Cabinet meet not at Everest base camp

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Be sure. The much-hyped cabinet is not being held at Mount Everest base camp Friday.
The 20-minute symbolic meeting amid chanting of Buddhist prayers is being held being not at the base camp on the 8848meters high Mount Everest the world’s tallest peak.
A British team created a record by conducting a cricket match there.
Nepalis are not holding a cabinet meeting there in their own country.
The cabinet meet to be attended by 24 members of the 40-plus cabinet, including Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, is being conducted at the base of the 6000 meters plus high Kalapattar in the Everest region.
Kalapattar is a peak where mountaineers acclimatize to the rarefied air befor climbing Mount Everest.
Former US President Jimmy Carter developed altitude sickness there during a trek there in the King Birendra era and had to be airlifted to the capital for medical attention while his secret service agents adjusted to the rarefied air.
The much-hyped cabinet meeting is not being held at the base camp of Everest and any declaration from Kalapattar can at best be called a Kalapattar or a Khumbu declaration where Mount Everest lies.
The prime minister and his 23 cabinet colleagues are spending the night Thursday at Lukla, the staging post for treks to the Everest region.
Sujata Koirala, daughter of Girija Prasad Koirala, has also in the region for the Rs 6 million meet.
Bhramins, chettris and terai residents, prone to altitude sickness, are attending the meet.
The health of ministers and officials accompanying them is reported normal at Lukla.
The ministers will fly to Thyangboche by helicopter Friday morning; they will have another health check-up there before being airlifted to Kalapattar with climbing gear and oxygen masks accompanied by doctors.
The cabinet meet will still be highest point where a conclave has been staged in the world, for satisfaction.
Thyangboche has a monastery where climbers offer worship for good luck before proceeding on Everest climbs.
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