BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

Crown Prince Dipendra meets with Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko

SOUTH ASIAN COUNTRIES HAVE failed to reduce hunger in the region despite the inflow of US$1.8 billion in food aid every year, a new report said. A study conducted by the World Food Program (WFP) said South Asia is home to 294 million hungry people, more than any other region in the world. Though the region is nearly self-sufficient in food production, the problem lies in management and distribution, said the study entitled "Enabling Development: Food Assistance in South Asia." The study said in South Asia around 99 million children below the age of five are underweight, about 30 million pregnant women suffer from anemia at any given time and about 63 million people who are food insecure in a transitory way. Addressing a function here Tuesday, WFP Representative in Kathmandu Douglas Casson Coutts said the there was a need of greater cooperation among the South Asian nations to overcome hunger through an even distribution of food.

SIX PEOPLE DIED ON APRIL 29 when two passenger buses collided near Bhalumara River along the Mahendra highway in eastern Nepal. According to Police in Jhapa district, nearly four dozen other passengers were injured, nine of them seriously. The injured persons are being treated in different hospitals. Police said the accident took place while one of the buses was trying to overtake the other. In a separate case, at least 10 people have died of kala-azar in the eastern terai district of Siraha. The outbreak of the disease a few days back has already affected 80 village development committees in the district, reports said.

TWO LOCAL VILLAGERS killed the officiating judge at the District Court in eastern district of Khotang Tuesday morning, reports said. According to police, Registrar at the district court Buddhidhar Ghimire was stabbed to death by two of his neighbors while he was on his way to office at Andheri Khola, 30 minutes away from the district headquarters. Police later took into custody two youths on the suspicion of murdering Ghimire. There were conflicting reports about the motive behind the murder. While some said some household matters could have instigated it, others quoted police as saying that the accused have confessed to being Maoist activists.

PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Pradip Kumar Shrestha has said the tea sector, which currently employs 22,000 people, is expected to provide jobs to close to 80,000 people in future with an estimated Rs 7.5 billion worth of tea production. From eight million kg in 2001, the production of tea is expected to go up to 13 million kg by the year 2005. The National Tea Policy unveiled recently aims at doubling the land of tea cultivation to 7,000 hectares within the next five years. Shrestha was addressing the ‘Agro Business Interface 2001- Tea Event" last week that brought together representatives from the world’s leading tea producing nations — India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal — to discuss issues including business opportunities, collaboration and joint ventures.

THE JOINT VERIFICATION Team (JVT) comprising officials from Nepal and Bhutan has so far completed verification procedures of 1,380 people belonging to 233 Bhutanese refugee families out of nearly 100,000 refugees languishing in the refugee camps in eastern Nepal for more than last one decade. The JVT started the verification process in late March as agreed upon during the joint ministerial level meeting in Kathmandu late last year. Refugee leaders have expressed dissatisfaction over the slow process of the verification saying that it could take up to six years to complete the verification at the present pace.

THE NEPAL ELECTRICITY Authority (NEA) announced last week that it has ended power cuts in the capital valley during daytime due to improvement in the flow of water. The power cut will also be stopped in other parts of the country as soon as there is marked increase in the flow of snow-fed rivers, the state-owned enterprise said. The NEA had enforced up to eight-hour long load shedding every day since early April this year citing reducing water level at its power generation plants.

THE NEPAL LIFE INSURANCE Company (NLIC), which received operating license nearly six months back from the Insurance Board — a regulating authority — is going to start operations from early May. The company, promoted by Vishal Group of Nepal, is the first private sector company to get license to operate life insurance services in the country after a period of about 12 years. So far only two companies, including the state-owned Rastriya Beema Sansthan, have been allowed to run life insurance services.

THE DAILY CIRCULATION OF periodicals published in Nepal is nearly 441,000 and the number of readers is around 1.32 million, a latest study said. According to a study conducted by director general at the Department of Information Yuba Raj Pandey, the readership comprises six percent of the total population of the country and almost 21 percent of the literate population above the age of 14. The study said the circulation of periodicals imported from abroad (mainly India) amounted to almost 20 percent of the circulation of indigenous publications. The annual consumption of newsprint in the county is around 3,600 metric tones, RSS news agency reported quoting the study.

THE GOVERNMETN IS TO implement a 20-year road program from the beginning of the 10th five-year plan (2002-07), officials said. According to the Department of Roads, the project aims at preparing a 20-year road network program, build roads and bridges, carry out restoration, improvement and reconstruction work and establish road links with areas. The estimated cost of the construction of proposed 4,200 km of road during the period has been estimated at Rs 8,000 million. The officials didn’t say from where such a huge investment would come from. The total length of roads in Nepal at present is 15,308 km out of which 4,522 km is blacktopped.

THE FORTHCOMING BUDGET for the year 2001-02 would focus on addressing the problem of unemployment, in streamlining the scattered development projects and poverty alleviation programs. "A lot of projects remain incomplete on any given year. In addition, there are also a large number of poverty alleviation programs that need to be streamlined," said Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, talking to reporters here Monday. Dr. Mahat said despite overall sound performance of the economy in the past decade, the fiscal front, including government finances, is in deep trouble. With the wage bill likely to shoot over Rs 2 billion, revenue collection needs a boost, he said. The minister said preparations for the upcoming budget were in full swing and that the budget would be presented within next month.