Hinduism accommodative religion: Kishunji

Kathmandu, Sept. 6 (RSS):The Srimad Bhagbat Mahapuran Saptaha (National Mahayagya) began at open air theater, Tundikhel today.

Organized by the World Hindu Federation, the Mahayagya lasts till Sept. 13.

Ex-prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Rajparishad Standing Committee Chairman Dr Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, main opposition leader in the House of Represen-tatives Madhav Nepal, RPP MP Pashupati Shumsher J.b. Rana and Bada Guruju Keshari Raj Pandey jointly inaugurated the Mahayagya.

On the occasion chief guest ex-prime minister Bhattarai said that Hindu religion is very liberal and it has the ability to accommodate all.

Hinduism inspires all to refrain from greed and avarice, he said and asked the Hindus to join hands in doing away with the aberrations and anomalies in the religion.

Rajparishad Standing Committee Chairman Dr Rayamajhi was of the view that a Mahayagya like this will go a long way towards maintaining religious unity.

Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Kamala Devi Pant spoke of the need to promote spiritual feelings so as to check the increasing violence in the country.

Main opposition leader Madhav Nepal expressed the view that religion plays an important role in promoting a sense of nationalism and patriotism, while MP Pashupati Shumsher J.B. Rana stressed the need to preserve Hinduism so as to preserve "Nepaliness".

At the function, chief guest Bhattarai, MP Pashupati Shumsher J.B. Rana and federation president Pandit Narayan Prasad Pokharel pledged a donation of Rs. 100,000, Rs. 202,000 and Rs. 101,100 respectively for the construction of a World Hindu centre.

‘Literacy fosters development’

Kathmandu, Sept. 6 (RSS): Minister of State for Education and Sports Dilendra Prasad Vadu has said that literacy does not only mean familiarity with the alphabet but also ability to play an auxiliary role in the development of the country.

Inaugurating a one day long seminar on literacy for development held today under the joint auspices of the informal sector education centre and world education to mark world literacy day, he said the loopholes and shortcomings in the literacy programmes and informal education programme being implemented by the government as well as non-government organisations in various districts can be corrected if these programme are analysed with honesty.

National Human Rights Commission member Sushil Pyakurel expressed the view that as education remains as a base for development, it is the obligation of all to translate the right to education into practice.

Director General of the Department of Education Chandra Bahadur Khadka observed that in spite of the noticeable involvement of government and non-government organisations in this field, the literacy rate has not been raised to a desired level.

Representative of DFID Kevin Lillis stressed the need for assessing the outcomes and indicators drawn out of performance in this field compared to the investment made in this sector as well as the research and development carried out to date.

Chairman of Sathi and Samanata Dr. Arju Deuba lamented that women are deprived of equal rights though this very issue is raised frequently in speeches and said opportunity for education should be granted to women in order to maintain their social status and ensure their advancement.

Recalling that 70 per cent of the illiterate of the world live in South Asia, Director of the Centre Sayta Bahadur Shrestha said a literacy campaign should be launched in collaboration with the government sector, women’s groups and local bodies.

About 85 representatives from government bodies and national and international organisations took part in the seminar.

IPM could double Chana output

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept 6:Research carried out in the past two years has revealed that the annual production of Chickpea (Chana), which stands at 12,798 metric tonnes/hectare can be doubled through the integrated application of improved farming practices.

"Production of Chickpea can be doubled after the implementation of the Integrated Pest Management Programme (IPM)," Ram Krishna Neupane, co-ordinator of the Legume Crop Cultivation Programme based in Parwanipur said.

Botrytis Gray Mould a plant disease very rampant in misty weather and the pod borer, an insect that attacks the pods destroyed 90 per cent of the Chickpea crop in the year 1997/98, Neupane said.

A workshop on ‘Planning And Implementation of On-Farm Chickpea IPM In Nepal, which is to chalk out a three year (2001-2003) comprehensive package for enhancing Chickpea cultivation started today.

The partners of the three- year project are Natural Resource Institute (UK), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), National Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Agriculture of HMG and the farmers of the targeted areas in Nepal.

Funding for the project has been extended by the Department for International Development (UK) through the Natural Resource Institute based also in UK and ICRISAT centred in India.

"Despite high rates of return demonstrated on investment in agricultural research, the resources for agriculture research have been severely constrained nationally as well as globally," NARC Executive Director Dhruva Joshi said.

Joshi pointing at the constraints said all the plannng workshops therefore must assess the contribution the research has done and the benefits farmers and the society have received in relation to particular commodity.

"A fundamental problem to overcome in increasing Chickpea production is to change the prevailing perceptions of its status as subsistence crop and accept it as commercial crop," Joshi said.

ICRISAT Director General William D Dar said, "We have developed and implemented collaborative workplans with Nepal, the most recent on on-farm IPM of Chickpea was implemented during 1998-99 and 1999-2000 soon after the Botrytis Gray Mold disease epidemic in Chickpea in 1997-98."

This farmers participatory IPM was a part of the Crop Diversification Project commonly know as S4 Project which was funded by the Asian Development Bank, Dar said.

He said that more than 56 Nepalese scientists and technicians had participated in various training programmes at ICRISAT and germplasm exchange had been a major activity.

ICRISAT has supplied Nepal with a total germplasm 1025 accessions and breeding lines and advanced generation lines of Chickpea, he added.

P.C. Stevenson from NRI, UK said that emphasis would be given to move away from using insecticides and pesticides. "Use of resistant variety of Chickpea will be given priority to overcome the diseases," he said.

Stevenson said he had observed that 3,000 hectares of land in the terai region of Nepal was being left fallow in winter.

"Planting of Chickpea by adopting improved farming practices and resistant varieties would contribute significantly towards increasing the food security in Nepal," he said.

Underweight cement bags: Defenceless consumers

Butwal, Sept. 6 (RSS):  Complaints about the sale of under weight cement by almost all businessmen concerned have been increasing among consumers here.

I have found the cement sacks under weight by 7 kg, construction worker of Kapilvastu Samdev Kandu said.

He has had the bitter experience of boying 10 sacks of cement that were under weight by 60 kg.

A greedy trader does not hesitate to extract 10 kg of cement from a single sack. Big traders also indulged in such malpractice. It is hard to find anyone who sells cement with full weight, a cement retailer comments.

It is not difficult to extract cement from the sack. One can easily extract it by piercing the point where the sack is stitched up with a polythene pipe of about two inches. The hole thus made remains, he elaborates.

According to the Regional Office of Standards and Metrology, if buyers have doubts about the cement weight, the retailer should weight it for them this is clearly mention in notices hung up at such outlets.

There is no way to be sure about the weight and quality of goods since the standards office is unable to keep up its inspections of the market, chairman of the Consumer Interest Protection Forum, Rupendehi Nirbu Lama points out.

The interests of the consumer cannot be safeguarded under the existing legal framework, he said. As the procedures followed by the standards and metrology office are not transparent, cement sellers are not discouraged from malpractices.

I have run my cement business since the last 10 years, but I have not seen any official capable of bringing those cheating on cement weight to book, a local businessman said.

We have no way out but to buy the cement at a price determined by the dealers who enjoy a monopoly. Though a commission of Rs. 4 per sack of cement is provided to such dealers they do not actually sell at the stipulated rate and tend to charge prices at will, a cement trader of Nawalparasi disclosed on condition of anonimity.

According to the Standards Office, there are currently six cement dealers in Krishnanagar, one in Bhairahawa and one in Butwal.

Chief of the office Umesh Chandra Das said that at least seven businessmen dealing in cement have been penalised last year for selling under weight cement bags. An inspection team had carried out a raid in response to complaints from consumers.

He did not rule out the possibility of extracting cement from sealed sacks along the way or during re-packing before being handed over to the consumer.

As we have no equipment to check such fraud regular inspection of the market is inhibited, he added.

A businessman from Rupandehi blames consumers for such malpractice. The buyers are only concerned about the price of the cement, not the quantity and they prefer to buy where it is available at a cheaper rate.

Consumer Tara Sharma says that she found gravel dust in cement she bought.

As the demand for Nepalese cement is on the rise in this region, astute businessman are selling Indian cement in Nepalese cement bags, according to construction entrepreneurs.

Some big businessmen have even installed machinery for re-packing the cement.

Such a tendency has been increasing due to the price of Indian cement being lower by Rs. 20-25 per sack than Nepalese cement.

A variety of Indian cements including Raymond, Int, Satana, JP, Diamond and KC are available here.

As the cement brought from India is marked with the ISI standard logo, it is above suspicion over quality, a businessman says.

Despite the enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act in 2054 Bikram year to protect the rights and interests of the consumer, they do not feel secure in practice so far.

Though the attention of the concerned authorities has been drawn to the cement malpractice from time to time, they try to buck the issue stating that they lack adequate manpower, chairman of the Consumer Protection Forum Lama says.