Gender friendly budget sought

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec, 16: A South Asia regional workshop on gender budget began here today to discuss economic security among women, a crucial component of gender equality.

More than 30 planners, researchers, legal practitioners and gender activists from Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan are participating in the two-day workshop, the third of its kind.

The workshop is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (WCSW) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

UNIFEM is a women's fund at the United Nations that has been operating innovative programmes and strategies for women's human rights, political participation and economic security since 1976.
Speaking at the programme, Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Gore Bahadur Khapangi said that the workshop will draw the attention of the region to review state budgets for women's development. Khapangi stressed the need to identify gaps in budgetary allocations made to men and women and take reform initiatives towards achieving the goal of social equality.

He said that gender concerns were brought to bear on development issues when it started becoming clear that planned development efforts, meant to improve the lives of the whole community, were not being treated with gender equality and justice.

"Creation of an equitable society on the basis of gender equality through mainstreaming gender concerns in each and every aspect of national development has been the core mission of Nepal to link gender with development,'' he said.

Bijaya Raj Bhattarai, secretary at the WCSW, said that misconception, prejudices and superstition are the major and causes of gender discrimination.

Chandni Joshi, regional programme director of UNIFEM, South Asia said that gender budget is a tool to bringing about gender balance.

She said that the 10th plan has focused on eliminating gender inequality besides empowering women.
Dr. Diane Elson, an economist from the University of Manchester shed light on gender budget. She said that analysis of public expenditure and revenue from a gender perspective should be done by identifying the implications and impact on women and girls as compared to men and boys.

Bhutanese King appealed to resolve refugee crisis

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec. 16: Former National Assembly members of Bhutan today called on the Bhutanese King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, to intervene and take appropriate steps to resolve the festering refugee problem and see to their repatriation as early as possible.

The appeal sent on the 95th National Day of the Land of Thunder Dragon said that until and unless the Bhutanese King intervened, the problem could not be resolved. So it is imperative that in the greater interests of the security, sovereignty of the nation and the people, Your Majesty should not delay to take action, a statement issued by the Bhutanese Refugee Representative Repatriation Committee (BRRRC) said quoting the appeal.

"It is a sad thing that more than 100,000 citizens who also toiled to bring the country to this stage are exiled to live as refugees and deprived from participating in the celebration…It is not one year, two years but 12 years," the appeal reads.

The elders called on the King of Bhutan to consider its policy and resolve the refugee problem as soon as possible and reintegrate them in nation building in the greater interest of the country.

More than a 100,000 Bhutanese citizens are sheltered in the refugee camps in Jhapa and Morang in east Nepal. They have requested the King to declare the verification results of the Khudunabari camp completed a year back in December by the Joint Verification Team and see to their repatriation without delay. The verification process was carried out to differentiate between "genuine and non-genuine" Bhutanese.

The elders have also asked to carry out the verification process in the other remaining six camps simultaneously and complete it within the stipulated time frame.

It has also mentioned that they were compelled to flee as the local authorities, including the army and police, haunted them, threatening them with their lives.

"We are very clear that the genesis of the problem is the government policy or else there exists no other reason. Neither have we threatened to destabilise the administration nor intended to secede," the statement said.

Govt to restore damaged telecom

RSS

KATHMANDU, Dec. 16: Minister for Information and Communications Ramesh Nath Pandey informed the meeting of the National Assembly Remote Region Committee here today that there was a programme to restore telecommunications link with 19 districts of the remote region after assessing the damage.

The secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Director General of the Department of Postal Services, the General Manager of Nepal Television, the officiating executive director of Radio Nepal and the officiating General Manager of Nepal Telecommunications Corporation furnished information on the programme for restoration, extension and development of information and tele- communications services under their organisations.At the meeting, Minister Pandey responded to queries on national news broadcasting and transmission organisations. Committee chairman Gaura Koirala chaired the meeting.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the National Assembly Government Assurances Committee held today has stated that when a request was made to the office of the Prime Minister to furnish copies of HMG policy and programmes, only copies concerning the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Ministry of Information and Communications were received. Therefore the meeting has taken a decision to seek the policy and programmes of other ministries as well and also demand from the Prime Minister's office the ordinances issued so far. The meeting decided to invite the Prime Minister to the committee to inform it of policy and programmes. It also held detailed discussions on the progress of the Ministry of Health with regard to the l8th session of parliament and decided to seek details pertaining to the remaining questions. Committee chairman Janardan Acharya presided over the meeting.

Likewise, a meeting of the National Assembly Social Justice Committee held today has decided to invite a representative of the National Women's Commission to hold discussions on women's rights and interest. Committee chairman Mrs Ambika Pant Chapagai presided over the meeting.

Capital makes new housing code

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec. 16: The capital city is heading towards a better cityscape with the formulation of a new building code that will come into effect soon.

The Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme (KVMP), a joint initiative of Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the European Union, is launching a programme to regulate the building pattern. The scheme is being implemented to control haphazard urbanisation.

The programme will set new standards for housing construction in line with the changing times. The new city planning scheme aims to improve the system of building construction, traffic management, mapping of the Valley and numbering of houses.

The focus of the KVMP is to build an information system on urban management so as to upgrade the quality of the services, facilities and infrastructure in the metropolis, said Devendra Dongol, co-director of the KVMP.Under the scheme, works have already begun to manage the pressure created by the growing urban population and cut down on the level of pollution. Enforcement of the new standard on building construction is an important part of the scheme.

The new construction rule was endorsed by the Kathmandu Metropolis Council seven months ago. The new standard requires design approval from the Physical Planning Advisory Committee for the construction of cinema halls, hospitals, commercial buildings, apartments, nursing homes and hotels.
The building code will be strictly implemented and monitored, said Dongol. An awareness drive will be launched within three months to familiarise the metropolis residents about the new regulation, he added.

Those planning construction will have to consult the architectures and engineers of the advisory body. These experts design construction on the basis of satellite mapping. When constructing houses according to satellite mapping, the design, floors and other technical aspects are fixed.

Currently houses in the Kathmandu metropolis are being built under the standards set about a decade ago. The Kathmandu Valley City Development Committee has also prepared new housing construction standards. The KVMP and the City Development Council will have to integrate the two standards to come up with a uniform and unambiguous building code, Dongol said.