Kathmandu, Feb. 27: Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (iucn) headquarters, Dr Manittar. R. Von Bieberstein Koch-Weser called on Minister of State for Population and Environment Bhakta Bahadur Balayar at the latter’s office today.
They discussed the co-operation between His Majesty Government and iucn.
During the meeting, Minister of State Balayar apprised Dr Koch-Weser of the activities being carried out by the government with the help of governmental organisations, ngo’s and communication media to maintain the quality of air and environment.
In order to tackle the problems of environmental degradation and soil erosion, flood, landslides, destruction of forests and drying up of water sources and to make local level construction activities environment-friendly, His Majesty’s Government had already taken necessary initiatives on preliminary environmental test for sustainable development, Minister of State Balayar pointed out.
He lauded the activities of iucn in the preservation of Nepal’s natural and cultural heritage and environmental protection and hoped for that kind of co-operation to continue in the future also.
On the occasion, Director General Dr Koch-Weser commended the government efforts to maintain the quality of air and reduce the impact of air pollution on public health in nepal as well as the government measures to restrict the vehicles not coming up to a prescribed pollution control standards.
Happily, those measures had contributed to keeping the sky clear, and consequently, herons and other birds were coming back in Nepal, the Director General noted.
He was confident that the government would give continuity to the environmental and pollution control measures.
Iucn was pleased to have an opportunity to help nepal in environmental protection, which, he believed, would continue.
On the occasion , iucn national representative in Nepal Dr Ambika Prasad and legal expert Narayan Belbase were also present on the occasion.
Chitwan, Feb. 27 : Member of Parliament Bhim Bahadur Shrestha inaugurated here the first installation ceremony of the Sharadanagar Jaycees and a talk programme on the youth leadership in the new century.
On the occasion, he said that Jaycees working in the field of social services should extend co-operation in development of leadership and as gaining power alone could not be termed development.
Media advisor at the Ministry of Information and Communications Pusushottam Dahal said that the office-bearers of Jaycees where were moving ahead for the development of democracy should also help in the development of society and that caste discrimination should be put to end for the development of new leadership.
Activist of Nepali Congress Ram Krishna Ghimire, Krishna Lal Sapkota, president of Narayangadh Jayvees Prakash Chuke and its former president Sudeep Basti also laid stress on the role of youth in the development of the country.
Mahesh Dahal is the newly elected president of the Jaycees.
NC activist and district unit president of Ganesh Man Foundation Maheshwar Lal Shrestha gave away certificates to the new office-bearers.
Kathmandu, Feb. 27:The second phase special polio immunisation campaign concluded here today after administering polio drops to 82 per cent of the targeted 2,500,000 children under five years of age in 33 districts of the Kingdom, according to the Department of Health Services, Children’s Health Division.
Under today’s programme polio drops were given to children in 20 districts in the terai, four in the inner terai, three in Kathmandu valley and the vdcs adjoining the metropolis, sub metropolis and municipalities of the Kathmandu Valley and the vdcs and municipalities adjoining the indian border in six districts in the western mountain and hill districts.
The 20 Terai districts were Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilbastu, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur.
Likewise, the four inner terai districts were Udayapur, Sindhuli, Makawanpur, and Surkhet.
The six mountain and hill districts were Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Darchula, Baitadi and Dadeldhura.
Altogether 11,222 health workers and 40,000 volunteers actively participated in 9,792 vaccination centres in the 1,532 vdcs and 41 municipalities under today’s programme. There is also a programme for acquiring information through door to door visit the next day by mobilizing 31,628 volunteers and health workers to make it sure that everyone in the target group has been immunized.
Kathmandu, Feb. 27:The group of nine leftist factions has demanded that the understanding reached between itself and His Majesty’s Government in last Bhadau be implemented.
At a press meet here today, the group demanded that corruption, smuggling and revenue leakage widespread in the country be stopped and actions taken against those who are involved in such racket, a national human rights commission formed, all the unequal treaties including the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty abrogated and the Indian army evacuated from Kalapani.
They also underlined the need to work out national water resources policy in keeping with national interests, make public the decisions of the recently concluded Indo-Nepal border talks, enforce work permit for foreign nationals, withdraw the bill (2056 bs) designed to amend some Nepal acts concerning domestic administration brought about in the name of controlling terrorism and provide agriculture fertilizers and seeds to farmers on time.
A statement circulated on the occasion was signed by cpn-masal’s Chitra Bahadur kc, cpn-marxist’s Loknarayan Subedi, cpn-ml’s Rajendra Shrestha, cpn-mlm’s Ram Bahadur Shrestha, cpn-united’s Hemanta b. C., Nwpp’s Chandra Bahadur Ulak, Amik Sherchan of the Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal, Nar Bahadur Karmacharya of the cpn-unity Centre and Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha of the National Movement Coordination Committee.
Kathmandtu, Feb. 27: Nearly 90 per cent of people live in the villages and 80 per cent of them depend on firewood accelerating forest destruction and disrupting environmental balance.
In the present situation in which 85 per cent of the total population are deprived of electricity, the renewable energy technology, if expanded to the rural areas, could open up new opportunities for development in the country.
This was stated in a day-long workshop on renewable energy technology jointly organised by the Centre for Energy Studies (ces) of Institute of Engineering (ioe) and the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (aepc) here today.
Dean of the Institute of Engineering Prof. Dr. Jeevraj Pokhrel, while inaugurating the workshop, laid stress on the need of renewable energy technology for poverty alleviation and said the Institute of Engineering has a greater role to play in the development of technical education.
Ces director prof. J. N. Shrestha highlighted the need of energy in the economic activity, adding that such type of workshop would go a long way in narrowing the gap of existing misunderstanding between technical and administrative personnel.
Executive director of aepc Mr Shyam Lal Vaidya noted that the awareness programme such as this is very important for the overall development of alternative renewable technology in Nepal.
A total of 13 persons from His Majesty’s Government and Tribhuwan University took part in the workshop.
Nuwakot :Three children below 13 years of age have died and another 200 children have been affected by an outbreak of measles at ward No. 3 and 4 of local Mahakali VDC, it is learnt from the district health office.
However, the disease has been brought under control and the situation is said to be normal in the affected areas at present.
At one point, the spread of the disease had taken gigantic proportions as the local people turned to the village shamans for treatment. But timely intervention from the district health office is said to have helped contain the disease.
A team of health workers led by chief of the district health office Dr. Sushil Nath Pyakurel send by the district health office on February 21 succeeded in bringing the disease under control after distributing medicine and vaccination.
Kathmandu, Feb. 27: The third zonal convention of the Bagmati zone branch of the Nepal Pharmaceuticals Association was inaugurated by chief of the Department of Drug Administration Dr. Asphak Shekh here the other today.
Participants at the convention stressed the need to provide proper training to pharmacists, simplify the process of registration and renewal, make the taxation system transparent and establish a college of pharmacy.
On the occasion Dr. Shekh urged the pharmacists to bring uniformity in the distribution system and the prices of the medicines.
Central president of the Nepal Pharmaceuticals Association Parasmani Baral complained that companies not registered in Nepal have been selling and distributing medicines and urged all to give information about the number of Nepalese and foreign companies existing in Nepal.
From the chair, president of the branch Dil Chand Nanda Baidhya informed that the NPEA was established in 2030 B.S. In Nepal with the objective of maintaining uniformity in the prices of medicines, making them easily available and simplifying the distribution system.
Meanwhile, Okhaldhunga Society Service, Kathmandu organised a blood donation programme at Nepal Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service Centre building here the other today. Altogether 49 persons donated blood at the programme held under the convenorship of the society president Dr. Basanta Kumar Shrestha.
Kathmandu, Feb 27:Ex-governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Himalaya Shamsher JBR, distributing prizes at the 5th annual general meeting of Thapathali Public Welfare Family said that the youth mobilisation programme being carried out by the institution should be made more effective and headed towards self-reliance.
Lawmaker P.L. Singh called for developing Kathmandu constituency No. 4 as a model.
During the programme presided over by institution chairman Nandalal Joshi, member secretary Bhim Bahadur Adhikari presented the annual report and treasurer Dwarikaman Singh spoke about the balance of Rs, 5,713,641 left in the fund out of the budget of fiscal year 2055/56.
Kathmandu, Feb. 27:Musician and singer Jeeban Ale and Khadga Garbuja were honoured with the Gopal Prasad Public Welfare Award here the other today.
The award set up by captain Gopal Prasad Shrestha carries a purse of Rs. 5,000.
Musician and singer Ale was honoured for his outstanding contribution as a flutist and Garbuja for his valuable contribution in enlivening traditional instrumental music.
Similarly, Birendra Ghimire who topped last year’s SLC examination was presented a cash prize of Rs. 5,100, and Kapil Ranabhat of grade 10 at Biswa Niketan Higher Secondary School, Madhav Prasad Thakur of Guheswari Child Education High School and Ambika Shakya of grade 7,Binayak Sudha Niketan Higher Secondary School were presented the talent and discipline awards with purses of Rs. 1,500.
Nij Thakur who held first position in a high school level essay competition on the topic “service of elders: why and how” was presented a cash prize of Rs. 850.
Nepalgunj, Feb. 27: The TB-Leprosy programme of the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) has been found to be effective in the mid-western development region of the Kingdom.
This has been stated in the programme evaluation report, October 1999 of a donor agency named Tear Fund U.K. The programme has been conducted in all the districts of the region since 2030 B.S.
The main objectives of the INF TB-Leprosy programme are to extend cooperation to the integrated leprosy prevention programme and the National TB programme of HMG and to provide health and social services to leprosy patients.
The project has been extending co-operation to TB and leprosy prevention programmes by running treatment centres at Nepalgunj, Jumla, Surkhet and Ghorahi of the region and by co-ordinating the works of public health officers in other districts.
The target of completely curing the TB patients in the mid-western development region was achieved one year ahead of schedule in 1999, according to the office of the project at Surkhet.
Likewise, the project believes that if the leprosy related activities is carried on in a sustainable manner, it could help eliminate the disease from the region by the year 2005.
Twelve foreigners and 200 Nepalese including health workers and technical and administrative personnel are working under the project, according to chief of office of the project at Nepalgunj, Ram Paudel.