Micro credit effective in alleviating poverty

By A Staff Reporter

Lalitpur, Apr. 19: Economists today said micro-credit was an effective tool alleviate poverty and transform society.

"Poverty alleviation is the prime goal of the 10th Five Year Plan," National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal said at a one-day seminar on ‘Experience Sharing on Micro-finance Practices in Nepal’. "Micro-finance can be a powerful tool to achieve this goal. We are determined to push ahead micro-finance schemes aggressively in the next five years."

"We should integrate the existing micro-finance providers to go ahead effectively," he added. Ligal said not all micro-finance providers were equally successful and asked the less successful ones to learn from others’ experience. "They should take care to reduce overheads and keep themselves secure."

"Resource won’t be a problem; they can be pooled if necessary," he said.

Earlier, Shankar Man Shrestha, Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Micro-finance Development Centre, said the policy makers had not recognised the importance of micro-finance despite its capacity to build up the national economy. "Micro-finance can raise the working class people into entrepreneurs, but it has yet to get the due recognition," he said.

Shrestha said micro-credit providers worked transparently and provided loans directly to the needy people without collateral. "There is little chance of leakage and corruption in micro-credit programmes."

However, he said that all was not well with micro-finance institutions. "The challenge that lies ahead of us is to strengthen the institutions. For that we need to develop a national vision."

In Nepal, over half a dozen micro-credit institutions has been in operation since the early 1990s. These institutions now serve a total of 223,521 poor households with the total cumulative loan disbursement of Rs. 6.69 billion.

They have made poor women’s access to financial services easier and establishing their control over the financial resources.

Left parties for dialogue to end violence

Kathmandu, Apr. 19 (RSS):  A joint meeting of the five leftist parties at the CPN-ML central office at Putali Sadak here today held serious discussions on the present crisis in the country and finding a political solution to it.

The meeting expressed grave concern over the violent confrontation between the government and the Maoist insurgents for the last six years resulting in destruction, creation of an atmosphere of violence and terror in the country, loss of lives of civilians and damage to the physical assets and structures of development and construction.

The meeting concluded that it was the need of the day to immediately stop violence, murder and encounters to find a political way out of the current crisis and enter the process of dialogue to discourage the harmful tendencies and activities and protect and promote the achievements of the historic People’s Movement.

The meeting stated that the proposed Nepal Bandh would not be helpful in finding a political way to resolve the crisis and it would only complicate the situation further, and appealed to both the government and the Maoists to call off the strike.

General secretary of the CPN (United) Vishnu Bahadur Manandhar, chairman of CPN (Marxist) Prabhu Narayan Chaudhari, general secretary of the CPN (MLM) Nanda Kumar Prasadi, Shyam Shrestha of Socialist Movement of Nepal and central member of the CPN(ML) CP Mainali have signed the joint statement.

Teachers stage sit-in against irregularities

Birgunj, Apr. 19 (RSS): Nepal Teachers’ Association (NTA), Parsa staged a sit in at the District Education Office yesterday protesting against irregularities in teachers adjustment work.

President of the NTA Parsa district committee Harihar Saha said that a sit-in was being staged at the District Education Office from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. because of the growing possibilities of uncertain future of the students, teachers and school caused by transfer of teachers in an irresponsible manner.

Saha said that NTA Parsa district committee has also decided to hand over a petition to chairman of the commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority Suryanath Upadhyaya and a memorandum to District Education Officer Narayan Gopal Malego.

Saha said that the teachers had decided to launch a phasewise protest campaign until the District Education Office withdraws its teachers’ transfer and adjustment decision.

Imanishi award given to Raj Bhattarai

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Apr. 19: Minister for Physical Planning and Works Chiranjibi Wagle said today that the late Japanese national Toshio Imanishi had played a praiseworthy role in promoting relations between Nepal and Japan.

Minister Wagle said that the Imanishi Memorial Fellowship Trust, which has been set up in memory of late Imanishi, would help consolidate Nepal-Japan relations. He expressed the view at a programme organised by the Japan University Students Association, Nepal (JUSAN) to present the Imanishi Memorial Fellowship Trust Award to Raj Kumar Bhattarai.

Bhattarai won the award for his research work entitled "Originality of Japanese Business Management". The award carries a purse of Rs. 25,000 and a certificate. Teachers at Tribhuvan University (TU) Gopal Krishna Acharya and Bidur Prasad Acharya received the runner-up prizes.

The late Imanishi led an expedition team to Mt. Annapurna in 1953. The Japanese alpinist was lover of Nepal. He was actively involved in promoting bilateral relations between Nepal and Japan throughout his life. Decorated with the Gorkha Dakshin Bahu (2nd), he was also appointed as the Honorary Royal Nepalese Consul General in Osaka in 1993. Born in 1914, he contributed significantly to the education sector in Nepal. He died in 1995.

Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Zenji Kaminaga said that the facts revealed by the research work of the award winner could be instrumental in forging cultural relations between Nepal and Japan if they materialised.

President of JUSAN Dr. Gajendra Bahadur Baniya said that his association has been encouraging researchers and writers to investigate into issues related to Nepal-Japan relations to promote ties between them.

Dr. Baniya highlighted other activities of JUSAN.

Vice-President of JUSAN Dr. Keshav Shrestha said that the association had been informing the Nepalese people about the cultural, educational and development programmes of Japan.