Koirala visits HITEC city

Hyderabad, Aug. 4 (RSS): Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala visited the Hyderabad Information Techonology Engineering Consultancy (HITEC) city today.

Hyderabad is known as the information technology city of India.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister was briefed about the information technology policy of Andhra Pradesh, information technology vision, strategies, e-governance, human resources development and promotion of information technology.

Andhra Pradesh, with a total population of about 77 million has developed as a leadership and excellence and converge the state into a knowledge society state in information technology in India.

Prime Minister was also informed about the e-commerce development, improvement of quality of life, good governance through the application of information technology.

Mr Koirala was also informed about the initiatives taken by the Andhra Pradesh state government for the development of information technology for infrastructure development as well as the latest development software technology parks of India.

It is said that the turnover of computer software export increased to 250 million U.S. dollar last year in comparision to one million U.S. dollar in 1992. Andhra Pradesh is one of the largest software developer state in India where the local government has targetted to eradicate illiteracy by the year 2010.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola, Royal Nepalese Ambassador to India Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Deb Mukharjee, the chief secretary, the foreign secretary, the Prime Minister’s daughter, the principal private secretary to the prime minister, high ranking officials of Andhra Pradesh, and other members of the Prime Minister’s entourage were also present on the occasion.

Naidu calls on Koirala

Hyderabad, Aug 4 (RSS): Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu called on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala here this morning.

Mr Koirala had arrived here yesterday in connection with his week-long official visit to India.

On the occasion, discussion was held on cooperation of Andhra Pradesh in information technology in Nepal.

During the visit, it was agreed that a technology institute would be established in Nepal as an India-Nepal partnership project with a focus on information technology.

On the occasion, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu briefed the Prime Minister about information technology governance in the state.

Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, is known as the information capital city of India.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola, Royal Nepalese Ambassador to India Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister’s daughter Ms. Sujata Koirala and principal private secretary to the Prime Minister Hari Sharma were also present on the occasion.

FNCCI lauds decision on SAD

Kathmandu, Aug. 4 (RSS): Acting president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Rabi Bhakta Shrestha has heartily welcomed the decision of the government of India to remove the additional special tariff on goods exported from Nepal to India.

Noting that the decision to set up a laboratory to test the food-based items at the border to facilitate the bilateral trade would be useful for the Nepalese exports, he said that the Prime Minister’s invitation to Indian businessmen to invest in Nepal and assurance to resolve all the problems would have encouraging impact on them.

Nepal Chamber of Commerce has also welcomed the removal of additional special tariff on the Nepalese by the government of India.

The additional special tariff levied by India on Nepalese goods was waived off during the Prime Minister’s official visit to India.

Education should meet social need: Upadhyaya

Kathmandu, Aug. 4 (RSS): Minister for Educaion and Sports Amod Prasad Upadhyaya has said that His Majesty’s Government has been carrying out various educational programmes in consonance with its commitment made internationally to provide education to all by the end of 2015.

Minister upadhyaya was inaugurating an orientation seminar for district education officers of all 75 districts and for section officers organised by the Ministry of Education and Sports, Education Department

He said since various challenges have cropped up on the economic and social front because education was not developed to meet social needs, an amendment to the existing education act is under consideration to overcome such shortcomings.

As education takes shape from the national requirements and developments, a total change is not possible all at once, he said adding, the government has emphasised formal as well as technical education.

Minister Upadhyaya also released an audio cassette, "Chetana Ka Swarharu", of poems on education and awareness building brought out by the department.

Minister of State for Education and Sports Dilendra Prasad Vadu said academic stardards at the public schools have gone down due to lack of contact between teachers and guardians and irregularity of classes.

The proposed amendment to the education act intended to set up a rural education fund and village education committees, put an end to political interference in schools and systematise the private schools.

Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports Khagendra Basnet disclosed that the National Teacher Selection Commission is to start a re-examination process

Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports Khagendra Basnet disclosed that the National Teacher Selection Commission is to mull over a policy to start the re-examination process in a bid to pave the way for bringing competent persons into this sector.

The team leader from the donor group for the basic and primary education programme said the donor group is committed to extending full support to the basic and primary education programme.

Ex-secretary Khem Raj Regmee, director general of the department of education Chandra Bahadur Khadka and director Dharanidhar Khatiwada threw light on the importance of the seminar.

About 225 representatives including district education officers from all 75 districts, section officers, regional directors and senior officials of the ministry and resource persons are taking part in the 5-day seminar.

Corporation employees take to streets

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 4:Thousands of corporation employees took to the streets today demanding that the government fulfill the eleven point demand of the Inter-Corporation Employees’ Association and Inter-Corporation Banking Employees’ Association.

"Nearly sixty thousand employees nationwide participated in street demonstrations and protest meetings after the government showed no sign of meeting their demands," a press release of the joint struggle committee said.

The police stopped the movement of around twenty thousand employees who were moving ahead to picket around Singha Durbar.

Later the employees who were stopped by the police, picketed around Bhadrakali from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. chanting slogans for the fulfillment of their demands.

"Take action against those proved guilty of embezzlement, control price hike," the employees demanded.

Following the picketing in Bhadrakali, the demonstrators led by Co-ordinator of the joint struggle committee, Mahesh Raj Kharel went around the city center and converged into a protest meeting at Ratna Park.

"Our demands are genuine, we will resort to protest programmes and will call for a pen down in the corporations if the government does not fulfill our demands," Kharel told the protest meeting at Ratna Park.

General Secretary of the Federation of Nepal Professionals’ Association Pramod Sharma said two hundred thousand employees’ nationwide were ready to back the protest programme if the government declined to fulfill the eleven point demand.

Joint Co-ordinator of the united struggle committee, Krishna Kumar Dayal said the protests would be intensified if the government did not heed the employees’ demand.

Protest programmes according to the joint struggle committee were organised in 72 districts of the Kingdom.

The employees in Syangja district could not take their programme ahead as they were stopped by the local administration.

Nearly one thousand corporation employees in Jhapa district picketed around the District Administration Office from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. A protest meeting was organised in Chandragadi after the gherao.

Similarly 500 employees in Ilam district, 100 employees in Panchthar, 100 in Taplejung gheraoed the district administration Offices and also organised a protest meeting.

Picketing around District Administration offices in Biratnagar, Kaski, Sunsari, Dhankuta, Terathum , Bhojpur and many other district offices in Sagarmatha, Janakpur, Narayani and Rapti zones were held today.

68 dists hit by floods, toll at 95, House informed

Kathmandu, Aug. 4 (RSS): Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi has said 68 districts have been so far affected by floods and landslides with death toll being put at 95.

Giving a statement on matters of public importance at the House of Representatives today, Mr Joshi noted that eight people are missing, 60 have been injured, 3,389 families have been affected, and 1,867 houses, 82 cowsheds, bridges, schools and other public institutions including cattles have been totally damaged causing a loss of Rs 120 million.

The Home Minister also informed the Lower House that Rs 82 million has already been sent for providing relief to the affected people.

Different NGO and INGO’s, social workers and the general public are involved in providing reliefs to the victims of floods and landslides in the concerned districts, he added.

The districts hardest hit by these natural disasters are Nawalparasi, Sindhuli, Udayapur, Dang and Siraha.

Meanwhile, responding to questions of the MPs at today’s question hour of the House of Representatives, Minister for Education and Sports Amod Prasad Upadhyaya said there is a policy to give permission to the proposed secondary schools run with private resources as per the educational regulations by adjusting posts.

He said the schools meeting the infrastructure requirements have been given consent by the higher secondary school council to open higher secondary schools, adding that the higher secondary schools will be provided with physical facilities as far as the government resources permit and that 10+2 will be implemented in higher education by the end of the Ninth Five Year Plan.

Minister Upadhyaya said there is no programme to run higher secondary schools with government grant in all the district headquarters.

The MPs seeking answers from Minister Upadhyaya were Til Kumar Meyangbo, Ananda Prasad Pokharel, Hridaya Ram Thani and Hari Narayan Chaudhary.

The House of Representatives today adopted the resolution seeking consideration on Education (Seventh Amendment) Bill 2057.

Minister for Education and Health Amod Prasad Upadhyaya had presented the bill.

Prior to this, Minister for Education, furnishing replies to the queries posed on the resolution, made it clear that the bill had been introduced in a bid to ensure the active participation of the local guardians in improving the educational standard of schools.

Stating that keeping the education away from politics was a matter of concern for all, he said that provisions had been made to manage schools as trust be entrusting social responsibility and specify norms and monitor schools.

MPs Dhanendra Basnet, Dr . Prakash Chandra Lohani, Hari Acharya, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, Shiva Prasad Humagai, Shankar Nath Sharma Adhikari, Prem Bahadur Singh, Dr . Mangal Siddhi Manandhar, Bhadra Bahadur Thapa, Bijaya Subba, Kunta Subba, Ratna Prasad Sharma Neupaney, Krishna Parasad Dahal, Homnath Dahal and Narayan Man Bijukchhe took part in the discussion on resolution.

Likewise, the House of Representatives today passed the Medicines (Second Amendment) Bill-2057.

Minister for Health Dr . Ram Baran Yadav had tabled the bill for decision.

At the meeting, chairman of the natural means and resources Lekahnath Acharya tabled the Cooperatives (first amendment) Bill-2056 along with the report of the committee.

Likewise, chairman of Population and Social Committee Narendra Bahadur Bam tabled the martyr Gangalal National Heart Centre Bill-2056 along with the report of the committee.

The House of Representatives will meet again at 11 a.m. on August 7.

PAC questions officials

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 4: Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives today inquired the officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation regarding the disappearance of an important file.

The file that was sent to the ministry from RNAC two months back has been missing right after it was received by one of the office assistants at the Minister’s private secretariat.

A junior assistant Sita Shrestha has been accused of losing the file that includes some important documents relating to RNAC’s agreement with an international company on lease purchase of an aircraft.

She, however, denies the charges. "I received the envelop marked with ‘very confidential and very urgent’ but handed it over to Uddhav Phunyal who later gave it to the Minister’s personal secretary Bal Sagar Giri," she said.

At the bidding of the ministry Secretary, Giri sought clarification from Shrestha who accused Giri of trying to manipulate her version of the clarification. "He asked me to write in the clarification letter that I had misplaced the file and would find it later," she said. "He is trying to defame me, an innocent person who knows nothing about the document’s whereabouts."

Shrestha, who has been held responsible for the act, has been transferred to RNAC as a punishment.

The Committee that is to meet again on Monday has decided to call Minister Tarani Datta Chataut for further inquiry.

The Committee also asked the RNAC officials to present its detail report regarding the amount to be received from, and also the agreements with, its different agents in and outside the country.

The country’s only national flag carrier has a large sum of amount to be reimbursed from various agents. The RNAC officials said that out of the total amount of some 400 million rupees, some one million US dollars has to be reimbursed from a Vienna-based agent alone. However, the Committee has speculated that the amount could be more than double.

The RNAC Executive Chairman Hari Bhakta Shrestha presented a ‘fifteen-year plan’ for the expansion of the domestic and international services of the national flag carrier. The committee would study and hold discussion on the report in its next meeting, the Committee Chairman Subash Nemwang said.

Meet discusses radio frequency

Kathmandu, Aug. 4 (RSS): A meeting presided over by the Minister for Information and Communications Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta today held discussions and took policy decisions on making the use of Radio Frequency more planned, updating the national frequency allocation to use it as a national resources, fixing the licence fee for frequencies, coordinating the frequencies with the neighbouring countries in the context of the geographical conditions of Nepal, and maintaining the rights of the country to I.T.U. frequency/orbital slot.

The policy decision has been taken by considering the increased frequency demand, rapid advancement from wired system to wireless system in the field of telecommunications, and the changes made by International Telecommunications Union World Radio Conference every two years.

Two terrorists killed in clashes with cops

Pokhara, Aug. 4 (RSS): Two women terrorists were killed on the spot in a cross fire between a police patrol team and a group of terrorists at Pandhrung-8 Tinkhande in Gorkha district last night.

The encounter took place when the patrol team from Ghyampesal, Gorkha came under the attack of the terrorists all of a sudden at Tinkhande, according to Aig Ravi Kant Aryal.

A policeman, whose name is not yet known, sustained minor injuries in the encounter.

Police recovered two socket bombs from the deceased terrorists and a string bomb, three detonators and some Maoist supporter newspapers from the site of incident.

A massive search is under way for the terrorists who fled the site after the encounter.

PM invites Indian investors to Nepal

Hyderabad, Aug. 4 (RSS): Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has called upon the businessmen of India to have an open and extensive interaction with the Nepalese businessmen to explore and assess the prospects for business and investment in Nepal.

Prime Minister Koirala, speaking at the luncheon hosted in his honour by the Federation of the Indian Chamber and Commerce and Industries (FICCI) here today, said there are good and untapped prospects for investment and business in Nepal.

"With the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, we have adopted open and liberal economic policy," he said, adding "sectors of our economy such as hydropower generation, tourism, manufacturing, agro processing and information technology are all open for foreign investment in a profitable way."

Mr. Koirala, while speaking to the business leaders of this city which has been known as "Cyberabad," said "I am reminded of the fact that today’s world is increasingly being oriented towards what is known as the knowledge industry, your achievements in science and technology in general and information technology in particular have been impressive and this seems to be real trendsetter for the new millennium."

Stating that he has been nurturing the idea of establishing in Nepal a centre of excellence in the field of science and technology with particular focus on information technology, he said "I hope that that your experiences and expertise in this field would be of help and value to us as well."

Noting that Nepal and India relations are rooted in history and culture and mutual respect for and understanding of each other’s legitimate interests and concerns have always been the hallmarks of our bilateral relations, the prime minister observed that as we enter the new millennium, our efforts should focus on making it more forward looking and friendly.

Minister for roads, building and ports of the Andhra Pradesh K. Vijayarama Rao said the state is an emerging as an information technology center of the region and there is the need of joint investment in various fields between Andhra Pradesh and Nepal.

The visit of Nepalese Prime Minister Koirala will be very fruitful in further enhancing the friendly ties and promoting trade and investment between the South Indian state and the Himalayan kingdom, he added.

President of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Pradip Kumar Shrestha, calling on the business community of India to invest in Nepal, said there are the possibilities of joint investment in many areas including Information Technology in Nepal.

President of Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FAPCCI) Mohan Lal Gupta and past president A. S. Kasliwal also spoke of the need to promote trade and joint investment in Nepal and said the visit of the Prime Minister would be very fruitful for that purpose.

In the presence of the Prime Minister, an agreement was also signed between FNCCI and FAPCCI on information technology and agriculture business in Nepal.

FNCCI President Mr Shrestha and FAPCCI President Mohan Lal Gupta signed the agreement.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola, Royal Nepalese Ambassador to India Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Deb Mukherjee, the chief secretary, the foreign secretary, the Prime Minister’s daughter, the principal private secretary to the prime minister, high level officials of Andhra Pradesh and other members of the Prime Minister’s entourage were also present on the occasion.

Upper House passes two amendment bills

Kathmandu, Aug. 4 (RSS): The National Assembly today passed the resolution seeking consideration on the bill designed to amend some Nepal Acts-2057 and the bill designed to amend some Nepal acts concerning communications.

Both the bills were moved by Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya.

Responding to questions raised on the bill designed to amend some Nepal Acts- 2057, Minister Acharya said that HMG had introduced new pay scale on the recommendations of the Pay Commission and clarified that HMG was not in favour of reducing any facilities the employees were receiving.

The government was adjusting the number of grades with the pay scale to control regular expenditures and check the irregularity in the pay scale and the grade, he added.

Taking part in the general discussions on the bill, MPs Dev Raj Ghimire, Surendra Prasad Pandey, Bachaspati Devkota, Dr. Ram Man Shrestha, Jagannath Paudel and Ashok Nath Tiwari said that HMG should pay attention to the just distribution of pay and grade after studying the actual economic burden caused by the increase in pay scale.

They also said that though the civil services act was under the consideration of the court, the amendment bill introduced in the Parliament was contrary to existing act and laws, the decrease in the grade had lowered the morale of the civil servants and it was not proper to say that additional facility could be provided only through the earnings of the concerned organisations.

Replying to the questions raised on the bill designed to amend some Nepal Act-2057 concerning communications, Finance Minister Acharya said that HMG had no intention of banning any readable materials and cancelling the registration of periodicals and informed that the clause of the bill concerning cancellation of registration concerning communications has been amended.

Taking part in the general discussions on the bill, MPs Surendra Prasad Pandey, Ram Chandra Bhattarai and Dev Raj Ghimire said that article 7 of the bill states that if any periodical was not published within one year of the registration, it would be cancelled and this article was in contravention of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 and the spirit of multi-party democracy.

Earlier, chairman of the special committee Jagannath Paudel presented a report of the committee concerning Nepal Health Act (second amendment) Bill-2057.

The National Assembly will meet again at 12 noon on August 8.

As soon as the special time began at the meeting of the National Assembly today, Mahendra Kumar Mishra of NC said women are affected by the dowry system in various parts of the country, they have not been freed from the ‘ghumto’ (veil) system, they have been obliged to sustain the allegation of being a witch, and the girls have been raped.

Asking when they would be freed from such inhuman activities, he suggested that the daughters be given education at par with sons, they should be made partners in economic activities and an atmosphere should be created for equal rights.

Ram Chandra Bhattarai of the CPN-UML suggested the amounts taken by the various NGOs for service oriented works be monitored and assessed, and their accounts audited.

Shukra Raj Sharma of NC said the importance of astrology has increased in the present times. He said that astrology also be included in the Sanskrit University

Dr. Ramman shrestha of the CPN-ML said as the definition of the nationalities has been made differently on behalf of the government, it should not be contradictory.

Tham Maya Thapa of CPN-UML said the 618 women staffs working in the Women Development Division for the last 17 or 18 years should be made permanent and participation of women emphasised in the administrative sectors of HMG.

Meanwhile, taking time from National Assembly chairman Dr. Mohammad Mohsin as soon as the meeting of the Upper House began today, Jeevan Prem Shrestha of Nepali Congress said the decision to close public offices for two days a week in the valley has not provided any relief to the people and country, therefore this should be reviewed, public holidays reduced to one day a week and other unnecessary public holidays cancelled.

CPN-UML’s Lal Bahadur Biswokarma, stating that the Mahakali Joint Parliamentary Committee has not met for a single time so far, drew the attention of the cocnerned body towards that end.

RPP’s Balaram Ghartimagar said incessant rainfall since the past few days has damaged roads in different parts of the country thereby affecting daily life and also demanded that the government provide immediate relief to those affected by the heavy downpour.

CPN-UML’s Bir Bahadur Singh demanded that the home minister provide a detailed information about the loss caused by torrential rains leading to the occurance of floods and landslides in different parts of the country.

Shilupyari Karmacharya of Nepali Congress, referring to the recent incident that took place in Bhaktapur where a person named Krishna Khatri raped a four-year-old girl but efforts are ongoing to dismiss the case from the culprit’s side, said such incidents have been on the rise. Such tendency should be checked totally, he added.

Arbinda Thakur also of the same party pointed out the need to take stern action against rapists.

CPN-UML’s Shanta Manawi said flooding in the Narayani river is likely to displace some 106 Tharu and Musahar families at Ward no-4 of Narayani VDC in Nawalparasi district and demanded immediate temporary settlement for them.

The National Assembly will meet again at 12 noon on August 8.