Kathmandu, March 23:A football tournament comprising senior division football teams of Kathmandu will be held from April 14 to 22, this year to commemorate late Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepalese woman to scale the Mount Everest.
The winners of the Late Pasang Lhamu Memorial Football Tournament to be played under knock-out basis will receive fifty thousand rupees while the runners up will get Rs. 25,000 rupees in cash prizes, the organiser of the tournament, Nepal Trekking—Travels-Rafting Workers Union (UNITRAV) told the media this afternoon.
The best player and highest goal scorer of the tournament will get ten thousand rupees and a gold chain each in prize. The tournament is expected to cost about six hundred thousand rupees to the organisers.
Nine senior division clubs of Kathmandu have already applied to play in the tournament while five others have consented to play in the weeklong tournament to be held at national Dasharath Stadium. The teams who have enrolled their names for the participation are: Manang Marshyangdi, Kathmandu Club, Bansbari Club, Friends Club, RCT, Naxal Yuva Mandal, Sankata Boys, Jawalakhel and Three Stars.
“The tournament is being organised in commemoration of brave woman who acquired the distinction of being first Nepali to climb Mount Everest but was killed while returning from the highest peak of the world ” the organisers said.
The tournament is an emotional tribute to the brave lady from UNITRAV, said UNITRAV’s Secretary Deepak Poudel who is also co-ordinating the tournament. The tournament will be held every year from now, Poudel added.
He said that All Nepal Football Association has given its consent for the tournament and is providing its technical assistance to the organisers, Poudel said.
Kathmandu, March 23: The second international invitational school level judo tournament will be held from tomorrow, a press release from School Judo Association stated this.
The competition will be held at the Dashrath Stadium’s covered hall and will be participated by 250 students from Nepal and six from Japan.
All the Japanese players along with their trainers have already arrived here, the association’s president Pasang Bishwokarma said.
The two-day competition will be inaugurated by Nepal’s Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Tarini Dutta Chataut while Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Mitsuaki Kojima will be the chief guest of the inaugural function.
Bhupendra Mishra, the former National Youth Goalkeeper passed away in his sleep Tuesday night. He was 27 years of age. Late Mishra’s last rites was performed at Pashupati Aryaghat Wednesday.
Member-secretary of the National Sports Council (NSC) Binod Shanker Palikhe and President of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) Ganesh Thapa paid their last respect to late Mishra, covering him with the flag of ANFA.
NSC officials, ANFA vice presidents, Mahesh Bista, Tashe Ghale, other officials of ANFA, coaches of different sporting associations, football players and late Mishra’s close friends also paid their last respect.
Younger brother of RCT regular custodian, Mirgendra Mishra, he began his career ten years ago from the First division club of Kathmandu New Road Team (NRT). He also played in other A division Clubs Jawolakhel Youth Club, Manang Marshyangdi etc.
He had also represented Nepal in International championships, playing for the under 19 teams. He last played for RCT in the Amatya Gold Cup recently.
Meanwhile, Nepal Sports Journalist Association issued a press release, expressing deep sorrow over the untimely demise of late Mishra.
Kathmandu, Mar. 22:Nepali Congress’s newly elected Parliamentary Party Leader Girija Prasad Koirala had a hectic start as the Prime Minister after a brief swearing in ceremony at the Royal Palace today.
Koirala’s schedule began right at the Royal Palace with two other separate swearing in ceremonies in which he administered the oath of office and secrecy to Deputy Prime Minister Ramchandra Poudel and 12 other Ministers.
From the Palace, he got into his black Mercedes and drove straight to the Sahid Gate, where he paid tributes to the martyrs who had been killed by the Ranas.
Moments later, Koirala whizzed off to his office at Singh Durbar, where the 10 State Ministers, except for Gopal Rai, were awaiting in Labeda Suruwal for the swearing in, which took place in a while.
At his arrival there, Cabinet Secretary Tirtha Man Shakya welcomed the Prime Minister with a colourful garland and introduced him with other colleagues at the Prime Ministerís Office.
Koirala then called a customary cabinet meeting, where he discussed the burning issues facing the nation at present. “The first priority of the government will be to restore law and order situation in the country to protect the lives of the people,” Koirala told a cluster of journalists at his office later. “Curbing corruption and ensuring Good Governance with administrative reforms are next on the governmentís agenda,” he said of his priorities as the country’s Chief Executive.
The Prime Minister said resolving the Maoists problem fell within the governmentís first priority issue. “If the Maoists want to come forth for talks to end the problems facing the country and the people peacefully, the government is always open to dialogues and negotiations,” he said.
“My wishes are to see that the Maoists dedicate themselves to the people within the frame of the Constitution,” Koirala said referring to the four plus year old “People’s War” in which over 1200 people have been killed, over half of them Maoist militants. The Maoists, he said, should lay off their arms. “That’s the pre-condition for any talks with the Maoists.”
Also today, the Prime Minister received a report on elimination of corruption, which was submitted to him by the Corruption Prevention Committee constituted by the government in mid-December last year. The report was handed in to the Prime Minister by former MP Mahadev Gurung, who headed the committee.
Koirala also issued directive to the civil servants and said that they should discharge their responsibilities fearlessly. “Change in the government will not affect the bureaucracy in its regular functions.” He also told Secretaries to get in touch with him personally in case of any difficulty while discharging their duties.
Later, Koirala took his time off and went to the party head office at Teku to meet with Congress MPs and party’s central working committee members. The Prime Minister reiterated that the government would initiate action to solve the problems of the Maoists as advised by the Congress CWC in August last year.
The CWC had recommended that the government initiate parallel talks with all political parties to arrive at a consensus in their approach to end the insurgency and that the launch economic programmes to intervene against poverty in the areas affected by the Maoist activities.
Koirala said the future of democracy is bright because the people are peaceful. “The experiences we have gone through during the last one decade have been quite important in the consolidation of democracy in Nepal,” he said. “People have trust on faith; hence there is no threat to democracy.”
Commenting on foreign policy, Koirala said Nepal’s relations with India and China were good and the government would give continuity to this relation.
Meanwhile, Congress MP P. L. Singh issued a statement expressing reservations about the newly formed cabinet. “The people of Kathmandu had been meted out neglect before, but they have been devalued this time,” he said of the cabinet, which leaves out himself and National Assembly Member Prakash Man Singh, the Supplies Minister during the previous cabinet.
“The people of Kathmandu, who had made a decisive contribution during the people’s movement of 1990, have been insulted with the formation of the cabinet,” Singh said of the cabinet in which Koirala has inducted another fresh MP Tirtha Man Dangol as Minister of State for Health.
Dangol and Singh were elected to the House of Representatives from Kathmandu 7 and 4, while other five seats fell to the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) in the general election last year.
Kathmandu, Mar. 22 :Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi took charge of his office today. On the occasion, Mr Joshi said maintaining law and order, removing corruption and ensuring good governance are the three major goals of the present government.
The home administration will discharge its duty in a honest and responsible manner to achieve these goals and any activity aimed to restricting people’s rights will not be tolerable to the present government, the Home Minister said, adding there will be no compromise on immutable matters guaranteed by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal.
The Home Ministry will expedite its work in providing service to the people by maintaining its clean image so that no one can raise a pointing finger, he further said.
Home secretary Padma Prasad Pokherel also expressed commitment to work in a result-oriented manner.
Similarly, Education Minister Amod Prasad Upadhyaya and Minister of State for Education Dilendra Prasad Badu took charge of their office today.
On the occasion, Mr Upadhyaya directed employees to work with a sense of service and dedication to upgrade quality of education.
There is no problem which cannot be addressed if we execute our duty honestly and sincerely, he said, stressing the need of more commitment and dedication to improve this sector.
Mr Badu stressed that employees should cooperate in resolving problems by working together with understanding.
Education secretary Jayaram Giri said the employees in the education sector are ready to work wholeheartedly for resolving the challenges facing this sector.
Likewise, Minister of State for Population and Environment Shivaraj Joshi assumed his office today.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Joshi directed the employees to solve problems facing the ministry and intensify on-going efforts towards this end.
Population and Environment secretary Dr. Govinda Raj Bhatta briefed about the significant achievements made by the Ministry so far and programmes of the current and next fiscal years.
Kathmandu, Mar.22: At a time when Nepal has not been able to utilise the 6000 one way airseats per week to India, the government should allow willing and capable private operators to fly to Indian cities, Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) stated here today.
Under the present arrangement, according to NATA’s press statement distributed here today, of the total 6000 airseats, 610,600 and 880 seats have been allocated to Necon Air, Alpine Air and Nepal International Airways respectively. The rest has been kept for Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation.
Interestingly, Alpine Air and Nepal International Airways, that were given the Aircraft Operating Certificates long back, have not even begun operation yet.
Poorly equipped with inadequate fleet, RNAC is hardly utilizing 3000 seats per week. “In such a scenario, companies like Buddha Air and Necon Air are already willing to operate to Indian cities. All they are waiting for is the official approval,” said Bhola Bikram Thapa, President of NATA, during a press meet here today.
NATA’s lobbying for private operators to be allowed to fly to the Indian cities comes at a time when Indian Airlines, that used to fly in around 30 per cent of the inbound tourists by air, continues to suspend its incoming flights.
The Indian national flag carrier suspended its Kathmandu-bound flights since December 24 last year when one of its Airbus was hijacked in Indian aerospace around half an hour after it took off from Tribhuvan International Airport.
“We would like to see our operators and RNAC strengthened to meet the demand rather than stressing on the resumption of the Indian Airlines flights,” Thapa added.
Birendra Basnet, Managing Director of Buddha Air, said that he was ready to operate to Indian cities like Varanasi if the government allowed him to. “Our aircraft has already been approved by the Indian Civil Aviation authority to fly in the Indian aerospace.”
Private sector has been eyeing Varanasi as a lucrative and viable Indian destination since it was the Indian city only Indian Airlines flew to from here.
Apart from voicing the need to allow private operators to fly to Indian cities, NATA also stressed that RNAC should be allowed to function as an autonomous body. “Since we have learnt lessons from cases like pulling out of incoming Lufthansa flight in the past, it’s high time we revamped our national flag carrier,” Thapa said.
Presently, besides RNAC, that flies to three Indian cities — New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta — Necon Air flies to Patna.
Nepal and India reviewed the Air Service Agreement in 1997 increasing the per week one way airseats to 6000 from 4000. The new ASA has also allowed multiple Nepalese companies to operate to Indian cities. Before 1997, only RNAC was allowed to fly to India.
Around 30 private operators have received the Aircraft Operating Certificates while a little above one dozen companies are operating now.
Kathmandu, Mar. 22:A National Sanitation Campaign was launched here today with the release of Nepal State of Sanitation Report 1999/2000 on the occasion of World Water Day.
The report chronicles the sanitation efforts so far, the current situation, potential impacts of improved sanitation and makes a number of recommendations.
Eighty per cent of the diseases like diarrhoea, round worm, typhoid, cholera, and malnutrition and ocular diseases in Nepal are due to lack of sanitation, according to the report that was prepared by Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) Environmental Sanitation Section (ESS) and UNICEF.
The report says that 0.15 billion rupees was spent annually on sanitation during the Eighth Plan but the estimated annual economic loss due to poor sanitation during the period was about 10 billion rupees.
“Owing to contaminated water, every year 28 thousand children die of gastro-intestinal diseases in Nepal. About one million children and one million adults also suffer from such diseases,” says the report.
Despite the bleak picture of public health due to lack of proper sanitation system, the government failed to set aside any budget for sanitation during the current Ninth Plan, the report says.
The report has recommended that apart from the water supply projects the authority should adopt a broad-based sanitation strategy using development programmes at the local level and the media, and launch campaign to mobilise the large number of stakeholders emphasising benefits of sanitation facilities.
It has also emphasised the involvement of private sector in creating public awareness in rural areas through various sanitation-related programmes.
Releasing the report at the National Meeting of World Water Day, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Chitralekha Yadav said the people’s problems could be best resolved only if policies were formed to deal with their day-to-day problems.
“We can fulfil our responsibility toward the people only if can identify their problems and sincerely strive to resolve them,” she said at the programme jointly organised by DWSS, World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and Public Health Engineers’ Society Nepal.
Yadav stressed the need to the make programmes on drinking water, health and sanitation successful in rural areas and she said public awareness programmes were equally necessary along side.
From the chair, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning Arun Kumar Ranjitkar said the government would implement programmes to ensure potable water for all by the end of the current Ninth Five-Year Plan.
WHO representative Dr Klaus Wagner said direct participation of the government and private sector was needed to effectively implement potable drinking water and sanitation programmes.
UNICEF representative McNab Stibert said the government should bear in mind the hardship facing children and women in various parts of the country while formulating its policies on drinking water.
Chairman of the village development committee national federation Nepal, Mahinu Limbu informed the meeting that the federation was going to launch awareness-oriented programme on sanitation in all the villages in four phases.
Deputy Director General of Department of Drinking Water and Sewerage Gautam Prasad Shrestha, Deputy Director General Iswar Man Tamrakar, Chairman of National Action Committee on Sanitation Nawal Kishore Mishra shed light on drinking water and sanitation problems and the programme to be launched by private sector in the future.
Lalitpur, Mar. 22: District development committees and municipalities have to select development projects with a long term perspective and allocate means and resources for them in a balanced way.
Many development planners and others concurred on this view at a seminar organised here today by National Planning Commission Secretariat, regional project office.
The seminar stressed ddc’s need to see how to take co-operation and suggestion from National Planning Commission on development project selection and formulation of periodic projects for the overall development of districts and municipalities.
They advised that while selecting projects, district development committees should see whether the project were in tune with its goals and perspective.
Under the Local Governance Act-2055 bs., each district development committee are to formulate periodic and annual development projects by themselves and a periodic project will have a time frame of at least five years.
The seminar also suggested that district development committees should also determine social and economic development targets and priorities of respective districts and chalk out strategies and specific time-frame to realise them.
A period development project should also see how to increase district people’s access to basic economic opportunities and social services.
The participants also stressed the need to see how to direct public and private sector investment in long-term utilisation of natural, economic and social resources in a particular district, how to protect and promote its environment, how to ensure proper population distribution and development of settlements in a particular district.
The district development committees should formulate projects within the frame work of the Local Governance Act and regulations, the policy directives and guidelines of National Planning Commission, but its project outlay should not exceed the budget ceiling set by the Finance Ministry. Besides, it should also see that the projects selected would create job opportunities to the direct benefit of the people, they added.
Calling for provision of necessary means and resources to the district development committee, they suggested that ministries should formulate projects in co-ordination and co-operation with district development committees instead of formulating them on regional basis.
Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, National Planning Commission vice chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal said that as project selection was still being done on the basis of conjecture the National Planning Commission was pursusing the policy of formulating periodic projects by itself.
Project selection should be done in keeping with the aspirations of the local people, he stressed.
“The National Planning Commission does not intervene in the implementation of the projects which were selected in keeping with the local people’s aspirations and which could receive local people’s participation,” he said and pointed out, “there is a policy of making available more budgetary fund to the district going ahead implementing its properly selected projects.”
From the chair, National Planning Commission member Dr Shanker Shamra said that periodic district development projects should be formulated to ensure proper mobilisation of budgetary outlay or development fund to be made available to district development committee by the government or ministries.
Joint secretary at the npc secretariat Bhagavati Kumar Kafle said the outcome of the seminar would go a long way in the formulation of period development projects of the districts.
Chairman of Lalitpur district development committee and district development committees’ federation Madhav Poudel said the National Planning Commission categorise development projects.
Kathmandu, Mar. 22: His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly appointed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala amidst a special function at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace today.
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was present on the occasion.
In the presence of His Majesty the King, Rajparishad Standing Committee Chairman Dr Kesharjung Rayamajhi administered the oath of office of ex officio member of Rajparishad Standing Committee to Prime Minister Koirala.
At the same function, Prime Minister Koirala administered the oath of office and secrecy to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Ramchandra Poudel.
Prime Minister Koirala also administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers at the function.
On the occasion Rajparishad Standing Committee chairman Dr Kesharjung Rayamajhi administered the oath of office of Rajparishad Standing Committee ex officio members to the Deputy Prime Minister and the ministers.
Also present at the function were Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya, Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat, National Assembly chairman Dr Mohammad Mohsin, leader of the Main Opposition Party at the Parliament Madhav Nepal, ex-prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba and Lokendra Bahadur Chand and distinguished persons.
Today, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala administered the oath of office to the newly appointed ministers of state at his office, Singh Durbar .
Those taking oath on the occasion were Minister of State for Agriculture Baldev Majgaiya, Minister of State for Population and Environment Shiva Raj Joshi (Surkhet), Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam, Minister of State for Water Resources Ram Bahadur Gurung, Minister of State for Women and Social Welfare Mrs Kamala Panta, Minister of State for Industry and Commerce Narendra Bikram Nembang, Minister of State for Education Dilendra Parsad Badu, Minister of State for Local Development Suresh Malla and Minister of State for Health Tirtharam Dangol.
On the occasion the Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, chief secretary and other senior officers of His Majesty’s Government were present.
Kathmandu, Mar. 22:Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola has said that he held talks with the Bhutanese Foreign Minister on telephone on the refugee issue.
Talking to rss, Minister Bastola said hmg is very much concerned to resolve the Bhutanese refugee issue since a long time.
Minister Bastola said that efforts would be made to make the relations with all friendly countries including India more cordial.
Earlier, minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola today went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and assumed office.
On the occasion, Mr Bastola said that the time had come for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to play a more efficient and effective role to safeguard national interest and economic development endeavour by intensifying the economic diplomacy by taking into account the changed world scenario and its realities.
The existing ties with the neighbouring countries should be made more cordial and fruitful by learning lessons from the glorious past and realising the present realities, he added.
The minister pointed out the need to review the works of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and missions under the Ministry to meet the challenges in international relations created by the unprecedented changes in the information and communications technology and to utilise the opportunities in an efficient manner.
Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Murari Raj Sharma welcomed the Minister on behalf of all the civil servants of the Ministry.