Groom’s death triggers volley of accusations

By Our Correspondent

Birgunj, Apr. 25:When groom Jagadish Prasad died at the wedding mandap, his family accused the bride’s side for his death.

Jagadish Prasad of Bhawanipur VDC of Bara district, had gone to marry the daughter of Bindeshwor Shah of Madhuban village of Parsa district on Tuesday. When the marriage procession reached the bride’s house, he received garlands from the bride and the groom was received by women with flowers and rice mixed with vermilion powder. But he fell unconscious when the women were throwing flower petals as part of the ritual, and the groom’s family accused the women who had last offered flower petals to Prasad of being witches. Prasad was rushed to Narayani sub-regional Hospital in Birgunj where doctors pronounced him dead of heart attack.

But those attending the wedding procession and his family refused to believe the doctors. They brought several faith healers, even from across the border, to revive him. When they failed, they said Prasad was killed by the witches.

The body was not moved until 10 P.M. the next day. Now, the body has been taken again to the hospital for post mortem.

‘Cut pharmaceuticals exports’

Birgunj, Apr. 25 (RSS): It is indispensable to create a conducive environment for the Nepalese pharmaceutical industries, which are directly concerned with public health, to grow and bring about uniformity in the production, its management as well as quality aspects.

What the pharmaceutical industries attribute for lagging behind in the sector is that the government only imports medicines from abroad to meet its national demand instead of giving due priority and encouragement to the Nepalese pharmaceutical industries.

As the country has become self-reliant in some medicines now, the government should frame a policy to bar such medicines from being imported from abroad, the Nepalese entrepreneurs argue.

Failure on the part of the government to translate the National Formulary Policy-2051 to the letter in which pharmaceutical industries have been listed in national prioritized sector in order to boost the pharmaceutical sector of the country has undoubtedly discouraged the entrepreneurs.

Over 2,000 brand of different types of medicine are being produced by three dozen Nepalese pharmaceutical industries in the country at present. Of them, 11 industries are in operation in Birgunj alone.

Indigenous medicines are estimated to have fulfilled about 27 percent of the total demand of the country.

The medicines imported from India account for 70 per cent whereas medicines imported from the third countries account for three per cent only.

A target has been set by the government in National Formulary Policy to meet 80 per cent requirements of the country for essential drugs by 2005.

Nepal has now become self-reliant in about 146 types of medicine out of the 270 drugs listed as essential for the country.

According to Mahendra Bahadur Amatya, managing director of Nepal Pharmaceutical Laboratory Pvt. Ltd., Given the hopeless position of the pharmaceutical industries in operation in the country, the target set by the government seems unrealistic. The government should introduce clear, transparent and effective policy in order to bring about advancements in this sector, he added.

Noting that the value added tax being imposed on packing materials such as bottles, capsules, gelatin, PVC coils which are not produced in the country is completely in utter disregard of the essence of the government’s pharmaceutical policy, Mr. Amatya said the government seems to have given incentives to the products of foreign origin on custom duty which is comparatively lesser than that of the indigenous products.

In Nepal, medicines to the value of Rs. 4 billion are consumed every year.

This figures reaches Rs. 6 billion after adding those medicines provided by the donor agencies free of charge as well as those imported into the country with custom exemption privilege.

Under the existing regulations, any foreign manufacturer receives an import license just after paying a fee of Rs. 100 per company. Nepalese entrepreneurs have to pay a fee of Rs. 100 as revenue for every item it intends to produce.
On this backdrop, Nepalese entrepreneurs term it as a recriminatory regulations.

Despite medicines imported from third countries including India and Bangladesh, Nepal also exports its products to India and the gulf countries.

There is a dire need of setting an uniform standard for not only Nepalese products exported aboard but also the products that Nepal import from other countries.

As India where about 10,000 pharmaceutical industries exist as well as Bangladesh do not allow entry of any international company in its internal market for some essential drugs in the interest of its indigenous industries, His Majesty’s Government should also award license only to the Nepalese industries for producing certain medicines.

Nepalese entrepreneurs are of the opinion that the government should mobilize its financial resources optimally to materialize its target within the stipulated timeframe.