HM receives credentials

Kathmandu, Dec 12 (RSS): His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev received letters of credence today from Ambassador designate of the Republic of India Dr. Indu Prakash Singh, and Ambassador designate of the United States of America Michael E. Malinowski to the Kingdom of Nepal amidst separate special functions held at the Narayanhity Royal Palace.

Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya, Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat, Chairman of the National Assembly Dr. Mohammad Mohsin and Chairman of the Raj Parishad Standing Committee Dr. Keshar Jung Rayamajhi were also present on the occasion.

After the credentials ceremony, His Majesty the King received in audience the Ambassadors of the Republic of India and the United States of America separately at the Narayanhity Royal Palace.

Govt for action plan to empower women

Kathmandu, Dec. 12 (RSS): Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Rajendra Kharel today inaugurated a seminar on "Women and employment" held under the aegis of the Employment Promotion Commission.

About 60 women representing governmental and non-governmental organisations are taking part in the seminar.

The seminar aims at analysing the state of the employment for women and problems arising in this sector and framing strategies to address these problems.

In his inaugural address, Minister Kharel said that His Majesty’s Government is attentive towards providing education, alternatives for income generation and employment to women so as to attain all round development of the country.

The government is fully committed to framing policy matters, charting out plan of action and implementing them, he added.

The employment-oriented and skill development programmes designed for women should be implemented in an effective manner, Minister Kharel said, pointing out that women have a pivotal role to play in bringing about social transformation and economic advancement in the country.

Vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission Prithviraj Ligal said that NPC has designed plans and programmes by pin pointing women as the target group to materialise the objective of poverty alleviation, the main thrust of the Tenth Plan.

His Majesty’s Government has taken into consideration the austerity measures in the development projects and making the local body accountable in this task, he said, adding that the government has envisioned to get 50 per cent women involved in building-up basic infrastructures for drinking water, education, communications and transportation at the local level.

The target is to increase the women literacy from 42 per cent to 65 percent by the end of the 10th Plan, he added.

Vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and president of Employer Council Suraj Baidya noted that widespread poverty, unbridled population growth and unemployment are the formidable challenges before the country. Equal participation of women in every sector of national development is essential for confronting these challenges, he added.

Member secretary at the Employment Promotion Commission Binod Kumar Bhattarai and its director Bal Govinda Bista spoke on the need to financially empower the women in order to actively involve them in the process of economic and social development.

Army spearheads search operation against terrorists

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 12: The security forces have continued the search operations in different parts of the country. In separate incidents in Myagdi, Gorkha, Kavrepalanchowk and Rolpa Tuesday, at least three Maoist terrorists were killed and about 20 others have been arrested.

Search operation

According to the Defense Ministry, in the search operations at Tatopani and Babiyochaour of Myagdi area the security forces arrested five terrorists and confiscated bucket bombs which were about to explode, explosives, fake weapons and documents related to terrorists.

The security forces also confiscated several explosives, ammunitions, donation pads and other documents related to terrorists hidden in drums in Ghuwakot area of Gorkha.

Terrorists arrested

Similarly, security forces have arrested five suspected terrorists at Kalchhe near Panchkhal of Kavrepalanchowk and seven in Bawa and Pakhapani areas of Rolpa. They are being investigated upon.

The army has also found two .303 rifles, plastic grenades and more magazines of weapons near NTC’s repeater station at Ratemate of Rolpa district. Ratemate was the scene of a fierce fight between the army and the terrorists on Saturday night.

In another incident, three Maoists were shot dead in a fight between the army and the Maoist terrorists at Kapurkot of Salyan district on Tuesday. The confrontation had occurred when the Maoist terrorists attacked an army team, which was carrying out search operation near the repeater station after the conflict on Sunday. In the operation the army search team also found ammunitions and socket bombs. With this, the terrorist killed at Kapurkot has reached to fourteen.

NC decides to conduct training for its activists

Kathmandu, Dec. 12. (RSS): A meeting of the recently constituted Training Department of the Nepali Congress has decided to conduct development region, zonal, and district level training for party activists under scheduled programmes.

The meeting has also constituted various sub-committees to prepare training material. Head of the Training Department Laxman Ghimire has nominated Lokesh Dhakal as member cum secretary from among members of the department.

At the meeting, NC General Secretary Sushil Koirala pointed out the need for the party organisation to take internal activities ahead more effectively even if there is a state of emergency in the country and gave directives to take the party programmes down to the various districts.

Likewise, a meeting of
the department concerning Parliamentary and local bodies was held under the chairmanship departmental chief Gopal Raj Pahadi.

The meeting decided to hold joint gatherings of NC MPs, DDC chairmen, DDC vice-chairmen, mayors, deputy mayors and DDC members in all the five development regions.

The meeting also decided to undertake a study of the present system of elections for local bodies and present a report along with suggestions at its next meeting.

‘Govt gives priority to distance learning’

Lalitpur, Dec. 12 (RSS): Minister of State for Education and Sports Narayan Prakash Saud has said that the government and civic society should join hands to make quality education accessible to a big portion of population still deprived of basic and higher education.

Saud was speaking at a programme organised here today on the eve of the launching of the one year in education through distance learning programme of the institute of open learning under the Higher Education Development Cooperative Institution Limited.

Stating that the government had accorded special priority to distance learning following the restoration of democracy, he said that full cooperation will be extended to institutions and organisations set up with a view to producing the skilled manpower required by the country.

Prof. Dr. Trailokya Nath Upreti, Prof. Dr. Ballabh Mani Dahal, Prof. Dr. Mana Prasad Waglay and a host of other speakers expressed their views at the programme chaired by president of the institution Damodar Regmi.