Kathmandu, Jan. 15 :Sahitya Sandhya, a literary organisation, organised a song and Ghazal seminar as its 180th programme today.

A total of 40 lyricists and ghazalists presented their compositions.

On the occasion, jb tuhure of the National People’s Cultural Forum, Arjun Pandey, Udaya Shrestha, Aakash Thapa, Madhu Gurung, Rajesh Thapa and Bharat Budhathoki presented their musical programmes.

Chief guest of the programme and CPN-UML standing committee member Modnath Prashrit released an anthology of poems entitled “Aakashko Chhati” by Mukesh Maharjan, and the children’s magazine “Jamarko” edited by Kartikeya Ghimire and published by Jamarko Youth Group Sarlahi on the occasion.

Addressing the function, Mr Prashrit said artists and literatteurs should guide those who have lost path in politics.

Literatteur Anandadev Bhatta observed that those who are involved in literature should give expression to people’s feelings.

Mp bijaya Subba said lyricists and ghazalists should be bound by rules.

The programme was chaired by coordinator Ram Binaya.

Biratnagar, Jan 15 : A day-long training seminar on ‘Role of the mediamen in the elimination of polio’ was organised jointly by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), the World Health Organisation and the Children’s Health Division of the Ministry of Health at Birtamod recently.

At the seminar, central president of the FNJ Suresh Acharya said the media has the equally important role to play in making the special polio immunisation programme launched by His Majesty’s Government a success so as to eliminate polio from the country.

Eastern regional polio surveillance officer of the unicef field office Dr. Ganga Ram Chaudhari called on the journalists to publish awareness materials to encourage the target group to come to the immunisation centre on January 23 and make the immunisation campaign successful.

It was informed at the seminar that the special campaign was to be carried out in 33 districts including those adjoining India and the districts of inner hills as part of the campaign to eliminate polio from the world called by the who.

At the seminar presided over by president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Jhapa unit Ram Nath Banstola, various other speakers including central member of FNJ Dharmendra Jha and public health officer of Jhapa district Madhusudan Koirala shed light on various aspects of the special campaign.

Altogether 42 journalists from 6 districts of Mechi and Koshi zone had participated in the seminar.

Bhaktapur, Jan. 15:A joint installation of newly elected office bearers of Bhaktapur Jaycees, women jaycees and junior jaycees for 2000 concluded yesterday in the presence of Minister of State for Science and Technology Surendra Prasad Chaudhari.

The outgoing presidents Kishor Rajbhandari of Bhaktapur Jaycees, Basundhara Dhaubanjar of women jaycees and Mrigendra Munakarmi of junior jaycees for 1999 handed over their chairmanships to Balkrishna Sharma, Ratimaiya Ulaka and Deependra Kharbuja respectively.

On the occasion, Minister of State Chaudhari said that Nepal Jaycees have to introduce innovative programmes for the development of any particular field.

He also underlined the need for other social institutions to follow group discussion as practised by Jaycees in the past.

He also presented the “Competent project coordinator Suwal Award” established by ex-president and senator Balmukunda Suwal to executive vice president of Bhaktapur Women Jaycees Shila Saiju.

Ex-executive vice president of Nepal Jaycees Nabin Kayastha chaired the function at which vice president of Nepal Jaycees K.P. Awale threw light on the activities of the Jaycees.

Kathmandu, Jan 15:A spell of eerie silence fell over the audience in anticipation as two smartly dressed young anchors took the centre stage in a rather dramatic fashion to kick off the Hits FM Music Awards-2056 here Saturday evening at Birendra International Convention Hall.

An audience of well over a thousand—with their fingers crossed—held their breath each time winners were declared in 12 different categories of the Hits FM Music Awards, which is often labelled as Nepali equivalent to the Grammy Awards.

In its third year now, the annual musical contest in Nepal Hits FM Music Awards is organised every year by Hits Nepal Pvt. Ltd., a firm running an FM channel on the Radio Nepal FM Kathmandu station. This year there were 11 different categories having five contestants each on the fray. That apart, the musical mega show also had a non-competition-based category, namely, Life Achievement Award that was bestowed this year to veteran female singer and composer Koilee Devi Mathema.

Among the competition based categories, the first ever announced award of the evening was of the category ‘Best New Artiste of the Year’ that went to Rajan ‘Ishan’ for his smashing hit Bashama Chhaina.

It was Ram Krishna Dhakal who literally stole the show. With his record smashing album Asha and a super-hit number Orali Lageko, he made it a hatrick by making a clean sweep of the prestigious awards in the three different categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best Male Vocal Performance of the Year. Being crowned as the best male vocal performer he also stopped talented Navin K. Bhattarai from making it a hatrick to the straight third consecutive year of the competition.

Apart from that, it was again Dhakal who was the singer of Manparaune Hazar that won the Song of the Year Award for its lyrics. In this category introduced only this year in the contest, veteran lyricist Kali P. Rijal was awarded.

One of the strongest award aspirants of the competition Navin K. Bhattarai (Dobatoma) had to share the award with Deepak Bajracharya (Samaya) in one of the most closely contested categories of the evening: it was in the category of the Best Pop Vocal Performance: Male.

It is for the first time in the history of Hits FM Music Awards that two artistes were awarded jointly in any one category. It was also the newly introduced category.

Other new categories added to the competition this year were that of the Best Vocal Collaboration and the Best Pop Vocal Performance: Female, the awards for which went to Uday & Manila Sotang (Maya Namara) and Reema Gurung (Launa Ni) respectively.

Ace female singer Kunti Moktan, who was nominated in three different categories including two songs in one single category, finally emerged triumphant in the broad Best Female Vocal Performance category.

Music composer Nhyoo Bajracharya smiled her way to bag the award of the Best Song Originally Recorded for a Motion Picture Soundtrack for Lagideu of the film Desh Paradesh, while another highly rated band of the evening 1974AD (Samjhi Baschhu) also scored a success to capture the award for the Best Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocal.

As the long-echoing applause of the audience simmered down, the winners were announced and given away the awards by Nepal’s famous artistes including the Golden Voice of Nepal Premdhoj Pradhan, Meera Rana, Kumar Basnet, Shila Bahadur Moktan, Prakash Shrestha, Umesh Pandey, Lochan Bhattarai, and Harish Mathema as well as other celebrities Kshetra Pratap Adhikari, Yadav Kharel, Gopal Raj Mainali and Michael Chand.

Going by the history of the Hits FM Music Awards, no old face among the winners of the different categories appeared this year except for one Navin K. Bhattarai, who had won two awards and one award in the first and second Annual Hits FM100 Music Awards respectively of the Bikram Year 2054 and 2055.

Those who performed in the spectacular musical programme included 1974AD band, Rajan ‘Ishan’, Uday Sotang-Manila Sotang, Saroj Dutta, Navin K. Bhattarai, Haribansha Acharya, Reema Gurung, Anand Karki, Ramkrishna Dhakal and Deepak Bajracharya who were nominated in one or more categories of the competition.

The nominations in each category, the sources at Hits Nepal Pvt. Ltd said, were made on the basis of the nomination forms filled in by general listeners and collected from different parts of the Kingdom.

Kathmandu, Jan. 15:Looks can be deceptive. Slender body and long straight hair. At 26, shy and reserved Lakpa Sherpa looks just an ordinary lass from Kathmandu. But the lady is out to challenge the highest point on earth in the coming spring. She is leading Nepalese Women Millennium Everest Expedition 2000, which was formally launched today.

Snow and mountains were always “friends” to Lakpa. Born and brought up in Sankhuwasabha, she comes from a family of mountaineers; her elder brother Chhiring Sherpa is a four time Mt. Sagarmatha (Everest) summiteer and her two cousins were perished in the Himalayas in two different accidents.

“When my brother firstly scaled the Sagarmatha’s height. I knew I wanted to do that too.” Lakpa was only 11 at that time. She has already climbed other mountains of above 6000 meters. How does she feel on a mountaintop? “I feel I was destined to be there. I want to be there for ever. Every time I climb down the peak I feel like crying because my desire is to go up and up and never to come down,” Lakpa said with a shy smile.

In a formal launching programme of the expedition today the four-member women team was expressed wishes that their dream be materialised. Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koiral and CPN-UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari delivered their party’s good wishes and pledged all the support possible from their side.

Assistant Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Narayan Singh Pun granting a financial support of two and half lakh from his personal purse pledged “full support” from his ministry. However, he did not elaborate the kind of support the ministry will extend.

Mingma Yangzi Sherpa, deputy expedition leader, is all determined to realise her dream. A divorcee and mother of two teenagers, she wants to make an international name for herself. “My 13-year old daughter got upset with the fear that after loosing her father she might loose me as well in the mountains. But now she is convinced that her mommy will come back victorious,” she said as if she was promising that to her child.

For Mingma the expedition is a mission to prove the world that Nepalese women are as daring as their brothers and through her success she wants to restore the confidence of Nepalese women on mountaineering that was badly jolted by death of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa. Pasang became the first Nepalese women to scale the world’s highest mountain five years back and died on her descend down.

“Pasang had promised to meet me after her successful climb, but her fate failed her. I want to pay homage to her spirit by climbing the mountain,” said the 33-year old entrepreneur.

The other members of the Nepalese Women Millennium Everest Expedition that is scheduled to start the climb on first week of April this year are Dawa Yangzi Sherpa and Dolma Sherpa. The expedition is organised by Sushma Koirala Trust and managed by Asian Trekking. The Trust President Sujata Koirala expressed her confidence of the team’s success.

Since its first assault in May 1953 by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary, 874 individuals have already scaled Mt. Sagarmatha. Out of the total 82 successful climbers are women.

Kathmandu, Jan. 14:Though the shortage of kerosene which has hit the capital for the past one week is said to have been resolved, the general public still cannot obtain it easily.

Consumers filing in a line with empty jerry cans in front of kerosene dealers were seen today also. Students, low-level employees and small scale entrepreneurs are the hardest hit by the scarcity of kerosene.

Some 250,00-300,000 litres of kerosene is supplied in Kathmandu Valley daily, while 792,000 litres was brought into the market yesterday, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation.

Similarly, the corporation has provided 450,000 litres of kerosene for today and will provide 600,000 litres for tomorrow, noc executive director Madan Raj Sharma said.

Presently the corporation has a stock of 10 million litres of kerosene and there will be no scarcity of it since more kerosene purchased by the corporation is on the way to Nepal.

Nepalgunj, Jan. 14:  Minister for Local Development and Women and Social Welfare Chiranjibi Wagle said the present government has given priority to the rural people and invested more in education, health, agriculture, communications and transport sector in pursuance to the socialist principle followed by the Nepali Congress party.

Addressing a gathering of party workers organised by NC Banke district working committee here today, Minister Wagle noted that the Maoists have followed the wrong path and the problem can be resolved through cooperation of all sections of the society.

Kathmandu, Jan. 14:  Commander in Chief Admiral Dennis C. Blair of U.S. Army Pacific Command arrived here today to take part in the inaugural function of the multi-platoon training event(MPTE) to be organised at the peace keeping force training camp, Panchkhal under the convenorship of U.S. Army Pacific Command and Royal Nepalese Army from Jan. 16.

C-IN-C Admiral Blair was welcomed at the Tribhuvan International Airport by Chief of the Army Staff General Prajwal Shumsher J. B. Rana.

On the occasion a contingent of the Royal Nepalese Army presented a guard of honour to C-IN-C Admiral Blair.

C-IN-C Admiral Blair also inspected  the guard of honour on the occasion.

Also today, C-IN-C Admiral Blair went to Royal Nepalese Army Pavilion and laid wreath at the “Bir Smarak”(memorial) there.

C-IN-C Admiral Blair also paid a courtesy call on Chief of the Army Staff General Prajjwal Shumsher J. B. Rana at the Royal Nepalese Army  Headquarters.

Major General of Bangladesh Army Hasan Mashud Chowdhury also arrived here this afternoon to take part in the inaugural function of the MPTE.

Major General Chowdhury was received at the Tribhuvan International Airport by Major General Kumar Bahadur Fudong.

Major General Chowdhury also paid a courtesy call on Chief of the Army Staff General Prajjwal Shumsher J. B. Rana at the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters.

Likewise, U.N. assistant secretary general Young-Jin Choi also arrived here today to take part in the inaugural function of the MPTE.

He was welcomed at the Tribhuvan International Airport by lieutenant general Durganath Aryal. The U.N. assistant secretary general paid a courtesy call on Chief of the Army Staff General Prajjwal Shumsher J. B. Rana at the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters.

Kathmandu, Jan. 14:Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalist today organised a brainstorming programme to discuss about the potential small and medium scale hydro power projects that are overshadowed by the talks of huge projects. However, the gathering of power experts, representatives of government bodies formed to facilitate power development and journalists failed to concentrate on the fixed issue.

The advocates of the smaller projects pressed the view that since the projects could be constructed, managed and financed by local recourses they would yield better for Nepalese population. They blamed the government of selling “unachievable dreams” to the public and neglecting potential smaller scale projects that could change lifestyle of people in a smaller investment.

“Selling the produced power from huge projects may increase national coffer, but that does not necessarily improve living standard of the general public,” claimed Manager of Lamjung Electricity Development Company Kumar Pandey. Instead of opting for mammoth projects, more concentration should be paid to provide facilities to the public and enhance their productivity and consumption capacity, suggested Girish Khanal, a mechanical engineer.

Ratna Sansar Shrestha of Winrock International, organisation that provides financial aid to small scale hydro power projects, said that advocates of bigger hydro power projects are mainly concerned about technological aspects of the projects but have been neglecting a management aspects. “They are eager to build huge projects without thinking about possible market to sell them and searching for avenues to cash in on their construction,” he said. He also claimed that government should make amendments in its policy to benefit from forward and backward linkages of these projects, finds way to retain the investments made in these projects within the country and raising rates of royalties to be paid by foreign power developers.

Kathmandu, Jan. 14: Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai is scheduled to inaugurate the ‘South Asian Peace-Keeping Multi-Platoon Training Event’, an international level training to be organised by the Royal Nepal Army at the training camp at Panchkhal, Kabhrepalanchowk District, on January 16.

The training to be participated in by trainee military officers from four countries and other ranks will continue till January 31.

The countries participating are Nepal, Sri Lanka, the usa and Bangladesh. Military observers from 18 countries will also participate in the training, the Ministry of Defence said in a press release published here today.

The training will be observed by two military observers each from 18 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and the United Kingdom.

Also participating will be l0 observers representing the United Nations.

The objective of the training is to  enhance the readiness of troops to be deployed on peace-keeping duty, increasing the capacity for mutual action among multi-national-peace keeping forces and emphasize peace keeping under international law, agreements and norms.

The training is expected to be instrumental in the establishment in Nepal of a peace-keeping  training centre for the South Asian Region as well as in establishing Nepal in the international arena as a peace-loving country, developing the concept of regional level investment, cooperation, trust, understanding and common public concern, developing working unity in multi-national forces, fostering knowledge of international policies and regulations, preparating instructors for the Royal Nepal Army and increasing the skills of  peace-keeping forces.

The grand training in peace-keeping to be conducted for the South Asia Region is deemed to be a matter of glory for Nepal.

Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Young-Jim Choc will also be present at the inaugural ceremony of the training.