NSU activists vandalise TU library

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KATHMANDU, March 13 : Activists of Nepal Students Union (NSU), a student wing of Nepali Congress (NC) party on Thursday stormed violently into the Central Library of Tribhuvan University (TU) and vandalised the properties.

Eyewitnesses said a group of students numbering about 25 broke into the library at around 9 a.m. and vandalised the properties of the library. They immediately took to heels after padlocking the library but no details of destruction could be obtained.

However, an eyewitness said the students smashed the window glasses and damaged library furniture. "Hardly an hour had passed after the library was opened, they rushed in and started smashing everything they came across," Chiranjivi Neupane, chief executive at the Library told The Kathmandu Post, after the incident.

However, he said that it was difficult to assess the actual loss since the group padlocked the library immediately after the attack.

Today’s incident comes in the wake of nationwide strike launched by NSU, which had put forward its seven-point demand and padlocked the campuses.

The same group of students also reportedly scolded a passer-by, a cyclist and smashed his bicycle as he was rushing to the university.

"The attack on TU came without any prior warning. When the Maoist students had their strikes, they used to come to us and request us to close down and we used to follow their order," an official said requesting anonymity.

NSU’s demand include: Increased funding on TU, 50 percent concession in medical fees for students in nursing homes and hospitals, a provision for interest-free loans to students and housing facility for those students living in rented rooms.

Govt to raise gender issue in peace talks

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KATHMANDU, March 13 : ‘‘The government will take up gender issue seriously in peace negotiations as the main agenda’’, Minister for Housing and Physical Planning, Narayan Singh Pun, said today at an interaction programme on " The Voice of Women for Permanent Peace" organised by the Human Rights organisation , INSEC (Informal Sector Service Centre).

"We are willing to take up the issues of conflict-affected women and the representation of women in the negotiations as the main agenda who account for 51 percent of the total population," the Minister remarked who is also coordinating peace efforts on behalf of the government.

Responding to the queries of the participants, he informed all the long-term strategies are already in place including the code of conduct about cease-fire with the Maoists.

According to Pun, the agreement on the code of conduct has been reached between the two sides, which is to be made public by tomorrow.

The minister urged the participants to be patient as the entire process is complex in nature. "It will certainly take a significant amount of time," he said.

On the occasion, a draft of women ‘s issues was presented to the minister to be taken up as main agenda in the peace process. The 11 points deal with women’s mediation and their representation in the peace process, the inclusion of gender issue in the formulation of the code of conduct, rehabilitation of the conflict-affected women and children, compensation for sexually-abused women, penalty for offenders and so on.

Thousands of women and children in the villages have fallen prey to the 7-year Maoist insurgency.

While many women and children have been forcibly recruited to the Maoist force, others were sexually abused by both the Maoist rebels and army personnel. Many women also lost their lives in this connection.

Many human rights organisations including the National Women’s Commission strongly called for immediate relief packages and rehabilitation programmes in the affected parts of the country both at the government and the local level.

Explaining about the grim situation in remote parts of the country, Dr. Durga Pokharel, the chairperson of the National Women’s Commission raised an alarm saying "we have no time to delay relief package programmes for villagers."

Dr. Pokharel had been in remote parts of the country on his recent inspection visit.

"It has become quite urgent for us to support the villages on the humanitarian ground. The peace process would not last long if there is no concrete programmes to address their problems, " she said while citing deepening agonies of the people.

Subodh Raj Pyakurel, the president of INSEC inaugurated the programme by lighting candles.

Govt issues guidelines for foreign affiliated educational institutions

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KATHMANDU, March 13 : The cabinet has issued guidelines for the running of educational institutions affiliated with foreign educational institutions, sources at the Ministry of Education and Sports said here today.

It has laid down conditions for running of such institutions and recommended the formation of an 11-member-committee, which will supervise, evaluate, monitor and develop criteria for operating such educational institutions in future, according to the source.

The committee, chaired by a senior government minister is ‘soon’ expected to develop criteria for those institutions, which have affiliated with foreign educational institutions.

The guidelines, among other things, have banned the running of those educational institutions, which fail to meet the prescribed criteria.

At present, there are about 20 educational institutions, mostly located in the Kathmandu Valley, being run without any licence from the government. They have sought affiliations with various foreign educational institutions.

The government, as per the guidelines, has issued ultimatum to these institutions to seek permission within the next six months.

Focus on higher education in UK

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KATHMANDU, March 13 : The Nepali students who want to persue their higher education in the United Kingdom can now get addmission easily in 63 different colleges and universities of London through Nepal branch of International Education Services(IES), an independent UK based company.

Speaking at a seminar held here today by IES at Martyr’s Memorial School, David Straughan, Educational Services Director of IES shed light on the British education system and explained how Nepalese students can get admission in different colleges of UK.

He said, "We have introduced a foundation course which would enable the students to join the British colleges or universities. He further informed that IES office is playing an important role and it also takes care of student facilities.

According to Straughan, IES whose major objective is concerned with students welfare has opened its branches in four different places of the world this year and Nepal is one of them.

Similarly,Gopal Acharya, the marketing manager of Nepal Office said,"IES is closely watching Nepali students and helping them in making their future bright and it also provides scholarships of different categories to deserving students."

Several students studying in various 10+2 colleges and government colleges participated in the seminar.

Ex-kamaiyas have their own school for children

By Dipendra Baduwal

BANGAI, Bardiya, March 13 : More than 100 children of the former kamaiya families have been enrolled in a primary school built by the kamaiyas themselves living in a rehabilitation centre. The school does not have any physical facilities except for a thatched house but the children have slowly started reading, writing and doing math sitting on the dusty floor of the school.

Despite the lack of adequate physical facilities, parents have vowed to send their kids to the school they built with the savings from each household. The children aged between four and seven have been enrolled in different grades.

Chairman of the Bangai former-kamaiya camp, Bhagiram Tharu, said that they built the school about two months ago for their children.

But it is not that easy to provide continued education to the children who cannot afford even to purchase exercise books, pencils and books. More than 50 per cent of the children come to the school without any educational materials. Those children are heard reading alphabets like Ka, Kha, Ga loudly and are seen writing on the floor with the help of twigs. "But they have a strong zeal for reading and writing," says Tharu.

Durga Prasad Tharu, a single teacher at the school who is the only literate person in the entire camp, says that they run the school only for five hours – from 10 am to 3 pm. – keeping in mind the tender age of the children.

The teacher, who is paid Rs. 500 as a monthly salary, is also not very much educated. He simply completed class seven from a local high school and dropped out, as his parents, who also worked for landlords as bonded labourers, could not provide him further education due to poor financial condition.

But he has devoted his time and energy to make the kamaiya children literate. "I have only one mission in my life, to make these hapless children literate at any cost," says Durga Prasad.

Children of the former bonded labourers say they will not drop out of class though they lack educational materials. "We want to learn more and more," they say loudly with one voice.

"We built the school hoping that we would receive support from outside. But none of the organisations has shown any interest so far," says the chairman.

The teacher is much more worried about the children who lack educational materials rather than his meagre salary. "Things would be better if the children were provided with exercise books, pencils and books," he added. Despite all the difficulties, former kamaiyas living in this camp seem to be quite happy in the sense that they have been able to run a school without any support from outside.

Research underway to explore measures to contron kal-a-zar

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DHARAN, March 13 : To control the propensity of the kal-a-zar that surfaces with the advent of summer, the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences has started a special research and investigation project.

In this research, endeavours are underway to make the mode of treatment even more simple along with the control to curb the intensity of this malady, and providing better treatment service, said the head of the kal-a-zar research project and the associate professor of the B.P. Institute, Dr. Suman Rizal. It is learnt that this institute has cured more than 700 patients of kal-a-zar so far.

At the moment research is underway for employing easy and simple processes of treatment for this malady which spreads due to bite from a special type of fly called sand fly. The line of treatment that is going to be used presently is through blood test, employing the R.K. 39, Direct Immunisation Test (DIT). Previously, to identify this disease painful method of testing the bone marrow was being employed. For treatment additional research is being carried out employing the Lismania Culture process.

The Vice-chancellor, Dr. Shekhar Koirala says that with the establishment of a separate laboratory and ward for kal-a-zar patients, the standard of treatment is much better now. They are in the process of achieving the desired result and success very soon, he added.

If the kal-a-zar-inflicted patients fail to get proper treatment, then cent percent death is liable to occur, say the doctors. These patients are treated with a medicine called SAG, and if this medicine fails to show its effectiveness then another costly alternative medicine called Emfoterium is continued in its place. Of the 120 patients that had come for treatment to this institute some months back, 90 percent had been cured by SAG intake, while in Bihar, India the ratio of cured by the same medicine intake was only to an extent of 35 percent. At present 10 kal-a-zar patients have been undergoing treatment at this institute.

It is learnt that for this research project Rajbiraj hospital has been chosen. This project is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Shekhar Koirala along with the assistance from various other doctors.

Donation raised for Myanglung fire victims

RSS

BIRATNAGAR, March 13 ; The Samyukta Tol Biratnagar, has raised Rs 79,709 from the "door to door relief collection campaign" to provide relief to the families of fire victims and for the reconstruction works of the Myanglung bazaar devastated by fire on December 8 last year.

The fire victims relief collection main committee has deposited the raised money at the current account number 5309 at the Nepal Bank Limited city office, Biratnagar.

The main committee will hand over the money deposited in the bank to the Myanglung Bazaar Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Committee during the last week of March, it is learnt.

All the persons interested in making contributions for the relief have been advised to deposit money in favour of the committee at the bank.

Flood affected school children get educational relief

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HETAUDA, March 13 : The CPN-UML, Makwanpur has condemned the government for not showing interest in helping those families displaced by flood who have been facing a hard time living under tents since many months. But now, instead of helping these victims with better arrangements, an attempt has been made to chase these helpless victims from this asylum also, blamed the CPN-UML.

The people from Kakada and Rakshirang VDCs who had become homeless due to last July’s flood have been leading hard lives under tents at Pyangche of Manahari, with the hope that the government would soon make arrangements of better rehabilitation. In the party’s press release of yesterday, it has condemned the insensible attempt made by the forest employees and even the police in trying to drive away these flood victims from their refuge at Pyangche. The party has also demanded not to displace these victims from this place unless some arrangement is made. It is learnt that the forest division there had issued out a notice some time ago to the flood victims.

Similarly, the students from six primary schools situated in the flood-affected region of Makwanpur district after a period of eight months are getting some relief assistance in the form of educational materials and school uniforms.

This relief and financial assistance has been provided by Save the Children, Norway through the branch office of Red Cross Society at Makwanpur, which is being distributed at the premises of the concerned schools from yesterday.

The Minister of the Red Cross branch, Makwanpur , Shyam Bahadur Chhetri said that these educational materials and uniforms have been provided to the students of Devitar Primary School in Kakada VDC, and to students of Lokpriya Primary School in Rakshirang VDC, whose educational materials and uniforms had been washed away by the flood last monsoon. This office has informed that it will distribute these relief materials to 586 students of six primary schools situated in the flood-affected VDCs of Kakada, Rakshirang, Sarikhet and Kalikatar by Tuesday.

Stress on to provide permanency to law, order

BIRATNAGAR, March 13(RSS)- Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation and Land Reforms and Management Badri Narayan Basnet has stressed the need for one and all to make contributions from their respective places to provide permanency to the law and order situation prevailing in the country at present.

Minister Basnet was speaking as a special guest at the function to release a book entitled "Abhinandan Grantha" published by "His Majesty King Gyanendra and Her Majesty Queen Komal Civic Reception Committee, eastern region, Biratnagar-2059.

Stating that there should be protests in politics, he said that the civic society should also exert pressure on big political parties to convert the cease-fire into lasting peace.

As the common people are for peace, the big political parties should bear the responsibility of the happenings, if any, against their wishes, he added.

Stating that His Majesty the King had made Lokendra Bahadur Chand the Prime Minister in line with the demands of the various political parties, he asked should the political parties take up politics for the sake of the people or their own.

RNAC offloads passengers after issuing boarding pass

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BIRATNAGAR, March13 : Royal Nepal Airline (RNAC) today offloaded its passengers even after issuing boarding passes to them for a flight to Bhojpur from Biratnagar. The state-owned airline was supposed to make up its flights, which were suspended 10 days ago.

Now, around 200 air passengers have been stranded here even after they were issued the boarding passes.

"We were informed about the cancellation of the flight after keeping us waiting for more than four hours," said Subas Shrestha of Birtamod, Jhapa who had been issued the boarding pass for a flight to Bhojpur.

RNAC is the only airline that operates flights in the eastern hills from Biratnagar. But it is quite irregular and does not make public announcement in advance about its flight cancellation, said the victims. Last week, the airline suspended all six flights to Taplejung, Tumlingtar, Rumjatar, Faplu and Lamidanda due to "lack of aircraft".

The passengers said that RNAC officials cancelled the flights even today that was scheduled to resume them 10 days after their suspension.

R. B. Thapa, regional manager of the airline, said that it was their responsibility to fly the people, who had already taken boarding passes. But he did not say when they would be flown.

The airline, however, is selling its tickets although it has not been able to make up the suspended flights. Thapa said that he had to cancel the flights time and again because the only two Twin-Otter aircraft had to cover flights in all hill areas.

"Why do they sell tickets and issue boarding passes if they do not have any aircraft?" said a travel agent.

Incomplete rural road project eats up Rs 100 m

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HETAUDA, March 13 : The construction of the seven-km-long rural road in the western part of this district has yet to be completed even though 26 years have passed since it started. The construction work on this road has not stopped even for a year, but neither has it been completed yet.

The work over the Manhari-Chainpur section of the rural road had started way back in 1977 but still remains incomplete, it is learnt. This road construction started with a motive of providing easy access to Manhari Bazaar for the people residing in the seven VDCs in the western region including Rakhsirang, Kakada, Sarikhet, Bharta. Already 3,000 metric tonnes of rice-grain, and Rs 100 million has been spent on this road project, but the vehicles have not been able to ply on this even to this day.

The rice-grains that are provided to the District Development Committee (DDC) every year under the Food Programme have been utilised for this road construction work. Also, it is learnt that the DDC and the VDC office there have been assisting this road project every year with financial investment ranging from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 2.5 million. This section of the road, lies just below the Rakhsirang VDC and is prone to landslide throughout the year, except for the three months of June, July and August. But the work never gets completed, bemoans Govind Rijal, a businessman from Manhari Bazaar.

In an effort to link the rural parts of this region, inhabited mostly by Chepang ethnic people, the construction work had been initiated. However, this construction work has been assisting the local people there in escaping the famine during the winter season. If this road construction work had not been there, the majority of the locals of Rakhsirang, Sarikhet and Kakada VDC would have been subsisting on the wild roots and tubers found in the jungle around that region, reiterated the former chairman of Rakhsirang VDC, Krishna Bahadur Praja.

Every year along with the continuation of fresh construction work, the reconstruction work over the previous work has to be carried out during the winter months, due to the havoc caused by frequent occurrence of landslides from the hilly-slopes of Rakhsirang VDC during the monsoon season, informed the Local Development Officer (LDO) of Makwanpur DDC, Rameshkanta Paudel.

"In winter we continue the construction work on this road while during the monsoon, floods and landslides wash away everything. This has been taking place since the last 26 years," he added.

Due to the wrong choice of the road construction site initiated due to political influence, along with the expenditure of huge sum of money, the road avails to nothing, Paudel contended. This road has been constructed not for the purpose of the vehicular movement over this part it seems, but as providing some form of relief to the socially and economically deprived locals around this region through the winter season, is the conjecture of the present technicians at the DDC office.

They are of the view that spending on this road in this manner will not complete this road, and neither can the vehicles ply over this road. It is learnt that along with the continuation of the construction work on this road, the food programme also continues. The amount of rice-grain supply for this year for the construction work has been earmarked at 200 metric tonnes. Everyday around 300 people are engaged in this road construction work.