Kathmandu Mar. 27:The first Summitter to the Everest Sir Edmund Hillary felicitated  Babu Chhiri Sherpa at the office of Himalayan Trust for the success of his 16 hours Mt Everest speed expedition-2000.

Monday , on the occasion, Sir Hillary  extended thanks to Gorkha Airlines and its Chief adviser and Chairman of the expedition management committee Rajendra Bhadur Shrestha for sponsoring such glorious making event.

The Gorkha Airlines is managing the entire show of this Speed Expedition. All the previous Expedition of Babu Chhiri were sponsored by non- Nepalese organisations.

Babu Chhiri has not only climbed Mt. Everest nine times but also has appeared in Guinness Book of World record for staying at the Everest summit for arduous 21 hours without auxiliary oxygen. If Babu Chiri achieves the feat of reaching the summit within 16 hours, he will be establishing a new world record. The current record holder is Kaji Sherpa who has done this feat in twenty hrs twenty-four minute.

Sir Edmund Hillary also signed the Expedition banner and flag which Babu Chhiri is unfurling at the Everest summit and hoped that Babu Chhiri will be establishing many more world records in future. Sir Hillary has come to Nepal for a short visit and will be flying to Phaplu on March 29 for the visit of those areas.

Babu Chhiri is leaving for Lukla by Gorkha Airlines flight on March 30, 2000 to start his acclimatisation exercises at the various camps of Everest. He has plans to start his actual Expedition on the first week of May 2000.

Biratnagar, Mar 27:A package programme has been launched in Babiyabirta and Haraincha VDCs in Morang district with the objective of familiarizing the farmers with the scientific techniques of fisheries  as per the long term agriculture policy.

Under the programme lunched with the objective of developing fisheries as a an effective source of income,  15-hectare ponds are constructed in each of the VDCs.

According to assistant fisheries development officer Kedar Shrestha,   the farmers will be familiarised with different aspects of fisheries and marketing.

According to the district agriculture development office Morang, there are 2,438  fish ponds   in 436.25 hectares in the reservoir area in   Morang.

About 1,509 persons depend on fisheries. Out of the old 542 ponds there are 342 seasonal ones and 200  can be used round the year.

Similarly, out of the newly constructed  1,896 fish ponds, 1,248 are seasonal and 648 can run round the year.

During the fiscal year 2055/56,  966 metric tonnes of fish was produced in the district through  commercial fisheries.

Similarly, district education office Morang organised a seminar here Sunday with a view to collecting suggestions on forming a National Teachers Service Commission.

On the occasion, member of the Public Service Commission and recommendation committee Dr Madhunidhi Tiwari said that the education act requires a national teachers service commission to execute works concerning selection and promotion of teachers at different levels in a transparent and reliable manner. The seminar also aims to collect suggestions on selecting chairman and members of the commission in a democratic manner.

Morang DDC Chairman and District Education Committee Khadga Bahadur Basnet stressed the need to select bonafide persons to make the commission credible and mobilize local bodies for educational development.

District education officer Muktinath Dahal, Mayor of Biratnagar Rameshchandra Paudel, CDO Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai, chief of the post-graduate campus Dr Khagendra Acharya also spoke on the occasion.

Representatives from teachers organizations and different political parties had presented their suggestions in the seminar.

In Bidur, the district oil-conservation office and Nepal-Denmark Gerkhu sub-watershed management project have completed reconstruction of 13 different rural trails in and around Gerkhu area in Nuwakot district.

The repair work was completed at a total cost of Rs 951,883 benefiting some 646 households in the locality in the movement of goods and people.

The rural roads repaired include one trail at SWard No. 1 and 2 of Gerkhu VDC, three at Ward No.3, two at Ward No. 6 and seven at Ward No. 7.

Similarly, altogether ten conservation ponds have been constructed at Ward No.1, 3 and 7 of Gerkhu VDC and Ward No. 4 of Bageshwari vdc at the total cost of Rs 162,172 by the district soil-conservation office and Nepal-Denmark Gerkhu Watershed Project.

A total of 267 families in those localities are benefiting from the conservation ponds constructed as part of the Gerkhu sub-watershed management project, it is learnt from the project office.

Likewise, it has been learnt the district soil-conservation office, Nuwakot, has completed 14 watershed management projects in Gerkhu and Bageshwari VDCs at the cost of Rs 713,716, benefiting some 364 local households.

Tulsipur, Mar. 27:All Nepal Farmers’ Association, Dang district organisation committee held “All-Nepal Farmers’ March-2000″ at local Bhalubang and Tulsipur here with the slogan “Let’s Organise the Farmers Extensively and Move ahead the Class Struggle in the Rural Areas”.

Addressing the concluding function of the march at local Arniko Maidan at Ward  No. 5 of Tulsipur Municipality here on Sunday, central president of the All Nepal Nationalities Convention Keshar Bahadur Gurung, central member of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (sixth) Mr. Sushil Pokharel, former general secretary of ANNFSU (sixth) Suresh Thapa, the central vice-president of All India Nepali Unity Society and a host of other speakers shed light on the objectives of the farmers march.

Artistes of the Raktim  Cultural Group had presented a cultural programme of folk dance and songs at the programme presided over by all Nepal Farmer’ Association district organisation committee member Durga Khanal.

The farmers’ march, mainly targeting the Deukhuri Valley, had begun at local Lalmatiya VDC in Bhalubang on February 17 and concluded at the same venue after moving around eleven VDCs of the Deukhuri valley.

Meanwhile, another team of marchers which began its march on February 17 completed its march on Sunday after moving around 28 VDCs and two Municipalities of the Dang valley.

Dhangadhi, Mar. 27:Community Drug Programme has been introduced in Kailali district from this year with the direct participation of the community to provide basic health services at all the village level in line with the government policy.

The programme which aims at mobilising the people’s participation in health services, consolidating the management aspect, ensuring the supply of drugs in the health institutions throughout the year and improving the quality of health services has already been introduced in Kaski, Morang and Banke districts.

Under the programme participated in by UNICEF also, the drugs received from HMG is sold at wholesale price and the money received is deposited in the name of Community Health Management Committee.

The amount deposited in this way is withdrawn when necessary to purchase drugs at wholesale price and sold at the community level at the same rate.

A district level familiarisation programme was held here last Saturday to provide information on the programme introduced in the district.

Elected DDC office-bearers, government employees and representatives of the governmental and non-governmental organisations and journalists attended the seminar.

In Bhaktapur, Kantipur Hospital (Pvt) Ltd and Gundu Village Development Committee (VDC) jointly organised a day-long free health camp at the VDC recently.

Health of 281 persons of Gundu, Dadhikot and Katunje VDCs was of checked-up and free medicines distributed at the camp, it is learnt from Gundu VDC chairman Mahesh Basnet.

Dr. Raghavendra Bahadur Singh, Dr. Yagya Bahadur Bhandari, senior surgeon Madan Man Malla, Dr. Kiran Manandhar, gynaecologist and obstetrician Dr. Meera Ojha and Dr. Shankar Pratap Singh rendered services at the camp.

Similarly, the Association of the Parents of the Deaf has formed here its nine-member ad hoc committee of under the chairmanship of Ram Prasad Singh at its frist general meeting recently.

The ad hoc committee includes Hari Bahdur Shrestha, Krishna Maharjan, Nita Sharma, and Laxmi Hira Saiju as vice chairman, general secretary,  and treasurer respectively. Its members are Rita Devi Singh, Padma Kumari Ghimire, Shiva Laxmi Khakurel and Safal K.C.

Kathmandu, Mar. 27:A French national Fabrice de Villeneuve has provided educational support to 24 children of poor and backward families of Buddhi Village Development Committee of Kapilvastu district.

The French national has decided to bear all the costs of 24 students for their education upto secondary level.

Now those 24 students are studying in Residential Boarding School in Buddhi VDC.

The students who are being supported are aged between five and ten.   Fabrice has already announced to provide support for about 100 students in   that village within a period for one year.

Fabrice, a French businessman, decided to support poor and backward children’s education when he visited Nepal last year.

He also said that he would seek more funds for school sponsorship to other children, as well and expand this programme to other villages.

Students were selected for school sponsorship on the basis of financial position and social background of their parents.

Mahendra Shrestha, who is coordinating the sponsorship programme, said the objective of the school sponsorship programme is to encourage the poor and backward community in the Buddhi village of Kapilvastu district to send their children to school.

Buddhi VDC is one of the backward villages of Kapilvastu district where majority of the people are poor and illiterate.

Kathmandu, Mar. 27:Whether or not you allow a  person from the Dalit community into your house is completely your personal discretion, but mind you, you may be in for an embarrassing situation if you start discriminating people on the basis of their caste at a public place or an eatery.

A tea-stall owner at a village near the capital who abused a Dalit man for failing to wash the glass from which he drank tea faced such a situation here Sunday and he had to close his shop and flee after a group of about 100 Dalits picketed  his shop protesting his action.

It is learnt that 15-year-old Bimal Bisunke (Sarki), a resident of Tahachal, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, who had gone to attend the wedding ceremony of his relative Putali Bisunke at Ward No. 1 in Band Bhanjyang VDC,  was abused by the owner and his sons Bhim and Mohan when he refused to wash the glass he drank tea from at their tea-shop.

Bimal Bisunke, a grade nine student at local Paropakar Secondary School, Bhimsensthan, complains he was beaten up for no fault of his when he protested why he should wash the glass when he has paid for the tea.

After the unfortunate incident, Bimal filed a complaint at the Kalimati police post and went to the Bir Hospital for treatment.

A day after the incident took place on March 7, the society for the liberation of oppressed and downtrodden castes of Nepal, Kathmandu district committee office-bearers went to the Thankot police post to lodge a complaint about the incident demanding  legal action against the abusers.

But they complain that even the police did not cooperate but scolded them instead.

However, egged on by the society, the police called the accused persons to present themselves at the police post within 15 days of the incident, made them sign documents that they will not engage in such caste discriminations henceforth and freed them.

In this connection, the society for liberation of the oppressed and downtrodden castes of Nepal Sunday organised a protest corner meeting near the tea-shop where the incident occurred so that such incidents do not recur in the VDC and elsewhere.

The tea-shop owners closed their shop and fled from there on seeing the large assembly of the people from the Dalit community.

Addressing the protest gathering, central general secretary of the society Dipak Jung Bishwakarma said that the society would now organise  such protest meetings on a campaign basis at the place of the incidents since the so-called “higher caste people” still continued to discriminate against the people of the lower castes even though the constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-1990 prohibits caste discrimination.

Central treasurer of Nepal Dalit Sangh and Dhuba Surkheti, a local Dalit youth, called upon all the Dalits to unite to eliminate social discrimination against them.

Journalist Hiralal Bishwakarma, victim of the abuse Bimal Bisunke, Kathmandu district member of the liberation society Kamal Purkoti and others flayed the incident and rued caste discrimination in our society.

When a Dalit man tried to buy a packet of biscuit from a shop owned by a person of  the surname of Adhikari after the mass meeting, he was denied and nearly beaten up by the owner.

The members of the Dalit community were furious at this and they tried to attack the shop-keeper. However, the police intervened and calmed them down. The situation cooled after the local intellectuals offered their apologies to the Dalits on behalf of the shopkeeper.

Nearly 45 families in Band Bhanjyang VDC belong to the Dalit community. Most of them are Surkhetis, Achhamis, Bisankus and some of the Pariyar surname.

Central treasurer of Nepal Dalit Sangh and former VDC vice-chairman of Band Bhanjyang VDC Dhruba Surkheti says that caste discrimination does not exist in other wards of the VDC except Ward No. 1.

He says the people of the so-called lower castes are  socially stigmatized and looked down upon by the people of the  higher castes.

It is learnt that there is a grocery shop at the VDC owned by a Dalit where most of the 350 Dalit families buy commodities. Otherwise, they all the way to Thankot to buy goods not available at the shop.

Pokhara, Mar. 27:A 3-day national workshop on researches on summer crops started at Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, Kaski district today under the auspices of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).

The main objective of the workshop is to work out future strategies on the basis of the council’s past experiments and their results as well as the ongoing programmes and current problems.

According to the council, paddy, maize, millet, buckwheat and latte among summer crops, peanut, niger seed, sesame, and sunflower among oilseeds, and soybean, bean, and arhar (gajamus indicus) among pulses have been brought under its field of experiment.

Working papers presented at the workshop by Nepalese and foreign agro-scientists will be discussed and conclusions reached at the seminar.

Participating in the workshop are 125 delegates including representatives or experts of Nepal Agricultural Research Council and its units such as the special division concerning crop research programme, regional agricultural research centre, agriculture department, and its divisions, regional and district agricultural offices, agricultural and animal science study institute, and national associations and institutions.

Representatives of the World Bank, donor agencies and other helping institutions are also participating in the workshop inaugurated by the crop and horticultural director of the council Dularachan Sau “Pathik.”

Hetauda, Mar. 27:Various 59 potable water projects at 14 VDCs of Makwanpur district conducted from 1996 to 99 and 11 in the current fiscal year under the annual programme of Plan International has been completed, according to the organisation.

Plan International, Nepal, had provided Rs 27,474,426 as grants for the construction of the projects, it is learnt.

The local people also contributed Rs 6,000,000 in terms of voluntary labour for the purpose, it is learnt.

About forty thousand people have been directly benefited from the water supply projects.

Meanwhile, target has been set to launch 56 potable water projects from 2001 to 2002 as per the demands of the remote VDCs of Makwanpur district. Of these, construction work of 25 potable water projects have already been completed, according to chief of Plan International, Makwanpur, R. P. Gupta.

Likewise, a week-long training was imparted for the repair, maintenance, overseeing, and cleanliness of the potable water projects in the future, it is learnt.

Plan International, Makwanpur, has conducted income generating programmes, health treatment centres, maternity and child care centres and provided textbooks and scholarships to children at 17 VDCs of the district in the current fiscal year.

Nepalgunj, Mar. 27:It has been found that there is increased feasibility of the development of fish farming in Banke district. Further developed of fish farming in the lakes and ponds here would go a long way in helping the farmers raise their income, increase employment opportunities decrease the income of fishes from India, it is believed.

The output of fishes in the district is sufficient to meet the local requirement for four to five months only.

Mostly, customers and traders both go to fish ponds to buy fishes for personal consumption and for selling respectively.

Even if the production of fishes is increased three to four time the present, there will be no problem of marketing it.

According to the district agriculture development office, the output of fish at 130 hectare of ponds and lakes is 260 metric ton and the number of farmers engaged in this vocation is around 150. The output is 2 metric ton per hectare. There is one fish nursery and the area covered by water such as ponds and lakes not used for growing fishes is 100 hectare.

The office has provided 1,505,000 fingerlings this year to develop pisciculture in the district. It is also conducting programmes such as techniques of growing more fishes, know-how for cultivating big fishes, method of growing fishes in paddy field, use of lime in ponds, etc.

The office has also imparted training to the farmers on the use of meals for fish, method of testing water and construction of ponds. It also organises tour programmes and holds competition to the farmers engaged in fish farming.

Target has been set this year to design a pocket programme to increase the output to 3.5 metric ton per hectare.

Fingerlings are supplied from Radhepur Agriculture Hatchery and Vijaya Fish Nursery as there is no centre at the government level to distribute it in the midwestern region.

New ponds have to be constructed and old ones utilised to encourage fish farming in the district, it is felt.

It is also said that the concerned agencies should pay attention to undertake repairs and maintenance works of natural lakes and ponds and bring these to use.

Kathmandu, Mar. 26:A delegation led by president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (fncci) Pradip Kumar Shrestha met Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence at Baluwatar today.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Koirala described the private sector as the foundation of the country’s economic development and stressed the need for cooperation between the government and the private sector in the resolution of any problems and the country’s development.

Calling for substantial suggestions from fncci for building a congenial environment for economic development, Prime Minister Koirala said the government will take necessary initiative to implement the suggestions and overcome the slackness facing the industry and trade sector.

At the meeting, fncci president Shrestha apprised the Prime Minister of the present economic, industrial and trade situation in the country, the problems facing the private sector and the programmes and activities of the Federation.

The fncci president highlighted the slackness in the country’s economic and trade sector, weak implementation aspect of the policies, other problems emanating from among other things the vat and collection of taxes at local level.

The one-door committee has not yet been effective, he said adding the imposition of special additional tax by India on the Nepalese products has discouraged export of Nepalese goods into India. He also asked the government to pay serious attention to this state of affairs.

According to the fncci, the delegation presented a set of demands to the Prime Minister. The demands included among other things formation of Trade Council and a permanent revenue board under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, fixation of workers’ minimum wage in view of the slackness facing the industrial sector, special attention to economic agenda, representation of the private sector in Nepal Rastra Bank and proper initiative to resume Indian Airlines flight.

Minister for Industry and Commerce Ram Krishna Tamrakar, fncci senior member Padma Jyoti, vice presidents Ravi Bhakta Shrestha, Diwakar Golchha, Binod Bahadur Shrestha and Rajendra Kumar Khetan and the fncci council and committee chairmen were present on the occasion.