Raja Ram Shrestha
Raja Ram Shrestha
(File Photo)
Newly elected Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Rajaram Shrestha has unveiled a 51-point plan to be implemented in his tenure.
Speaking at a press meet organised to announce the 51-point plan, he informed that the metropolis would operate city bus service by March 13 keeping in mind the welfare of the labourers working in the Valley.
He further said that the city bus service would be operated 24 hours linking important sectors like hospitals, hotels and schools.
Likewise, he said KMC would issue separate social security identity cards to permanent and temporary residents of the city.
The 51-point plan includes programs to update the metric address system and effectively implement new building by-laws. KMC will also expedite the process of providing compensation for land and houses it acquired in the past to develop urban infrastructures.
Among others, Shrestha also announced plans to conserve cultural heritage, expand roads and promote information technology and e-governance.
Other highlights of newly announced plans are implementation of building code, construction of modern slaughter house and implementation of the Meat Inspection Act-2055 B.S.
Mayor Shrestha also announced that a policy would be formulated for enabling the blind and the disabled persons who are the permanent residents of the metropolis to increase their income and life span and live a self-reliant and dignified life.
The first batch of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) women officers and the 36th batch of men officer cadets were commissioned to second lieutenant at the RNA Academy at Kharipati on Monday.
Royal Nepalese Army officer cadets march at the passing out ceremony at Bhaktapur, Kharipati on Monday, Feb 20 06. (Photo courtesy: MOD)
A press statement issued by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said, Vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers, Kirtinidhi Bista, presented the commissioned post to the 147 men and 67 women officers of the cadet training-46 and to the 58 JCOs and Sergeant officer cadet at the passing-out parade
Vice Chairman Bista presented the commissioned post to the 147 men and 67 women officers of the cadet training-46 and to the 58 JCOs and Sergeant officer cadet at the passing-out parade.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chairman Bista said the newly appointed officers have a challenging duty and responsibility of assuming the lower level leadership at the present time when the fundamental right to live of the normal citizens have been violated as a result of the terrorist activities.
Congratulating the women officers, Vice Chairman Bista said women have been included in the leadership level of army service with the objective of protecting and promoting the rights and well being of the women.
At the programme, Vice Chairman Bista presented the sword of honour to Second Lieutenant Subarna Bahadur Khadka who came out first in the Officers Basic Training and to Thakendra Thakuri, who was declared first among the JCOs and Sergeant Officers.
Chief of the Army Staff Pyar Jung Thapa, the Defence Secretary and high ranking army officials and the relatives of the newly commissioned officers were present on the occasion.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is yet to recover dues of over Rs 570 million from airlines operators. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had ordered CAAN to recover the money a year ago, a report said.
Rajdhani Daily reported that the CAAN has been able to recover only Rs 30 million by the end of 2005. The dues of 60 companies had crossed Rs 600 million last year. The CIAA had ordered to take strong measures to recover the money after it received several appeals that the CAAN would go bankrupt if it could not do so.
The dues include grounded charges, flight charges, parking and housing charges.
The report said that Royal Nepal Airlines has dues of over Rs 448.9 million, Royal Nepal Army has Rs 949,000, Gorkha Airlines Rs 5.4 million, Karnali Airlines Rs 2.5 million, Skylines Rs 3 million, Necon Airlines Rs 43.6 million, Air Ananya Rs 5.1 million, Cosmic Rs 8.9 million, Nepal Airways Rs 1.1 million and Simrik Air over Rs 90, 000.
The report quoted a source at the CIAA as saying that the due figures was as of the mid-January last year. It would have increased by now, the source said.
President of Airlines Operators Association of Nepal, Bikash Rana, said the airline operators have not been able to clear their dues due to various reasons. He said the charges are high, laws are not transparent and the market environment for airlines is not favourable.
Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) an Australian company has proposed that Nepal should also invest in the 750MW West Seti Hydropower Project, reports said.
SMEC, which is the probable constructer of the project, wants to make it mandatory for Nepal to invest in the project due to the increasing political unrest in the country, the Kantipur daily reported.
Recently, officials of SMEC informed the Ministry of Water Resources that the Asian Development Bank would provide ‘soft loan’ to the Nepal government but that the government would have to invest it in the project. However, the SMEC has not mentioned the amount that needs to be invested.
The total project cost is almost USD 1 billion. According to the agreement this project was to be constructed by SMEC and a Chinese company. According to plans, the entire electricity produced from this project would be sold to India.
SMEC has already signed an agreement with India in this regard.
The paper quoted a source as saying that this informal proposal made by SMEC is being discussed in the Finance Ministry. SMEC has brought forward the issue of ADB’s involvement in this project.
An agreement has already been signed according to which the Chinese company will undertake the entire construction of the project.
According to the agreement, Power Trade Corporation (PTC) would be purchasing a unit of electricity at 4.835 American cents (Rs.3.6) which is almost half the price paid to Khimti and Bhotekoshi hydropower projects.
According to the agreement signed with the government, SMEC would sell electricity to PTC for 30 years. After that the ownership of the project would be transferred to the government at its present condition.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has said that Bangladesh would be the sole host of the inaugural edition of the AFC Challenge Cup, due to the current unrest in Nepal.
According to information posted at the AFC website, Monday’s meeting of the AFC Challenge Cup and AFC President’s Cup Organising Committee took the decision in this regard.
Earlier, it was declared that the tournament will be held in Nepal and Bangladesh.
The dates of the competition were also amended from 25th March to 7th April 2006, to 1st April to 16th April 2006, in order not to clash with the Independence Day activities on 26th March in Bangladesh.
The AFC Challenge Cup, which provides an international competition platform for sixteen teams from the emerging and developing countries, will be played in two venues of Bangladesh, Dhaka and Chittagong.
The officials of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) are yet to comment on the issue.
The victorious MMC team. nepalnews.com/bt
Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) has won the ANFA Martyrs San Miguel “A” Division Football League championship by defeating defending champions Nabil Three Star Club (NTSC) 1-0 in the final match of the league played at Dashrath Stadium today.
MMC, with 65 points, only needed to hold NTSC to a draw while NTSC, with 63 points, needed the win. With the win, MMC walk away with sixth league title.
In a tightly contested exhilarating match, both teams played to expectations, thrilling the 20,000 plus crowd.
MMC was the better team creating more opportunities both in the first and second half. Their effort finally paid off when Nigerian Nurudin Olawale scored a 35 yarder to seal the victory for MMC in injury time.
NTSC could have taken the lead in the 30th minute had the attempt Pradip Maharjan made not got deflected after hitting the crossbar. NTSC striker Surendra Tamang also muffed up a chance on a corner kick that he earned in the 68th minute.
“Finally, our hard effort paid off,” MMC coach Cheering Lopsang, who was also adjudged best coach of league said. “The boys really played sensationally and we are glad to make our dreams come true,” he concluded.
Care taker coach of NTSC Kumar Katuwal was distressed with the results saying, “We should have played an offensive game but our boys could not control the game and destroyed the game plan”.
The champions now will play in the second edition of AFC President’ s Cup to be held in Cambodia this year.
Most Valuable Player Upendra Man Singh in the Toyota car. nepalnews.com/bt
With the win, MMC bagged Rs 1,000,000, the highest prize money ever in Nepali football history. Adding more to the victory, MMC also became the second club to become the champions six times, after Ranipokhari Corner Team (RCT), who also has six ‘A’ Division league titles. Before this, MMC had won the championship in 1986, 1987, 1989, 2000 and 2003.
The first runner-up Nabil Three Star Club pocketed Rs 700,000 and second runner-up Tribhuvan Army Club received Rs 500,000. The teams finishing fourth and fifth; Mahendra Police Club (MPC) and Gyanendra Armed Police Force Club (APF) got Rs 300,000 and Rs 200,000 respectively whereas New Road Team (NRT) and Sankata Club received Rs 50,000 each for standing sixth and seventh in the league table. Crown Prince Paras also handed over Rs 50,000 to Gyanendra APF team for being the Fair Play team.
Prizes galore for players
After the completion of the match, people patiently waited for the prizes to be given in various categories, bikes sponsored by Yamaha Motors and a car sponsored Vaidya’s Organisation of Industries and Trading Houses (VOITH).
Apart from the team and cash prizes, Upendra Man Singh, who is the former national team captain, received a Toyota car, sponsored by Vaidya’s Organisation worth Rs 23, 50,000 for being adjudged coming the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
The winners of the Yamaha G5 bikes. nepalnews.com/bt
Five others are:
Ritesh Thapa of MPC – Best Goalkeeper
Vishan Gauchan of Nabil TSC – Best Mid Fielder
Ramesh Budhathoki of MPC – Best Striker
Chhiring Lopsang Gurung of MMC – Best Coach
Sagar Thapa of MMC – Best Defender
They each received a Yamaha G5 as individual awards as declared by the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) before the start of the league earlier this year.
Unfortunately, ANFA had to withdraw one of the categories, the highest scorer award citing some irregularities in the game. Rishi Rai spoilt the party scoring eight goals alone in the match against MFC.
Three Maoists were killed when a bomb they were carrying accidentally went off in Sarikhet VDC-1 of Makawanpur district on Monday.
The rebels, including a woman cadre, died on the spot in the explosion, reports quoting security sources said. A child standing nearby was also injured in the blast.
The identity of the Maoists were not known, reports added.
Maoists have ‘abducted’ at least 60 students from two schools in the far-western district of Doti.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday said 60 students of Masteshwor Secondary School and Saraswoti Secondary School in Doti were marched to an unknown location by a group of Maoists on Saturday.
On the same day, the rebels abducted a teacher of Todke Primary School in Dhankuta district.
Meanwhile, at least three civilians were injured in a blast carried out by the Maoists in the far-western district of Kanchanpur on Monday night.
The Defence Ministry statement said the Maoists detonated a bomb inside the house of a Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldier in Shantipur area. Three persons, including the RNA soldier’s wife and mother injured in the blast, have been admitted at the Mahakali Zonal Hospital.
The house of the soldier was completely destroyed in the blast, according to the statement.
Nepali officials have urged people not to panic saying that the bird flu virus hasn’t entered into the country as yet and that the government is doing its best to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic.
A poultry worker in Kathmandu using a mask after a government alert and news of the outbreak of the bird flu in neighboring India, Tuesday, Feb 21 06. nepalnews.com/rh
Addressing an interaction organized at the Reporters’ Club of Nepal in the capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Keshar Bahadur Bista said the government was maintaining extreme caution and that the dreaded H5N1 virus had not been detected in Nepal as yet.
He, however, admitted that there was lack of skilled manpower and doctors and retroviral drugs to effectively check the outbreak of the disease in the country. The government is going to unveil an ambitious plan to protect people from such epidemic, he said.
Minister of State for Health, Mani Lama, said the government had made all necessary preparations to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic. “We have already set up two detecting machines and one more will be set up soon,” he added.
Director at the Animal Health Directorate Dr Dhan Raj Ratala said they had not found any evidence of bird flu virus in the country after conducting more than 800 tests across the country. Tests are conducted in 24 quarantine posts in borders including Tatopani in Sindhupalchowk district, which borders Tibet, to check possible outbreak of the disease.
President of Nepal Hatcheries Association (NHA), Guna Chandra Bista urged media not to sensationalise the news reports related to bird flu without facts saying that it could harm the Rs 18 billion poultry industry in the country and some 62,000 workers affiliated with it. He said that sales of poultry had gone down by some 10 percent in Kathmandu due to “bad publicity.”
Officials, entrepreneurs and journalists tasted roasted chicken during the crowded press conference in front of TV cameras to spread the message that consuming chicken was not hazardous in the country as the bird flu virus was yet to make inroads into the country.
The government on Sunday appealed to poultry importers not to import poultry and poultry products from neighboring India where an outbreak of the bird flu had been reported. n
The United Kingdom has said it “no longer advises [its citizens] against all but essential travel to Nepal.”
The UK foreign office, however, urged its citizens to maintain caution while visiting the Himalayan Kingdom in view of the fresh general strikes called by the Maoists and the prevailing political turmoil. “We advise you to take extreme caution if travelling in Nepal during this period. We will continue to keep this advice under close review,” the statement posted on the foreign office’s website said.
It further said, “The majority of problems encountered by British tourists in Nepal are trekking accidents and drug-related incidents. If you travel to Nepal, you should use a reputable travel agent and only trek with an experienced guide and in a group. If you plan to travel to out-of-the way areas, please contact the British Embassy in Kathmandu on arrival for latest advice on the security situation in the area.”
Commenting on the UK government’s reviewed travel advisory, spokesperson of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Aditya Baral said this indicated that the concerns of the Nepali Nepali travel industry have been positively comprehended.
“They seem to have positively comprehended the requests of the travel industry. But this does not signal any change as such in their position,” he told Nepalnews, adding, “We have been pleading the foreign governments to properly assess the situation before issuing frequent travel advisories. However, they have their concerns which cannot be undermined completely.”