FORMER KING, QUEEN FLY FOR INDIA

FRESH RHINO COUNT IN APRIL

Kathmandu, 10 March: A fresh count of the one-horned rhino is being held April after 2008 when the population of the endangered species was recoded
at 435.
The one-horned rhino is found only in Nepal and Assam in India in South Asia.
Some rhinos were trans-located to Bardia National Park to save the animal from extinction in an epidemic if it broke out at Chitwan National Park.
Their number is increasing is the far-West national park.
The census will identify males, females and determine the condition of babies.
Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation will conduct the census with National Trust for Nature Conservation and WWF-Nepal support.
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DIARRHEA BRESKS OUT IN HETAUDA

Kathmandu, 10 March: Diarrhea has broken out in Hetauda and villages in Makwanpur district.
Between 40 to 45 patients are reporting to the hospital in Hetauda every day, health officials said.
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FORMR KING, QUEEN FLYING FOR VARANASI

Kathmandu, 10 March: Former King Gyanendra and Queen Komal are flying for Varanasi Thursday.
They’re proceeding to Madhya Pradesh to attend the wedding of the granddaughter of an aunt.
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SC CLEARS MAOISTS FOR COMPTEMPT OF CHARGES

Kathmandu, 10 March: Supreme court (SC) Wednesday cleared six Maoists, including Chairman Prachanda and Vice-chairmen Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kazi Shrestha, of contempt of court charges.
The charge was filed by journalist Murari Kumar Sharma.
Maoists publicly criticized a court decision and staged anti-court public protests when the apex court approved the extension of tenure of eight generals.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“Nepal will be a model country in the next 20 years if a democratic constitution is drafted and democracy is institutionalized.”

(President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, Republica, 10 March)

“PLA can’t be integrated until a people’s constitution is guaranteed. It’s identity can’t be obliterated because the gains so far is because of it.”

(Most Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya Kiran, Nagarik)
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NA FACING WEAPONS, ARMS SHORTAGE

Kathmandu, 10 March: Defence Minister Bishnu Paudel said after formally assuming office Wednesday, “I’ll make maximum attempt to untangle difficulties faced by Nepal Army (NA) because of the peace process.”
Because of the peace process, NA has been complaining it’s been limited to the barracks, Annapurna Post report.
Retired General Balananda Sharma said the biggest problem for NA has been the acquisition of weapons and arms because of the peace process.
Training, UN peacekeeping mission and other military activities have been affected.
‘We’re weakening the national army by not providing it with necessary weapons and arms for an extended period [five years],” Sharma who is chief of the secretariat under the special committee said.
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COMPANY BLACKLISTED

Kathmandu, 10 March: Nepal Police (NP) has written to the home ministry and public purchase monitoring office blacklisting all companies under local agent Shambu Bharati who sold useless armed personnel carriers (APCs) to it, Kantipur reports.
Three companies in Nepal and three companies abroad have been blacklisted.
The three companies abroad are registered in UK, USA and China.
(Note: APCs were provided to Nepal Police UM peacekeeping contingent assigned to Darfur in Sudan. Action has been demanded against those involved in supply and purchase of faulty logistics endangering lives of security personnel. At one time, the country’s participation in UN peacekeeping mission was also at stake. Names of prominent traders, police personnel and political party leaders have been dragged for involvement.)
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INADEQUATE FACILITIES FOR KIDNEY TREATMENT





Kathmandu, March 9 - espite the increasing threat of kidney ailments and consequently high service demands, only nominal facilities were available in Nepal, Gita Sapkota writes in The Rising Nepal.
According to World Health Organization estimates, every year around 2,800 patients had kidney failures in Nepal.
Bir Hospital and Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital, organisations known for treatment of kidney ailments, carried out 60 kidney transplants, according to their records. Few patients visited private hospitals.
Instead, some patients went to India or abroad for kidney transplant and dialysis.
"A large number of patients have been deprived of proper treatment in the absence of institutions specialising on kidney diseases," said Dr. Pukar Chandra Shrestha, transplant surgeon of Bir Hospital.
On the other side, Bir Hospital and TU Teaching Hospital have also failed to provide adequate services to kidney patients due to what doctors said was government’s negligence.
"A number of people are visiting India despite the illegal trade in kidneys there but they have neither gotten better nor do they get a better care there," Dr. Shrestha said.
The government should promote national organizations to include low status people.
Nephrologists are of the opinion that due to lack of awareness about how to keep kidneys healthy, many people are suffering from kidney related diseases.
When the disease advances it could not be treated and people should resort to dialysis or transplant the kidney. This proves to be very expensive for the patients.
Even the developed countries have been unable to address this problem, Prof. Dr. Rishi Kumar Kafle, acting director of National Kidney Center, said. "The treatment of kidney is out of access for maximum people of the developing countries like Nepal."
People should pay around Rs. 2,500 for one time kidney dialysis. Physicians mostly recommend dialysis at least twice a week to needy people. Similarly, kidney patients are prescribed medicines lifelong, which are costly too. So kidney dialysis and transplant becomes an economic burden for everyone.
Though kidney may be damaged without any sign and symptom, early treatment can prevent many kidney ailments, said Prof. Dr. Deebya Singh, Nephrologist at TU Teaching Hospital.
As diabetes and high blood pressure are the major causes of kidney ailments, medics said that kidney related diseases are likely to multiply in the coming days.
With the increase of high blood pressure and diabetes patients, kidney patients are increasing day by day, Dr. Singh said.
Amidst all these fears, the World Kidney Day is being observed tomorrow with the slogan of "Protect Your Kidney Save Your Heart".
People should pay a high cost running in hundreds of thousands of rupees for kidney transplant India.
The same operation would cost around Rs. 350,000 in TU Teaching and Bir Hospital.

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MAOISTS CULTIVATING UML REVOLUTIONARIES

Kathmandu, 10 March: Assessing that the CPN-UML is loosening its grip on its revolutionary cadres, the Unified CPN-Maoist has pounced upon the opportunity to convince them to switch the party, Tika R Pradhan reports in The Himalayan Times reports from Birtamod. n .

Though UML has been claiming ownership of five martyrs of Sukhani, the UCPN-M this year organised a grand function with several thousand people to stake claim to the martyrs.

After a brief informal ceremony with a handful of UML leaders present at Sukhani, the Maoists huddled up some 10,000 people from adjoining districts to commemorate the day when five people of Sukhani attained martyrdom.

Speakers, including leftist writer Khagendra Sangraula, Maoist Secretary CP Gajurel and Kochila State Committee in-charge Haribol Gajurel, lashed out heavily at UML for deviating from the ideology harboured and practised by the martyrs.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had flown from Kathmandu to attend the ceremony, honoured families of the five martyrs.

The event was organised with an aim to attract remaining revolutionary cadres of UML, as many are stepping out of the UML roost.

“It is essential to gain confidence of revolutionaries, especially at this juncture of Nepali politics when people have pinned high hopes on leftist forces to safeguard the national independence,” Haribol Gajurel told reporters. “It is imperative that we convince people that the leftist forces that hold around two-third majority in the Parliament are capable of safeguarding the national sovereignty.”

But action, not the words, is what the bereaved families of martyrs want.

Families of the five martyrs of Sukhani expressed fury over the attitude of political parties. “Will the wooden box help us to keep up the family?” asked Bimala Rajbanshi, daughter-in-law of martyr Biren Rajbanshi. “They remember us once a year. No one cares how difficult it has been for us to eke out a living.” Januka Dahal, wife of martyr Ram Nath Dahal, said her children were not interested in politics.

But, the two parties are not tired of playing politics over the martyrs; both are trying their best to get the martyrs’ families into their camps.
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CARPET EXPORTS UP

Kathmandu, 10 March: Exports of hand-knotted woollen carpets posted a double digit growth in the first six months (mid-July to mid-Jan.) of the current fiscal year. It has given some hopes to the carpet industry facing a downturn for the last two years, The Kathmandu Post reports.

Over the period, Nepal exported carpets worth Rs 2.37 billion, up by 16.5 percent from Rs 2.3 billion in the same period last year, according to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC).

A total of 423,381 square metres of woollen carpets were exported to the US, Germany, the UK, Australia, Canada, Belgium and Netherlands, among other international markets. Exporters have attributed this growth to the increased demand, particularly from Europe and the US. “Demand from Europe and the US is increasing.

However, we have not been able to supply on time due to labour crunch,” said Lanka Man Rokka, former president of Central Carpet Industries’ Association. He added that increased labour wage and raw material price have made it difficult for them to run their businesses.

Until last year, carpet used to be ranked as the second most exported item to overseas markets. Now, the product is ranked fourth in terms of export value after iron and steel articles (Rs 5.01 billion), lentils (Rs 2.75 billion) and yarns (2.73 billion). Readymade Garment (Rs 2.04 billion) is in the fifth position.

Nepali woollen carpets are exported to over three dozen countries. Germany, the US, Belgium, Britain, Turkey, Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Canada and Italy are the major markets for Nepali woollen carpets. Among these countries, Germany, European countries and the US are the top buyers of the product.

As per TEPC figures, woollen carpets contributed 7.21 percent to the country’s total export of Rs 32.84 billion over the period. In an endeavour to boost woollen carpet exports and ensure quality and originality to global buyers, the government is considering to register an international trademark for Nepali carpets.

However, various associations of carpet manufactures and exporters are yet to forge a consensus on whether to register the trademark. “I think this is politics,” said Rokka. He underscored the need for enhancing the quality of Nepali carpets before registering the trademark, as competition in the international market is stiff.

According to Exporters, their Indian counterparts are selling substandard carpets under the name of ‘Indo-Nepal Carpet’ at a cheaper price. This has jeopardised the image of Nepali carpets, they said.
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SUSPECTED TRAFFICKING OF BENGLADESHIS VIA NEPAL
Kathmandu, 10 March: A massive increase in the number of Bangladeshi nationals entering Nepal by air over the last few years has led authorities to surmise that thousands of Bangladeshis are being trafficked every year to other countries, particularly in the Gulf, under fake Nepali identities, Sundar Khanal reports in Republica

A total of 20,223 Bangladeshi nationals entered Nepal by air in 2010 alone, an increase of 60 percent compared to 2009. The astounding figure follows a huge increase of 48 percent in 2008 and a steady increase of 7 percent in 2009, in comparison to the respective previous years.
Immigration officials consider the trend quite unprecedented and unnatural, taking into account that there has not been any spectacular tourism promotion or business activity between the two countries to trigger such huge movement of people.

Racketeers have immersed themselves in trafficking Bangladeshi nationals through Nepal for the last few years after Bangladesh was restricted by Gulf countries to limited quotas for the supply of migrant workers.

Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals, both agents and migrant workers, during raids in 2010 while they were allegedly trying to fly overseas with fake Nepali passports. Likewise, Kuwaiti authorities arrested 34 Indian and Bangladeshi nationals in December, 2010 for possessing fake Nepali passports.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), meanwhile, is preoccupied with this unusual inflow of people from a particular country and is preparing to establish a special section to extend its probe to human trafficking, with its ubiquitous links to social and financial crime.

Trafficking of Bangladeshi nationals through Nepal is rampant at a time when human trafficking pervades other crimes, said DIG Rajendra Singh Bhandari, CIB chief. “Human trafficking is not an isolated crime but rather has multiple links with other crimes. We have, therefore, been studying it with a broad approach,” he said.

CIB has taken on the issue after efforts by local police proved inadequate to dismantle the rackets. Following a successful operation in May, 2010 during which a Bangladeshi kingpin and a dozen other Bangladeshi nationals were arrested, police had said that around 1,200 Bangladeshi nationals were in the capital awaiting fake Nepali passports to fly to the Gulf.

“After that operation, we believed many Bangladeshi nationals left the country but in the course of subsequent moves we came to feel that this particular area of crime demanded a concerted and focused approach,” said DSP Deepak Thapa, who led the operation.

Of the 13 Bangladeshi nationals, five were deported by the Immigration Department a couple of months ago. The others were released against a general court-appearance date.

Investigative officials said that racketeers bring Bangladeshis to Nepal in groups as tourists and engage them here for about a month to teach them Nepali lest they become suspect for not being able to communicate during security checks. They are even found to be working at construction sites or engaging in other kinds of work while waiting for fake Nepali passports. They are usually lodged in groups in different places under the supervision of the rackets, officials said.


It´s true that some Bangladeshis come to Nepal to work in the construction sector; however, the number of such workers is not that high. “Some private companies might have brought in a few hundreds of them but the number is not significant,” said Yakcha Dhoj Karki, president of the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal.

Another side to the story is that some racketeers have been flying Bangladeshis from their own country, using fake Nepali passports. A few months ago, the Saudi embassy in Dhaka had sent some 300 fake Nepali passports in bulk to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) here. The fake passports were reportedly collected from Bangladeshi nationals who were applying for visas for Gulf countries.

“We have even found out certain useful details about Nepali brokers and racketeers and handed those over to the CIB,” said a MPRK official.

According to officials, a substantial number of Bangladeshis could also have been entering Nepal overland during the same period when others were coming in by air.

While Bangladeshi nationals have a central role in the racket, the issue flared up last year when five Afghan nationals headed for Australia on Nepali passports were arrested in Malaysia. The passports were found to have been issued fraudulently in the names of Afghan nationals with the connivance of a MOFA staffer who was later released on bail.

Investigative officials said that the massive inflow of Bangladeshis in Nepal started in 2007, almost simultaneously feeding two types of major crime--illegal VOIP operations and human trafficking. “We are looking into the possible implications of this simultaneity,” a high-ranking official said.
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