SOME SERVICES RESUME AT CANCER HOSPITAL

SOME SERVICES RESUME AT BP KOIRALA CANCER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Kathmandu, 5 May: Some services resumed Thursday at the prestigious Chinese-built BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Chitwan after a week-long disruption.
The padlocked administration wing was opened Wednesday afternoon after two months.
Unions affiliated with parties disrupted services pushing the appointment of their candidates as the hospital’s chief.
At least one patient has died with the disruption of services condemned even by Nepal Medical Council—the umbrella organization of doctors.
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45 HOUSES DESTROYED IN KAPILVASTHU FIRE

Kathmandu, 5 May: Forty-five houses were destroyed in a fire at Ganeshpur in Kapilvasthu Thursday morning.
The fire spread following a storm.
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DAILY LOAD-SHEDDING REDUCTED BY THREE HOURS FROM FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 5 May: Daily 14 hour load-shedding has been reduced by three hours from Friday.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said power outage hours were reduced with rising water level in rivers.
Most of the country’s electricity is generated by hydropower stations.
Most parts of the country have been recording almost daily pre-monsoon showers bringing relief to people.
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65 SPs TRANSFERRED

Kathmandu, 5 May: Sixty-five SP’s were transferred in Nepal Police (NP) Wednesday before a change of guard at the home ministry.
The senior officers were transferred before control of the sensitive ministry was handed over to Maoists by Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal who was looking after the ministry.
Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara is the new home minister.
Maoists will now oversee the NP and Armed Police Force (APF).
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ARJUN NARSINGH KC BEREAVED

Kathmandu, 5 May: Bhagawan Singh KC, 84, father of NC Spokesman Arjun Narsingh KC, died Wednesday while undergoing treatment at hospital in the capital.
He is survived by seven sons.
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DECAPITATED BODY OF WOMAN FOUND IN BALAJU

Kathmandu, 5 May: Decapitated body of Menuka Khatri, 25, was found in a Balaju forest Wednesday morning by police who were alerted by a jogger.
The head and body were recovered.
Her husband, Bharat Khatri, is a soldier with Nepal Army, police said.
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Rs 800,000 FAKE INDIAN CURRENCY HIDDEN IN POTATO CHIPS PACKET

Kathmandu, 5 May: Police have seized Rs 800,000 fake Indian currency notes concealed in potato chips packet, Annapurna Post reports.
Management of Hotel Gangjong in Lazimpat found the concealed currency notes when they opened the packet on suspicion.
The packet was left behind by Pakistani national Sultan.
Police asked the hotel to inform them in anybody came to collect the bag.
Two women collected the packet paying a Rs.8,000 bill of the Pakistani.
Police arrested the women and Nabal Kishore Yadav of Birgung from Syambhu as the bag was being delivered to Yadav.
The women were later released
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Ncell TOP GSM MOBILE PROVIDER
Kathmandu, 5 May: It’s now official. Ncell—the country’s first private GSM mobile operator—is the No 1 player in the GSM mobile segment, Ramesh Shresthawrites in The Kathmandu Post.

Telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)’s latest MIS Report says that Ncell has toppled Nepal Telecom (NT) to become the GSM segment leader.

Interestingly, Ncell achieved this feat exactly a year after its massive rebranding exercise. The NTA’s latest statistics (as of mid-March) shows that Ncell subscriber base has touched 4.78 million mark, whereas NT has 4.71 million subscribers. Ncell has already declared that the number of its subscribers increased to over 5 million as of April 10.

It was the combination of several factors including aggressive marketing, rebranding exercise, launch of new services and infrastructure expansion that pushed Ncell to the numero uno position. The push started after Europe’s fifth largest telecom company Teliasonera acquired majority stake in Ncell (then Mero Mobile).

It took only six years for Ncell to topple Nepal Telecom from the number one spot. Ncell that appeared on the scene in 2005 made a giant stride—when it comes to increasing subscriber base—in the current fiscal year.

Until last fiscal year, difference between the subscriber base of the two operators—Ncell and NT—was around 1 million. However, since last fiscal year, Ncell aggressively started introducing new services and handsets targeting both low-end and high-end customers.

First it launched two cheap mobile handsets—a black and white model at Rs 999 and colour at Rs 1,199—targeting rural folks, which helped it expand subscriber base outside the Kathmandu Valley. This was followed by the launch of Blackberry—primarily targeting Kathmandu’s corporate segment—and 3G services.

And, these initiatives paid off. The company started narrowing the gap with NT’s subscriber base form this fiscal year. In the first eight months of FY 2010-11, Ncell added 1.84 million subscribers, whereas Nepal Telecom could add only 750,384.

The aggressiveness of Ncell is evident from the fact that it added 306,694 new subscribers in the eighth month (mid-February to mid-March) alone, when Nepal Telecom was able to increase its subscriber base by only 18,819. “This is our great success that we are able to attract a majority of customers to our quality network,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of the Ncell. She added that customers’ trust on Ncell increased dramatically after the rebranding and introduction of flat tariff rate across the country.

The Ncell-NT competition is a classic example of how state-owned enterprises and private sector entities work. While NT was marred by weak management, government indecisiveness and timely completion of 3.5 million GSM project. Ncell invested heavily in infrastructure. It has earmarked $100 million for 2011 for infrastructure development.

“Occasional availability of NT’s SIM cards, its failure to distribute SIM cards as per the demand and Ncell’s aggressive marketing helped Ncell,” said a senior NTA official.

NTA says next year will see a fierce competition between the players with NT announcing big plans of increasing its subscriber base. The state-owned company is preparing to add 6 to 10 million GSM subscribers next fiscal year. It has said that it will also distribute 600,000 additional pre-paid SIM cards by the end of the current fiscal year. “Within one month, we will call a global tender to add 6-10 million subscribers,” said Kanhaiya Lal Gupta, deputy managing director at NT.

The fight for the supremacy between NT and Ncell has ultimately benefited the customers. Tariff has come down, availability of SIM cards has increased and new value added services are being launched by both operators. “The tariff will further come down because of the fierce competition,” said the NTA official.

Mobile telephony in Nepal is only 12 years old. NT succeeded in expanding telecom services and infrastructure to all parts of the country, while private players including Ncell played a key role in making telecom service affordable to common people.
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RUSH TO GET CITIZENSHIP PAPERS

Kathmandu, 5 May: District Administration Office (DAO), Kalikot, is having a tough time with scores of people thronging it daily for citizenship certificates. Mostly from remote villages, they come to the district headquarters for obtaining citizenship cards after the Election Commission (EC) launched its campaign of registering individuals for photo-embedded voter list lately, Tularam Pandey reports in The Kathmandu Post from Kalikot..

“Hardly 15 people visited the office for citizenship earlier. Now, nearly 100 apply for it, causing a rush among us,” Chief District Officer (CDO) Durga Dutta Dhakal said.

The service seekers have got to stay at Manma, the district headquarters, for days as the administration office does not issue the certificate immediately. They complained that the DAO is apathetic to their problem.

“I arrived here six days ago. I have not got the citizenship certificate yet,” said Angaraj Neupane, 19, of Dhaulagoha-5. It took him two days to arrive from his village.

CDO Dhakal admitted the delay in issuing citizenship certificates. He said his office was unable to issue the card in a single day owing to a large number of service seekers and human resource crunch.

The villagers have started flocking the office after an EC team reached their villages for enlisting them as voters. The existing law requires one to produce citizenship certificate for being identified as a voter.

“I came here for the certificate as the officials said we couldn’t cast our vote without it,” said Dharma Shahi, 35, of Sukatiya-9. She said rumours were rife in the village that one cannot even enrol his/her kids in school without the voter identity card. “Here’s a huge crowd. I don’t know when I’ll get my card,” she said.

Rights activists and civil society leaders have urged the DAO to provide the certificates by going round the villages. They said more than 20 percent people in remote villages are without citizenship certificates.
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