Members of the Maoist-aligned Young Communist League (YCL) manhandled the district education officer of Saptari, Afsad Ali, in his office Monday.

The YCL cadres thrashed Ali following dispute over a leave application filed at the District Education Office by a local teacher.

Umesh Chaudhary, a government teacher who had registered an application at the education office seeking leave to pursue an academic degree, had complained to local YCL leaders about Ali’s refusal to his application.

Ali had refused to approve the application saying the applicant failed to complete necessary procedure.

Three YCL cadres have been arrested in connection with the manhandling of the DEO. nepalnews.com Feb 04 08

Inmates of many prison houses across the country have started indefinite hunger strike saying that the government still hasn’t implemented the suggestion of High-Level Prison Improvement Committee as promised.

They have threatened that they would fast till death unless the government fulfills the past commitments that include improving the pathetic living conditions in prison houses jam-packed with people serving their sentences or awaiting justice with little amenities.

Reports say that 14 jail inmates in Dillibazar jail house in Kathmandu and almost all inmates of Birgunj jail in Parsa district are participating in the fast-unto-death.

Demanding amnesty to all prisoners serving under public offence act, many inmates of the aforesaid prison houses had stopped eating any food for weeks on end in the past because of which some of them had to be admitted to hospital. nepalnews.com ag Feb 04 08

Nepali scientists have recorded a new subspecies of bird – Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia – at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) recently.

According to Bird Conservation Nepal, the bird first recorded by chairperson of Nepal Rare Birds Committee (NRBC) Suchit Basnet and ornithologist Badri Chaudhary on April 1, 2005 at Koshi Tappu.

The birds have now been identified as Rufous-vented Prinia, bringing Nepal’s total bird list to 862 species. Belonging to Prinia burnesii species, the new bird has been named Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia or Prinia burnesii nipalensis scientifically.

Basnet said, “This must have been the most exciting bird record reviewed by the Nepal Rare Birds Committee since its establishment in 2001.”

According to Dr Hem Sagar Baral of BCN, this subspecies of bird is currently found only in Nepal and expressed hope of finding more species of birds in Koshi Tappu, the most popular site for bird watching in winter.

“We must put extra resources for understanding birds and their conservation needs in future,” he said.

Ornithologists call this as a groundbreaking research work and most significant on the taxonomy of Nepal’s birds after the discovery of Nepal Wren Babbler or Pnoepyga immaculata nearly 17 years ago.

Rufous-vented Prinia’s other two species are identified. One Prinia burnesii burnesii is found in Pakistan along the tributaries of Indus River and adjacent Punjab in India, and the other Prinia burnesii cinerascens is found in Assam, India along the Bramhaputra river systems and adjoining states of India and Bangladesh.

The new bird recorded in Koshi Tappu shows somewhat intermediate characters between these two subspecies and appears to form a link between them.

BCN further said the adult of this newly found subspecies has overall olive-grey to light brown plumage. The head and nape are greyer compared to the browner back, wings and tail. In most individuals, there is faint whitish supercilium which reaches behind the eye. The head is densely streaked compared to back and n the back, the streakings are bolder compared to the ones in head. The juveniles are similar to adults but slightly less marked on the head and body. Light rufous under-tail coverts were visible in one young bird caught.

They were located on grassland patches on small islands of the Koshi River but absent in heavily disturbed grasslands adjacent to villages indicating their preference for less disturbed grasslands. nepalnews.com ia Feb 04 08

Nepal Educational Republican Forum (NERF) has announced phase-wise protest programme starting Monday demanding implementation of the agreement reached with the government regarding the service benefits for teachers.

As part of the protest, hundreds of teachers associated with the Maoist-led NERF organised sit-in demonstrations in front of District Education Offices (DEOs) in many parts of the country to generate pressure on the government to keep its promise.

Forum’s chairman Gunaraj Lohani said they were left with no option but to go ahead with their phase-wise protest programme as the government is yet to fulfill its commitment to provide appointment letters to private school teachers; give permanent status to all government teachers after completing certain procedure and so on as per the agreement signed between them last year. NERF has also been calling for scrapping of the Education Act which it says has become obsolete.

NERF has also announced that it will close down all the schools across the country from February 6 to 8.

NERF has been organising agitation in the education sector for a long time. The new phase of protest comes a month after the Education Service Commission (ESC) began procedure of internal promotion of some 109,000 permanent schools teachers.

Enraged with the government for turning a deaf ear to their demand of implementing the agreement, NERF together with All Nepal National Teachers’ Organisations (ANNTO) have shut down schools across the country for weeks, affected studies with their “chalk down” protest, picketed District Education Offices (DEO) across the country and also imposed traffic strike including valley bandh in the past.

The agitation of various other teachers’ organisations led by NERF reached its peak in May month last year when strikes called by it forced 35,000 schools across the country to close down affecting over 7.8 million students. nepalnews.com ag Feb 04 08

The Nepal government has issued exit permits to Bhutanese refugees who have opted for third country resettlement.

This allows refugees to leave the camps in eastern Nepal for third countries once their cases are accepted.

Refugees in Goldhap camp, Jhapa district, are divided over the resettlement issue. Many young people prefer to start afresh in a new country while the older generation is in favour of repatriation to Bhutan.

In a statement on Monday, the UNHCR welcomed the Nepal government’s decision to issue exit permits to the Bhutanese refugees and stated that third country settlement is an important step towards finding solution to the refugee stalemate.

More than 107,000 Bhutanese refugees have been languishing in seven camps in Jhapa and Morang districts for 17 years.

However, the refugees are sharply divided over the resettlement issue. There have been frequent clashes between refugees opposing the third country resettlement and those in favour of it.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency has said the group resettlement process has been gaining momentum in the camps since it started late last year. “Thousands of refugees have expressed interest, and UNHCR has submitted the details of nearly 10,000 interested refugees for consideration by the resettlement countries. The refugees are currently in various stages of the process, ranging from interviews to extensive medical screening and cultural orientation before departure.”

The United States has offered to resettle at least 60,000 Bhutanese refugees and Canada has indicated it will accept up to 5,000. Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway have also shown their willingness to take in refugees.

The first batch of refugees is set to fly to the United States in March while larger numbers will be leaving Nepal starting in July. nepalnews.com mk Feb 04 08

The meeting of the Steering Committee of the Seven Party Alliance held on Monday has decided to put on hold the election of Free Student Unions (FSU).

Students staging protest in the capital Kathmandu against the decision of the seven-party Steering Committee to suspend the Free Students Union (FSU) election, Monday, Feb 04 08. nepalnews.com/ANA

Students staging protest in the capital Kathmandu against the decision…
The meeting held at CPN-Maoist head office in Buddhangar decided to ask student organisations to suspend the FSU election as it could affect the constituent assembly elections. The CPN-UML leaders, however, insisted that the FSU polls should take place.

The Maoist side proposed to suspend the campus election taking into consideration the need to intensify the CA polls campaigning, emphasising that the students should also actively take part in it.

Nepal Congress and other smaller parties raised no objection to the proposal to stall the FSU polls.

Even as student organisations have not yet reacted to the Steering Committee’s decision, it is now certain that the FSU polls would be cancelled with Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula stating that the government would not be able to deploy the required number of security forces for the polls. On Sunday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had also advised the leaders of the Nepal Students Union to withhold the FSU election and concentrate on the CA election.

Additionally, the SPA meeting has asked the government to stop distribution of Rs one million to the MPs ahead of the polls. The government’s decision to distribute the money to each parliamentarian through district development committees for development activities had been widely criticised. The Steering Committee meeting concluded that the money could be re-distributed to the MPS after the CA polls.

The meeting also decided to raise the issue of Susta with India through diplomatic channels. People displaced from Susta staged protest outside the meeting venue in the morning and later informed the committee members about the encroachment of Nepali land by Indian authorities.

In another development, the Steering Committee decided not to reconstitute the local bodies for the time being. The decision to form the local bodies had been delayed due to disagreements within the SPA. nepalnews.com ia Feb 04 08

The chilling cold wave blowing across Saptari district from the past several days has claimed the life of one more person, taking the death toll due to cold here to 11.

One Nanu Sada, 45, of Yoginiya-3 died on Sunday due to cold wave. Sada died while being rushed to the hospital, his family members said.

Meanwhile, a staff member of Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital has informed the number of cold, diarrhea, pneumonia and cold fever patients has soared around the district. nepalnews.com ag Feb 04 08

Vice president of the World Bank (South Asia region), Praful Patel called on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence Sunday afternoon.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Koirala praised the cooperation provided by the World Bank in Nepal’s peace process and development and expressed the confidence that the cooperation would be provided long in the future too.

The International Development Association, a soft lending arm of the World Bank (WB) had last week agreed to provide a grant assistance of NRs 1,592 crore to Nepal for speeding up development projects in the country. The grant aid is basically meant for the implementation of projects designed to improve access to basic and primary education, enhance irrigation, expand rural roads and improve living conditions, livelihoods and empowerment of the rural poor, it is learnt.

The aid package is the largest even grant programme the World Bank has offered in a single year.

Earlier, Patel also met CPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda and his deputy Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai and discussed development issues. nepalnews.com ag Feb 04 08

Chances of suspension of the forthcoming Free Students Union (FSU) election have increased.

At the meeting of seven party steering committee, held on Sunday evening, leaders of Maoists had proposed for postponing the student election stating that it would only create unhealthy competition among the unions affiliated with seven parties just ahead of Constituent Assembly (CA) election.

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said that the FSU election would only widen rift among parties.

Moreover, Home Minister Krishna Sitaula expressed government’s difficulty in providing security to FSU election as it falls on the day when the Election Commission (EC) will publish the final list of candidates for April 10 CA election.

Earlier, in his meeting with delegation of Nepali Congress-affiliated Nepal Students Union (NSU), on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had asked the student leaders to consider about postponing the FSU polls, said reports.

The steering committee is expected to meet on Monday as well to make a final decision in this regard. Till now, student unions affiliated with NC and Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) have said they want the election to proceed as planned while the pro-Maoist student union has called for its postponement.

The FSU elections are held in affiliate colleges of Tribhuwan University and Nepal Sanskrit University once every two year. This year, the FSU had been fixed for February 28. nepalnews.com sd Feb 04 08

The parliamentary Finance Committee has asked the government to make arrangements to provide Nepal Telecom’s shares on concessional and priority basis to its customers and ex-employees.

Amid growing public criticism over ‘undue favoritism’ by the NT towards its employees, the Committee had sought explanation from the NT and the Ministry of Information and Communication, on Monday.

The NT is currently selling 7.5 million shares to general public at Rs 600 per share while it has promised the shares at Rs 90 to its employees. Besides, the general public will need to quote higher prices (above Rs 600/share) to heighten their chance of getting the shares.

After the meeting at the Finance Committee, Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communication, Yubaraj Pandey, said that the government will abide by its directives by making ‘new arrangements.’

Reports say that the NT has also submitted a proposal at the Finance Ministry seeking to provide shares on priority basis to its customers and ex-employees. nepalnews.com sd Feb 03 08