QUAKE ROCKS SANKHUWASABHA

QUAKE ROCKS SANKHUWASABHA

Kathmandu, 15 July: A quake measuring 4.5 on the Richter his Sanhkuwasabha in east Nepal 1.44 Saturday night, the Department of Mines and Geology.
The epicenter was at Funling
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INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE COMES TO NEPAL

Kathmandu, 15 July: International Herald Tribune is being published in Nepal in association with Republica, a Kathmandu daily newspaper, an announcement said.
A copy of the global edition of The New York Times will cost Rs 25 and subscribers will get free access to NYTimes.com.
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GOVT.MUST PRIORITIZE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENTS: CJ REGMI

Kathmandu, 15 July: Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi on Friday urged the government and state authorities to prioritize execution of judgments without any compromise.

Speaking at a program on ´Impunity and the Non-Implementation of Judicial Rulings´, which was jointly organized by Judicial Officers´ Society, ICJ, FORID and INSCE, CJ Regmi added, "Implementing judgments and judicial rulings must be the prime obligation of the state if rule or law has to be enforced in the country."
Regmi said law and order of the country will be weak if judicial rulings are not implemented in a timely and effective manner.

"Non-implementation of judgments means weakening the rule of law," he added. Saying that the implementation of thousands of judgments issued by Supreme Court, Appellate Court and District Courts is not possible only with the efforts of judiciary alone, CJ Regmi urged all the stakeholders to seriously move ahead in implementing judicial rulings without further delay.

"This is not the time of assessing or reviewing judicial rulings," he added, "We all should concentrate our entire energy in implementing judicial rulings rather then reviewing court judgments," Regmi added.

Speaking at the same program, Attorney General Dr Yubraj Shangaula pointed out various flaws in judicial rulings saying that such flaws are also responsible for non-implementation of the judgments. "Passing judgments alone is not enough," Shangraula said, adding, "Judicial rulings must be in line with independent judiciary and based on widely adopted jurisprudence."

Shangraula had presented some judicial rulings pointing out flaws. "Justices or judges must be objective while coming up with judgments," he added, "Unfortunately, justices are found to have becoming subjective while passing the judgments."

Frederick Rawski, country representative of ICJ, Nepal, asked politicians and human rights activists not to misquote international laws in the course of ending impunity in the country. "Politicians and often lawyers have misquoted and mischaracterized international law to justify arguments in favor of amnesties and withdrawals," Rawski argued.

According to data presented at the function by Mahendra Nath Upadhaya, director general of Judgment Execution Directorate (JED), over 100,000 judgments are yet to be executed and 80,000 jail terms slapped by the courts are yet to be served.

"Rs 4 billion is yet to be recovered from thousands of convicted individuals," Upadhaya said while presenting the data.

Advocate Govinda Sharma Bandi pointed out causes of impunity and non-implementation of the judicial rulings and suggested some way-outs for ending long-standing impunity in the country.
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MORE MONEY RELEASED FOR SOCIAL SECTOR IN BUDGET

Kathmandu, 16 July: The government has increased spending in the social sector specially on education, health, and other rural development areas claiming that around 48.49 percent of the total annual budget is "pro poor", The Kathmandu Post reports.
In his budget presentation on Friday, Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari claimed that the budget prioritised investment in poverty reduction, income generation and capacity enhancement programmes in rural areas.
The security budget has been increased to Rs 26.64 from Rs 22.67 billion while the social service grant has gone up to Rs 82.28 billion from Rs 68.35 billion in last fiscal year's budget.
Some of the major programmes targeted for the social and economic upliftment of the rural people include special packages on loans for self-employment of youth, scholarships for education and settlements of landless squatters such as Haliya, Kamlari, Badi, Gandharwa and all types of bonded laborers. Under the "youth self employment programme", the government has planned to distribute each youth a loan up to Rs 200,000 without collateral.
The budget has also made made corrections in some of its earlier social security programmes. For instance, age bar to get social security allowances for widows has been lifted, which means a widow will be provided the allowances from the day she is widowed. The existing higher education schoalrship for Kamlaris has also been increased both in number and amount. The budget plans to complete the rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers within the next one year.
Education Sector
The government has allocated Rs. 63.91 billion, 16.60 percent of the total budget, for the education sector this year. This is a 9.79 percent increment from last year's Rs. 57.65 billion budget for the sector. However, the education sector saw a decline of 0.46 percent in the total budget in comparison to 17.06 percent last year.
Through the new budget, the government has announced to launch some new packages to attract students from the poor and marginalised sections of society. The government has announced to provide free education to all students from dalit community and all girls in community higher secondary schools and free textbooks up to grade 10 for all from community schools. Students from economically and socially deprived class will get free textbooks up to grade 12. The government also plans to set up additional 500 childcare centres targeting extremely marginalised communities. It has also planned to hand over 2,500 public schools to the community.
As per the demand of .the Samyuta Loktantrik Madheshi Morcha, the budget also envisions the establishment of Rajarshi Janak University, Birgunj University and Industrial University in Nepalgunj. It has also set a target to eliminate illiteracy from the country within three years for which women volunteers will be mobilised in 12,000 wards in the first phase.
However, the government has taken no step to fulfil the commitments expressed before phasing out certificate level from Tribhuvan University. It had announced to establish science +2 in all 240 constituencies and allocate adequate vacancy for teachers at the higher secondary level.
Health
The government has earmarked Rs 27.12 billion for the health sector, a 10.64 percent increase compared to last year. It has proposed bringing forth a new effective health policy while giving continuity to existing health programmes such as safe motherhood, child-health and nutrition and combating communicable and non-communicable disease, among others.
In the existing health programmes, the government has planned to upgrade the 500 sub-health posts and establish 150 child delivery centres in the country. The elderly who have crossed 75 years of age and those below 15 years of age will get free heart disease treatment, a programme that is ongoing in Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) and Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre (SGNHC).
Regarding social health insurance, the government has proposed bringing a strategic plan and putting it into action. Earlier, it had proposed conducting a feasibility study of health insurance programmes. The government has also proposed to run the India government funded trauma centre.
Peace process support
The government has increased spending in relief to conflict victims, martyrs and those wounded in the conflict. Of the total budget for this, Rs 9.38 billion has been allocated to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction for "peace process support".
According to the budget details, a total of Rs. 703 million has been allocated for the conflict victims' families under the peace process support.
Also, Rs 100 million has been allocated under "special programmes" for conflict affected areas. Some Rs 200 million has allocated to conflict victim villages under the development programme for peace building. Former Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong lauded the government's commitment to address the transition. "The allocation of relief package to conflict victims' families was essential to address their demands. The allocation of budget itself is not such a big issue but its sincere implementation makes sense," the former minister said.
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