Kathmandu, Mar 14: Surprising though it may sound to those with better potty habits, twelve per cent of Kavrelis do not wash hands after defecation. Statistics from a baseline survey conducted for the UNICEF-supported Decentralised Planning for the Child Programme (DPCP) reveal that 68 per cent of households in Kavre–a district adjoining the capital and considered relatively better-off in many respects–do not have toilets of any kind. Lack of sanitation and hygiene has resulted in 60 per cent of children suffering from long-term malnutrition brought about by debilitating water-and-sanitation related diseases.

With the above situation being a backdrop, an interaction on Child Health and Sanitation & Hygiene is being held on March 16 (Thursday) in Dhulikhel. Hosted by the Kavre District Development Committee and Nepal forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) with assistance from UNICEF, the gathering is bringing together over fifty social and political workers, journalists, health workers, women volunteers and other community workers opinion leaders of Kavre.

According to a NEFEJ press release, the objective of the interaction is to discuss how to galvanise ocmmunity action to better the sanitation and hygiene situation as well as sensities media for the purpose of launching an advocacy campaign to put the so-far-much-ignored sanitation and hygiene up on the national agenda.

The Kavre gathering is the first of the series of interactions to be held in 13 high hill, mid-hill and terai districts where DPCP is in action.

Biratnagar, Mar. 14: The three-day eighth conference of All Nepal Legal Practitioners Association concluded today with a note of unanimity that despite some achievements made in securing rights to organization and freedom, impartial justice and good governance are still a far cry.

In a declaration adopted by the conference, the legal practitioners’ association has expressed its commitment to the implementation of the historic agreement reached between the supreme court and the Nepal Bar Association.

Admitting that the fruits of development have not reached the general public due to the absence of good governance, the association has appealed to all to contribute from their respective places to guaranteeing free and fair elections, transparent accounting system, democratic exercise within political parties and fair functioning of political parties.

Since lack of discipline and proper control mechanism, and lack of effectiveness of anti-corruption bodies are responsible for growing corruption, the declaration says, adding legislation for impeachment, transparent procedures for the appointment of office bearers of constitutional bodies, democratic conduct and behaviour among the MPs and increased accountability on the part of the government and parliament are a must to combat all the existing evils.

Kathmandu, Mar. 14: Those who use cement, which is the backbone of development and construction work, are still not fully familiar with its efficient and effective use.

Though cement has been in use for construction work since the 19th century, it is unfortunate that the method of its use and durability have not yet become fully transparent, according to managing director of Cosmos Engineering Services Subodh Prasad Timilsina.

Lack of thorough knowledge about cement use in the construction of bridges, buildings and various other projects may lead to some major accidents in the future, it is feared.

As most cement users are not aware of its efficient and effective use,manufacturers should publish manuals mentioning dates of manufacture and expiry and methods of usage for distribution among the users, according to managing director Timilsina.

The world-wide annual consumption of cement is 500,000,000 metric tons (mt) of which 600,000 mt is consumed in Nepal.

Forty-eight per cent of the demand for cement in Nepal is met through domestic production, 49 per cent through imports from india and rest from various other countries.

As the cement industry in Nepal is unable to meet the internal demand, cement worth more than one billion rupees is imported annually.

According to the Ministry of Industry, the annual consumption of cement in Nepal in 1994-95 was 564,220 mt of which 146,500 mt was imported at a cost of Rs 27,400,000.

In 1998-99 the consumption was 507,692 mt of which 255,692 mt was imported at a cost of Rs 997,200,000. Cement worth Rs 994,500,000 was imported from india alone in 1998-99.

The annual production capacity of the cement industry in the country is 695,000 mt, including 661,000 mt or 95 percent in the government-owned sector. The other cement producers are small and their annual contribution is 300,000 mt.

The total production of Himal Cement Industry, Hetauda Cement Industry and Udayapur Cement Industry together was 335,100 mt in 1994-95and 267,356 mt in 1998-99.

According to engineer Rajendra Prasad Mandal, theCement industry should operate at full capacity as current levels of internal production do not meet domestic demand and cement worth millions has to be imported annually.

As the production and expirty dates are not mentioned on the bags of cement produced in Nepal, users are facing difficulties. The concerned authorities should therefore look into the matter seriously, it is sated.

The use of cement in Nepal started around 1950 and the demand has soared since the 1960s. Himal Cement industry was established in 1975, Hetauda Cement Industry in 1985-86 and Udayapur Cement Industry in 1991-92. In the private sector Annapurna Cement Industry, Tribeni Cement and Maruti Cement have been producing on a small scale.

In the beginning Himal Cement Industry had an annual production capacity of 48,000 mt. This was increased to 110,000 mt in 1986-87, but its hs not been able to manufacture more than 48,000 mt annually.

Likewise, Hetauda Cement Industry has the capacity to produce 264,000 mt annually, but has not been able to produce more than 136,998 mt. Udayapur Cement industry has a capacity of 277,000 mt, but the output is only 165,707.

While production capacity has not been fully utilised, millions are being spent on imports.

Supply of cement without considering the quality is not a solution to the problem. Construction contractor Balaram Shaha says that supplying of cement of standard quality is equally important for protecting investment worth millions of rupees in various sectors and regions. The users should also be fully familiar with the quality of the cement they use.

Kathmandu, Mar. 14: The government today formally entered the fourth phase of the Radio Communication Project (RCP) with John Hopkins University (JHU) and American development agency USAID. Under the fourth phase of the RCP, the two donor agencies will continuously support the education based entertainment programmes over the state run Radio Nepal.

The first phase of the RCP was signed in 1995, under which the Health Ministry is running Ghanti Heri Had Nilao, a radio drama serial and Sewa Gare Mewa Painchha, a radio programme targeted at rural based health works. Both the radio programmes focus on issues of family planning, family health and maternity-infant health.

“Family health and population control top the priority list of the government health agenda,” said Health Secretary Sri Kant Ragmi. He also opined that radio education proved to be helpful to make the rural health services more effective and efficient and thus improve overall health status.

However, the data show that Nepal’s achievement in the area is far from satisfactory. According to government statistics contraceptive prevalence is low at 31 per cent, meanwhile the country is counted to have the highest percentage of maternity mortality rate among the South Asian countries. According to Health Ministry, everyday 12 Nepalese women die of pre and post delivery complications.

Pancha Kumari Manandhar of USAID said that radio was the cheapest way to disseminate health related information among the public and most cost effective medium to reach the rural based health workers for update of their family health knowledge and skills. She also claimed that the number of desired children is declining in Nepal; she said the desired number of children declined to 2.4 children from the four children in 1993.

Executive Director of Radio Nepal Mukunda Acharya said that radio is effective in changing health behavior of the public.

Kathmandu, Mar. 14 : Ishwar Pokharel of the cpn-uml, speaking during special hour at the House of Representatives today, alleged that the government has been indifferent to the burning issues facing the people and stressed the need to immediately implement provisions of the report of the revenue leakage investigation committee.

If the government fails to work in the interest of the country and the people, his party, together with all the opposition parties, would launch a movement in the streets and in the house as well, he added.

Govinda Bikram Shaha of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (rpp) said that the government was silent even when the people were being displaced and forced to live as refugee within the country and demanded implementation of the report of therevenue leakage investigation committee.

Mrigendra Kumar Shaha of Nepal Sadbhavana Party sought immediate action againstpersons found guilty by the Revenue Leakage Investigation Committee and said that B.P. with the poor, the youth self-employment programme, the Ganesh Man Singh peace campaign andthe women’s awareness and income generation programme had become employment centres for nc activists.

Nar Bahadur Budathoki of the cpn-uml said that attention had not been paid to the law and order situation in Karnali zone, the police had been assigned only to the district headquarters,the local self-governance act had been violated and local bodies had not been taken into confidence under the B.P. with the poor, Ganesh Man Singh peace campaign and women’s awareness programmes.

Brijesh Kumar Gupta of rpp demanded that the road from Kapilvastu district to Kathmandu be black-topped, the district be declared a tourism centre and infrastructure developed, the report of the Revenue Leakage Investigation committee implemented, action taken against the guilty and the house informed of the functionings of the various committees constituted by hmg.

Chitra Bahadur K. C. of National People’s Forum accused the Nepali Congress of mismanagement on the economic, social and political fronts and expressed the view that the prices of various commodities are not declining despite the prime minister’s assurances, the police have failed to maintain law and orderin Banglung district and the country is suffering from unemployment, corruption and irregularities.

Narayan Man Bijukchchhe spoke of the poor law and order situation in the country, delegation of authority to the chief district officers in the name of local autonomy, removal of food depots from remote areas, setting up of unit irrigation offices only in place of district irrigation offices and ‘congressisation’ of the Ganeshman Peace Campaign, Bisheshwar with the poor and women awakening programmes.

He also said that the report of the Revenue Leakage Investigation Committee should be implemented, actioninitiated against the guilty andthe Home Minister should answer for the incident of torching of 60 Houses in Rupendehi yesterday.

Kathmandu, Mar.14: As the secretary level talk between Nepal and Bhutan on the Bhutanese refugees continued for the third day at the Foreign Ministry here today, around three dozen Bhutanese refugee activists this afternoon staged a sit-in in front of the ministry’s entrance in a bid to draw the attention of the Nepalese and Bhutanese official delegations.

Under the banner of Appeal Movement Co-ordination Council (AMCC), a Bhutanese refugees’ human right organisation in exile, the refugees, who had arrived here from seven different camps in eastern Nepal, made three specific demands: Drop the categorisation of the Bhutanese refugees, invite Teknath Rijal, Bhutan’s ace Human Right leader, in all future refugee talks, and halt the resettlement of the other Bhutanese citizens onrefugees’ lands in Bhutan.

The activists displayed banners, placards and flyers bearing their demands and the photo of Rizal who was recently freed by the Druk Government. Nepal and Bhutan had agreed in 1993 to categorise the around 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal into four groups: Bonafide Bhutanese citizens, Bhutanese who have emigrated, Non Bhutanese, and Bhutanese who have committed crimes.

Forcefully evicted from the Dragon Kingdom in the early 90s, the Bhutanese refugees continue to languish in the UNHCR managed seven camps in eastern Nepal.

“The sit-in programme is in a series of activities the AMCC has decided to launch in the coming days targeting the Nepal-Bhutan bilateral talk,” read a press release issued by the Council here today.

Meanwhile, Centre for the Protection of Minorities and against Racism and Discrimination in Bhutan (CEMARD-Bhutan), another Bhutanese human right organisation in exile, has urged the Foreign Secretaries of Nepal and Bhutan to come out with concrete plans for the early constitution of verification mechanism for repatriation of Bhutanese refugees.

For its argument that the verification team should interview the heads of the refugees’ family and not the individual member of the family, CEMARD has reasoned that Bhutan keeps the census records of its citizens and their lands in the name of the head of the family and not on individual basis. The government has also been stressing that only the head of every refugee family should be interviewed.

CEMARD has further suggested that the verification team should first interview the refugees possessing citizenship cards issued by the Bhutanese government. “Then the team should proceed on verifying other documents such as cattle, house and land tax paid receipts, employment letters, government service records, award of scholarships, school enrolment records, militia training evidences, payment of forced labour contribution tax like goongdawoola and saptolemi for those whose citizenship certificates were confiscated by the Bhutanese government.

In a press statement, signed by its Executive Director Rakesh Chhetri, CEMARD has urged both the governments of Nepal and Bhutan to withdraw the categorisation of refugees from their agenda. It has also requested the Bhutanese Government to send Tek Nath Rizal abroad for proper medical treatment.

In the ongoing talks, the two Himalayan kingdoms are working to chart out the modality of the verification of the refugees. As of writing this late night, the talks were still in progress. The secretary-level meet is scheduled to continue tomorrow as well.

Janakpur, Mar. 13: The child labourers, aged between 10 and 14 years of age are reported to have been found in great number in Dhanusha district.

According to the statistics published by the District Development Committee, in the district there are about 55,000 children between the age of 10 and 14 years, 45.77 per cent of whom are labourers.

The survey conducted in 101 VDC’s shows that only 50.45 per cent of the child labourers go to school.

There are 192 govt. primary schools, 16 lower secondary schools and 36 secondary schools, 2 higher secondary schools and 2 campuses in the district.

The rural parents in the district still lack general awareness about the importance of sending their children to schools. eventhough they are aware of it, the poverty-stricken and jobless parents cannot afford to provide school to their children.

Hence the general trend in the rural areas is that a son joins labour force by the time he is 10.

Even those who can afford education for the children are putting them to household works or to farming activities.

According to the in-charge of Janakpur Labour Office Nabin Pokharel, 31 children working at a number of industries in the district.

District development committee chairman ramcharit sah ascribed the increasing number of child labour to lack of public awareness.

Social worker Rudra Narayan Jha stresses the need for the government to launch special programme designed to resolve the problem of child labour.

The local people believe that the number of child labour will drop once the economic condition of the poor families improve.

Kathmandu, Mar. 13: The Ministry of Labour organised a one-day youth self-employment orientation seminar here today to highlight various aspects of the Youth Self-employment Programme introduced by the government for the resolution of unemployment problem.

The main objective of the seminar is to provide the member secretaries nominated on the youth self-employment programme coordination committees in all 75 districts with the skill and knowledge of implementing the “Youth self-employment programme implementation directory-2056 B.S.

Inaugurating the seminar, Minister for Housing and Physical Planning, and Labour and chairman of the Youth Self-Employment Programme Implementation Committee Bal Bahadur K.C. said the self-employment programme is an outcome of the government’s commitment to provide one employment to each household.

The government has set a target of ensuring self-employment to 18,000 youths this year and gradually increasing the number for five years, he added.

Noting that the country faces big challenges in every front if its fails to promote the economy, Minister K.C. urged the participants of the seminar to shun ideological differences and provide first priority to the poor and suppressed while implementing the self-employment programme.

Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and member-secretary of the Youth Self-employment Programme implementation committee D. B. Bhattarai spoke about the government’s policy of providing micro enterprise and other appropriate training to the targetted individuals.

From the chair, vice-chairman of the committee Nabindra Raj Joshi called on all to contribute for the success of this programme.

Central member of the committee Binod Rai hoped that the directory would be instrumental for the member secretaries in successfully implementing the programme.

CTEVT vice-chairman Saroj Devkota and various others also spoke about different aspects of the programme.

Kathmandu, Mar. 13 : Minister for Industry Omkar Prasad Shrestha released the Khadga Man Memorial Volume on the occasion of the 89th birthday anniversary of ex-chairman of Nepali education council and literary figure the late Prof. Khadgaman Malla here today.

The volume published by Khadga-Pran Memorial Cultural Trust contains articles written by various distinguished persons on the life, works and personality of the late Malla.

Releasing the book, Minister Shrestha said people spending their lives doing noble deeds remain immortal even after their death.

He also stressed the need for the present generation to draw inspiration from the life and works of the late Malla.

Highlighting the activities of the trust, member-secretary of the trust and son of the late Malla Brigadier General Dr Madan Man Malla said the trust will continue its efforts for contributing to social work and promotion of the Nepali language, literature and culture.

The trust has instituted a “Pran” scholarship for students from poor economic background and has been organising free health camps.

Senior critic Dr. Mohan Himamshu Thapa described the late Malla’s contribution to the promotion of the Nepali language and literature as unparalleled.

Popular poet Dharma Raj Thapa, member-secretary of the Nepali Education Council Mrs Rama Sharma, member of Royal Nepal Academy Chittaranjan Nepali, Dr. Janak Lal Vaidya, daughters of the late Malla Minarva Malla Jonchhe and Urmila Malla Joshi and various others spoke about the contributions of the late Malla.

Kathmandu, Mar. 13: The 12th Insurance Congress of Developing Countries (ICDC) kicked off here today amid a gathering of over 300 participants, about 200 of them international insurance personalities from around the globe.

Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat inaugurated the Congress, being held for the first time in Nepal. The theme of the Congress this year is Facing the Challenges in the Emerging Insurance Markets in the 21st Century.

“The insurance industry has contributed substantially to the development endeavour through its useful role in mobilising smaller and widely scattered savings for investment and deployment in the socially and economically optimal areas and pursuits,” Mahat said in his inaugural speech. “The insurance industry would undoubtedly be a major player in the process of realising the economic growth prospects and opportunities of the nation.”

The Finance Minister added that the growth of insurance business symbolised the increase in the volume of economic activities, trade and transit transactions along with the concerns of people for protecting their valuable goods and properties. “Though the present volume of Nepal’s trade and transactions might not be at levels as expected and the Nepalese industry’s premium collection on all the headings might look unimpressive, this industry is bound to grow at a sound and sustained pace in a very short period of time, given the favourable atmosphere and the conducive framework being established and promoted for its competitive growth.”

The Finance Minister said the insurance industry is also immensely benefited by the emphasis on reform and restructuring of the economic regime, both in the macroeconomy and its important sectoral dimensions. “The growth in the non-agricultural sector of the national accounts at 5 per cent for the past five years (1994/95-1998/99) has also contributed to the growth of this sector, which in itself has assumed immense role for contributing to the accelerated growth process.”

He said the financial and insurance sector in Nepal was greatly benefited by the increased openness and competitive structure of the Nepalese economy, mainly in the non-agricultural sector. “Nepal’s economy is largely open with the total merchandise trade as a percentage of GDP being at 37% during FY 1998/99 and 39.3% during FY 1997/98.

He said the government had also played a positive role by the fostering of this industry by welcoming the foreign investment in insurance and re-insurance sector for the foreign and local entrepreneurs.

“The opening of such an important sector would certainly bring a significant change in the insurance industry, in terms of the volume of business, growth of employment, support to other business, and the promotion of the economic interest of the people. The government, with the reform and restructuring objective in mind, is also working toward formulation of various rules and regulations encompassing the different segments and processes of the financial sector of the economy, and many relevant acts are also along the stages of being revisited and amended,” Dr. Mahat said. “All these coupled with Nepal’s preparations for joining the World Trade Organisation should prove as a boon for the growth of the insurance in the days to come.” Mahat hoped the growth of the insurance industry in Nepal would also help in the process of developing Nepal as an international financial centre for which the necessary legislative arrangemtns are being put in to effect.

In his remarks, V.R. Ayllon, President of the Association of Insurers and Reinsurers of Developing Countries said that the local companies and countries of the emerging markets must leverage their own strengths, benchmark on and assimilate global best practices, and constantly shore up its technical capabilities in order to succeed in the global economy.

“We must also pay attention to the shifts in customer lifestyles brought about by technology as these will have a profound effect on how insurance is bought and sold. Along this line we must also pay attention to the products that other financial service companies are introducing as an alternative to insurance.”

Earlier, Chairman of the Insurance Board of Nepal and the 12th ICDC Organising Committee Lava Prasad Sharma gave a brief introduction of Dr. Mahat.