Crown Prince inaugurates info-tech conference

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KATHMANDU, May 23 : His Royal Highness Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev inaugurated an international conference on " Information Technology: Prospects and Challenges in the 21st Century (ITPC- 2003)" here today. The conference is expected to promote the domain of information technology in the country where it is still in the infant stage.

"This conference brings together all sectors working in the field of information technology," said Poorna Bhadra Adiga, officiating secretary of Ministry for Science and Technology (MOST). "Poverty alleviation can be achieved to a large extent through information technology."

However, he said that the private and community sectors needed to take it on to themselves to provide services to the rural milieu. "The government alone cannot achieve this task," said Adiga.

The three-day conference is being organised by Nepal Engineering College (NEC), MOST, Nepal College for Information Technology (NCIT) and the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST).

"IT plays a dominant role in our lives," said L.M. Patnaik of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He hoped that the conference would create a wider awareness amongst academics, industrialists and policy-makers.

Altogether 68 full papers and 54 short papers are to be presented at the conference amongst which 5 will be presented by Nepal. The papers will be presented under 12 themes: Real time systems, mobile computing, information retrieval and data, mining, natural language processing and speech technology, IT in rural development, medical and bio-informatics, parallel and distributed systems, image processing, web technology, soft computing, software engineering, and remote sensing and GIS.

"It is expected that 8,300 delegates will attend the tutorials and technical sessions," said Jha. International participants from more than nine countries including India, China, United Kingdom and Australia will attend the meet.

Similarly, Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister for Information and Communication said that the conference should aim at analyzing the prospects of IT in Nepal. "Issues like using IT in social and government services, and poverty alleviation should be discussed," he said.

"The challenges of IT are very big for Nepal," said Narendra Bikram Shah, Minister for Foreign Affairs. "Millions are yet to be familiar with a tone of a dial, let alone the click of the mouse, making it a greater task."

Shah said that IT needed to be knowledge-based and through the rapid advancement of technology would benefit the development of the country. Also speaking on the occasion was Prof. Deepak Bhattarai, principal of NEC.

AVM principal passes away

KATHMANDU, May 23 (PR)- Satyanarayan Bahadur Shrestha, a reputed educator passed away at the age of 89 after years of suffering from heart cancer. He was undergoing treatment at Hams Nurshing Home. Shrestha was the pioneer of private schools in the country and remained the founder principal of AVM. He had founded Tribhuvan Adarsha School at Pharping, Mahendra Adarsha School at Satdobato and Adarsha Vidya Mandir at Manbhawan. Late Shrestha had also worked as a political colleague of supreme commander of 1990 movement Ganesh Man Singh during 1950 movement.

The ex-AVM students’ organisation is organising a condolence meeting at the school premises on Saturday morning.

Ailing monkeys suffering from ‘parasitic infection’

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KATHMANDU, May 23 : The medical team, involved in the check-up of the ailing monkeys in the jungle of Swoyambhunath stupa, in their initial report said that the species are suffering from parasitic infection.

The report prepared after examining biological samples of 39 sick monkeys has also raised serious concerns over insufficient variety in the monkey’s diet.

"Parasitic infections are thought to be a common cause of diarrhea illness among free ranging macaques (the common monkeys) and anti-parasitic medication should be given to the entire population twice a year," the report states.

The 425 common monkeys at the premises of Swoyambhunath stupa, a world heritage site, have been suffering from an unidentified disease for the last three months, and the disease has already claimed 20 monkeys.

The monkeys started dying three months ago. They were seen lethargic, thin and lay quiet for hours before they died. Besides, a excretion was seen adhered to their excretion organ.

The report was prepared by Dr. Randall C. Kyes, Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel, Dr.Gregory Engel from the University of Washington and vet Johns Heidrich from the University of New Mexico. The team was in Nepal from last Sunday to Wednesday to identify as per the request from the Natural History Society.

Some monkeys are also found to have roundworms, according to the report.

Refugee group accuses Bhutan of going slow

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KATHMANDU, May 23 : Bhutanese Refugee Repatriation Support Group (BRRSG), a group of former diplomats and foreign ministers, today blasted Nepal-Bhutan 14th ministerial talks which concluded on Wednesday.

BRRSG accused Bhutan of setting unnecessary provisions to impede the repatriation process of the refugees, even after it accepted that most of the refugees were Bhutanese citizens. "We express deep concerns on it," said a statement issued here by the BRRSG today.

They also blasted Bhutan for sticking to oppressive measures like that of 1980s and 1990s against its citizens, that has forced more than 17 per cent of the people to spend their lives as refugees.

The BRRSG also urged both the countries to follow universal values and laws regarding the refugees, even as it called upon the international community to take necessary initiatives towards early repatriation of the refugees.

It has urged the Bhutanese government to stop its lingering policy on the issue of repatriation of the refugees, who were victimised by the government’s policy of ethnic cleansing, the statement added.

Animation film festival kicks off

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KATHMANDU, May 23 : The French animation film festival, including Nepalese animation films, kicked off today at the Russian Cultural Centre after it was inaugurated by students of animation, Ishani Shrestha and her friends. "We, the children, love to see cartoons and animated films," said Shrestha, a class seven student at Triyog High School, before formally inaugurating the festival that will continue till May 25, Sunday.

Earlier at the inaugural ceremony, Dominique Plassard, first secretary of the French Embassy, expressed delight for getting an opportunity to watch Nepalese animated films for the first time. "I feel very happy to take children to the theatre to watch animated films," Plassard said.

The first day of the festival saw the staging of French animation films under the theme ‘The Menagerie’. It was a 58-minute show that included eleven animations of various lengths. The most striking among them for the Nepali audience was Du zero des arenes, a creation of Isabelle Faivre and Catherine Simonet.

Du zero des arenes is a beautiful artistic piece, with sketches dissolving into oblivion, and then again forming structures that could be anything. The dancing figures allow the audience a whole range of options in terms of imagination and interpretation.

Later today, six Nepali animation movies were screened, including Development from Below, Nunu, Freedom, Harmony, Time and All for Lucy. The 15-minute animation ‘Development from Below’ took a total of 7,000 drawings, a team of twenty, and a duration of two years. "This is the first short-length feature animation film to be made in Nepal," said chief animator of the film, Raju Babu Shakya. The animation director of the film is Nirmal Sherchan.

The festival will continue tomorrow and the day after, at noon at the Russian Cultural Centre. The festival is being organised by The Alliance Francaise of Kathmandu, under the patronage of the French Embassy in Nepal and Delegation General of the Alliances Francaises in India and Nepal, and in collaboration with Kathmandu Film Archive.

Favouritism alleged in BIP tender bid

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KATHMANDU, May 23 : Some contractors today alleged that they were deprived of tender bids for three projects under the Bagmati Irrigation Projects (BIP). According to them, only those contractors close to the BIP officials were allowed to apply for the tenders by the " police and gangsters allegedly posted by the office".

However, the officials at the BIP denied the charges saying they gave equal treatment to all aspiring contractors.

"We were denied entry by the police and the gangsters posted at the gate of the office. Only those contractors close to BIP officials were allowed to apply for tender bids for project 62, 63 and 64, projects of Eastern Main Canal System of the BIP," the contractors who claimed of biased-treatment from BIP officials told The Kathmandu Post.

Mathura Dangol, BIP Chief, however, said the office was not biased towards any contractors. "Why should we be favouring some and ignoring other contractors?" he enquired.

"We had skirmishes with some contractors on the day of tender bids some five months ago, so this time we posted police to avoid any such untoward incidents," he said.

The office had published tender notice for the projects 62, 63 and 64, which comprise of 4 km extension of the Eastern Canal System, construction of secondary canal at Gadaiya Branch canal and some repair works of the Bagmati embankment, one month ago.

The 200 million rupees projects are scheduled to begin in the next fiscal year after the Saudi Development Fund, which is supporting the project, selected from among the contractors who applied today, according to the BIP Chief.

PM opens Newaa Mahotsav

KATHMANDU, May 23 (PR)- Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand inaugurated the Newaa Mahotsav (festival), organised to mark Nepal Sambat 1123 at the Open Air Theatre in Tundikhel today.

Addressing the function, PM Chand said that the festival would unveil the rich and hidden Newaa culture adding, "The festival will also help to promote the industry, trade and tourism business."

He said the past seven years’ Maoist war has affected the country’s industry, trade and tourism and cease-fire has brought some signs of improvement in these sectors.

The prime minister urged the general people and the political, economic and social institutions to contribute to restore peace. Highlighting the importance of the festival, he said that Nepal is a common garden of all castes, creed and communities.

Speaking on the occasion, Kuber Prasad Sharma, Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation said that there is a need to preserve the Newaa art and culture that depict agriculture, trade, religion and civilisation of the country.

Musahar school students’ fate uncertain

By Bijaya Prasad Mishra

SIRAHA, May 23 : The permission to conduct the Dalit Oppressed Ethnic Primary School, started with the help of donations from 70 families of Musahar ethnic people of Majaura VDC in Siraha, has been withheld by the District Education Office (DEO) of Siraha, following the notice of the cancellation of the school’s registration.

The reason for cancelling their registration, as informed by the DEO, was due to the then district education officer, Mohammud Hasrat Ali, who had provided them permission to conduct a school violating the directions of the Department as well as of the directive-body. Including this school registration of six other schools have been nullified as well, informed the DEO.

The DEO had granted permission to this school of Musahar on December 19 last to conduct classes for standard one. The families of the each of the students enrolled in this school had been paying Rs 25 and eight kilogrammes of rice grain annually to Binod Kumar Sadaya, the teacher of this school as fee for imparting knowledge, informed the chairman of this school’s management committee, Kapileshwor Sadaya.

Nepal Rishikul Sadaya Committee, an organisation of Musahars which is involved with conducting the awareness campaign emphasising on the education of the Musahar children has been executing by forming regional committees in various villages. It was due to this awareness campaign that the Musahars of this VDC had got together and opened up this school two years ago.

According to the chairman Sadaya there are 105 Dalit students enrolled in this school which has upto class two at present. But unfortunately all the Musahar families were dismayed when the DEO sent a letter to this school on May 17 apprising about the cancellation of its registration. Condemning this move of the DEO when the government was arranging the scholarship programme to these Musahar children by incorporating them within the education programme for the children of the Dalit and the downtrodden, he said, this mistake of the DEO is pushing the fate of these 105 Dalit students into darkness.

For this school the government has not provided any assistance so far, but Manoj Kumar Yadav of Siraha Fulbari had contributed 35000 bricks for the construction of this school while Save The Children US of Lahan had assisted them with galvanised sheets and 25 sacks of cement.

Koilabas locals lack basic development infrastructure

By Sudarshan Rijal

DANG, May 23  : Over 30 households in remote Koilabas VDC of Dang district bordering India are compelled to fetch drinking water from Indian water sources as the water sources in the VDC dry up during the dry season. They are embarrassed to fetch water from India covering a five-kilometre walk, said concerned sources.

The remote VDC also lacks other infrastructure like education, health and electricity facilities. Some of the locals move to other parts of the district like Lamahi and Ghorai to escape the water shortage, according to Dipak Budhathoki, a merchant.

"We are often ridiculed by the Indians with questions as to how we are surviving when the government fails to provide even drinking water," lamented Munna Khan, a local. "We have no pride in calling ourselves Nepalis."

"When tormented by the water problem, we feel like migrating. However, the love for our birthplace prohibits us from taking such a step", said Chinka Minya, another local.

Even Chiranjivi Bhandari, the Local Development Officer (LDO) admitted that the VDC was isolated from the minimum developmental infrastructures.

"Stress has been laid on the construction of the Lamahi-Koilabas road. Once the road is complete, it will open up avenues for development in the area," said Bhandari.

Water shortage acute in Butwal

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BUTWAL, May 23 : Around 1000 families living in wards 14 and 15 of this municipality have been anguished ever since they could not get enough supply of water, after the ward 4 channeled some of the water for their local people without prior consent.

The agitated consumers of Jiteshwor Drinking Water Committee had surrounded the office of the Butwal municipality, when the water that they had been enjoying all this while began to be used by consumers from the other VDC. However, a local from this VDC claims that the water had been diverted by their VDC with prior notice to the municipality.

Though an agreement was effected between the municipality and the Consumers Committee to bring an amicable end to this dispute, yet nothing fruitful has happened, reiterated a consumer from this committee talking to The Kathmandu Post.

One-and-a-half-year back, with the assistance of an international organisation, FINIDA, a tank had been constructed for collecting water from the upper source at Fulbari region to be supplied to these two wards.

The locals here also complained of the recent supply of the contaminated drinking water due to seepage of the ground water after the rains.

Wife seeks husband’s whereabouts

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SIRAHA, May 23  : Dharma Shila Sah of Ram Nagar Mirchaiya Village Development Committee has demanded the local administration to make public the actual status of her teacher husband, Ram Lekhawan Sah, who was arrested by plain-clothed policemen about 18 months ago from his home. Sah was arrested on suspicion of his association with the Maoist organisation.

Talking to reporters she said that the policemen had arrested her husband from home but they said that he was never taken into police custody.

"I asked local police officials several times about the status of my husband. But they always refuse to admit it," Dharma Shila told The Kathmandu Post.

She also said that one of the policemen in the district headquarters demanded Rs 7,000 in cash just to reveal the actual condition of her husband. "I flatly refused to meet his demand and the policeman did not help me," she lamented.

A teacher for over two decades at Tinpatan Secondary School, Ram Lekhawan was elected to Siraha district chairman of the Maoist-aligned Nepal National Intellectual Organisation in 2052 B.S.

Locals said that the teacher was kept at the Mirchaiya-based police station for about 15 minutes and taken in a police van. Police officials at the district headquarters claimed that he was never taken into police custody. Dharma Shila has requested the human rights organisations to help find out his actual status.

Water crisis hits Ramechhap district HQs

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MANTHALI, May 23 : A severe water crisis has hit the district headquarters of Ramechhap, Manthali, for the last two weeks.

The Consumers Committee states that because of the drying of water at the source of the project set up for the distribution of drinking water to this region, a precarious situation prevails there.

All those families who had arrangements for private taps from this committee are these days seen scurrying to the Ranjor stream and Tamakoshi river with water pots and plastic drums to procure drinking water. The situation has taken a crisis state after they were forced to procure this drinking water from far off places.

After the Manthali Drinking Water and Sanitation Consumers Committee, which was responsible for supplying the drinking water could not distribute it, the residents of Akashe, Gadubari and Sanimadauka have been affected the most. It is learnt that the water has not trickled down even from the tap of a female member of this consumers committee, Sunita Subedi, since the past two months, and the locals have been pressurising her to resolve this crisis. She says that she herself has been making frequent rounds to the Ranjor stream to obtain water for household purposes.

The manager of this consumers committee, Jagdish Subedi concedes that due to shortage of water in the reservoir they have not been able to distribute sufficient water for the consumption. They are not in a state to supply water even for 20 minutes these days while previously they had been distributing water for one full hour, added Subedi. However, the committee has not been able to arrange any alternative means to curb this problem.

The committee has been studying the water sources in the vicinity to establish another drinking water project, but could not proceed further after they were opposed by some of the locals there. It is learnt that last year they had come up with the project to harness and distribute the water from the Tamakoshi river, however, they have not been able to realise it so far. For starting this project the committee had made some financial investment which has turned out to be a big waste after the project could not proceed further.

It is learnt that another reason for this shortage of water in this region has been distribution of taps more than the actual capacity. The technician had constructed this project with a capacity of supplying water to 125 homes, but the number of taps distributed to the locals there amounts to 282.

According to Arun Kumar Simkhada, chief of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Divisional Office at Ramechhap, this situation has evolved primarily due to the dispute over the water sources from which the projects could get its water supply to be distributed to the consumers. Simkhada further informs that they have been distributing water twice daily all this while, but now they are planning to cut it down to once a day as they do not have adequate amount of water at the storage.