, which carried his mortal body, slowly proceeded from the airport, a procession comprising about 400 vehicles followed. The cavalcade proceeded via Ring Road to the Sangechholing monastery of Kimdole in Swayambhu. The late Buddhist leader had been living in the Sangechholing monastery as its head.

His body will be placed in the monastery for three days where Buddhist rites will be performed, according to Ang Chhiring Lama, president of All Nepal Himalayan Buddhist Association.

However, there is an under current of uncertainty as to where the final rites should be conducted. Though his followers hope it will be conducted in Nepal, members of the Bhutanese royal family wish to conduct it in Bhutan. The late Buddhist leader was born in Bhutan and is related to the present Bhutanese king through marriage.

"His Buddhist followers in Nepal are arguing that his funeral service should take place in Nepal where he spent five decades serving the country although he was born in Bhutan," said Ang Chhiring Lama.

According to him, the Nepali Buddhist followers wanted to take his body to Bhutan for a brief stopover but not for the last funeral service.

As a religious leader and social worker, late Rimpochhe was highly revered in the Buddhist communities in Nepal.

"For us, he was everything. We would go for his blessings from birth to death," said Dorje Gurung, a Buddhist devotee.

Recalling his contributions, Hemanta Kharel, secretary of Remote Area Development Committee said, "Late Rimpochhe actively worked with the committee for the preservation of monasteries in the Himalayan region as well as upliftment of Buddhist communities to bring them into the mainstream of Nepali society.

Similarly, his role as mediator in resolving the Khampa crisis in 2028 BS is equally notable.

Involved with 25 different Buddhist organisations, he had worked in different capacities including chairman of the Monastery Development Committee for many years. He also built a monastery in Bagam, established a "Buddhist Academy", school in Jorpati where over 500 children are receiving free education.

Late King Mahendra and King Birendra conferred late Rimpochhe with honours such as Gorkha Dakshin Bahu.

School the right place to begin conservation efforts

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 12 : In its bid to involve teachers and students in the management of the Central Zoo and to make them feel responsible to the zoo, King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTCN) today organised a two-day workshop for teachers.

According to R.K. Shrestha, director of the zoo, 29 teachers from the schools of the valley and 13 from Rupandehi district participated at the workshop, the first of its kind.

"It is an attempt to change the traditional philosophy of seeing zoos as a venue of mere recreation and to develop the zoo as a place of education and research," Shrestha said at a press meet.

"Schools are the right places to begin conservation efforts and teachers are the right persons to put the idea of conservation into the tender minds of thousands of pupils," Shrestha said.

Sally Walker, a known name in the network of world zoos, Dr. Ravi Aryal, a CITES expert, Dr. Mukesh Chalishe and Geeta Shrestha, a KMTCN staff were the resource persons at the workshop.

He informed that KMTCN is trying to keep up its commitment to make the zoo a venue of education, research and recreation, ever since KMTCN took responsibility of the management of the zoo in 1996. The zoo has already set up a zoo network of schools to prove its commitment. Besides, many students from different schools have already become its members.

Focus on elimination of child labour

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 12 : An international programme concerning the elimination of child labour was organised in association with the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) here today. This year’s "International Day Against Child Labour" focuses the worst form of child labour and children who are the victims of trafficking.

Speaking at the programme the director of ILO Leyla Tegmo-Reddy said today is the day to honour children’s courage, determination and their ability to survive in circumstances, which most people find very difficult.

She said that trafficking represents the most extreme violation of the rights of children and it was necessary to protect children from exploitation and abuse. "If they have been abused, they require counselling from someone professionally trained to talk to, who will understand their sorrow," she said.

She also highlighted the 2002 global report of ILO that says there are approximately 1.2 million children around the world who are involved in trafficking. According to her Nepal is also not far from this critical situation of children.

"We cannot fight this battle alone, we work side by side with ministries, trade unions, employers’ groups and also the NGO community," she added.

Similarly, officials of the Ministry of Women, Child and Social Welfare said that they were implementing a 10-year master plan which would work against trafficking and child labour.

11 Nepalis possessing fake passports stranded in Malaysia

By Saraswati Karki

DAMAK (Jhapa), June 12 : Nearly a dozen Nepali workers remain stranded in Malaysia after they were found possessing fake passports.

Prem Kumar Basnet, a resident of Sanishchare - 5 and Dilli Upreti of Amardaha - 7 in Morang were among those left in the lurch for possessing counterfeit passports.

They arrived in Malaysia around June last year through Kathmandu-based Greater Vision Manpower Company hoping to find employment to support their families back home.

"Six others from Jhapa and Sunsari are also stranded," Shyam Siwakoti said quoting his brother-in-law Upreti as saying him on phone today.

Upon their arrival in Malaysia, they were employed at a Bakery for about three months. The Bakery then expelled them and handed them over to the police following complaints that their passports were ‘illegal’.

It is learnt that the police set them free but without any job to do, they are facing untold hardships to survive in an expensive foreign country.

The company’s manager Raju Rai tried in vain to arrange an alternative but has not been able to do anything worthwhile so far, according to Siwakoti.

Hom Nath Gautam, Santosh Gautam and Shanti Ram Gautam of Pathari, Morang have also been left stranded in Malaysia since the last month following a reported duplication of their passports.

All the three paid Rs 80,000 each to brokers associated with the Company in order to be eligible to travel to Malaysia for employment. The brokers include: Mohan Dangal of Pathari, Morang, Baburam Dahal of Jhapa’s Maharanijhoda and Roshan Subba of Terhathum, according to Laxmi Gautam, father of Hom Nath and Santosh

"I sent some money so that they could survive in Malaysia," he said.

Gautam is said to have borrowed Rs 160,000 required in the process of sending his sons to Malaysia.

Not long ago, Bishnu Bhandari, a resident of Pathari, Morang was arrested by Mumbai police on similar grounds and was fined Rs 95,000 before setting him free.

Motorcyclist hits man to death

Post Report

RAJBIRAJ, June 12 : A cyclist identified as Manishi Yadav, 50, died instantly after a motorcyclist hit him at Bhardaha near the Kosi barrage yesterday night, according to police. Police inspector Tankamani Shrestha said that Parameshwor Yadav, the motorcyclist, was arrested 15-km away from the scene of incident for legal action.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Gorkha states that 13 passengers were injured when a bus they were aboard and which was heading towards the district headquarters from Ghyampesal of Gorkha tumbled over to one side near Deragaon of Finam VDC today afternoon.

Of the 13 injured, five were admitted to the Gorkha Hospital which included two children. According to the doctor of this hospital, Jeeban Khanal, all are out of danger. The eight others who sustained minor injury already left after receiving basic treatment. Similarly, information from Rautahat states, that a night bus bearing the number plate NA 2 KHA 4160 bound for Dharan from Kathmandu had been stopped, stoned down and damaged by a group of six youths at Paurahi-1 on the Mahendra Highway in Rautahat on Wednesday night.

It is learnt from the sources of the police that this act of vandalism from the youths were merely out of revenge, when they had been forced to climb out of the bus near the forest of Chandranigahapur at night a month ago as they refrained to pay the high fare that the collector tried to impose on them.

Osaka Municipality provides food items to the displaced

Post Report

SIMIKOT, Humla, June 12 : The Japanese ambassador for Nepal, Zenji Kaminaga, distributed away food items provided by the Japanese government as relief assistance, to 14 families who were displaced due to the internal war.

According to Emergency Food Programmes for the victims of war and violence which was to be conducted in the nine districts of the mid-western region, the relief food materials from Japan were distributed to the members of the insurgency-displaced families of Humla on Thursday.

Participating at the distribution programme, the ambassador Kaminaga requested the members of the displaced families to accept this small relief package as a token of friendship reminding them of the age-old ties existing between the two nations. Distribution of food items during the time of natural calamities such as earthquake in Japan had been of immense help to Japanese populace and he hoped that it would benefit the Nepalese victims in a similar manner to some extent, he added.

According to the information provided by the joint secretary of Home Ministry, Sharad Chandra Paudel, 37 metric tons of relief food items collected and contributed by the Osaka municipality of Japan and had been transported by the Japanese government to Nepal.

Acute shortage of blood affects operations

Post Report

NARAYANGADH, June 12 : There is an acute shortage of blood at the Blood Bank in Bharatpur. This has been ascribed to the extreme hot weather. This, added with the vulnerability of getting afflicted with various kinds of diseases, is keeping the general populace from donating blood.

Even various social organisations have shown little interest in such activities, leading to a drastic drop in blood collection.

Due to this shortage, three hospitals in Bharatpur have mainly been affected. It is feared that if this situation continues, it may disrupt their daily operations remarkably. Previously in this Blood Bank, there used to keep a reserve of 300 units of blood on an average, but now the reserve has dropped down to a mere 20 units.

It is learnt that this shortage has been existing there for the past two weeks. The Cancer Hospital requires 20 to 30 units of blood daily, while the requirement of the Bharatpur Medical College and the Bharatpur Hospital has been 10 and 5 units respectively, informed the chief at the Bharatpur Blood Bank, Ramesh Kanta Paudel. Since this blood bank has failed to meet the demand of these hospitals, the patients in these hospitals have been arranging blood required for their treatment through donations from their kith and kin.

The Bharatpur hospital which is situated central to Prithvi Highway, and the Mahendra Highway, is often swamped by the victims of road accidents. Paudel says that they have been providing blood only for the emergency cases recently.

Though about 700 units of blood used to be collected every month at this blood centre, the collection has been very scanty this time, he added. This time not much zeal has been shown even by the political parties and various student organisations, who were quite keen previously, which was attributable to the students’ protests that have been around every nook and corner these days, concedes Paudel.

The surgeon at the Cancer Hospital of Bharatpur, Dr Nirmal Lamichhane contends that if this shortage continues, then it can dreadfully affect the operations of the cancer patients. However, he maintains that none of the operations has been stopped so far, as the patients have been managing most of the blood requirements on their own.

Demand for clear cut school management policies

Post Report

POKHARA, June 12 : School headmasters and parents here demanded for a clear and pragmatic policy for the management hand-over of government-aided schools. They also demanded timely release of the money in order to intensify the process of transfer of public schools to local communities.

Speaking at a discussion programme organised here by the Education Journalists’ Group (EJG), Rabindra Adhikari, secretary of CPN-UML Kaski district said, "If the government is simply trying to escape, then it is going to be a failure, if it is genuine, this move is positive."

"This policy will prove fruitful only if the government launches massive awareness programme and funnels in more funds and resources directly to schools," he said. None of the eight government schools in Kaski district, which have applied for the hand-over to community, have received anything from the government so far though they were promised a block grant amounting to Rs 100,000 each upon their hand-over to local people.

Speakers today demanded the release of the funds as soon as possible if at all the government’s policy is to materialise.

"We must get back what we were promised by the government," said Padam Prasad Subedi, headmaster of Srijana Community School in Dhikurpokhari, Kaski. This school was handed-over to the community for its management some three months ago but has yet to receive the grants.

According to Subedi, the grants from the government would be utilised entirely in classroom construction. The school desperately needs additional classrooms to upgrade teaching standards and enrol more pupils. Speakers, during the open discussion, said that teachers are becoming more regular and parents increasingly concerned about their schools and children in community-owned schools.

Kedarnath Adhikari, chairman of the School Management Committee (SMC) of Parashu Primary School in Dhikurpokhari, Kaski also shared his feeling.