No resource constraints for healthy schemes: Dr. Mahat

Nuwakot, Sept. 1 (RSS): Minister for Finance Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat laid the foundation stone for the building of Nepal Children Organisation (NCO), Nuwakot to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 1 million.

On the occasion, Minister for Finance Dr. Mahat said there is no dearth of means and resources at the present moment to any person interested in getting involved in various schemes like those launched by the non-governmental organisations and private sector.

The civil society should also be active in order to stamp out corruption and control the misuse of authority, he added.

Central member of NCO Prachanda Pradhan asked the government to make budgetary allocations in accordance with the existing laws for the well-being of the children.

Nuwakot CDO Modraj Dotel, chairman of Bisheshwar with the Poor programme Bishnu Acharya and NC Nuwakot ex-president Dhruba Adhikari and vice-president of Nuwakot DDC Narayan Prasad Khatiwada expressed happiness over the construction of a building for the children at the inaugural function presided over by NCO Nuwakot district president Chandra Bahadur Acharya.

For the construction of the building, a fund of Rs. 800,000 will be borne by Langtang Foundation Uttargaiya, a non-governmental organisation and Rs. 166 thousand by the NCO.

Meanwhile, Minister for Finance Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat says that youths should shoulder the responsibility of building the nation.

Minister Mahat made this remark while inaugurating the Abiral Yuwa Library cum Auditorium at Bidur, the district headquarters of Nuwakot district, today.

Lauding the efforts made by the youths to set up the library, he assured them of constructive cooperation in any social work that is carried out by rising above personal interests.

The present government has introduced a progressive programme in order to ensure social justice in the country, he said.

Nuwakot DDC chairman Bharat Prasad Dhungana said Abiral Youth Society has become a model organisation in the district with the setting up of library in Bidur Municipality.

At the inaugural function held under the chairmanship of Abiral Yuba Society president Bishwa Raj Bhattarai, Nepali Congress Nuwakot district president Jagadishwar Narsingh K.C. pledged to extend financial and physical assistance to the library.

Gorkhapatra has not outlived its utility: Kisunji

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept. 1: For Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Nepali Congress leader and former Prime Minister, the rationale and relevancy of Gorkhapatra daily has not diminished.

"I don’t agree with those, who say that Gorkhapatra has outlived its utility and there is no longer the need and requisiteness of the newspaper," Bhattarai told the newspaper lately.

He was meeting some senior editors of the daily and the Chairman of the Gorkhapatra Corporation for informal talks at his residence at Bhainsepati to talk about Gorkhapatra. During the course of conversation, he refused to talk about any other issue except Gorkhapatra.

Bhattarai said those who are questioning the necessity of Gorkhapatra as a government mouth-piece, instead of suggesting to make it more competitive, are only trying to hit at and undermine its 100 years legacy, adding that Gorkhapatra as a newspaper is a historic entity in the sub-continent itself.

Although he knows it as the only newspaper published by a democratic government anywhere in the world, but it would be unwise for the government to think of closing it down. "Rather the government has an obligation to maintain its distinctive characteristic."

On the newspaper’s policy, Bhattarai said because it is a government’s publication, Gorkhapatra must support and advocate the government, its policies and programmes. "And Gorkhapatra should not be ashamed of it," he said point blankly.

In the present political context, Gorkhapatra must support and stand by the Prime Minister, but without ignoring and leaving out the differing opinions, he said. "Rather it can discount such opinions and find them space in the ‘less important’ pages," he said.

"Even if the government cannot and does not give enough basis and reason of its programmes, it is the job of Gorkhapatra to ‘seek’ the grounds and reasons to justify the government’s actions," Bhattarai said. For that, he said, the Gorkhapatra must have an educated and idealist Chief Editor, who can also write correctly.

He acknowledged Gorkhapatra as a historical fact of the country, but also pronounced a lot of complaints about the newspaper - the paper it is printed on, its layout and design, choices of news and articles to proof mistakes.

The poor paper it is printed on and the shabby layout, he said, disheartens its readers and the contents disappoint them. "Even the choice of articles look like they are written by the same people," Bhattarai reproached the editors.

Furthermore, the presence of printers’ devil only loses the significance, eloquence and the thrust the editors and writers want to give on their news and articles, Bhattarai was disapproving to the mistake galore he finds in the newspaper.

Some of the suggestions Bhattarai, who also as the President of the country’s journalists’ association way back in 2004 B.S., gave to the Gorkhapatra editors were, to pay more attention on the contents which should be aimed at students, youths, women, children and even the oldies, and supplements and special features. "Good articles may also be reproduced from outside," he said.

He also said if Gorkhapatra should be able to get good articles from good writers and for that it should be ready to pay good prices for them.

When told that governments has often overlooked the problems of Gorkhapatra, Bhattarai sounding quite innocuous, told the editors and the Chairman, "I might forget things, but when I become Prime Minister you can come and meet me, then I will solve all your problems."

Talking about himself, Bhattarai said that he has completed a novel, entitled ‘Censor Subba ko Bhram’, which will soon be in the press. The novel will come out very soon, he said and added that he is also working on his autobiography, of which he has already written about 150 pages. He said the autobiography will be of about 500 pages in two volumes and added that he is working in a very orthodox manner writing not more than one-and-a-half page a day.

--Kisunji’s counsels--

• Improve layout .

• Print quality articles

• Cater to readers’ taste

• Avoid mistakes

Paudel urges Maoists to stop their actions

Kathmandu, Sept. 1 (RSS): Former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Paudel has underlined the need for both the government and Maoists to make efforts to bring the talks between the two sides to a solution.

Stating that the Maoists should stop various actions being carried out by them if they are to make the present talks successful, Mr. Paudel said that on the one hand they have called for a cease-fire, while on the other, they have severely beaten up those who have differing opinions and collected donations from the people at gun points.

The NC leader, who was speaking at a colloquium on "The role of mass media for the development of Karnali region" organised by the Karnali students interest committee here today, noted that economic and social changes are necessary in the country, but these changes should be brought about through a peaceful and legitimate way.

Development in the Karnali region can gain momentum only if we could make the people aware of the potentials in the region, said Mr. Paudel adding we have not made any mistakes by restoring democracy, but the delay in the balanced development of the country may have caused the people’s disenchantment with democracy.

MP Tilak Prasad Neupane observed that though media has a great role to play in the development of a region, it has not paid proper attention to the development of Karnali region, while editor of the national daily Rajdhani Purushottam Dahal spoke of the need to launch a development drive in the region by giving it due priority.

Various other speakers including NTV General Manager Durganath Sharma and president of the Working Journalists Association Prem Kaidi also spoke at the function chaired by committee chairman Bhupendra Jung Shahi.

Nepal calls for unity of pro-democratic forces

Kathmandu, Sept. 1 (RSS): CPN-UML General Secretary and main opposition leader in Parliament Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that as the grave situation that the country is seeing today indicates a growing danger of regression it is imperative that all pro-democratic forces take this situation seriously and work for the protection of the democratic rights of the sovereign people.

CPN-UML general secretary Nepal, who was speaking at an interaction programme organised by Reporters’ Club Nepal here today, said as the country’s economic and social structures are still standing on old foundations, the entire structures should be updated if we are to do away with various anomalies and aberrations in society.

On the one hand the Nepalese society is struggling for change, while on the other some individuals are out to resist development and change, he said, stressing the need for a strong leadership and a clear vision to abolish all kinds of exploitations and ensure social justice for all.

At a time when feudalists are raising hue and cry against progressive land reforms and nationalism is coming under attacks, the Nepali Congress and its government are about to abort the real land reforms by implementing nominal reform measures.

Alleging that the ultra leftists and ultra rightists are not able to objectively analyse the situation in the country, Mr Nepal stressed the need for one and all to check any activities that are likely to push the country and the multi-party democratic system towards regression and nullify the achievements of the popular movement.

Seminar on Infotech
‘Infotech essential for quality of education’

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept.1: Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) organised a seminar on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Education here today. In the programme an intensive discussion was held on the recent developments in ICT and how it can be used for in the education sector.

In the seminar, CAN executive member Atma Ram Ghimire introduced ICT and talked about present status. He said that ICT and particularly Internet could be an instrument to educate citizens.

National Planning Commission member Dr. Rameshananda Vaidya said the application of ICT was essential to impart quality education. "The entire teaching and learning method should be changed. The application of ICT should be made compulsory right from the primary level studies." Stressing on the involvement of the private sector, Vaidya also spoke on the need to provide scholarship to poor and diligent students.

Another NPC member Dr. Nirmal Pandey said it was preferable to educate people through computers to attain the government’s goal of making all the citizens literate by 2015.

"Nowadays there is a big gap in the quality of education in the cities and the remote villages. In this context, the ITC can play an important role as we can not only send resource materials through the Internet but also can educate the students through the same."

Pandey said the quality of education was deteriorating as teaching was taken as an easy job. It is estimated that over 40 per cent teachers are untrained and 50 per cent of them do not take classes regularly.

He said the government had allocated 25 million rupees for the development of science and technology in selected five districts and had a plan to expand the programme gradually.

In Nepal there are a lot of advance equipment available but the manpower to handle the equipment and the technology is scarce. "The equipment seem to be dumped because of lack of trained operators," said Dr. Hom Nath Bhattarai.

Vice chancellor of Kathmandu University Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma said quality education required three factors: interest of students, course content, and the trained teachers. "We need to work hard to compete with the neighbouring countries."

Policy sought to curb gas pollution

Kathmandu, Sept. 1 (RSS): Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations and the civic society should come together for resolving environmental problems whatever their origin in a coordinated and selfless manner.

This view was expressed by participants of the day-long seminar on " gas-operated vehicles in Nepal and environmental concerns" organised by the Society of Environmetal Journalists (SEJ) Nepal here the other day.

The participants of the seminar pointed out that vehicles should be repaired regularly, suggestions given by professionals and experts from the sector concerned should be given due place while formulating policies and rules with far-reaching impact, that the practice of effecting frequent changes in the policies and programmes to harass the service-oriented entrepreneurs should be stopped and that various activities of the ministries and departments concerning environment and transport management should be immediately implemented for public interest.

Joint secretary at the Minisry of Labour and Transport Management Lalit Bahadur Thapa urged the experts concerned and transport entrepreneurs to cooperate with the government in its objectives, including the objective of resolving the environmental problems.

Director General of Bureau of Standards and Metrology Purna Prasad Manandhar said that the Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG) being used by some vehicles at present was not actually meant for these vehicles.

He disclosed that the Bureau has published a code of conduct for the protection and promotion of gas cylinders.

Superintendent of Police at the Valley Traffic Police Office Yadav Adhikari said that the traffic police office has been conducting vehicular pollution checks despite limited equipment and lack of well-trained manpower.

President of SEJ-Nepal Sanu Babu Silwal stressed a coordinated approach in resolving environmenatl problems.

SEJ general-secretary Upendra Karki, treasurer Rejina Maskey, Dr. Bhakta Ale, Professor at the Institute of Engineering , Pulchowk College, president of LPG Dealers’ Association Chiranjibi Maskey and others also expressed their views on the occasion.

NEPSE index downfall
Fall of NEPSE index raises doubts in capital market

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept. 1: A sudden downfall in the transaction of shares in the trading floor of Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) this week has triggered doubts over the reliability of the Nepalese capital market. It is said that the bearish trend is mainly due to over-heated market caused by supply pressure.

With the harrowing fall of NEPSE index by almost 8.74 points on Wednesday and 3.76 points on Thursday, there has been a wide speculation that the capital market at some point in the near future will come across a difficult time if the government fails to take any measures.

In fact a substantial decline in the demand of banks’ shares this week was the prime cause of NEPSE index’s downfall. The decline in the demand of banks’ shares in the secondary market was mainly because of political uncertainty, say economists and financial analysts. Ups and downs in the capital market is a normal phenomenon, however this kind of downfall cannot be taken easily, they say.

The overall position of commercial banks is very sound and their individual portfolio is encouraging, but political uncertainty has created confusion among investors, asserts Jagadish Agrawal, a chartered accountant and financial analyst. Given the present political scenario, the situation of money market and capital market is quiet shaky, therefore it is obvious that investors do not feel secure to invest on the capital market, he says.

Though the government has issued a notice to assure the public that there will be no ceiling on bank deposits, the rumours about ceiling has discouraged people to invest on share market. The political uncertainty has led to the situation of capital flight.

However, Prof. Manohar Krishna Shrestha takes the present situation as a normal phenomenon in the capital market. Talking to The Rising Nepal, Shrestha says that the capital market, which was not guided by the financial mechanism, has now come to its real size. The market is in the process of correction. The second reason of down fall of NEPSE index, according to Shrestha is the poor performance index of manufacturing sector. Besides, capital flight symptoms owing to political fluidity could also be one of the major reasons of triggering bearish trend in the capital market, he asserts. Prof. Shrestha who has been closely watching the capital market also finds some problems in the taxation policy of the government.

There are various factors that determine the health of capital market. Such as political stability, economic growth, industrialization and the government’s policy are the major.

The bullish trend in the stock market in the past was catapulted by non-economic factors - mainly because of buyers’ sentiment. But the overall scenario has changed since past few months, which has led to the bearish trend. If the government fails to take timely measures, downfall in the NEPSE index cannot be declined. However experts are of the view that the Nepalese capital market has now started taking its real shape. If it is so proper mechanism in order to monitor the market should be developed.