Bhadrapur : Freedom fighter Rajaram Murmu passed away at his house in Surunga Bazaar on Tuesday. He was 70.

Mr. Murmu had spent more than seven years in exile in India and he was also jailed many times in connection with the democracy movement in the country.

He is survived by seven daughters and three sons. He was cremated at Kankai, Maidhar, the same day.

Dhangadhi, Apr. 19: About 25-50 per cent of the crops has been damaged by the hailstones saw Sunday in some parts of Kailali and Doti districts, according to local farmers.

The hailstones that last for an hour with a Gale and downpour has damaged wheat and vegetable crops and fruits in Sahajpur, Nigali and Godavari VDCs in Kailali and Ghanteswar, Laxminagar, Sarswati Nagar, Nirauli, Barchhen VDCs in Doti.

Kaphal, a fruit that rips in hilly region in the summer has also destroyed in a massive scale, it is learnt.

Local farmers are feared that prices of food grains may be shot up this year because of the damages caused by the hailstone.

In Chautara, hailstone which battered Badashe area of the district on Saturday has damaged the crop in the areas. The hailstone weighing up to 200 grams is learnt to have damaged the wheat, mustard, potato and maize crop at Ward Nos. 1,2,3,4,6 and 9 of Badashe Village Development Committee.

The hailstones also caused extensive damage in Taramarang and Mahankal in western parts of the district. The hailstorm is learnt to have caused extensive damage to the wheat crop and fruit trees in Taramarang VDC and maize and orchards at Ward Nos. 1,3 and 4 in Mahankal VDC.

Nepalgunj, Apr. 19 :  A total of 60,000 children aged between six months to five years in Banke district are to be administered Vitamin “A” capsules under the National Vitamin “A” programme.

Seven hundred women health volunteers will be deputed on duty at all the wards of the 46 VDCs and Nepalgunj Municipality in the district, according to the district public health office, Banke.

In November last year, some 58,000 children of the target age group here were administered Vitamin “A” capsules.

Vitamin “A” distribution centres have been set up at local schools and the VDC offices.

Sixteen supervisors will be on duty to monitor the Vitamin”A” distribution.

Similarly, a door-to-door campaign will be started soon so that nobody is left out of the drive, it is learnt from the district public health office.

Tribhuvan Nagar (Dang), Apr. 19: Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives Baldev Sharma Majgaiya inspected the district agricultural development office in the course of acquiring information on the works of offices under the Ministry of Agriculture here on Tuesday.

On the occasion, Minister of State Majgaiya stressed maximum utilisation of the available means and resources and directed the officers to provide accessible and quality service.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives also expressed his determination to ensure regular and abundant supply of agriculture fertiliser this year unlike the previous years.

Stating procedures have been initiated for setting up a milk chilling centre in Dang, the Minister of State informed that a team will soon visit here to make an study of the project.

On the occasion, chief of the district agricultural development office, Dang, Shankar Lal Chaudhari, chief of the district livestock services office Dr. Basanta Bahadur Singh, manager of the Agricultural Development Bank Dang district branch Loknath Nepal, district engineer of Nepal Electricity Authority Makeshwar Jha and chief of the district cooperatives office Basudev Rijal apprised the Minister of State of the activities of their respective offices.

Kathmandu, Apr. 19: His Majesty’s Government has decided to install eight special class secretaries as special class secretaries at various ministries and the National Planning Commission Secretariat.

According to the cabinet secretariat, Mr Mohan Dev Pant has been installed at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Dr. Muktinarayan Shrestha at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr Hiranyalal Regmi at the Ministry of Works and Physical Planning, and Mrs Urmila Shrestha at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Likewise, Mr Khagendra Basnet has been installed at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Mr Damaru Ballav Bhattarai at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, Mr Barun Prasad Shrestha at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Culture and Mr Sriman Shrestha at the National Planning Commission Secretariat.

Meanwhile Mr Srikrishna Gautam has been installed as chief officer of the special police department while Mr Padma Kumar Acharya has been sent to the reserve pool of the Ministry of General Administration.

Butwal, Apr. 19:   Farmers of Rupandehi district are disappointed for not receiving proper price of paddy.

The yield of paddy this year is much more as compared to that of the last year but the farmers are not able to get due profit.

Vishnu Paudel, a farmer says, “leave alone the principal, even the interest could not be paid.”

The traders here are trading the rice imported from India which is cheaper by 20 to 30 per cent.

According to the district agriculture development office, the output of paddy sown at 73,000 hectares of land in the district was 211,700 Mt. which is an increase of 16 to 20 per cent than that of previous year.

The farmers are not able to recover even the cost of production as a result of the prevailing market prices of the rice.

President of Rupandehi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mahendra Narayan Shrestha says that on the average, 15 truckloads of rice a day are imported from India at present.

According to Rupandehi Ricemills Association, dozens of local ricemills are on the verge of closure due to the unrestricted import of rice from India.

Meanwhile, Butwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry has issued a press release urging the government to pay attention to resolving the problem which may also have negative impact on employment opportunities.

In Rajbiraj, as water from Koshi barrage has not been released to western canal and pump canal, summer paddy plants sown at 21,000 hectares of Saptari distrit has dried up and got damaged.

A group of farmers obstructed the flow of traffic and demonstrated at the Koshi Barrage last Sunday to highlight their hardship.

A delegation headed by member of Saptari District Development Committee and vice-president of district committee of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) Bishweshwar Rajak and Surya Narayan Mandal of NSP manhandled assistant CDO Bharat Mani Adhikari alleging that water had not been released in the canals and that Dr. Murali Singh of Sagarmatha Hospital refused to provide medical treatment to patients.

DDC member Rajak, Mandal of NSP and 10 others involved in the incident have been arrested.

Participants of the all party meeting convened by the district administration office last Sunday to discuss the issue deplored the incident and demanded stern actin against the culprits.

The meeting was attended by MP Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav, DDC chairman Dinesh Kumar Yadav, DDC vice-chairman Balaram Chaudhari, Rajbiraj Mayor, Saptari CDO, Superintendent of Police, head of Koshi pump irrigation office, medical superintendent of Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital, representatives of various political parties and journalists.

Action has been initiated under the public offences against those arrested, it is learnt from SP Sanandan Prasad Kurmi.

Mahottari, Apr. 19: Indian Ambassador to Nepal K. V. Rajan has expressed the belief that Nepal-India relations will be consolidated and further deepened in the days to come since they are rooted in tradition.

Indian Ambassador Rajan made the observation while inaugurating the students’ hostel of the Ramanandan Bishweshwar Mahendra Campus, Jaleshwar, here on Tuesday.

The hostel building to be built on the premises of the Ramanandan Bishweshawar Campus was constructed with the cooperation of the Indian government.

Ambassador Rajan said the heads of the government of Nepal and India have resolved any bilateral issues that crop up from time to time between the two countries on the basis of mutual friendship and a spirit of good neighbourly relations.

He said India will continue to cooperate in the health, education, industrial and road construction sectors of Nepal.

MP Sitanandan Raya said that Nepal-India friendship remained a symbol of the traditional ties between the two countries.

MP Mahendra Kumar Mishra spoke about the cultural relations between Nepal and India.

MP Mahendra Yadav Madhukar also expressed his views on various facets of Nepal-India relations.

Chairman of the campus management committee and former minister Ram Bilas Yadav presided over the programme.

The five-room hostel was constructed with an assistance of Rs 500,000 of the government of India.

Meanwhile in Janak-purdham, Ambassador Rajan inaugurated a day-long seminar entitled ” Women’s awareness against the dowry system” organised by the Forum for Women Education and Participation for Rural Development and Environment here on Tuesday.

Addressing the seminar, Ambassador Rajan said the notion that the dowry system was a part of the religion and culture was wrong and stressed women education to eliminate the dowry system from the society.

He said the dowry system is a form of corruption and all political parties and social workers should put in their active efforts to get rid of this social vice.

Professor Dr. Rajendra Bimal said that violence against women was increasing as a result of the dowry system.

Dhirendra Jha also expressed his views at the programme presided over by forum chairperson Sarada Jha.

Kathmandu, Apr. 19: The present government has given top priority to controlling terrorist activities and has expressed the determination to encourage security personnel and all civil servants involved in this task.

A provision has been made for additional financial assistance and compensation to security personnel, civil servants and general public victimised by terror and dependents of the victims.

According to the Home Ministry, the family of persons killed by terrorists will from now onwards be provided a financial assistance of Rs. 150,000/ and an additional Rs. 50,000/ will be provided to the family of those killed prior to this announcement.

The families of civil servants or individuals other than police personnel killed while on duty in works and action relating to controlling terrorism or maintaining law and order will receive a financial assistance of Rs. 750,000/ and their children will also receive scholarship as being provided to the children of police personnel killed while on duty.

Meanwhile, a health coordination committee has been constituted under the convenorship of the Health Minister with the secretaries of finance, home and health, and directors of Bir Hospital, T.U. Teaching Hospital and Birendra Police Hospital as members in order to make necessary arrangement for the medical treatment of those injured in terrorist activities.

The victim family assistance and rehabilitation coordination committee has also been constituted under the convenorship of the Education Minister in order to provide financial assistance and rehabilitate the dependent families of those killed by terrorists and other victims. The secretaries at the Ministries of Children, Women and Social Welfare, Home, Works, Housing and Physical Planning, Health, Labour and Transport Management, Land Reform and Management, and Sports and Education, and member-secretary of the Social Welfare Council are members of the committee.

Likewise, the compensation of Rs. 500,000/ being provided to the family of the police personnel killed while on duty in anti-terrorist activity has been increased to Rs. 750,000 and the families of those killed earlier will also receive an additional Rs. 200,000/.

Similarly, the children dependent on those police personnel will receive an annual scholarship Rs. 10,000 for studying at the primary level, Rs. 12,000 at lower secondary level, Rs. 14,000 at secondary level, Rs. 16,000 at the higher secondary level, Rs. 18,000 at graduate level and Rs. 20,000 at the post graduate level.

Police personnel sustaining minor injuries will be provided a compensation of Rs. 5,000 to Rs 25,000 after treatment while those dismembered will be provided Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 50,000/.

Likewise, police personnel on duty in the terrorist affected “A”, “B” and “C” categories of districts will be provided an additional monthly allowance of Rs. 2000, Rs 1000 and Rs 700 respectively.

Besides this, any damage caused to the property of the police personnel deputed in the terrorist affected districts will be assessed and 50 per cent value will be provided, compensation of Rs. 3,000 to Rs 10,000 will be provided in case of damage caused to personal property of such police personnel and in case the uniform and toiletries received in accordance with the scale of police personnel is damaged by terrorist then they will be replaced.

Police personnel with good performance record in the terrorist affected districts have already been promoted as per the policy of His Majesty’s Government to immediately promote such police personnel making good performance in those districts.

Nepalgunj, Apr. 19: Four persons including a woman sustained injuries in a fire that erupted when a jerry can containing spirit burst while the liquid was being poured onto a flame torch for use in a street procession against tobacco-like substances.

The four are undergoing treatment at Bheri Zonal Hospital for severe injuries to the hands, feet, throat and face.

Some others sustained minor injuries, it is learnt.

Butwal, Apr. 19: Farmers of Rupandehi district are disappointed at not receiving a proper price for their paddy.

The yield of paddy this year is much greater compared to last year. But the farmers have not been able to profit.

Vishnu Paudel, a farmer, says, “Leave alone the loan principal, even the interest could not be paid.”

Traders here are trading in rice imported from India which is cheaper by 20 to 30 per cent.

According to the District Agriculture Development Office, the output of paddy sown on 73,000 hectares in the district was 211,700 mt. This is an increase of 16 to 20 per cent over the previous year.

As a result of the prevailing market price of rice, farmers are not able to recover even the cost of production.

President of Rupandehi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mahendra Narayan Shrestha says that at present an average of 15 truck loads for rice a day is imported from India.

According to Rupandehi Rice Mills Association, dozens of local rice mills are on the verge of closure due to the unrestricted import of rice from India.

Meanwhile, Butwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry has issued a press release urging the government to pay attention to resolving the problem which may also have a negative impact on employment .