Nepal-Bhutan secretary level meet next week

Kathmandu, Oct. 31 (RSS): A Nepal-Bhutan secretary level meeting is to begin from Tuesday Nov. 6 here in Kathmandu.

According to a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, the meeting will focus on the basis for categorisation of the refugees, harmonisation of this task and the position of both sides on the verification process.

It is expected that should the verification of refugees at Khudunabari camp in Jhapa be completed within November, the refugees can be repatriated to their homeland by the end of December.

The verification at Khudunabari has been continuing since the 11th Nepal-Bhutan ministerial level meeting held at Thimpu, Bhutan decided to simplify the verification process, equip the joint verification team with necessary powers and add one more member each to the Nepali and Bhutanese verification teams.

The Nepalese delegation to the three-day secretary level meeting beginning Tuesday will be led by Foreign Secretary Narayan Shumsher Thapa and the Bhutanese delegation by Foreign Secretary Ugyen Tshering.

Dashain hangover affects Jhapa offices

Bhadrapur, Oct. 31 (RSS):  Although offices have opened after the Dashain festival, there is little enthusiasm among the people here due to the low turnout of office employees.

Offices throughout the Kingdom opened yesterday after the Dashain festival. His Majesty’s Government had curtailed the number of Dashain holidays from this year with the objective of providing greater services to the general people.

Although government offices used to remain closed for the Dashain festival till Kojagrat Pornima (full moon day), offices this year opened for regular business two days after tika.

While employees who live in areas near their offices have started coming to work, those from remoter areas have not yet reported in.

Apart from the lower number of employees at the offices, the number of people coming to the offices on various business is low.

The District Administration Office, the Land Revenue Office, the Land Reforms Office and Rastriya Banijya Bank which used to be crowded have not been so crowded after they opened since yesterday.

However, there was a sizeable presence of employees working on temporary or daily wage basis due to fear of losing their jobs.

38% children in Rupendehi still deprived of primary education

Butwal Oct. 31 (RSS): About 38.5 per cent of the children in Rupendehi district have been deprived of primary education.

One school each lies in almost all the village development committees and 2 schools in 15 VDCs except in the human settlement in and around the town and in the periphery of highway.

The number of school attending children and completing the school level education from among the children belonging to Tharu, Muslim, Musahar and Chamar communities is extremely nominal.

According to the statistics of the District Education Plan-2050, the apparent attending rate is 78.205 per cent and the actual attending rate is 52.885. Of them, the girl students account for 73.5 per cent and the actual rate is 45.66 per cent.

The students of the primary level who re-admit accounts for 27.13 per cent and only 37.19 per cent of the total children complete their studies.

A total of 223 public primary schools, 29 lower secondary schools, 61 secondary schools are in operation in the district.

Similarly, 63 primary schools, 17 lower secondary schools and 58 secondary schools are being run by the private sector.

According to the statistics, 44,753 boys and 32,745 girls are studying in primary schools, 11,588 boys and 8,159 girls in lower secondary schools, 3,840 boys and 3,164 girls in secondary schools and 354 boys and 235 girls in higher secondary schools.

Similarly, a total of 12,081 boys and 7,630 girls are studying in private pre-primary and primary schools, 3,433 boys and 2,022 girls in secondary schools, 1,655 boys and 1,016 girls in secondary schools and 237 boys and 127 girls in higher secondary schools.

More than 50 per cent of the public schools are reported to have been passing through unfavourable position in providing quality education because of the lack of adequate classrooms, furnitures and basic educational materials.

According to district education officer Bishnu Prasad Sharma, problems are being faced as a result of passiveness on the part of the guardians and bitter relations between the headmaster and the school’s management committee.

Kidney hospital fails to fetch equipment in absence of valid papers

Bhaktapur, Oct. 31 (RSS): A Kidney Care Hospital established at Sallaghari, Bhaktapur some nine months ago has not come into operation because of the permission not being given to import necessary equipment from abroad.

Although some equipment and an ambulance have been provided by generous donors free of cost for the Dr. Iwamura Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, the hospital has not been able to bring in these equipment and ambulance from the Indian port for a long time because of the lack of valid documents. The hospital has been facing problems procuring other surgical equipment.

The hospital was set up by private sector in memory of Prof. (Dr) Noboru Iwamura, a Japanese surgeon who had contributed to advancement of health and education in the remote areas of Nepal.

The hospital aims at providing quality health services to the local people at a minimum cost and rendering special services for the patients suffering from kidney and tissues disorders.

Kidney hospital in limbo

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had laid the foundation stone of the hospital that sprawls over 11 ropanis of land and consists of 25 beds.

In spite of the permission granted by the Ministry of Health to run the hospital, the hospital has not yet come into operation due to delay in obtaining necessary equipment and a long-standing road
dispute with the Bhaktapur Municipality.

The Department of Health Service has refused to renew the registration of the hospital, causing impediments in importing necessary equipment on concessional custom rate from abroad.

The department argues that as the hospital has not come into operation yet, its renewal is impossible.

Purnima Gurung, chairperson of the hospital constructed at a cost of Rs. 30 million, asked how the hospital could be run in the absence of necessary surgical equipment.

The hospital management aims at expanding its bed capacity up to 250 in the future.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Health Dr. Benu Bahadur Karki said that an early solution to the problem will be found after conducting a detailed study of the hospital.