Kathmandu-Makwanpur Route
Two more roads with many hopes

By Our Correspondent

Phakhel (Makwanpur), Feb.13: With two new roads completing the link between Kathmandu and Makwanpur, people have now an alternative and shorter route to travel in and out of the capital.

The Bhainse-Bhimfedi-Chitlang-Thankot road, also called Ganeshman Singh road, and the Kulekhani-Phakhel-Pharping road came into operation since January.

These two alternative roads that link the Capital with the rest of the country have boosted commercial activities and exposed potentials for the promotion of tourism in the areas.

"After the opening of these roads, new markets for the local products have come up and movement of people has increased," said Dhiraj Lama of Phakhel Village Development Committee, Ward No.4, and Purundi.

The construction works of the Kulekhani-Phakhel-Pharping road had begun eight years back. Twenty nine kilometers—18 km in Makwanpur district and 11 km in Kathmandu district—of the 76 km road is yet to be blacktopped. Now-a-days light vehicles can frequent between Kathmandu and Hetauda within three hours along the road.

Link Roads

Kathmandu and Makwanpur District Development Committees, Rural Infrastructure Development Programme, Plan International Nepal, Kulekhani Hydro Power Project and Phakhel VDC have invested 10 million rupees in the construction of the road. The local people have also contributed their labour free of cost to the construction of the road.

The alternative road is shorter by 40 kilometres than the Tribhuvan Highway and by 100 kilometres than the Prithvi Highway.

"Since the movement of traffic was often obstructed along the Prithvi and the Tribhuvan Highways during the monsoon and the construction of Kanti Highway is still at its initial stage, it will be better to develop this road as an optional road to link Kathmandu with Hetauda," said Ishwor Dhungana of the Infrastructure Development Programme Office of Makwanpur DDC.

Due to frost in winter and rainfall in summer the Mahalaxmi-Purundi portion of the road becomes steep and makes the journey risky.

If the Kalanki-Hanumanbhanjyang portion of the road is widened and graveled and a concrete bridge constructed over Mahalaxmi stream, the road could be operated in all seasons, said officer Dhungana.

With the publicity of the alternative road in the media, pressures of motorcycles, cars and mountain bikes have increased along the road.

Even the people without their own vehicles enjoy the highland journey by using rented vehicles.

Among the people using the roads, some come for boating in the Indrasarovar lake and for fresh fish from Kulekhani. Many others come over to observe the beautiful and historically important places like Chisapanigadi and Chitlang.

"The road has enhanced the importance of the northern belt of Makwanpur district as well as giving a boost to economic activities there," said Ram Prasad Pradhan, a hotel owner of Markhu.

"If we continue the road’s operation, it will help explore markets for farm and animal produces and support the promotion of cottage and tourism industries," Ram Krishna Thapa, the programme officer of Makwanpur DDC said.

OIE set to declare Nepal as rinderpest free nation

By Ram Humagai

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: The Office International Epizootics (OIE), a world organisation for controlling trans-boundary animal diseases, is all set to declare Nepal as rinderpest free country in its upcoming general convention slated to be held on May in Paris, France.

From May onwards Nepal will be the first South Asian country to be declared a rinderpest free country, Department of Animal Health Services said.

The Department today confirmed that the OIE has already accepted the proposal of including Nepal in its list of rinderpest free nations.

It also said that after receiving the proposal the world animal disease control organisation sent an experts' team to study the situation of rinderpest in the country and the team discovered the Himalayan Kingdom worthy of the title since it did not find any animal with the disease and the rinderpest viruses also.

Deputy director general of the Department Shubha Narayan Mahato said that Nepal was firm in its commitment to assist the OIE's pathway of eradicating the disease from the world by 2011.

Rinderpest is a livestock disease which in the past had caused heavy loss of the domestic animals in the South Asian countries.

OIE Report

However, when a joint campaign was launched in South Asia and Nepal joined its hands with South Asia Rinderpest Eradication Campaign in 1995 and took realistic approach for rinderpest eradication, positive symptoms appeared soon.

"It is no secret that domestic animals in Nepal in the past had fallen prey to rinderpest until over two decades ago. But after we launched a drive against the disease, it was controlled," Mahato said.

He also said that when the field survey discovered no rinderpest viruses in existence, we provisionally declared Nepal as rinderpest free country in 1996.

"We are watchful about the resurgence of the disease and are sure there is not a single animal with the disease now," he claimed.

To support his claim he also said that the OIE was also going to declare Nepal as the first among dozens of rinderpest free countries which have strictly followed the directives of the OIE in its goal of eradicating the disease in a decade from now.

"When about 77 per cent Nepalese have taken agriculture as the mainstay, the eradication of rinderpest counts a lot for not only them but also for helping the national economy become strong," Mahato said.

The outbreak of rinderpest was first reported and documented in Nepal in 1939. But after the government used vaccines from 1966, the households with domestic animals heaved a sigh of relief since their economic boosters were saved.

Thirty-three veterinary hospitals, 21 dispensaries and 18 check-posts along with anti-rinderpest campaigns have been working for countering the disease throughout the country in an organised way.

Nutrition drive launched for children in Udayapur

By Our Correspondent

Gaighat, Feb. 13: A nutrition campaign for primary-level children of government schools in Udayapur has begun to show a promise in reducing the level of malnutrition in children and increase the number of admissions of children in primary schools.

About thirty seven thousand children of Udayapur will stand to benefit from this, says District Education Officer Sobha Chandra Mishra.

As part of the campaign, sponsored by the World Food Programme, every child is being provided with 85 grams of nutritious wheat flour, 10 grams of ghee, 15 grams of gruel of sugar, locally known as lito, every day as breakfast.

Similarly to increase the number of girl-children's admissions in schools, every girl-child is being provided with two litres of edible oil every month. If there are two or more than two girl-children going to schools from a single family, such families are provided with four litres of edible oil. This has increased numbers of girl-children going to schools, it is learnt.

To make the nutritious breakfast programme effective, a 25-member Food Management Committee has been constituted in every school and the records of the consumption of nutritious diets are kept in every school according to the daily attendance of the students. Every school has to be opened necessarily for fifteen days in a month and attendance of the students should be 80 per cent.

To provide nutritious food items easily to these schools, two main distribution centres in Gaighat and Katari and fourteen other general distribution centres have been established elsewhere in the district, says District Education Officer Mishra.

Schools are also being provided with necessary utensils, buckets and jugs.

Such programmes should also be launched in Childhood Development Centres being run by different non-government organisations where about three thousand children of three to five years age are enrolled, says Hiraman Mote, chairman of Active Service Society.

According to official statistics, the programme has surplus food items enough to cover five thousand more children.

Terrorist killed in search operations

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: Security forces, in their on-going operations to defeat and disarm the Maoist terrorists, killed one terrorist and recovered different weapons and explosives across the country yesterday.

According to a press statement released by the Defence Ministry today, one terrorist was killed yesterday in an encounter with the security forces in the Kojak area of Rolpa. The security personnel also recovered terrorist weapons, socket bombs and explosives from the site.

The security forces seized three guns in Karwang area of Dolpa and three guns, a pistol, five pockets of pistol bullets, socket bombs, explosives, a telescope and combat fatigues from different areas of Dhading.

Likewise, the security personnel arrested six terrorist suspects in different parts of the country. Among those arrested, four were from Chitwan and one each from Lalbandi of Sarlahi and Chanauta of Kapilvastu.

The bomb disposal team of the security forces defused ready-to-explode banner bombs placed in a water tank and a farm at the Sole area in Dhading and on the Malekhu bridge of the same district.

The locals of Okharpauwa and Kakani areas of Nuwakot submitted 15 guns to the security forces, the press release said.

In response to the appeal made by the security forces the locals submitted the weapons, the statement read. It added that the people felt secure after surrendering their weapons to the security personnel which otherwise could be snatched away by the terrorists.

Meanwhile, according to a Home Ministry statement, 28 terrorists surrendered before the local administrations renouncing their involvement with Maoists. Seven surrendered in Udayapur, three in Dang, two in Salyan, two in Jumla, eight in Ilam and one each in Jhapa, Makawanpur, Myagdi, Dhankuta, Terhathum and Parbat.

Terrorists last night attacked Tarak Bahadur Kunwar, a resident of Pangrang village in Parbat district. Kunwar, who was injured in the incident, has been taken to Pokhara for treatment.

Terrorists also set fire to the building of the Dhaneba-based Rural Housing Company in Nawalparasi.

Search is on for the terrorists, the statement said.

Valentine's Day makes young hearts fonder

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: Like every year before, the Valentine bug has bitten the young hearts of Kathmandu this year as well. Filled with the desire to share love, peace and friendship, youngsters could be seen hopping gift shops looking for the best buy for those they love and care for.

Archies and Hallmark, the famous gift shops, dazzled with a variety of colourful greeting cards to attract youngsters, who otherwise would turn away to Internet to exchange gifts.

For the youngsters even the colours mean something specific and special on the 14th of February.

Red - I Love You.

Pink - You are lovely, please believe me.

Yellow - New friendship.

White – Silence, worthy, pure.

Niren Rajbahak, of Veronica greeting shop, says, "We have many greeting cards and gift items specially for the V-Day. Some 95 per cent of them are for the lovers."

He says the customers mainly choose the red gifts to present because it is a colour of love.

Less number of greeting cards sell these days, he says, because there is Internet. He sold cards worth more than Rs 15 thousand last year on the V-Day. "Not any longer," says Rajbahak.

Sarina Maharjan, 17, an employee at the Archies, says especially youngsters celebrate this day with a lot of fun and some even take a chance to make a proposal for friendship and love.

Mohan Bhusal, a famous singer, who recently got married, never celebrated the V-Day before. "I’m planning to present a gift to my wife this year," he says. "It will be a very expensive and surprising present."

He, however, feels, "Imitation of foreign culture is not good but if it does no harm to anybody we should welcome it with joy."

Candle-light restaurants, peaceful places, enchanting gardens and cafes are the best places for the lovers.

Sarisma Amatya, another famous singer, says: "With Sanjeev, I have celebrated many V-Days." Now we have long-term affairs, she adds.

Newspapers, television and FM channels have contributed a lot for making V-Day popular among the people, especially the youths.

PM praises young cricketers

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba threw a tea-party at his residence today in honour of the Nepalese young cricketers, who recently grabbed headlines for their exploit in the World Youth Cup cricket held in New Zealand.

At the function Prime Minister Deuba was all praise for the Nepalese Under-19 cricketers for their performance in the New Zealand.

"Your performance has enhanced the image of Nepal all over the world and you deserve our congratulation," Prime Minister Deuba told the young players in his brief address at today's function.

The feat of the young cricketers is no less than those players who hogged the limelight for Nepal in the 8th SAAF Games, he said.

In fact, players deserve more applause than politicians in earning name and fame for the country, he said.

At the programme, Minister of State for Education and Sports said that the young cricketers' performance has been a matter of great pride for the nation.

"You have established the name of Nepal as the country of talented cricketers," State Minister Saud said.

The new generation of the country is now being attracted to the game of cricket, thanks to the performance of the Nepalese youth team, Saud said.

He also said that the government was positive to provide assistance for the overall development of the game of cricket in particular and sports in general.

At the programme, National Sports Council Member Secretary Binod Shankar Palikhe said that keeping in view the popularity of the cricket in the country, NSC has invested more resources in the cricket than other sports discipline. "The NSC has only about 40 million rupees as its annual budget, but it has provided five million rupees to the cricket association."

Palikhe said that the youngsters performance had enhanced the image of the nation would certainly lure more youths to the game. He said that NSC wanted to develop cricket also as part to boost the sports tourism in Nepal.

Cricket Association of Nepal President Jaya Kumar Nath Sha said that the Nepalese youhts' deeds have proved that Nepal has the potential to grow into a popular cricketing nation.

Shah said that the government must help CAN in building cricket infrastructure and running different training camps to the aspiring cricketers. He also said that the government had provided CAN with four cricket grounds in Biratnagar, Pokhara, Birgunj and Nepalgunj.

Conference on solidarity for gender equality

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: The women rights activists who prepared a memorandum during a national conference on Solidarity for Gender Equality have distributed it to all the lawmakers and are planning to submit a copy of it at the office of the political parties in the Parliament.

On behalf of the organisers, Sapana Pradhan Malla told a press meet here today that the participants of the conference had discussed the role of the civil society for creating gender equality and devised short and long term strategy.

She said that under the short-term strategy they would submit the memorandum to the three organs of the state – legislature, executive, and judiciary at the national and district level, persuade the lawmakers to work for gender equality, conduct awareness and pressure programmes, organise interaction programmes with the political parties and their sister organisations and the lawmakers, and build public opinion for gender equality by disseminating information about the victims of discrimination.

Under the long term strategy, the organisation will conduct awareness programmes at the national, regional and district levels. They will provide free legal consultaion to women and make them aware about their legal rights.

The organisation will also work to assist the smooth implementation of laws regarding gender equality, file writs of public importance in the cases of discrimination against women, prepare a media package of the true story of discrimination.

Responding to questions of reporters, Malla said the main objective of the programme was to build a solidarity to create gender equality, adding that the representatives of the different organs of the state, civil society and the opposition had shown the solidarity.

Dr. Aruna Uprety, a member of the conference executive committee, said the clear expressions of their concerns by the rural participants was a significant achievement of the programme.

Another member of the committee Dr. Shanta Thapaliya said the pressure groups should monitor the progress made in the direction towards gender equality.

The conference, organised by the women rights activists, was participated in by 1,100 representatives across the country.