Japan to extend food packages to insurgency affected people

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KATHMANDU, March 7 : The Government of Japan is going to provide relief food packages and transportation cost to the Nepalese government for their distribution to those displaced or affected by insurgency.

The Embassy of Japan and Home Ministry signed an agreement to this effect here today.

Charge d‘Affaires at the Embassy of Japan Kazumi Suzuki said that 36 tons of food packages donated by the local governments in Japan via Japan Society for Promotion of Diplomacy are to be handed over to the Government of Nepal under the Emergency Food Supply for Insurgency- Affected People project.

Each package will contain pre-cooked and dried food, which can be instantly consumed after keeping in water for some time. Such food packages are prepared and stocked by the Japanese local governments to be distributed and used in emergency situations like earthquake, fire, flood, and they contain nutritious foods including rice, vegetables, beans and so on.

The Japanese Government is going to provide US $ 80,743 needed for the transportation of food to Nepalgunj and will hand over the consignment to the Home Ministry.

Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry Umesh Prasad Mainali informed the press that there are 7,373 insurgency-displaced people in Nepal out of whom 2,205 would receive the food aid. "The available food is equivalent to 362,750 meals and will last for around three months for 2,205 people" he said.

The project would cover nine districts, namely, Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Pyuthan, Jajarkot, Humla, Jumla, Kalikot and Bardiya and would especially concentrate on the mid-western region.

Nepal would bear the cost of internal transport after the food packages are handed over at Nepalgunj and the Home Ministry would be responsible for the distribution of the food items to the affected people.

British Council to host ‘Open Day’

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KATHMANDU March 7 : As part of its continued commitment to expand its work throughout Nepal,the British Council is hosting an ‘Open Day’, on March 9, in Bharatpur at the Royal Centuri Hotel.

There will also be representatives from three of the main British organisations in Nepal, namely from the immigration section of the British Embassy in Kathmandu, the Department for International Development and also from the Nepal Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Each organization will be offering information regarding its services and work in Nepal, including advice from the British Council on the British education system and studying in the UK; British examinations including the International English language Testing System(IELTS), as well as information on World Wide Web based resourses.There will also be information on visa requirements for study in the UK, as well as advice on development activity in Nepal and business opportunity between Nepal and the UK.

The event itself will consists of verbal presentation, Web-based activity, information provision stands and of course, staff will be available to answer questions.There will also be a free raffle with great prizes.The event is free of charge and all are welcome.

Ex-Gurkhas to continue fight for equal rights

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KATHMANDU March 7 : Chairman of the Nepal Ex-Army Organisation Major Deepak Bahadur Gurung on Friday said that the British government was likely to end the recruitment of Gurkhas in its army, had the organisation lost the case in the UK’s court.

"Though we were not informed formally, we learnt that the British government was considering to dismantle the 200-year-old historical tie with the Gurkha brigade," Gurung said at a press conference organised here today. "Had the British decided on that, it would have been unfortunate for us."

A few days ago, the London High Court had dismissed the case filed by the ex-Gurkhas, who had demanded for their pension and retirement allowance on par with their British counterpart.

At present, there are 3,500 Nepali Gurkhas with the British army.

"We have lost the case and we are saddened. But now we have to work at the diplomatic level to fight for our right to equal pension," said Gurung.

He said that the ex-Gurkhas would now pressure both the Nepali and the British governments at the diplomatic level to settle their long-standing problems.

"The pension of the Gurkhas and British differ by almost four times and we will not keep quiet on this outright discrimination," he said.

WHF resolution calls for ban on cow slaughter

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KATHMANDU March 7 : With a view to establishing a global Hindu village in Kathmandu, the World Hindu Federation (WHF) publicity committe organized a press conference today to inform about the resolutions made at the WHF general assembly held in the Indian city of Gorakhpur from February 13 to 15.

The WHF general assembly has in the resolution urged the government of Nepal and India to impose a ban on slaughter of cows and respect the feelings of the Hindu community. The resolution also recalls the struggle carried on by the Hindu community for centuries for imposing ban on the slaughter of cows.

Speaking at the conference, Major General Bharat Keshar Singh, who has been unanimously elected as a new president of international committe in the general assembly said, "Since Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom, we should give more emphasis on preserving the Hindu religion."

He expressed dissatisfaction over making Sanskrit as an optional subject in the school curriculum and demanded to make it compulsory. He also said, "For the first time I felt very proud when prominent sadhus of India regarded the Nepali mud as precisous as sandalwood.

Similarly, Diwakar Chand, the general secretary of WHF said,"We have developed WHF as an umbrella organization for the preservation of Hindu religion in around 32 countries."

The WHF, established in 2037B.S, has planned to open a Smriti Bhavan (memorial hall) in the memory of Yogi Naraharinath who passed away recently.

Wardens against private breeding of elephants

By Prabhakar Ghimire

SAURAHA, Chitwan, March 7 : Wardens involved in various national parks and wildlife experts have expressed dissatisfaction over the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation’s proposal allowing private sector to breed elephants and to use them for taking tourists around the national parks, including Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP).

Environmentalists said that the elephants to be raised by the private sector should not be allowed to take tourists inside the park, which is already under environmental threats because of the presence of park elephants.

They have demanded the Ministry to annul the "domestic elephant management policy, 2059" that would further cause environmental damages to the park, which is home to the endangered one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger, among others. The policy, proposed by the Ministry for discussion, received flak from wildlife experts and wardens when it was tabled during the 19th Warden Conference, organised by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation today.

The new policy envisaged allowing private sector to breed elephants, their movement into the park and their use for commercial purposes. The wardens cautioned the government that the park’s environment would be at stake if elephants of private sector were allowed to enter.

"It takes at least 15 to 20 years for a tree to grow. But an adult elephant can topple it within a few minutes," a conservation expert said, "Why did the policymakers not think over it?" They expressed suspicion, saying that draft of the policy was brought to serve vested interests of certain groups involved in the tourism business.

The wardens, who participate in the conference said, "Breeding the endangered elephants by private sector and allowing them to enter the park is just like indirectly handing the park over to private parties."

According to the existing provision, the elephants owned by hotels located around the RCNP are not allowed to take tourists inside the park. They either have to depend on the elephants of the RCNP to take their guests inside the park by paying a certain amount of fee or have to take them inside the community forestry for a jungle safari. The participants suspected that the government policymakers brought this draft influenced by the hotel owners who have a number of elephants at their disposal.

According to the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), poaching and trade of elephant is strictly prohibited worldwide.

The participants raised strong objections over the government’s decision to allow the private sector to breed the animals prohibited under CITES of which Nepal is a signatory. They cited poor condition of elephants raised by private sectors in India, where the mammals are ill-treated, tortured and widely misused for commercial purposes. There are around 160 elephants, including the ones own by the RCNP, inside and outside RCNP.

Concluding the conference, Director General of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Swoyambhu Man Amatya said that suggestions received from the participants would be accommodated in the proposed draft and further revised before giving a final shape. The conference was concluded today by adopting a 19-point resolution related to wildlife conservation and people’s participation in controlling wildlife poaching.

Suspected Maoist girl released by Kanchanpur DAO

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MAHENDRANAGAR, March 7 : An 18-year-old girl arrested on charges of being a Maoist has been released from detention after she resorted to hunger strike unto death. She, Hema Hamal, was arrested 13 months ago. With the declaration of the cease-fire she submitted an appeal to the District Administration Office, Kanchanpur and went on a hunger strike. The DAO had to release her because of her poor health condition. Earlier she had appealed to the authorities pleading innocence. She was released on condition that she would report to the DAO whenever called.

Hema Hamal, 18, a resident of Nawadurga VDC-9 of Dadeldhura district started the hunger strike since Feb 28, pleading the District Administration Office (DAO) through a letter that she was not a Maoist. She made this move after cease-fire declaration, according to a family source.

Security force of Daha Barrack had arrested Hamal with her friend Sapani Nepali of Bajhang district as they were leaving for the plain belt of the country, 13 months ago.

As her health deteriorated in the jail, she was admitted to the district hospital on Tuesday. However, she refused even the administration of saline water or glucose water despite relentless efforts by the health workers, security personnel, human rights activists and journalists, till yesterday evening, according to Dr. Lok Raj Paneru, the chief at the hospital.

"She was ready to undergo treatment and take glucose water only after the DAO agreed to release her on bail in the presence of her father," said Paneru.

"The DAO has released her on condition that she would report to the DAO whenever they required her to be present," said Tilak Bahadur Hamal, the father. "My daughter had to remain silent for a long period before the truce."

Truck with 120kg hashish seized in Rautahat

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RAUTAHAT, March 7 : A police patrol team has confiscated 120 Kg of hashish from a truck that was parked on the highway on Thursday.

The patrol team that was making its round on Thursday evening grew suspicious of the truck bearing the no. Ja 1 Kha 498 that had been parked beside the road near Chandranigahapur VDC-1, and when they checked the truck thorough they found 17 bags of neatly packed hashish inside the truck, said the inspector of police, Shivaraj Rai, to The Kathmandu Post correspondent.

Since no documents of the truck’s owner have been found from the truck, it is believed that this truck had been used for the transportation of the hashish previously also, contented Rai.

It is learnt that this is the first time that Chandranigahapur police has confiscated such a large quantity of hashish.

This confiscated hashish has been registered and forwarded for necessary action, while the police has sent a letter to the transportation office to find out the owner of this abandoned truck.

Childhood development scheme in Siraha

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KATHMANDU, March 7 : Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres are making rapid progress in schooling outcomes in the district of Siraha, a report of the Save the Children released on Friday, said.

The report, which was made public at a programme, held here in the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office shows that ECD children attend school eleven times more than the non-ECD children. It also shows that children who attend ECD classes before getting into grade one are less likely to dropout and show better pass rates.

It shows that in grade one, 81 percent of the children, who attended ECD centres have passed their examinations while only 61 percent passed the same grade from those groups who had not attended the ECD.

While 36.5 percent of grade one children in non-ECD group repeated every year, only 5.5 percent of the ECD group repeated the same grade, according to the report commissioned by Save the Children.

"This one-year snapshot demonstrates the significant support that ECD can provide to children in their early years of school," said Caroline Arnold, regional child development and education advisor, Save the Children, USA/Norway, Asia Pacific. She was presenting the report entitled "Nepal ECD Impact Study". Ian MacLeod, UNICEF’s senior programme officer was also present at the occasion.

In the schools, which have ECD centres, boy/girl ratios in the class stand at 50:50 while in non-ECD schools, it remained only 61:39, she said.

However, the report was silent about the mobility of the children in such ECD, cost involved in running the programme and had sidelined other aspects such as health and nutrition, which could directly or indirectly impact on pre-schooling outcomes, experts said commenting on the report.

District food depots devoid of grains

By Motilal Poudel

SURKHET, March 7 : Depots at the district headquarters in remote Karnali zone of mid-west region have enough food grains. However, the populace away from the headquarters is likely to face starvation as tender notices issued several times failed to evoke responses from any party, according to sources.

"Even the tender issued for the fourth time failed to evoke any responses," said Amar Khadka, the chief of Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) branch office in Surkhet.

People in many districts of this zone are deprived of government subsidised food stuffs for the past one and a half year due to choppers denying to transport grains for security reasons. Thus, the food depots outside the headquarters have remained closed, according to sources.

Choppers stopped flying foodstuffs after the imposition of emergency in the country for security reasons. Still transportation cost from the headquarters to other parts of the district is cheaper if carried out via land than by choppers.

"Food transportation by land is 30 times cheaper than the cost by choppers. What else are we to do when the notices issued four times fail to evoke any responses?" asked Khadka.

In absence of food grains, Thripu, Paadamgadh and Khallagadh food depots in Kalikot district are closed. Similarly, other depots that have been closed are Jumlakot and Dhapasinja in Jumla district, Shrinagar and Sarkegadh in Humla district, Kaigaon, Liku Sarmi and Dho in Dolpa district and Sorkot and Shrikot in Mugu district, according to (NFC) branch office in Surkhet.

Since the food grains could not be transported to other depots from the respective district headquarters, Mugu has a stock of 3,682 quintals of grains, Jumla has 7,175 quintals, and Humla has 4,808 quintals.

Similarly, Kalikot has a stock of 3,700 quintals and Dolpa a stock of 2,670 quintals of grains, according to (NFC) branch office in Surkhet.

Three Chepang children hit by cruel twist of fate

By Pratap Bista

KANKADA, Makwanpur, March 7 : Three Chepang minors of Kankada VDC-4 are going through a harsh situation after fate took away their father, the only bread earner of the family. Their mother had eloped with another man last year. They are now left without a father after Tokche Praja met his death after falling down from a cliff on Sunday.

Praja worked either as labourer or searched for bulbs and wild roots in the forests to feed his children. On the fateful day, he went to the jungle to look for some wild roots and died when he fell down a cliff.

Nanimaiya, 2, Dina Praja, 7 and Agulal Praja, 10, the three unlucky children who stay in a hut atop the steppe Sikardanda in the VDC, went without food for two days after their father’s death, according to sources.

"Upon knowing the incident, the neighbours have been giving food to the children," said Kamala Gole, a local woman. "While the eldest son wept on hearing about the death of their father, the other two did not react."

Located at a three hours walk from Manahari bazaar that falls along Narayangardh-Hetauda section of the Mahendra highway, the hut housing the children is not good enough to protect them from cold, heat and rain. The children have no food stored in their house. The maternal grandmother had given them some maize flour on Tuesday.

"Tokche Praja would often say that he would enrol his children to the school from the coming academic session. Now his dreams may remain unfulfilled," said Dicha Lama, a teacher at local Devitar Primary School.

44,000 new TB patients identified every year

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BARA, March 7 : Every year 80,000 people are afflicted by tuberculosis in some form in Nepal, and 44,000 TB patients are added to the list each year, states the data.

The existing situation of tuberculosis as stated in the data prepared by the experts was revealed in a one-day seminar organised by the Simara Health Post.

Speaking at the seminar, the experts shed light on how the DOTS treatment had been employed in 75 districts and after its adoption in 1997 how the rate of TB deaths has gradually declined.

Before the adoption of the DOTS method the yearly deaths from this disease ranged between 15,000 to 16,000, which then slid down to between 8,000 and 11,000 after the use of this procedure. Also, revealed from the data was the vulnerability situation of how a single TB inflicted person could transfer this disease to 10 or 12 other healthy people upon negligence.