Ranabhat opens housing project

Pokhara, Nov. 8 (RSS): On the occasion of the 11th Constitution Day, Speaker Taranath Ranabhat inaugurated the Pokhara Housing Project launched by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for the benefit of its depositors.

Speaker Ranabhat also initiated the task of handing over the house ownership documents to the owners of the house under the Pokhara Housing Project.

The construction work of 109 low cost houses, lower medium and medium standard houses have been completed on 31 Ropanis of land owned by the EPF.

The housing project with provisions of roads, drainage, schools, parking area, compound and supply of electricity and water has been completed at a cost of Rs 40,644,616 at ward No. 17 of Pokhara sub metropolitan city.

Addressing the function, Speaker Ranabhat said that as the development of the country was impossible with the spontaneous participation of the people, the present constitution formulated with the support of the king and the people is outstanding.

Stating that as some of the laws have not yet been formulated in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, the people could not exercise all the rights provided by the constitution which by itself was free of faults, Speaker Ranabhat said that he was not in favour of an amendment to the constitution at the present stage.

Pointing out the need for the civic society to recognise dutiful persons with high moral character, and punish the smugglers and mafia, he said that people are disillusioned with democracy due to the wrong activities of the leaders.

Speaker Ranabhat noted that the Pokhara housing project launched by EPF would set an example in the construction of low cost houses.

EPF administrator Rajesh Rajkarnicar, project chief Kedarnath Gautam and technical advisor Bhuvaneshwar Lal Shrestha also expressed their views at the function chaired by EPF chairman and secretary at the Ministry of General Administration Mukunda Prasad Aryal.

Conserve medicinal resources: Bastola

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Nov. 8:Herbal medicine experts from home and abroad who gathered here to take part in a four-day symposium on Conservation and Utilisation of Himalayan Medicinal Resources said that Nepal was rich in Himalayan medicinal resources and stressed on their development and conservation.

"The herbal medicines have been used widely in Nepal since Vedic time," Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola told the inaugural session of the symposium that kicked off this morning. "The ethno-herbal remedies practised by various Nepalese tribes and ethnic groups constitute a valuable traditional wisdom."

"In spite of this, the proper utilisation of such Himalayan resources and detailed scientific studies on them are still far from satisfactory," he added.

Maintaining that some useful work had been done by the state owned laboratories, Bastola said, "Much more is yet to be done."

He hoped that the symposium would serve as a forum to discuss the ways to explore, conserve, utilise and commercialise the vast Himalayan medicinal resources and called for efforts to spread the benefits of herbal medicines among the common people.

Nepal has about 5,600 species of high altitude plants of which over 700 are known to be medicinal and aromatic, Forest Secretary R. B. Bista said.

Bista said about 70 per cent of the countrymen depended on traditional medicines in one way or the other. "The foremost reason for the popularity of such ethno-medicines is that they are cheap and affordable."

He said that some of these medicinal herbs were in potential danger of extinction due to inadequate researches, random collection of herbal resources, lack of common knowledge about the importance of medicinal plants among people and failure to exercise the existing laws and called for efforts to save them.

Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Mitsuaki Kojima said that Nepal had an advantage in agriculture including the herbal medicine sector and confirmed Japanese Embassy’s support to promote this area.

He said that inventory preparation, research and development, production and marketing were equally important to generate income from the medicinal resources.

Japanese herbal medicine experts Dr. Motoyoshi Satake and Dr, Akihito Takano said that Nepal was rich in medicinal plants that could be exploited for medical and economic benefit of the countrymen.

The symposium organised jointly by the Department of Plant Resources under the Forest Ministry and Japan-based Society for the Conservation and Development of Himalayan Medicinal Resources is being participated in by around 250 scientists, researchers, policy makers, administrators, entrepreneurs, managers and industrialists from Nepal, Japan, the United States, Canada, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Named ‘The Himalayan Plants, Can They Save Us?’, it will discuss on the policy and legislation, inventory, research and development, conservation and sustainable use, industrialisation and commercialisation of the medicinal plants found in the Himalayas.

Deuba decides to contest for NC president

Janakpurdham, Nov. 8 (RSS): Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has announced his candidature for the president of the Nepali Congress to be held under the forthcoming 10th general convention of the party.

Addressing a mass meeting organised by Janakpur Municipal Committee of the Nepali Congress at Tirahutiyagachhi of Janakpur today, Mr Deuba said that after he took over the charge of the NC president, he would share the joys and sorrows of the NC workers of the villages and assign responsibilities to his opponents in the party in line with their efficiency.

Central member of the Nepali Congress and former minister Khum Bahadur Khadka emphasised the need to resolve the Maoists issue through dialogue and if the Maoists retreated from talks, the NC activists were prepared to confront them.

Another NC central member Chiranjivi Wagle said that new Nepal could be built only in democracy and economic development had taken place in the country in the last one decade.

NC central member Bijaya Kumar Gachchhedar said that people were closely watching what the government has been doing.

Former minister Bimalendra Nidhi emphasised the need for consolidation of the only democratic Nepali Congress party.

NC Janakpur Municipal Committee president Digamber Raya presided over the mass meeting.

UNESCO role for world peace lauded

Kathmandu, Nov. 8 (RSS): A talk programme on the topic "Basic education: Basis for life" was held here today under the joint auspices of the Nepal National UNESCO Foundation, the Nepal United Nations and UNESCO Association, the Baishawi Tundaldevi UNESCO Association, Taleju UNESCO Club, Arniko UNESCO Club and Dhaulagiri UNESCO Club on the occasion of the 54th anniversary of the founding of UNESCO.

During the programme, poet Madhav Prasad Ghimire noted that the efforts of UNESCO, a world-wide institution for maintaining world peace and the very existence of the human being, is praiseworthy and lauded the great roles being played by it in the educational and cultural sectors of Nepal

Prof. Damber Bir Thapa of the National Federation of Nepal UNESCO Clubs underlined the need of commitment on the part of institutions working under the UNESCO umbrella to lay out a new world order as well as bring about peace and happiness and safeguard human values by strictly adhering to the ideals of UNESCO.

Senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi said efforts should be made to lead Nepal ese society towards the path of education so that starvation, poverty and disease could be brought to an end.

Chief of Padma Kanya Campus Chiri Shobha Tamrakar and Baishawa Tundaldevi UNESCO Association chairman Rishikesh Sharma also spoke of the activities carried out under UNESCO at the function.