Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Sukraraj Sharma of the Nepali Congress, speaking during special hour at the National Assembly today, spoke of the need to raise wages of workers in the disorganised sector, effectively implement the labour act, constitute a high level labour commission and fulfil the demands of the Nepal Teachers Association to put an end to educational anarchy.

Cpn-uml’s Kedar Neupane demanded factual information about the rumour that Nepal’s high level government officials had helped in the flight of Karmapa Lama to India via Nepal.

Bir Bahadur Singh of the same party remarked that removal of health posts from different Maoist-affected areas of remote districts has encouraged the Maoists and the government and the ruling party should make clear their views about the Maoists.

Cpn-ml’s Dr. Ramman Shrestha complained that the slogan of national consensus has not been put into practice.

NC’s Tilak Neupane demanded that due revenue should be realized from “Caravan” nominated for Oscar award and sent back to Dolpa for its development.

Biratnagar, Mar. 10: The three-day conference of All Nepal Legal Practitioners Association began here today with the slogan “Impartial Justice and Good Governance: Our Challenge and Dedication.”

More than 1100 legal practitioners from across the country are taking part in the conference.

Inaugurating the conference, Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhaya said as judicial anomalies will have an adverse affect on the judiciary, the legal practitioners, bar and the bench should maintain very close and cordial relations in order to ease up the challenges faced by the judiciary and provide impartial justice to the people.

Stating that healthy criticism and comments will lead to the enhancement of the dignity of the judiciary, Chief Justice Upadhyaya said unhealthy criticism based on economic gain or loss will create a serious question mark over the reliability of the judicial sector.

Seeking justice in a speedy and efficient manner is the inherent rights of the people and it is the responsibility of the state to develop an efficient judicial system, he added.

Attorney general Badri Bahadur Karki said the legal practitioners should always be conscious of providing security to the people and consolidating democracy through the establishment of a good legal system in the country.

Ex-speaker Damanath Dhungana said it is because of some shortcomings existing in the judiciary, executive and legislative that anomalies have crippled the country.

Stating that political parties should be healthy, strong and impartial in order to develop the country, Mr Dhungana said the present state of Nepal is not satisfactory.

Chairman of House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee Subash Chandra Nemwang, chairman of Nepal Bar Association Harihar Dahal, ex-chairmen Sarbagya Ratna Tuladhar, Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Mukunda Regmi, Radheshyam Adhikari and other speakers also expressed their views.

Kathamndu, Mar. 10 Vladimir Korolev, vice president of Roszarubezh Centre today handed over the dummy doll of the 17th century Russian Queen Catherine First donated by Valentina Tereshkova, world’s first woman cosmonaut and President of the Russian International Science and Cultural Cooperation Centre to Reeta Singh Vaidya, chairperson of Nepal Children’s Association at its premises.

Korolev is currently in Kathmandu to take part in the Asian meet of CIS graduates and 40th anniversary of Russian People’s Friendship University.

Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Danish Charge D’Affaires Lars Hormann met with Minister of State for Population and Environment Bhakta Bahadur Balayar at the latter’s office today.

On the occasion, discussion was held on improving the environment of Kathmandu Valley and other districts.

Mr Hormann welcomed the government’s decision to ban the operation of government, corporation and diplomatic vehicles if they fail to meet the fixed criteria in Kathmandu Valley.

Mr Balayar thanked the Danish government for providing equipment necessary for checking pollution caused by vehicles.

An agreement was also reached on the occasion to train manpower needed for effectively advancing the programme launched for maintaining pollution level and to collect necessary resources for this.

The meeting also agreed that a study will be carried out with the help of Danish government to assess the environmental impact of plastic products and discourage its production, export and import of such products, while at the same encouraging their recycling.

The discussion also focussed on minimising the level of smoke pollution caused by Himal Cement Factory and brick kilns.

The Danish government is to invest Danish Kroner 20.261 million for such programmes as ensuring the institutionalised development of environmental bodies, maintaining coordination between the ministries and the private sector, raising public awareness, managing environmental conservation fund, etc under component no. 4 of the environmental sector programme support project.

Working out of the component No. 5 of the project aimed at monitoring and improving pollution level in Kathmandu Valley has come to a final stage.

Present on the occasion were secretary at the Ministry of Population and Environment Dr Govinda Raj Bhatta, joint secretary Ananta Raj Pandey, the chief advisor of the programme, the technical advisor and programme officer at the Danish Embassy Sharad Neupane.

Kathmandu, mar. 10: A delegation led by Jajarkot ddc chairman Bhairab Sunder Shrestha met Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Information and Communications Ram Chandra Paudel at his office and apprised him of various problems facing the district.

The delegation comprising mps Ratna Prasad Neupane (Jajarkot) and Nara Bahadur Hamal (Dailekh) demanded that telephone and electricity should be provided to the districts, the Khalanga-Dolpa road and Dailek-Naumule-Jajarkot road completed, the Maoist problem solved, etc.

Rajbiraj, Mar. 10: Deputy Speaker Mrs Chitralekha Yadav has said that contribution could be made to controlling tuberculosis if an effective programme is launched to generate tuberculosis awareness among the rural people.

Inaugurating the 20th general meeting of the Anti-tuberculosis Association of Nepal here today, Mrs Yadav lauded the positive works carried out by the Anti-tuberculosis Association of Nepal set up with the benevolent objective of humanitarian welfare and service.

Mrs Yadav stressed the need for the association to further play a more active role in generating tuberculosis awareness among the rural people.

Expressing the view that  a person could become great through humanitarian feelings rather than holding a post, the Deupty Speaker said the social and political sectors should be sensitive about and commit themselves in national and people welfare works in order to control deadly diseases like tuberculosis in the country.

Speaking from the chair president of the Anti-tuberculosis Association of Nepal Devendra Bahadur Pradhan said that the government should provide grants to social institutions only by evaluating its works.

Mr Pradhan said the association is always ready to join hands with the government to control tuberculosis in the country.

Vice-president of the association and director of the National Tuberculosis Center Dr. Dirgha Singh Bam said that the association had been playing an important role in generating tuberculosis awareness among the people. The Dots programme has been playing a significant role in treatment of tuberculosis patients in Nepal as well as other countries, he added.

On the occasion, Deputy Speaker Mrs Yadav gave away life-membership of the association to 20 persons of the Saptari unit of the Anti-tuberculosis Association of Nepal.

Likewise, central president of the association Pradhan gave away cash prizes to the winners of the inter-school essay contest on tuberculosis and aids organised recently.

Chief District Officer Balkrishna Prasai, central vice-president of the association Indra Prasad Shrestha, general secretary Madan Kaji Shrestha, Deputy General Secretary Shanker Prasad Sharma and Bijayananda Jha also expressed their views.

The two-day general meeting is being attended by 148 representatives from 24 district units of the Antituberculosis Association of Nepal.

Kathmandu, Mar. 10: His Majesty the King has, in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal l990 and at the recommendation of the Prime Minister, designated the Deputy Prime Minister, ministers and a minister of state to assume the additional portfolios of Law and Justice, Water Resources, Works and Transport, Forests and Soil Conservation, Science and Technology, Parliamentary Affairs, Education and Health which Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has been looking after.

According to a notice issued today by the Principal Press Secretariat of His Majesty the King, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel has been assigned the additional portfolio of Education and ministers Chakra Prasad Bastola, Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar and Prakash Man Singh the additional portfolios of Science and Technology, Water Resources and Law and Justice respectively.

Similarly, ministers Sharad Singh Bhandari, Sidda Raj Ojha and Ram Krishna Tamrakar have been assigned the additional portfolios of Health, Forests and Soil Conservation and Parliamentary Affairs respectively and Minister of State Dr. Gangadhar Lamsal the additional portfolio of Works and Transport.

Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Royal Nepalese Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic (Greece) Indra Bahadur Singh presented his letters of credence to Mr. Constantinos Stephanopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic, amidst a special ceremony held at the presidential palace in Athens yesterday, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kathmandu, Mar. 10: In an interaction programme here today, experts both in the official and the private sector pointed out different issues that could be instrumental to improve the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process in the hydropower sector.

Different stages of EIA including screening, scoping, terms of reference, preparing the EIA report, among others, were discussed under the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) Analysis basis.

EIA is a mandatory provision in the Environment Protection Act introduced some two years ago that requires proponents to assess the impact of the proposed project on the environment. Proponents are supposed to begin their project work only after the EIA is approved by the Minister of Population and Environment.

“EIA is the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and managing the biophysical, social health and other relevant effects of development proposal before major decisions are taken or commitments are made,” defines the National Environmental Impact Assessment Association (NEIAA). “A typically institutionalised EIA is applied primarily to minimise the adverse affects that large-scale development projects have on natural resources and ecosystem.”

Existing legal provision requires hydropower projects above five MW installed capacity to undergo the EIA process before beginning the construction works. According to officials at the Ministry of Water Resources, EIA of only one hydropower project has so far been approved by the ministry after the enactment of the Environment Protection Act.

Experts pointed issues like fixing time limit for the approval of the different requisites of the EIA process. “Since more than one and a half year is required for the entire EIA process, there has to be time limits for its different components.”

Another issue that surrounded the discussion was the availability of manpower in the private sector and the officialdom to conduct and review the EIA process. While those representing the private sector stressed that the officialdom should be equipped with qualified manpower, officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and MoPE charged that even the private sector is yet to be well-equipped with adequate and qualified manpower.

“Our efforts should be toward strengthening the required manpower,” said Surya Man Shakya, a senior environmentalist.

Presently, the MoPE has only around 10 technical staff to deal with EIA related issues, according to the ministry officials.

The interaction workshop was organised by NEIAA, Electricity Development Centre and International Research Group which runs under the programme of the United States Agency for International Development.

Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Women Security Pressure Group today said that the existence of discriminatory laws (against women) is against the spirit of the Constitution, democracy and the international treaties that the government ratified. The women rights activists also called for speedy amendment to the Muluki Ain (civil code) that “treats women as second class citizens”.

Though various political parties expressed commitments and mentioned the proposed amendment to the existing Muluki Ain as their agendas in their election manifestos, and women rights activists have been pressing for the quick amendment, the parliament could not pass the bill because of lack of support from the parliamentarians, a statement distributed during the press meet said. “The delay has disheartened the women rights activists.”

In 1993 two advocates filed a writ at the Supreme Court for amendment to the discriminatory clauses. In August 1995, the Supreme Court issued a directive for immediate amendment to the discriminatory clauses. The proposed amendment bill on the Muluki Ain was proceeded to the parliament during the 13th session of the House, however, it has not been passed till the date.

On a query, former parliamentarian Sahana Pradhan, said that the political leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties have assured of tabling the bill during the on going 17th session. “It is yet another iteration of an old assurance,” she said with a note of doubt on seriousness of the “assurance”.

“Since the Directive Principles of State Policy provisions for special law for development of women, the equal rights (to women) bill should be made a legislation quickly,” the press statement further said.