Kathmandu, Mar. 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for information and Communications Ram Chandra Poudel has said the present government is committed to the promotion of journalism.
Mr Poudel, while receiving a report prepared by the Journalism Sector Study and Recommendation Task Force today, noted that his majesty’s government will make every effort to resolve the problems of the fourth estate engaged in ensuring good governance in the country.
Stating that the government will seriously study the report and try to implement it, he disclosed that the government has prepared a manual for employees to remove irregularities and red tapism in offices that are directly linked with the people.
Media advisor at the ministry of information and communications and convenor of the task force purushottam Dahal, presenting the report, expressed confidence that the present government which is well aware with the norms and values of democracy and press will implement the report.
In course of preparing the report extensive discussions were held with various organisations associated with journalism and efforts were made to involve all as far as possible, he added.
The task force studied the national communications policy-2049 b.S, advertisement policy, problems of working journalists and journalists outside Kathmandu valley, constraints facing literary journalism, laws pertaining to right to information and the flow of information, etc and recommended suggestions.
His majesty’s government should make available government notices and public service advertisements to the private newspapers in view of their circulation, quality and the categorisation made by the audit bureau of circulation, it is stated in the report.
Similarly, the report also states that all newspapers meeting the criteria of the Audit Bureau of Circulation should be provided with notices and welfare advertisements in a proportionate manner and its quantity should be fixed on the recommendations of the Department of information.
Transport facility should be provided to journalists outside Kathmandu valley, five seats provided free of cost to journalists at central hospitals, three seats each at regional and zonal hospitals and two seats at the district hospitals, the royal Nepal Airlines Corporation should provide air fare to journalists whose treatment is not possible at home and safety of journalists should be guaranteed.
The report also points out the need of drafting the bill on right to information and present it to the Parliament.
His majesty’s government had constituted the nine-member task force under the convenorship of Mr. Dahal.
The members of the task force are chairman of the Nepal press council harihar birahi, president of the federation of Nepalese journalists suresh acharya, editor of the three-monthly literary magasine unnanayan achyut raman Adhikari, chairman of Nepal press union kulchandra wagle, editor/publisher of dristi weekly shambhu Shrestha, joint secretary at the ministry of information and communications hemraj poudel and FNJ mid-western region vice president hemanta karmacharya.
Director general of the Information Department yubaraj pandey is member-secretary of the task force.
Kathmandu, Mar. 3: His Majesty’s Government has enforced Directory-2000 in order to increase the effectiveness of the services and facilities provided by the government and to make such services provided through various bodies under His Majesty’s Government speedy and efficient in order to accelerate the pace of development projects.
According to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office, the directory aims at extending services provided through government, semi-government and various other organisations to the public in a speedy, efficient and easy manner, increase the effectiveness of enforcement of development projects, put good governance into practise, materialize the principles of democracy saying “for the people, by the people and the people’s government”, and check red tapism, negligence and embezzlement in various bodies and development project from the central level to the district, town and village level.
A district monitoring and supervision committee has also been constituted in every district in order to make necessary arrangements for the proper execution of works mentioned in the directory and monitor the works and provide information to the centre.
The committee constituted under the convenorship of the chief district officer represents political parties recognised by the nation and represented in the parliament, the DDC, mayors of municipalities or chairman of the VDC in the district headquarters, representative of non-government organisations and chiefs of various offices in the district.
A central monitoring and direction enforcement committee has also been constituted under the convenorship of the secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office in order to make monitoring and direction works effective from the central to the district level. The committee represents various ministries.
Likewise, a central monitoring and direction committee has also been constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister in order to regularly monitor the services and facilities provided to the people.
The Deputy Prime Minister is the vice-chairman of the committee while the home minister, the finance minister, the minister for local development, the vice-chairman of National Planning Commission and the chief secretary are its members while the secretary at the Prime Minister’s office is the member-secretary of the committee.
Kathmandu, March 2:Dipu regestered a comfortable 5-2 win over Ratna Krishna KC to win the preliminary final at Surya Binayak Snooker House today under the All Nepalese Carlsberg Snooker Championship being organised by Gorkha Brewery Ltd. in association with Billiards, Snooker and Pool Association of Nepal.
The best of nine frame final began quite interestingly with both Dipu and KC going neck to neck in the first two frames. Dipu, however managed to held his nerves in both of them to enjoy 2-0 lead, by winning 69-54, 69-50.
But KC crawled back into the game, registering a big break in the third to win it by a huge 90-9 margin. And leveled the match at 2-2 when he won the battle of nerves in the fourth by 45-30. Going into the fifth grame, he failed to cash in couple of easy chances and lost it 20-80. It was the crucial point of the match that turned the fortune on Dipu.
While KC’s game began to falter away, Dipu started to look more solid with his concentration on the table and went on to clear the table time and again. He registered a 23-point break in the sixth frame to close the game at 113-58 and followed it up with 47-22 to enter the final undefeated.
Meanwhile, top seed players continued to tuble at Club de Pokhara, as it was the turn of Laxman Gurung this time, going down 2-4 to Nabin Pun in the quarterfinals.
Gurung was completely humbled by the lightning start from Pun, who after clearing the table in the opening frame for 88-12 score, also took the second and third at 63-19, 68-31 for a 3-0 cushion. Although the number two seed, Gurung, reigned briefly during the match, winning fourth and fifth by 52-27, 53-32 that was no enough to stop Pun from advancing to the semifinals. Pun completed the match by winning the sixth at 64-49.
Lok Man Gurung ended the fairly tale run of Milendra Gurung by 403 in the other quarterfinal match that went all the way to its limit. Milendra Gurung, who put off the challenge of Pokhara’s number one player the other day, despite leading by 3-1 at one stage. The final score of the match read 35-39, 31-73, 53-18, 28-38, 57-27, 67-29, 65-27.
Likewise, Deepak BK and Hom Bahadur Nepali also advanced to the semifinals, following a hard fought win against Suraj Shrestha and Basanta Gauchan, BK dropped the first frame but held his nerves to win the match after much fettering with the score of 27-64, 47-45, 58-18, 58-63, 37-56, 51-45, and 46-26.
Nepali quelled the challenge of Gauchan also in seventh frame, winning at 56-46, 54-55, 36-46, 47-60, 54-23, 62-9, 61-28.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2: The meeting of the chairmen of the various committees of the House of Representatives was held today at the parliament building under the chairmanship of Speaker Taranath Ranabhat.
Initiating the meeting, Speaker Ranabhat called upon the committees to move ahead with more clarity and efficiency in an coordinated manner in their respective sphere of works so as to highlight the dignity of the parliament and to make their services more effective.
The chairmen of the committees stressed the need to hold regular meeting of the chairmen in order to maintain coordination between the committees in connection with the difficulties encountered in the carrying out works within their jurisdiction.
Present at the meeting were Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mrs Chitralekha Yadav, chairman of the Finance Committee Smriti Narayan Chaudhari, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Subhas Nemwang, chairman of the Natural Resources and Means Committee Lekhnath Acharya, chairman of the Environment Conservation Committee Surya Prasad Pradhan, chairman of the Population and Social Committee Narendra Bahadur Bam, chairman of the State Affairs Committee Hom Nath Dahal and chairman of the Development Committee Tanka Prasad Rai.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2 :A delegation of the Hotel Association of Nepal (han) today met Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Bijaya Kumar Gachhedar and presented a memorandum along with the resolutions adopted by the 33rd annual general meeting of han.
The memorandum draws hmg’s attention towards resolving the burning issues of the tourism sector.
Similarly, a delegation led president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (han) Narendra Bajracharya met Sri Lankan Ambassador Mrs. Pamela J. Deen and held extensive discussions on the possibility of promoting bilateral trade promotion.
On the occasion, the han president urged the ambassador to take initiative for linking Nepal and Sri Lanka by air.
The Sri Lankan envoy said an official decision has already been taken to begin air services between the two countries as early as possible.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2:Minister for Land Reforms and Management and chairman of the Landless Squatters Problems Resolution Commission Dr. Gangadhar Lamsal has constituted 10 district committees.
According to the commission, Dinanath Prasad Shaha is the convenor of Parsa District Committee, Harkha Bahadur Shahi of Kalikot Committee, Laxmi Prasad Acharya of Jumla Committee, Bal Bahadur Rumdali (Rai) of Khotang Committee, Ranga Raj Khatiwada of Sindhuli Committee, Digambar Raya of Dhanusha Committee, Shankar Kadel of Sankhuwasabha Committee, Guru Prasad Bhattarai of Tehrathum Committee, Nara Prasad Lingden (Limbu) of Panchthar Committee and Kamal Prasad Budhamagar of Rolpa Committee.
The district committees have nine members each.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2: Speaker Taranath Ranabhat is to lead a seven membeer delegation on a goodwill visit to Australia from March 6 to l2 at the invitation of the Australian parliament.
The delegation will include the Speaker’s spouse Mrs Narmada Ranabhat, National Assembly vice chairman Chiranjibi Prasad Rijal, mps Raghuji Pant, Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Rajendra Mahato and under secretary at the parliament secretariat Manohar Prasad Bhattarai.
During the visit the delegation will call on and hold talks with the chairmen and members of both houses of the Australian parliament, the chairmen and members of the state assemblies, the chairman of the human rights and equal opportunity commission, the Attorney General, the chairman of the joint parliamentary committee, the leaders of the parliamentary opposition, ministers and other high ranking officials.
The delegation will also make an on site visit to the renowned Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation and acquire information about the running of its hydro-electric system, according to the Parliament Secretariat.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2: A team of six journalists left for Rukum district under the joint initiative of the Press Chautari and the Federation Nepalese Journalists(fnj) Kathmandu unit to make an on the spot study of the incidents of fire which took place at Khara, Rugha and Khumcheri Pokhara villages of Rukum district on February 22.
The team is led by member of the Press Chautari R. K. Dharmasthali whereas other members of the teams are Gunaraj Luintel of the Kantipur Daily, Toya Dahal of the Deshantar weekly, Baburam Dhakal of the Drishti weekly, treasurer of the fnj Kathmandu unit Govinda Prasad Acharya and journalist of Nepal Samacharpatra Dinesh Regmi.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2 : Nepal Telecommunications Authority (nta) constituted by hmg with the objective of intensifying the pace of development and expansion of telecommunications services with the participation of the private sector has entered the third year today.
Hmg had constituted nta in March, 1998 in accordance with the Telecommunications Act-2053 B.S. With a view to make the telecommunications services reliable and easily accessible and to provide healthy competition in the telecommunications services.
Nta has so far provided 11 licences of Internet (including e-mail), three of Fax Mail, five of Radio Paging, five of vsat network, four of vsat network user, and one each of video conferencing and cellular mobile telephone.
As there is more competition in internet, radio paging and vsat network services, the users have been benefited from it.
Providers of services other than cellular mobile telephones have so far invested Rs. 200 million and provided direct employment to 50 persons.
According to a press release issued by the nta, investors will be invited in the next fiscal year 2000-2001 to make investment in the operation of basic telephone services and cellular mobile telephones to ensure competition.
Likewise, the nta has the objective of ensuring the participation of the private sector to provide telecommunications services to about 534 vdcs in the eastern development region.
Directives have already been issued for inter-linking the operated telecommunications services while necessary studies have been undertaken and the process of the national numbering plan has already been initiated, it has been mentioned in the press release.
Likewise, nta will formulate a working procedure from next year for the redressal of the complaints of the customers.
The license for operating basic telephone services will based on W.L.L. Technology, and standard and reliable services to be received after the competition in the services will help in the development and expansion of the telecommunications services, it is believed.
Kathmandu, Mar. 2:Minister of State for Environment and Population Bhakta Bahadur Balayar inaugurated the three-day workshop on control of environmental pollution and implementation of the Male Declaration relating to effects of environmental pollution across the border in South Asia at a function here today.
The workshop is being attended by about 30 representatives from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Pakistan, Maldives, Iran, Bangladesh and international institutions.
The objective of the workshop is to hold discussions on implementing the male Declaration issued by the 7th meeting of the saarc environement ministers held in male, the capital of the Maldive in 1998.
The Male Declaration had decided to conduct a basic study on reducing environmental pollution caused by across border activities in the saarc region and implementing it gradually.
On the occasion Minister of State Balayar said that Nepal would introduce an effective programme for controlling environmental pollution in the days ahead.
Mr balayar also gave assurances of working with neighbouring countries to reduce environmental pollution.
Stating that Nepal had implemented Euro-l standards to reduce polution caused by vehicles, Mr Balayar said that
arrangements had been for all vehicles entering Nepal to meet Euro-l standard.
Secretary at the Ministry of environment and population Dr. Govinda Raj Bhatta expressed the view that contribution could be made to controlling environmental pollution if Nepal generated hydroelctricity and linked it with the regional electricity grid and other countries used it as a source of energy.
Director general of the South Asia Cooperative Environmental Programme Dr. Ananda Raj Joshi said that regional effort and an integreted approach is necessary for controlling environmental pollution in South Asia.
Unep regional director Surrendra Man Shrestha expressed satisfaction over the action plan formulated by all the countries to check environmental pollution.
The director general of icimod and the director of Stockholm Environment Institute based in the United Kingdom also expressed their views.