His Majesty felicitates

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KATHMANDU, October 1: His Majesty the King has extended cordial felicitations to President Jiang Zemin of the People's Republic of China on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In a message of felicitations sent today, His Majesty has expressed best wishes for the president's personal health and happiness and for the continued progress and prosperity of the people of the People's Republic of China.

Fondly recalling his state visit to China in July this year, his majesty has also expressed confidence that the friendly relations between the two countries will grow further in the years ahead. Similarly, His Majesty the King has in a message on the occasion of the national day of the Federal Republic of Nigeria extended cordial felicitations to president, commander-in-chief of the armed forces Olusegun Obasanjo Gcer of the federal republic of Nigeria.

In the message, His Majesty has expressed best wishes for the president's personal health and happiness and for the progress and prosperity of the people of Nigeria. Likewise, His Majesty has extended cordial felicitations to President Glafcos Clerides of the Republic of Cyprus on the occasion of the national day of the Republic of Cyprus. In the message of felicitations, His Majesty has expressed best wishes for the president's personal health and happiness and for the progress and prosperity of the people of Cyprus.

'State striving to ensure welfare of senior citizens'

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KATHMANDU, Oct. 1: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that the senior citizens, who have dedicated the entire energy of their life for national development, are respectable persons and the living history of the nation.

In a message on the occasion of the 12th international day of the elderly persons today, Prime Minister Deuba has wished that the day inspires all the citizens to become active in creating an environment in which the elderly persons, as the guardians and guides for the coming generations, can live a life of dignity.

The civil society and the family members have equal responsibility as the state in ensuring humane living conditions for the elderly persons, who during the final days of their life, are in such a state in which they expect physical and mental support, the Prime Minister said in the message.
Comprehending this responsibility, the government has been adopting the concept of social security for senior citizens from the ninth five-year plan onwards, the Prime Minister said in the message, adding although the limited means and resources of the state has not been able to cover all aspects of welfare for senior citizens, the state has been striving to increase the active participation of all sides concerned for welfare of the elderly persons by means of the national work plan for the senior citizens while keeping the senior citizens policy and working plan of 2001 and the international work plan in mind.

The prime minister said policies and work plans have been formulated in the tenth plan with the objective so that the economic and social transformation in the country would have no negative impact for the senior citizens.

In a message on the occasion, Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare Sushila Swanr has described the senior citizens who have, through their knowledge, skills and experience, invested most part of their active life in socially useful activities as the respectable citizens of the country who truly carry with them the living history of the nation.

It is the moral responsibility of the society and the state to make the last part of the life of all such citizens comfortable and respectable, minister of state swanr said in the statement, adding it is certain that the task of nation building would gain momentum if the burning zeal and enthusiasm of the youths is blended well with the wisdom of the senior citizens.

Six terrorists gunned down

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Sept: 30: Two soldiers lost their lives Monday when they were ambushed in Jogbuda of Daldeldhura in far-west Nepal. Other soldiers injured in the incident have been brought to Birendra Military Hospital in Kathmandu for medical treatment, a Defence Ministry statement said. It gave no details.

According to the ministry, the security forces shot dead six terrorists during their search operations across the nation on Saturday and Sunday.

Five terrorists were killed in the Mungra area of Kalikot district, in mid-western Nepal, yesterday. One terrorist, Punya Prasad Koirala, who masterminded the planning and expansion of the terrorist organisation in Ekana area of Sunsari in south east Nepal, was gunned down on Saturday.

The security forces have recovered magnum rifles and pistols, other weapons, terrorism-related documents and rice from the incident sites in Kalikot and Sunsari districts. The rice was later distributed among the local poor. They also found equipment Used in laying ambush, combat outfit and other logistic goods.

Alternative constitutional way out being considered: PM
Two day NC-Democratic convention opens

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Sept.30: President of the Nepali Congress - Democratic (NCD) and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today said that the government was looking for an alternative constitutional way out of the existing crisis, considering the common voice of the major political parties to postpone the election.

"The government's decision will come within a few days," he said while addressing the inaugural of the two-day national meeting of the party's general convention representatives and party workers.
He said that although the government was ready to hold the election on November 13 as scheduled, it agreed to seek an alternative after the other parties expressed concerns about the possibility of violence and bloodshed breaking out before and during the elections.

All the political parties have reached a consensus to hold the election in a peaceful atmosphere despite the terror and violent activities perpetrated by the Maoists, he said.

The government has the responsibility of leading the country out of the present crisis, he added.
He, however, ruled out any possibility of holding a referendum or having a constituent assembly, as demanded by the Maoists and a few other political parties, saying that this was no solution to the present crisis. "The major problems faced by the country are unemployment, economic stagnation, health and other social issues such as those related to the ethnic communities, the Dalits and the children."

The party's political strategy should be directed towards finding solutions to these burning issues, Deuba said. For that, the leaders and party workers should have a far-sighted vision, he pointed out. Any delay at resolving the existing problems will only push the country back by decades, he added.
Regarding the Election Commission's decision of September 17 to give legitimacy to the Nepali Congress faction led by Girija Prasad Koirala, PM Deuba said that it was only an interim order. And one, who believes in democracy, should be ready to bear and face this sort of unpalatable decision, he stated.

Vice President of the party and Minister for Works and Physical Planning Chiranjibi Wagle, talking about the objectives of the meeting, said that the suggestion by the other parties to postpone the election should be discussed in the meeting as the situation had changed.

All the parties have reached to consensus to hold the election only after resolving the existing crisis. For that, the Prime Minister has been given the authority to find a way out as soon as possible through constitutional means, Wagle said.

Party Co-General-Secretary and Minister for Water Resources Bijaya Kumar Gachhedhar said that the party would defeat the Nepali Congress led by Koirala in his home district in the forthcoming election.

Bimalendra Nidhi, central working committee member of the party, said that there was no alternative to elections in a democracy. After the meeting of major political parties at the PM's official residence on Sunday, a new situation has arisen. "All should think of strengthening the security forces as well as the political capability to wipe out the Maoist terrorism," Nidhi said.

At the programme, chief of the party's various sister organisations also expressed their views.

Holistic approach against poverty recommended

By Rajkumar K.C

KATHMANDU, Sept 30: The third meeting of the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA) held in Islamabad since Saturday decided to hammer out 'concrete solutions' to alleviate poverty in the South Asian region by 2015 in a bid to meet the UN Millenium Development Goal.

The meeting came to the conclusion that reduction of poverty by 10 per cent in 10 years was too dismal and recommended some strong measures.

Expressing deep concern over the tardy progress being made in this direction, 14 independent economic experts, two from each of the seven member countries of the SAARC, agreed to take a ' holistic approach' to bring down the level of poverty to less than five per cent by 2015. The participants also discussed how far this was possible to achieve.

According to Prof. Bishwombhar Pyakurel, the experts reviewed the progress made by each of the SAARC countries and elaborately discussed the process of economic reforms and the global impact as well. While discussing the preliminary report, they tried to thrash out what type of 'regional intervention and future course of action' would be essential to lessen the impact of globalization in the present context, he said.

Various issues relating to country specific and region specific were discussed and suggestions and comments were made for the final round of the meeting to be held in Dhaka from November 16-18 this year.

The recommendations of the third meeting will be presented in the next round of meeting which will prepare the final draft for the 12th SAARC summit slated to be held in January in Islamabad in 2003. This time Bangladesh -co-convenor of the ISACPA - chaired the meeting.

Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai is the chairman of the ISACPA, which was instituted in 1992 with the objective of alleviating poverty from the region by 2002.

During the Sixth SAARC summit held in Colombo in December 21, 1991, the heads of the State or Government had decided to form an independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation. It was to consist of eminent personalities from each of the SAARC member countries to conduct independent studies of diverse experiences on poverty alleviation.

Although each SAARC summit has accorded top priority to poverty alleviation in the region, the drive has been a failure. The preliminary report disclosed Bangladesh as the most successful country at reducing poverty from 58.8 per cent to 49.8 per cent. According to Dr. Shankar Sharma, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), the meeting identified various areas of poverty alleviation and helped develop a consensus to battle poverty from the region.

Dr. Sharma talking to The Rising Nepal said that the third round of meeting was more successful and result-oriented. He said that the meeting would give a good feedback to the final round of the ISACPA meeting.

The first meeting of the ISACPA was held in Nepal and the second meeting took place in New Delhi.

'Rare publications to be microfilmed soon'

By Bhuwaneshor Sharma

KATHMANDU, Sept. 30: In a bid to preserve the country's rare books, endangered manuscripts and historical documents, Tribhuvan University Central library will soon begin microfilming them so that Nepalese readers are able to study these documents even in the distant future.

There are more than 70 million pages of Nepal-related publications, including in the English language, which need to be microfilmed. Microfilming of these documents will be carried out in different phases, said Chief Librarian Krishna Mani Bhandari.

"It has taken us 10 years of continuous effort to receive a cultural grant from Japan so as to preserve many historic and endangered documents," said Bhandari. Japan has agreed to provide Rs. 20 million to the library, which will be spent on installing microfilming technology, said section officer Hari Prasad Panday at the Foreign Aid Coordination Division of the Ministry of Finance. "A formal agreement on the grant between the two countries has yet to be reached. But it will happen soon," informed Panday.

Japan annually provides Rs. 50 million in cultural grants to various organisations to preserve cultural entities.

We have requested Japan for an assistance of 49,831,300 Japanese yen, which will pay for the equipment, transportation and technical manpower necessary to install the technology, said Bhandari.
The country's biggest library has many historical and rare documents, which are not available in other places. It is responsible for preserving important documents as well as providing services to its readers at the same time.

Microfilming is the technology of preserving books on film. "It is the best available technology, and people would, therefore, be able to peruse historical documents and books for centuries," said Bhandari.

The library has 430 rare Nepali books and 425 rare journals in its store. There are another 35,000 journals in its Nepal collection alone that needs to be preserved. This is the single largest heritage in print on Nepal.

Of the 21,000 books on Nepal that are on the priority list for conservation, 10,000 are in the Nepali language and 11,000 in English, said Bhandari. "Immediate steps to preserve its 500 manuscripts is essential." These also include rare government reports, he noted. There are important journals to microfilm as well. These include 4,100 journals published from Nepal, of which 1,000 are in the English language.

The library also has a reserve of 2,000 rare government documents. It must also preserve 500 Ph.D. theses and 5100 masters' level theses.

Filming the entire 70 million pages is expected to take some two decades. "This is based on the what we at the library can do - we can film about 313, 000 pages," Bhandari said. The library has a collection of 250,000 books.

Many books in the library are not available in other libraries. And it is not feasible to reprint them because there is no demand in the market and many of the writers are already dead.