Kathmandu, May 4:Matatirtha or Mother’s Day is being celebrated across the country by offering fruits and sweets at the Matatirtha Kunda or pond at Thankot today in memory of their departed mothers on the occasion of Matatirtha Aunsi or Mother’s Day.
The historic Matatirtha Pond is the subject of an ancient legend according to which the diety Lord Bishnu asked people who had lost their mothers to bathe in its water and then gave them a glimpse of the departed mothers.
The legend also mentions a piece of bread thrown into the pond by a cowherd who no longer had a mother, thereby initiating the tradition of honouring mothers on this day.
The Mother’s Day also celebrated by sons and daughters who present sweets, clothing and gifts to their living mothers.
Those without mothers make religious offerings in memory of the departed mothers.
Kathmandu, May 4: Yam Bahadur Pudasaini of Tribhuvan Club with the time of 2 hrs 3 min and 41 sec came first while his teammate Jay Bahadur Adhikari with a time of 2hrs 05 min and 13 sec came second in the 35 km open championship, yesterday. The meet was organised for the preparation to the forthcoming 7th Asian Marathon championship to be held on July 2 in Thailand.
Likewise, in the women’s marathon, Kancchi Maya Koju of Bhaktapur came first with a timing of 2hrs 42 min. 42 second while Radha Shrestha finished second by clocking 2hrs 54 min 04 seconds.
Both the top two in men’s and top two women’s will represent Nepal in the 7th Asian Marathon championship.
34 men and 3 women had participated in the Open Marathon championship. President of Nepal Amateur Athletic Association (NAAA) and President of Nepal Olympic Committee Rukma Rana and other NAAA were present on the occasion
Kathmandu, May 3:Famous European airliner Lauda Air Company (LAC) is soon to operate its services in Nepal, said a press release from The Explorer Nepal, the authorised LAC representative in Nepal.
The international airliner would begin Vienna-Kathmandu-Vienna direct flight from May 4 with its 258-seater Boeing 767, the press release said.
“There will be one flight per week from May through September and three flights per week in the months of October, November, March and April.”
According to the press release, the new flight operation is expected to increase 20 per cent European tourists inbound to Nepal.
Named after famous car racer Nikki Lauda in 1979, the airliner flies to most of big cities across the globe, including Asia, Europe and America, the press release said.
Dailekh:A hailstorm is reported to have caused extensive damage various fruits, vegetables and seedlings of grains at the agriculture research centre, Dailekh last Saturday.
According to chief of the centre Dil Bahadur Gurung, two varieties of fruits, eight of vegetables and nine of wheat which are grown experimentally at the centre were affected 30 to 100 per cent.
Orange and tangerine on cross-breeding, radish, onion, cauliflower, swiss vegetable seedlings and Annapurna-1 and Annapurna-2 varieties of wheat were also damaged. The centre works as technology development centre for various hill districts of mid-western and far western development regions.
Kathmandu:The month-long training on Letter of Credit (L.C.) organised by the Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) for the assistant level employees of the bank concluded here Tuesday.
Giving away certificates to the participants of the training, RBB chairman Punya Prasad Dahal said that the training would be useful in taking ahead the concept of modern banking. Twenty bank employees participated in the training programme.
Janakpurdham, May 3: A seven-day workshop on “the future perspectives of Kala-azar control activities in Nepal” began here recently. The workshop is being organised with the objective of formulating short and long term strategies as well as guidelines for appropriate technology for controlling the spread of kala-azar in Nepal.
About six million people of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Udaipur, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa districts linked with the Indian State of Bihar are vulnerable to Kala-azar. Of the 15,391 people affected by Kala-azar in the past two decades, 391 people have already died of the disease.
The disease, which is transmitted by sand fly has an incubation period of three days to nine months. Failure to have proper treatment on time proves fatal.
Inaugurating the seminar Minister of State for Health Tirtharam Dangol expressed confidence that the seminar will come up with substantial conclusion on the diagnosis and prevention of the disease. Health Secretary Srikant Regmi, director of epidemiology and Disease Control Division Dr. Mahendra Bista, Dr. Panduka Vijayratne and Dr. G. D. Thakur of environmental health project and others presented various suggestions for preventing the disease. The seminar was organized jointly by the Health Ministry, the Department of Health Services, the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division and World Health Organization.
Kathmandu, May 3: The Film Artistes’ Association of Nepal (FAAN) organised a press conference recently and pledged the association has reactivated itself for the professional rights and welfare of all the artistes.
It also denied that it has merged with the so-called unified Nepal National Film Artistes’ Association (NNFA).
The Association had even formed a committee for the unification move but later backed out from the process and reinstated itself since the NNFA had made such provisions under which only the artistes working for celluloid “big screen” movies could become its members, a FAAN press release distributed on the occasion stated.
The NNFA was not representative all the film artistes, the press release further reads.
Replying to journalists’ queries, founder president of the association Rabindra Khadka and member Mohan Niraula alleged that the so-called unified film artistes association included only 10 per cent of all the celluloid film artistes.
They said since all the records of the financial transactions of the NNFA were not maintained properly, the concerned persons should make the financial statement of the association public in a transparent manner.
Meanwhile in Bhadrapur, a gathering of litterateurs and journalists at local Birtamod recently set up “Niyatra Publications”, a publication house which aims to publish the best but yet unpublished works of various writers.
The publications would also contribute to the enrichment of Nepali literature by undertaking various promotional activities.
Prakash Budhathoki, Lok Raj Dhakal and Krishna Baral are respectively the Vice-President, secretary and treasurer of the institution set up under the chairmanship of Krishna Dharabasi.
The other members of the publications include Chhabi Lal Khatiwada, Bishnu Kumar Bhattarai, Komal Prasad Pokharel, Lekhnath Bhattarai, Laxman Dhakal, Ratna Mani Nepal and Deepak Dhakal. It is learnt that the institution will publish yet unpublished books of both Nepali and Indian writers writing in Nepali.
Kathmandu, May 3 : A 2-day workshop jointly organised by the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and Centre for Rural Technology Nepal (CRTN) got underway here recently with the objectives of holding discussions on the present situation of the improved watermill (Ghatta), problems encountered in its application and the potential for further improvement in the future.
The number of conventional watermill in Nepal is estimated to be around 25,000 but improvement has been carried out on only 680 of them. By 1984, the technology of improved watermill was gaining ground in Nepal.
Regionwise, the central development region has 54 per cent of the improved watermill followed by mid-western region with 20 percent of it. While the eastern region and western region both have 9 per cent of it each, the far western development region has only 8 per cent.
It is seen that the application of the improved watermill technology based on rural means, resources and skill and operated by the local people themselves will have least adverse impact on environment and at the same time enhance local efficiency and generate more employment opportunities.
Not only that, power can also be generated from watermills and supplied to the rural households. It has been estimated that nearly 948 kilowatt of power has been generated from 632 improved watermills in 42 hilly districts of the Kingdom hitherto and nearly thirty-one thousand families have d erived benefit from it.
The improved watermills have been found to be more efficient than the conventional ones in terms of quality and quantity both. An improved watermill can generate power from 0.5 to 3 kilowatt and grind 5 to 15 pathis of grains in an hour.
At the workshop, GTZ director for Nepal Peter Rhode expressed happiness over the participation of th organisation in the extension of the improved watermills in Nepal and underlined the need for the concerned authorities to accord top priority in the wider application and operation of these.
CRTN executive director Ganesh Ram Shrestha said that if more improved watermills could be established in the country to generate power and meet the local requirements, it would have positive impact on the living standard of the rural folks.
Under secretary of the National Planning Commission Surendra Lal Shrestha presented a working paper on the policy concerning improvement of the watermill while Lumin Kumar Shrestha of CRTN made presentation on the current situation of watermills.
Likewise, director of Centre of Self-Dependence Ram Kumar Shrestha presented a case of Jumla district on water mill improvement activities and Gyanendra Bhandari presented a working paper concerning financing mechanism for watermill improvement. Attending the workshop are about 50 persons of various organisations concerned with improved watermill.
Kathmandu, May 3: Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare Mrs Kamala Panta recently inaugurated the tenth annual general meeting of the Lalitpur Chapter of the Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NRCS).
At the function, Minister of State Mrs Panta said that the government was committed to extending necessary co-operation to generate public awareness for the prevention and control of cancer.
Officiating secretary of the branch Madan Krishna Shrestha presented the progress report of 1998-99 and treasurer Kedar Karki the budget for 2001-02 at the general meeting.
Central president of the society Hari Prasad Paudel also expressed his views on the occasion.
Dr. Anjani Kumar Sharma and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Baral shed light on treatment and prevention of cancer, Dr. Santosh Man Shrestha on hepatitis “B” and “C” and Japanese acupuncturist Daisuke Yasioka on acupuncture at the programme. President of Lalitpur Chapter of the NCRS Dhruva Bahadur Raut presided over the general meeting.
Meanwhile in Biratnagar, at its general meeting here recently, Patrakar Kalyan Kosh, Morang elected Prahlad Prasad Sah as the chairman of the Kosh board of directors unopposed.
Likewise, Keshav Bahadur Karki, Thakur Dev Dhungel and Mohan Bhandari have been elected vice chairman, secretary and treasurer unopposed respectively. Its members are Shyam Kumar Adhikari, Mulchand Tapadiya and Yagya Sharma.
Kathmandu, May 3: Minister of State for Land Reforms and Management Gopal Rai presented the “Shahid Mina Swarnakar Dalit Pratibha Purasakar” to reporter of Rastriya Samachar Samiti Balaram Pyasi and musician Sushil Bishwokarma at a function here today.
The award was instituted in memory of the first Dalit singer late Mina Swarnakar.
Mr Pyasi has been awarded for his contribution to ending untouchability through journalism and Mr Bishwokarma for his contribution to uplifting Dalits through music.
The award carries a purse of Rs 3,101 each along with a letter of honour.
On the occasion, Mr Rai also launched a Dalit Jagriti song cassette containing songs of Tirtha Bahadur Gandharva and late Mina. The songs are composed by Motilal Nepali.
Sushil Bishwokarma had set the music to the songs.
Addressing the function, Mr Rai said Dalits have played an important role in the democratic history of Nepal and they are not less than any other people.
Many Non-Governmental Organisations opened for the welfare and betterment of the Dalits are not working satisfactorily, he added.
President of Dalit Sewa Sangh Motilal Nepali, from the chair, said his organisation has been trying to take the Dalits and non-Dalits together along the path of development.
On the occasion, Mr Pyasi noted that he will continue to write for the welfare of the Dalit community.
Various other speakers including Gokarna Aryal of Gorkhapatra Daily, Dr. Vidyanath Koirala and Dr. Haribansha Jha also expressed their views on the occasion.
Mina Swarnakar had died last year.