Measures to mitigate quake disaster stressed

Kathmandu, June 13 (RSS): Experts here say that given concerted efforts Nepal, which lies in a seismic zone, can be relieved of quake-related risk within 20 years.

The experts, who were speaking at a press conference organised here today by the National Society for Earth Technology, Nepal, stressed the need to implement the building code seriously and utilize the earthquake related knowledge and technology available in the world so as to mitigate quake disasters.

According to society general secretary Amod Mani Dixit, six government school buildings have been constructed with the use of earthquake safety technology, the constructions of 15 hospital buildings are to be reviewed from the earthquake safety view point and masons are being trained in earthquake safety as part of the society’s efforts to steadily minimize the risk of earthquake.

Journalists at the press conference were also informed that three Nepalese masons sent to Gujrat after a big eartquake razed the Indian city last year contributed to the construction of 120 earthquake resistant houses there.

Society president Shiva Bahadur Pradhananga told the press that the society organises earthquake safety consultations free of cost every Friday for those wishing to build quake-resistant houses.

The press was also informed that from an earthquake safety point of view the height of a building supported by nine inch-pillars should not exceed two and a half stories and the pillars on the ground floor should be thicker than those on the upper floors.

Director of the Asian Disaster Preparedness David Holister, responding to questions of journalists on the occasion, said the Himalayan region of Nepal is seismic and since Nepal has a track record of earthquakes of high magnitute, future is not safe from quakes.

Though more than 200,000 houses of Kathmandu Valley are not safe from the earthquake point of view, schools, hospitals, cinema halls and other government offices such as drinking water, telecommunications, electricity, etc can be turned into safe places by spending a little amount.

Property worth Rs.25 M gutted in carpet godown blaze

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Jan 13: Fire brigades battled for over three hours to put out a blaze at a carpet go-down in Bhotebahal, a dense settlement some 200 metres off north the busy Teku-Tripureswor road, which is believed to have destroyed property worth Rs. 25 million.

The fire broke out at Ananda Oriental Decorated Carpet owned by two Lohiya brothers around 2.15 this afternoon. The adjoining wall of Morning Glory School, closed for winter vacation, and two other houses close-by have been partially affected.

The cause of fire is not yet known, according to police sources. "Investigation is going on," the police said.

Eyewitnesses said there were rag pickers burning wastes dumped in the area near the temporary shed. "Some painters working in the school premises told us they had seen fire in the garbage heap," according to Fire Brigade sources. "But they said they didn’t see fire catching the tin-roofed shed."

The go-down was locked up and no one was hurt by the blaze, which took eight brigades – two each from Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur and one each from the Airport Fire Brigade and Pashupati Area Development Fund – and about a hundred people, including 36 fire fighters, army and police personnel, to die down.

"We lost about two and a half crore rupees in the fire," said Om Prakash Lohiya, a owner.

The area was cordoned off and sirens were being heard of the returning fire brigades at New Road until early evening.

One terrorist killed, 14 held in army actions

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Jan 13: One terrorist was killed in army action in Hatiya of Baglung district and 14 suspected terrorists were arrested from various parts of the country Saturday, the Defence Ministry stated here today.

Two suspects have been taken into custody from Damduwali of Salyan, seven from Magaragadi of Bardiya, two from Panchbati of Udayapur and three from Mangalpur of Chitwan for necessary investigation, the Ministry statement said.

As part of their continuing operations Saturday, security forces also exchanged fire with an armed gang of terrorists in Kavrepalanchok district.

According to Defence Ministry, a terrorist wounded in the crossfire has been brought by an army helicopter to Kathmandu and admitted for treatment at the Birendra Army Hospital. The security forces have seized a three-not-three rifle used by the terrorist.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said today that dozens of Maoist terrorists have surrendered in different parts of the country.

‘Govt has made adequate investment in agriculture’

Itahari, Jan. 13 (RSS): Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Mahesh Acharya has stressed the need to make the agricultural sector, which consumes a large chunk of the financial means and resources at the government’s disposal, a major source of income generation.

Minister Acharya, who was issuing directives to agricultural technicians after inspecting the Regional Agricultural Research Centre at Tarahara of Sunsari today, spoke of the need to make sure which crop is feasible in which topographical setting in the country and develop agricultural plans accordingly.

The government has made adequate investment in agriculture considering it to be one of the major sources of income, but the investment will have no meaning if the farmers remain deprived of the benefits from this sector and the country fails to become self-sufficient in agriculture, he said.

Executive Director of the Agricultural Research Council Raghunath Prasad Sapkota highlighted various achievements and failures in the agricultural sector.

Chief of the research centre Chitta Ranjan Yadav and regional agricultural director Ghanshyam Singh spoke about the condition of the agricultural sector in Eastern Nepal.

Also today, Minister Acharya inspected the Sericulture Office, Itahari and acquired information about progress made by the office.

On the occasion, office chief Ganga Prasad Yadav briefed the Minister about various activities being carried out for the promotion of sericulture in the region.

Minister Acharya also inspected the Dairy Development Project at Kanchanbari, Biratnagar.

Lyricist, singer Malla hospitalised

Kathmandu, Jan. 13 (RSS): Renowned lyricist and singer Prem Prakash Malla has been hospitalised at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) for the treatment of diabetes.

Malla, a septuagenarian, has been in hospital for the last week.

At a function organised in the capital today, litterateurs raised Rs 2,000 towards his treatment.

In his hospital bed, Malla is still humming the songs on life and death sung by him.

What they saw in Bhutanese refugees’ home-land

By Navin Singh Khadka

Kathmandu, Jan13: Buddhist prayer-flags were fluttering in front of the houses that, Sima Mishra and Minar Pimple were earlier briefed, belonged to Nepali-speaking Bhutanese once upon a time.

Evidently, the two knew that the present-residents in these settlements could not be Hindus unlike most of the Bhutanese with Nepali-origin either still in southern Bhutan or already exiled as refugees are.

They were not wrong. Upon close observation, they discovered that those sheltering in the houses were new comers from Northern Bhutan. Neither could they communicate in Nepali language – unlike all southern Bhutanese population – nor were they acclimatized with the topography and the life style in the low lands.

Incompatibly settled as they were in the lands and houses left behind by the Lhotsampas (Nepali-speaking southern Bhutanese), it was an odd sight any visitor would figure out. Most strikingly, almost none of the newly settled ones were happy with their "new" homes. "Since they were forcefully settled in someone else’ houses, they were apprehensive that one day the real house-owners would be back and there would be tussle about the ownership," Mishra, one of the two fact- finders who were in Southern Bhutan late last year, told The Rising Nepal today.

"We also found that many of these northern Bhutanese were given different kinds of incentives by the Bhutanese government to migrate to the lands and houses of Bhutanese refugees in Southern Bhutan," she said speaking over the phone from New Delhi.

Dodging the Bhutanese authorities, Mishra and Pimple — assigned by Habitat International Coalition (HIC), an International Non-government Organization – managed to "sneak" into Sarbhang and Samchi, the two Southern Bhutanese districts from where, Bhutanese refugees in the country say, majority of the locals were forcefully evicted in the early 90’s.

The two trudged several mountain trails, crossed rivers, and even ran the risk of passing by an army barrack while secretly investigating the resettlement taking place in the southern part of the Dragon Kingdom for 10 days.

Two towns — Gelephu and Lalai – and Lodari Village in Sarbhang District and Tinjule and Chengamari villages in Samchi District were under their magnifying glasses. "We found that many of the houses of the refugees were already dismantled and some of the left ones were being shared by two families from northern Bhutan," said Mishra.

The lands and houses left behind by the refugees, according to her, were found to be distributed either to the northern Bhutanese citizens or retired army and police personnel.

Explaining the two-member fact-finding mission’s modus operandi, Mishra said they took help of the locals in the places they scrutinized or inquired with people in the India-Bhutan border near Sarbhang and Samchi Districts. "We, however, could not talk openly because of security reasons and due to the language barrier with the resettled Bhutanese."

Before setting out on their operation, the two had interviewed 17 Bhutanese refugees in seven different UNHCR-maintained camps in eastern Nepal. That is when they had learnt about the interviewees’ house-locations in Sarbhang and Samchi Districts. Then, they fixed their mission: Find out if these 17 houses of refugees still remain abandoned.

While in the field, however, the investigators could verify only seven houses left behind by the refugees and now under somebody else’s control. "That is because some of the houses may have been demolished or may be we could not make it to all the places."

The fact-finders also found that resettlement in Sarbhang District had begun since 1998 while in Samchi it began in 2000. "After our findings, all we want to know is what are the Bhutanese government’s intentions," said Mishra. "At a time when Nepal and Bhutan are verifying the refugees, we have the first eye-witness accounts of resettlement going on in the land of the refugees in Bhutan."

Even before the HIC came out with its report on the ongoing resettlement in Southern Bhutan, Bhutanese refugees in the country were complaining about their properties being doled out to other nationals in the Druk Yul.

Speaking with this daily last month, Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigme Y Thinley last month had denied reports of resettlement in refugees’ lands and houses of Bhutan. "It is the resettlement for agricultural development like it happens in any developing country. This has nothing to do with the refugee issue."

After locking horns on the refugee crisis for more than a decade, Nepal and Bhutan have together recently verified around 13,000 refugees in one of the seven camps in eastern Nepal.

The fate of these Nepali-speaking refugees, not to talk about the other around 90,000 languishing in the camps in eastern Nepal, still remains undecided as the two Himalayan Kingdoms are yet to agree on who of the verified refugees should be allowed to go back home – the home, going by HIC’s recent finding, that does not exist at least physically.

Collection of VDIS crosses Rs. 340 M

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Jan 13: More than 340 million rupees were collected through various offices of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) till five o’clock today.

Around 1568 people across the country declared tax on the total amount of 3.40 billion rupees under the voluntary disclosure of income scheme, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The total amount of tax collected today was 180 million rupees.

Though the deadline for settling tax comes to an end today VDIS offices in the capital city will remain open tomorrow (Monday) due to public holiday on Sunday.

Given the overwhelming response of the people it is said that number of people paying the tax under this scheme will increase tomorrow.

However, many people who wish to pay tax have not been able to do so owing to the holidays for three days. The bank will remain close on Monday because of the Half Yearly Closing.

Many people think that the government should give more time for taxpayers to pay tax. The responses of the people have been taken very positively, said one of the senior officials at the Ministry of Finance. However, he declined to say whether the government would extend the deadline for settlement of tax. It is under consideration, he informed.

The government while announcing the Budget Estimates for the Fiscal Year 2058-59 had targeted to collect one billion rupees from the VDIS. Nearly 300 million rupees were collected till Saturday evening.

Officials at the MoF believe that the scheme would be implemented more effectively in future. Tax defaulters or any people who have not declared the source of income will be forced to bring into the tax net.

However, general public fear this would spark a kind of violation in civil rights due to the prevalence of the state of emergency.

Maghi being celebrated from today

Dhangadhi, Jan. 13 (RSS): The great festival of "Maghi" celebrated by the people of the Tharu (Chaudhary) community is being celebrated here with gaiety and fervour from today.

The festival, which usually begins at around (mid-January, is celebrated by the people of the local Tharu community with much enthusiasm.

On the occasion, people adorn new clothes, gather and organise a community feast at the house of the Bhalmansa (the village chief), dance and rejoice and discuss about public work to be carried out at their village.

It is also during Maghi that the family property is divided between brothers and they start living separately.

The festival of Maghi is also celebrated as the new year festival by the Tharu Chaudharies.

People also take holy dips in ponds, receive blessings from seniors, make donations and offerings and give presents to sisters.