Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

On he auspicious of the 33rd Birthday of HRH Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, we pray for his long and glorious life

CROWN PRINCE PARAS BIR BIKRAM SHAH DEV visited the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and sought information on its activities. This is the second Ministry that the Crown Prince has visited this week. Earlier, he had visited the Ministry of Works and Physical Planning. Tourism Minister Sarbendra Nath Shukla and other departmental heads apprised the Crown Prince of its various activities and programs.

THE MANAGEMENT OF THE NEPAL BANK LIMITED (NBL) has claimed that the bank will post profit within the current fiscal year. Seventeen months ago, the management of the NBL was given on management contract to ICC/Bank of Scotland in order to improve its financial health as it was said to be ‘technically bankrupt’ with huge amount of Non Performing Assets and Bad Debts. At a press meet organized by the bank management, it was revealed that the bank will post the profit of Rs 314 million in the current fiscal year. It was also said that while the bank incurred losses worth Rs 3 billion in the fiscal year 2058/59, it came down sharply to only Rs 340 million loss in the year 2059/60 – a decline of loss by 90 percent. The bank has also sliced expenses by 14 percent. However, the management conceded that they have not been able to make significant progress in the debt-recovery front. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer J. Craig McAllister said that Maoists have already looted money and gold worth Rs 240 million from its various branches in the last couple of years.

THREE EMPLOYEES OF A FACTORY DIED while another one became unconscious of suffocation of carbon monoxide in Dhapasi, Kathmandu. The employees of Himalayan Noodles had slept in a closed room with a lighted-coal burning the whole night. They were found lying unconscious in a room without ventilation. Three were already dead while the other one survived as he was rushed to a hospital. In winter months, people generally burn coal inside their room to keep warm.

NATIONAL POET MADHAV PRASAD GHIMIRE and his wife were taken around the city of Pokhara in a chariot procession to felicitate him on the occasion of his 85th birthday. The procession was followed by school children and people from all walks of life

THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY has handed over the responsibility of constructing and operating the Information Technology (IT) park to the High Level IT Committee. The IT park was being overseen by the Ministry for the last one decade. The park is still under construction at Banepa. In the last three years, the construction of the park had picked up pace. According to Ministry spokesperson Purushottam Ghimire, the first phase of IT park construction is nearing completion and would be ready within April, 2004. The park is spread over 1812 square meter area. The government estimates it will cost Rs 250 million to complete the park.

ALTHOUGH THE BILL LEGALIZING THE ABORTIONS, under certain condition, had been framed one and a half year ago, three dozen women are compelled to languish in various jails in absence of regulations and directives. According to Forum for Women, Law and Development, 37 women are in jails facing abortion charges. Most of them face 20 years of imprisonment. They are in the district jails of Jhapa, Kaski, Okhaldhunga, Palpa, Chitawan, Nuwakot and Kailali as well as in central jail of Kathmandu. According to Family Health Division at the Department of Health, 415 women out of 100,000 die every year in the country due to unsafe abortion. Sabin Shrestha, a coordinator of the Forum, said that in absence of regulations and directives, the women are unable to make use of the law. Health Secretary Bijaya Raj Bhattarai concedes that the delay in framing the regulations has made the situation difficult. “The Ministry is taking initiatives to ensure that the regulations are announced soon,” he said. In the absence of regulations and directives, which is needed to clarify which hospitals, clinics and what kind of doctors are authorized to conduct safe abortion, the hospitals and clinics are unable to deliver services of safe abortion. “This has compelled women to engage in unsafe abortion,” said Shrestha. A month ago, a lady from Ramechhap district died when she was undergoing an unsafe abortion at a clinic in Koteshwore, Kathmandu.

THE BUDGET OF THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR, which needs to be re-issued through another ordinance in mid-January, will not be changed, said the Minister of Finance Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani. “There will be no change in the income-expenditure report of the budget,” he said. “Although there may be some things that need to be changed, the overall budget has been delivering positive result so it does not need to be altered.” Ordinance need to be ratified by the Parliament every six months. Since there is no parliament in place right now, the government needs to re-issue budget through another ordinance.

THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE HAS imposed prohibitions on the production and distribution of Kinley mineral water accusing it of failing to maintain minimum standards. The Kinley water is being produced by Coca-Cola company’s Bottlers Nepal Limited. The department imposed the restriction after the Food Technology and Quality Control center stated that it found bacteria and other germs. “We will allow it to be distributed only after we find that it is pure,’ said Bindra Hada, director general of the department. N.N. Singh, managing director of the Bottlers Nepal said that Kinley water is safe as it is produced using ultra modern technology. “However we have already instructed our distributors not to sell them anymore till we get a clean chit,” he said.