Problems delay implementing child rights laws: Mainali

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 8: Keshav Prasad Mainali, Judge of Biratnagar Appellate Court, said that since the laws related to child rights have not been implemented in practice, various problems have emerged in the country.

At a workshop organised by Human Rights and Peace Society (HUPRES), Morang branch, Pradeep Pokhrel, presented a working paper, whereas campus chief Dr. Upendra Koirala, Dinesh Dinesh Shrestha and Toya Gautam expressed their views about the situation of child rights in Nepal. The function was chaired by Chuda Mani Nepal.

Similarly, Judge of Sarlahi Appellate Court Prem Prasad Silwal said that despite the formation of the child bench, the bench has not started to work in the field of child rights as the child experts have not been appointed yet. Former Minister Ramhari Joshi said that the incidents of injustice and atrocity have increased in the society.

"Causes of such incidents should be identified to control them," Joshi said.

Chaired by Laxman Raya, advocate Hemkanta Chaulagain presented a working paper entitled "Nepalese children under the threat of violent politics".

Chief District Officer (CDO) Thaneshwar Devkota, Ram Ashish Gupta, Ramesh karna Sitaram Mahato, Dhirendra Shrestha and others spoke on the occasion.

Likewise, workshops on the child rights were also organised in Nawalparasi and Bhaktapur recently.

Meanwhile, RSS adds from Nepalgunj, speakers at a symposium on "Nepal: children caught up in politics of violence" organized by the Human Rights and Peace Society here recently, expressed the view that it is inappropriate to impinge child rights for the sake of fulfilling one’s self-interests.

During deliberations on various working papers presented at the seminar, the participants opined that neither His Majesty’s Government nor any one political party should be held responsible for the violation of children’s rights and that ways should be found out to prevent such violation of child rights.

Inaugurating the symposium, president of Nepal Red Cross Society Banke district unit Narbada Sharma said that it is outright inappropriate to use children in armed conflicts when they should be going to school.

Central members of the Amnesty International Nepal Mohammadi Siddique and Bishnu Kumal, representative of the Nepali Congress Banke district unit Divyadev Upreti and Ashok Koirala, the representative of the CPN-UML, also expressed their views at the programme presided over by society’s Banke district president Pramod Bahadur Shrestha.

Swindling, cheating cases on rise in Nawalparasi

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Kawasoti, July 8: Swindling and cheating of the people looking of job has not been limited to Kathmandu alone. Even in districts like Nawalparasi, there are growing incidents of people being cheated in the name of sending abroad or providing technical training.

Recently, Madhusudhan Dahal, proprietor of ‘the basic skill training and employment centre’ has run away with Rs.300,000 he had collected from local unemployed youths. Dahal had opened the Centre by paying Rs.10,000 as house rent and had promised to provide training and employment afterwards.

Victims say that the institute had, in the name of providing training on computer, English language and driving, called for applications from the interested persons. "Dahal had raised Rs. 250,000 from various applicants interested in taking the offered training programmes. He had also collected Rs. 50,000 from the people in the pretext of taking out driving licenses from the police office," they say.

The swindler and his accomplice Mekh Bahadur Gurung also fled without paying two month’s house rent. Similarly, Bina Subedi, a local girl, was also lost Rs. 15,000. They had taken the money on the pretext of giving her a job.

The applicants had to pay the fee in advance and they even ran the institute for two days. But to their utter dismay, the institute was found closed when they reached it for the training on the third day. Only then they realised that they have been cheated.

They have also taken away the computer, which they had taken on hire from Tika Ram Bhattarai, a local resident, signing a contract to pay at Rs. 10,000 per month.

It has been found that they had swindled Rs. 200,000 from opening such institutes in Kolchawa, Baheghat and Arun Khola areas of the distirct.

The victims have filed a case at the District Police Office for taking necessary action against the swindlers. Babu Ram Bhattarai, Police Inspector, said that necessary process has been started to arrest and take action against the cheaters.

Blazing heat affects general life in Rautahat

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Gaur, July 8: The sun blazing and the soaring temperature have affected people’s lives in Rautahat. Local people have stopped coming out of their homes. The district offices have also witnessed fewer number of people because of heat. Business is down as the fewer number of people are venturing out to the market. Traders, industrialists and shopkeepers say their sales have decreased drastically in the last few days.

The blazing heat has also affected the sale of foreign goods with the number of buyers from India reduced significantly. Dev Prayag Guha, President of Rautahat Chamber of Commerce, says that the sale of foreign goods has reduced drastically now.

Jagadish Regmi, Officiating Chief District Officer (CDO) of Rautahat district, the number of people visiting the office to take citizenship certificates and passports has gone down due to hot weather. Similarly, the district court, land revenue office, land reforms office and land measurement office have also witnessed the presence of a very few people.

There is no equipment to measure the temperature in the district. However, people feeling the heat say that the maximum temperature of the district may have reached to 45 degree Celsius.

Love Green enhances greenery in Paanchkhal

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Paanchkhal, Kavrepalanchok, July 8: The Love Green Nepal, a non-government organization working in the field of environment, control of deforestation and promotion of greenery in the Paanchkhal valley has so far distributed nearly seven hundred thousand seedlings to the local farmers and the community forest groups in the course of the last nine years.

"We have already planted seven hundred thousand seedlings since the inception of our project nine years back and we look forward to giving continuity to our efforts of promoting greenery," Vice President of Love Green Nepal, Keshab Aryal said.

He said that the Love Green Nepal was working in different social welfare activities such as renovation of school buildings, giving out training to local farmers and women and building of health posts.

"We need to strike a balance between nature and human civilization if the latter is to be given continuity," Aryal told the Seedlings distribution and Sustainable Community Forest Award Handing Over Ceremony organized today.

General Secretary of Love Green Nepal, Amira Dali said this year the NGO was looking forward to distribute fifty thousand seedlings. The seedlings for winter have already been distributed while the seedlings for the monsoon season are being distributed from today onwards, she said.

Of the seedlings grown, the number of the 16 different species which can be used as forest resources is 31,000, there are six species of six thousand fodder seedlings and 13.000 seedlings of 12 different fruit species, Dali said.

"We have also been assisting the locals to construct Organic Gas Plants, the number of which stands at 200 in the Paanchkhal valley," she said.

Other activities include the dissemination of environment education to the locals, motivating women to involve themselves in vegetable farming using organic manure and development of community forestry programmes, Dali added.

Treasurer of Love Green Nepal Rajesh Silwal said that a strong partnership between the local farmers and the NGO had developed over the years in the task of promoting greenery in the Paanchkhal valley.

Silwal said that the forest resource was the only resource among all the natural resources that could be generated by man himself for his use and benefit.

Principal of the Sarwamangala High School and advisor of the Thuli Community Forest programme Damodar Adhikari said the Love Green Nepal had contributed substantially for the development of greenery and community forestry in the Paanchkhal valley.

He said that the NGO had also been assisting the locals to raise their living standards through the introduction of improved farming practices.

Sarita Tamang, one of the beneficiaries of the programme said that prior to the launching of the programmes by the Love Green Nepal the farmers here did not know much about improved farming practices.

"The farmers in the valley have learnt a lot about modern practices in the past nine years," she said.

District Forest Officer, Navaraj Kafle said, "We as government employees have observed the work of many NGOs in different parts of the country, the Love Green Nepal unlike other NGOs is found to have shown a great deal of seriousness in its work."

He said the fact that the NGO has been assisting the farmers to build organic gas plants is a welcome step, as it would decrease the pressure on the environment.

Kafle said the people had been given the responsibility of looking after the forests through the launching of the community forestry programme so that they would promote them and ensure the protection of the valuable resources by themselves.

Kafle also gave away the Sustainable Community Forest Award to the Karkikhok Community Forest Programme. A total of 42 community forest groups had taken part in the competition for the award.

He also gave away prizes to those exhibiting high level of performance in plant rearing. Women also received awards for their outstanding performance in the cultivation of vegetables by using organic manure only. The leading farmers in the valley were also awarded.

The Love Green Nepal has been working with the total assistance of nearly 1.5 million rupees given by the Love Green Japan. A total of 3,500 houses have been benefiting from its activities in Paanchkhal, Baluwa, Anaikot, Patlekhet and Rabiopi Village Development Committees.

Police fire to bring drunkard under control

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Janakpurdham, July 8: Police had to fire in the air for two times to bring under custody the drunkards recently in Debadiha village that lies near Nepal-India border in Dhanusha district.

The drunkards used to make nuisance at public places till late night, causing inconvenience to the general public.

Surendra Bahadur Pal, Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Zonal Police Office, Janakpur, said that police were compelled to fir guns in the air to disperse the crowd of people, who were supporting the drunkards in the village.

Similarly, some unidentified persons had shot fires at a police patrolling team from the Dhanusha District Police Office in Balaha Kathal area, which lies in the eastern part of the district.

Some members of the patrolling team said that the unidentified persons fled away after the firing in the Nepal-India border area.

British Law books handed over

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 8: Andrew Mitchell, the Charge d'Affaires, at the British Embassy, on Friday presided at the hand over ceremony at the British Embassy of the first consignment of British law books sent from the Statue Law Revision Society, based in London, to be distributed to Law Libraries throughout Nepal.

The society's five year Nepal Law Libraries Development Programme has a gross worth of about G.B.P. Pound 700,000. It will provide lawyers in Nepal with much needed British law Books and Legal Information Management Systems to provide an advanced structure for the development of Nepal's Legal System. This comes at a time when there is increasing pressure on government Ministries and the courts to greatly increase the pace of legal reforms. The books come from Practising Lawyers, Courts and Local Government bodies in England, says a press release issued by the British Embassy.

"Providing such a large number of Law Books for the 5,000 Nepalese Lawyers will encourage and provide the immediate means for the people of Nepal to find indigenous solutions to our national problems", said lawyer Pravakar Adhikari president of the society, Victor Richard Stockinger. "The support of the English Legal Profession and Institutions has been very purposeful and timely."

Others present among the 60 guests at the ceremony included Justice Kedar Nath Upadhyaya of the Supreme Court, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chitra Lekha Yadav, the Attorney General, Badri Bahadur Karki, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Udaya Nepali Shrestha.

The British Law Books will be distributed throughout the country. Depository sites in Kathmandu incldue the Supreme Court Library, the library at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Nepal Bar Association Library, the Central Law Library and the Tribhuvan University Nepal law Campus Library. Books will also be sent to the Law School Library and the New Bar Association Library in Biratnagar, to the Law Campus Library in Pokhara, and elsewhere as need dictates. Btiriths Law also forms the basis of the legal systems of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A decision is awaited from the New Zealand Government about it donating a substantial number of New Zealand Law Books for this programme. This was organised through Mr Stockinger's New Zealand connections, to build on the work of Sir Edmund Hillary in Developing Primary Schooling in Nepal during the 1960s and 1970s. The Australian Government is also considering participation in the programme.

The British Embassy paid the air freight costs for the consignment, which amounted to Rs. 200,000.