Ilam, Apr.1: Changes made to examination centers in Ilam district for the 2056 SLC examinations which start Apr. l4 have led to some   confusion.

The changes were recommended by a meeting of the slc excamination coordination committee held a few weeks ago.

According to the District Education Office, the number of centers  has been reduced from ll last year to l0, five old centers have been removed  and four new ones established.

This year the students will not be able to write their examinations from their own schools.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Teachers Association Ilam has submitted a letter of protest at the District Education Office over the changes in examination centers.

The protest letters says that the changes made are impractical and calls for a return to the previous arrangement including the use of home centers.

This year a total of 3,l66 students will appear for the SLC in Ilam including regular and exempted candidates, it is stated.

Kathmandu, Apr.1: Minister of State for Local Development Suresh Malla has said that since education is an important aspect of human life and development, it should be made accessible to all.

Minister of State Malla was speaking at a reception cum felicitation programme organised in his honour by the Gitamata Secondary School, Swoyambhu here recently.

On the occasion, he urged those in the education sector of the country should   give serious attention to rectify the  weaknesses in the present education system.

He said the present education system was clearly producing two different sets of citizens­–the privileged class who get their education in expensive boarding schools and the underprivileged who study in public schools.

Minister of State Malla, who is also the chairman of the school management committee, said that the present education system was such that it was only producing graduates with certificates to join the ever growing unemployment market.

He pointed out the need for  reform in the present education system and stressed vocational education.

At the programme presided over by school principal Bidya Devi Maharjan, various persons expressed their views on educational development. The school has 3,000 students.

Meanwhile, the four factions of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) organised  an interaction programme here on the problems caused by privatization in the higher education and the ways to resolve them.

On the occasion, educationists Prakash Shrestha and  Ramesh Sharma presented working papers while Dr. Om Gurung, Padam Khadka and Biswonath Pathak commented on the working papers.

The programme was presided over by president of the ANNFSU-2022 Prakash Pokherel.

The working papers state that  as education has become expensive due to the policies of handing over education to the capitalists  through privatisation,   it is not proper to privatise the higher education.

The working papers have also expressed concern over the decreasing standard of education in the public campuses.

Kathmandu, Apr. 1: Minister for Works and Transport and Water Resources Khum Bahadur Khadka today laid the foundation stone for the construction of a bridge on the Jaranku Mahadev Rivulet at Dharmasthali Village Development Committee (vdc).

The bridge to be constructed at a cost of around Rs 1,802,000 with the cooperation of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Kathmandu district development committee (ddc) and Kabhresthali and other adjoining  vdcs will be 17 metre long. The construction work will be completed in two and a half months.

Minister Khadka, addressing a programme organised by Kabhresthali vdc after laying the  foundation stone, said that the present government was committed for the all round development endeavour of the country.

Minister Khadka said that the development that had taken place during the period of thirty years of the erstwhile regime and ten years after the restoration of democracy should be evaluated by visiting various villages as it had been rumoured that there had been no development during the last ten years.

Minister Khadka said that all the party should join hands and move ahead to prevent the increasing violence and terror and safeguard democracy.

Mp mangal Siddhi Manandhar said that CPN-UML believed that the development endeavour should be carried out from the local level.

Former mp rajendra Shrestha said that all the political parties should make joint effort in the development of the country without any discrimination.

Member of Kathmandu Development Committee Keshav Raj Khadka presided over the function.

Hetauda, Apr. 1: Member of the National Planning Commission (npc) Dr. Shankar Prasad Sharma inaugurated a regional training cum seminar concerning periodic district plan formulations here yesterday.

Chairmen and vice-chairmen, local development officers, planning officers and mayors and deputy mayors of all the nine district development committees and four municipalities of Janakpur and Narayani zones under the Central Development Region participated in the day-long seminar, it is learnt from Makwanpur ddc secretariat.

Addressing the function, npc member Dr. Sharma said that it had become necessary for the people’s representatives to be active in utilising the means and resources provided by hmg and mobilising the poor people of the rural area to move towards self-reliance and the ddc should also simplify the administrative process to provide budget to the vdcs.

Speaking from the chair, Makwanpur ddc chairman Rameshwar Rana said that the development projects and budget specified by the National Planning Commission for the people of villages below the poverty line should not be curtailed and if the ddc could be further strengthened, sustainable development of the targeted community would take place.

Chief District Officer (cdo) of Makwanpur Durga Prasad Pokharel and a host of other speakers expressed their views on the occasion.

Progress of B. P. with the Poor, Ganesh Man Peace Campaign, Self-Employment,   and Women Awareness and Income Generation Programmes were reviewed on the occasion.

Mahendranagar, Apr. 1:The proposed Pancheshwor dam and its auxiliary dam to be constructed under the Pancheshwor Multi-purpose Project have heightened the risk of Jhulaghat, Amchaura and Pancheswor VDCs of Baitadi district, Lali VDC of Darchula and Rupal, Shirsha and Alaital VDCs of Dadeldhura on Nepalese side being inundated.

Most of the speakers at a public hearing organised in course of preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) with a view to collecting suggestions on assessing the environmental impact of the villages around the dams, determining the scope of assessment and laying down conditions for assessment put across their views against the Pancheshwor Dam and its Auxiliary Dam.

The public hearing was organised jointly by Metcon, East Consultants, the Ministry of Environment and the Pancheshwor Multi-purpose Project.

With a view to keeping safe the land on Indian side from the construction of the Pancheshwor Dam, the survey of India is conducting a topographical survey on both sides of the Mahakali river at an altitude of 420 metre from Purnagiri to Pancheshwor after which the designing of the Purnagiri Dam will be completed. The dam is feared to inundate Jogbudha, Shirsha, Alital, Ragun and other fertile land of Dadeldhura district.

On the occasion, ddc chairman Rhishiraj Lumsali said an auxiliary dam to the Pancheshwor Project should be constructed at Rupaligad so that Nepal can benefit.

Construction of these dams is likely to inundate 12,186 hectares of land on Nepalese side, experts say.

A host of other speakers including Yagyaraj Joshi, environmentalist Prof. Upendra Man Malla and project engineer Narendra Singh Bhandari also spoke at the function chaired by mayor of Mahendranagar Surya Bahadur Kunwar.

Kathmandu, April 1:After holding talks for five days at a stretch, the Nepal-India joint secretary level teams could not thrash out the date for the Indian Airlines (YA) flight resumption as both the sides agreed to meet again.

The meeting was adjourned since some issues were left to be refined, according to Hari Bhakta Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, who headed the Nepali delegation taking part in the talks.

The place and the date of the next meeting between the two sides, however, have not been decided yet. “We will be meeting within few weeks,” said Shrestha.

“We will meet again very soon,” Indian Civil Aviation Secretary Sunil Arora told reporters after the talks here today.

Neither side elaborated what were the issues they had agreed on and what were the impending ones. “We have made progress on many aspects,” said Shrestha.

He, however, made it clear that the issue of deploying Indian security forces at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) did not surface during the talks. “The Indian team was satisfied with the present security arrangement at the TIA.”

The two sides, consisting of six members each, signed a document and exchanged it at the end of today’s talks.

The three-member Indian team arrived here last Monday — around three months after Indian Airlines suspended its inbound flights reacting to the hijacking of one of its flight that took off from the TIA on December 24 last year.  After being hijacked in the Indian aerospace some half an hour after it took off from Kathmandu, IC 814 hopped to several airports in the region reaching as far as the Middle East.

The Indian Airlines Airbus remained captured at the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan for a week before the hijackers freed the hostages in exchange of three prisoners in India.

Immediately after the hijack, the Indian national flag carrier suspended its Kathmandu-bound flights citing security grounds while a high level investigation commission here concluded that there was no security lapse at the TIA on the day when the hijacking took place.

Until last year, after Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, Indian Airlines topped the list of bringing in the biggest number of passengers — 30 per cent of the total inbound passengers arriving here by air. A little less than 500,000 tourists visited Nepal in 1999.

Resham Chautara, Dhading, April 1:The beaming face of Ram Nath Adhikari tells it all: how a Japanese expert, who introduced new method of sericulture, has brought good fortune to this once poor farmer of Baireni, Dhading.

Adhikari was mulling to give up his sericulture just four years back. But now he relinquished his idea and is really planning to expand his sericulture farming, thanks to Japanese expert Masaru Tsuzuku who introduce new and conducive method of sericulture for the Nepalese mid-hills.

The new-fangled way of sericulture, which Adhikari adopted four years back, has made him the model farmer of sericulture in Nepal so far.

How did he set the example of gaining more from the newly introduced method?

He said that the new method of silkworm rearing has ignited new enthusiasm in him to go for more. According to the new method, Tsuzuku told us to cut whole branches of mulberry off and put them into the long bomboo racks instead of traditional small rounded Nepalese nanglos (chaffing boards), Adhikari said. Formally, he followed the lengthy and time consuming Korean method of cutting mulberry leaves off.

“The new method had really infused new enthusiasm and willingness in the farmers towards sericulture,” Adhikari told the journalists, who were on the observation tour of his mulberry plantation site. He told that the production of one lot of cocoon takes a period of one month and during the whole year four to five rounds of silkworm rearing can be done.

Adhikari is earning about 26,000 rupees from his endeavours and is aiming to fetch up to 50,000 rupees in harvest of silkworm cocoons.

According to Tsuzuku, the mid-hill climate (from 500 meter to 2,000 meter) of Nepal is very conducive for sericulture.

He said that the market for his cocoons is easily available and one kilogram of cocoon is sold in about 150 to 160 rupees.

His growing business has helped him purchase more lands for sericulture. Adhikari who started his mulberry plantation in 15 ropanis of land now owns 30 ropanis where he plans to grow mulberry trees. His successful enterprise had attracted another Dhading farmer, Krishna Prasad Khatiwada three years ago. According to Khatiwada, he started sericulture without having any training. It’s so easy, he said.

Currently in the district of Dhading, fifty farmers grow mulberry trees in their lands while twenty are rearing silkworms for business purposes.

Before the new method of chukan-bassai (mulberry fetching technique where cutting branches is followed ) and rearing of hiragai-dana (Japanese silkworms) is done, Adhikari had to employ people from outside. But nowadays his family members work in the mulberry plantation, thereby reducing the extra expenditure.

However, the common and poor farmers may find it difficulty in starting sericulture because it begins yielding results only after one and half of years of mulberry planting.

Sericulture, though started some twenty years ago, was done in small scale and traditional and time-consuming Korean method. With the arrival of Tsuzuku in 1991 as Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer, a new dimension has been added to the Nepalese sericulture scenario.

With successful implementation of new method in Nepal, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started a mini project for the development of sericulture in the country.

Tsuzuku, who is working as JICA technical expert and is responsible for the present popularity of sericulture in Nepal, said that the sericulture could play an important role in uplifting the socio-economic status of Nepalese farmers.

He said that the Nepalese climate is as good as that of Japan for sericulture and suggested that Nepal should put emphasis on sericulture because the silks produced here are of highest standard.

Moreover the cost of production of silk in Nepal is relatively low making it very profitable for export to the other countries, Tsuzuku said.

Kathmandu, April 1: Japan places its highest priority towards uplifting the socio-economic status of Nepalese rural people while providing small grant assistance to Nepal under its Grass Root Development Projects (GGP).

“Under small grant aid scheme, we put our emphasis on the social sector and give highest priority to provide self sufficiency of Nepalese rural areas in agriculture, schools and community health centres,” Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Mitsuaki Kojima told the media persons in an interaction programme at the Japanese Embassy.

“The assistance is also meant to allow Nepal achieve self sufficiency and sustainability in the promotion of agriculture and health condition of Nepalese people and environment, “Kojima said.

The Japanese ambassador further said that while implementing such projects for the agriculture sector, income generation aspects are also taken under consideration because they are the most conducive way in reducing the poverty of the rural people of Nepal.

Kojima said that sericulture, high quality vegetables and fruits will be our targets and we will try to link them with good market through best distribution system to garner some effective results from the Japanese GGP to Nepal. “We are doing this to help bring more economic empowerment to the rural people,” he added.

However, Ambassador Kojima emphasised that Japanese assistance to rural areas development does not mean to overlook Japanese ODA to Nepal’s other sectors.

In the thirty year’s history of the bilateral aid, Japan, the number one donor for the Nepal and for the world, has been providing its co-operation in Nepal’s socio-infrasturcture development sector, agriculture sector and to Nepalese people’s basic human needs such as education, primary and health sectors.

With its humanitarian considerations and wish to support  self-help efforts in Nepal, the Government of Japan has provided its assistance to Nepal, which has, in the recent years, has gone up to 1,407 million US dollars making the Himalayan Kingdom the 16th largest recipient of the Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA). All this Japanese assistance comes in three categories—grant assistance, loan assistance and technical cooperation.

Out of 228.764 billion Yen of total Japanese assistance to Nepal, 137.93 billion Yen has come as grant assistance while 58.39 billion Yen has been  provided as loan assistance and 32.43 billion Yen as technical cooperation.

Most of the Japanese economic assistance have  gone towards the   socio-infrasturcture development that includes  rural telecommunication network, modernisation of  Tribhuwan International Airport, Kulekhani Hydro-Power Project, rural electrification project, construction of bus terminal in Kathmandu and Sindhuli road and institution facilities of water induced disaster prevention centre.

Likewise, the Japanese aid has also been provided to the basic human need sector that comprises construction and facilitation of the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital, National Tuberculosis Centre, construction and expansion of Kanti Children’s Hospital and construction and rehabilitation of school facilities in the various parts of Nepal.

The cooperation in agriculture has been provided for increasing of food production, expanding horticulture and natural water fisheries development and sericulture.

The Japanese loan assistance over the years, which amount to 58.39 billion   Yen, has been concentrated in the construction and maintenance of Kulekhani Hydro-Power Project and also for the construction of the Udaypur Cement Factory.

Apart from assistance to the socio-infrastructure development, Japan has been helping Nepal by extending grant assistance to the grassroots projects for the promotion of the primary health and education, poverty relief, public welfare and conservation of the environment. Under this scheme, 56 projects were launched in the country from Japanese fiscal year of 1992 to 1999 at the cost of 1.95 million US dollars.

Moreover, Japan has extended its cooperation in twenty big and mini projects that include agriculture, water resources social and industry sectors under the bilateral agreement of technical cooperation.  In the agriculture sector, horticulture, fisheries and sericulture development programmes received Japanese technical assistance in manpower training, services of Japanese experts and volunteers.

Currently, fifty Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) are working in the different sectors. The number of Japanese volunteers coming to Nepal has been growing gradually. Japan also accepts Nepalese to be trained in Japan in its attempt to strengthening  the capacity of the Nepalese man-power and human resources.   About 2,500 Nepalese have already been trained in Japan under the technical cooperation programme. This year, Japan is expecting 150 to 160 Nepalese trainees to be facilitated with expertise they need back in Nepal to assist the various development programme.

All these programmes are directed to help Nepal achieve self-sufficiency, task of nation building and the well being of Nepalese people, said Ambassador Kojima.

He  said: “Japan also needs good collaboration from Nepalese counterparts in implementing Japan aided projects. If we fail to receive Nepalese help, the Japanese assistance will not yield good results.”

Ambassador Kojima said that if any drawback is seen while implementing the Japan aided projects, “we will certainly pull back our assistance from the sectors where the drawbacks are witnessed.”

Replying to the queries regarding the corruption in big projects in Nepal, Kojima also said that Japanese assistance is not susceptible to corruption. “We do not see any form of irregularities,” he said.

The beauty of our bilateral pact is that both sides remain aware of the irregularities at such projects, he said. Japanese Embassy in Nepal can take responsibilities of any irregular activities being done by the Japanese contractors working in Nepal, Koijima said “The Nepalese side is also doing fine in the Japan-aided projects being run in Nepal,” he added.

The Japanese Embassy’s First Secretary of Economic Affairs, Hideyuki Onishi said that the Japanese ODA is the money of Japanese taxpayers.

“We think that Nepal’s problems is our problems but both Nepalese and Japanese side should be aware that the Japanese tax-payers’ money should not go in vain,” Onishi said earlier in a workshop on Japanese ODA Projects. He said that effective monitoring is needed to control corruption.

Onishi said that the Japanese assistance should mainly be focussed in the rural areas and towards the capacity building in government, social and market sectors.

Another Japanese expert Dr. Masamine Jimba said that over the past few years the Japanese trends in providing assistance have changed.

After 1990, the Japanese assistance is directed more towards the community health services in far flung rural areas rather than building of big hospitals, Jimba said.

He said that there should be a systematic approach to work with Nepalese non-government organisations, which can work in remote areas of Nepal

Kathmandu, Apr. 1 : Minister for Health Dr. Ram Baran Yadav inaugurated a one day seminar on cardiac diseases: problems and solutions organised here jointly by the Nepal Cardiac Diseases Eradication Foundation and the Gangalal National Cardiac Diseases Centre today.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Dr. Yadav said we have not been able to achieve our goal due to limited resources, lack of efficient management in the institutions and organizations.

Those who have the knowledge should  go to the villages for resolving the health related problems through health education.

Secretary at the Ministry of Health Srikant Regmi said the cardiac diseases centre is opened for the treatment of cardiac diseases in a less expensive and easy manner.

Director of the Gangalal National Cardiac Diseases Centre Dr. Damodar Pokhrel   informed that an angiogram machine is arriving today  with the cooperation of the australian government.

Another machine will be imported in the near future to run a 100 bed capacity internal treatment services  which will make it possible for the patients to undergo surgery on payment of  only Rs. 15,000. Such a surgery costs Rs.  40,000 in India.

Executive chairman of the Gangalal Cardiac Diseases Eradication Foundation Prof. Dr. Gopal Prasad Acharya, from the chair, said 10 percent of the country’s population is suffering from cardiac problems.

Ex-chairman of the foundation Dr. Mrigendra Raj Pandey said there is a need to raise awareness among the people  about the diseases of heart and lungs.

Vice chairman of the foundation Dr. Lok Bikram Thapa stressed the need to prevent cardiac diseases through public awareness  as the treatment of cardiac diseases is very expensive.

Kathmandu, April 1: State Minister for Labour Surendra Hamal today said that the banks should move ahead with effective strategies to sustain themselves in the competitive environment.

The banks have a crucial role to play in the national development, Hamal said inaugurating the Fifth General Congress of Nepal Bank Employees Association (NEBEA) in the capital Saturday noon. “The banks should concentrate on how they can offer quality services to their clients.”

Hamal said that the government was committed to safeguard the interests of the workers and employees adding that the activities of the state were oriented toward social welfare. Citing the inception of Labour Act, Bonus Act, Financial Sector Reform Act and Labour Court as efforts in this direction, Hamal said that the government was ready to reform the laws if required.

The country is facing serious social and economic challenges, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist)’s standing committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari said. “Financial institutions, particularly banks, can play an important role to settle these challenges.”

Criticising the modality of privatisation adopted by the government,   Adhikari said that the executive should rather focus its attention on how the nation can achieve economic prosperity.

CPN-ML’s central member Kamal Chaulagain said that the nation was plagued by the scourge of corruption adding that the menace would not be contained in absence of clean political leadership.

President of National People’s Front Chitra Bahadur KC said that unity was the only remedy to the menace.

NEBEA general secretary Murari Prasad Poudel said that privatisation had led the bank into a critical situation. Poudel accused the management of failing to check corruption which he said was the cause of the bank’s ‘ruin’. “Neither has the inefficient management been able to launch any strategies to increase the business of the institution.”

Chaired by NEBEA central president Kiran Kumar Shrestha, the function was participated in by NBL employees from various parts of the country.