MAIN CONSTITUTON DRAFTNG COMMITTEE MEETS SATURDAY

MAIN CONSTITUTION DRAFTING COMMITTEE MEETS SATURDAY

Kathmandu, 5 Nov.: Main constitution drafting committee headed by Nilambar Acharya meets Saturday meets to endorse Friday’s decision of a
sub-committee under it form an expert’s committee to recommend suggestions of a federal structure for a now unitary state.
Maoist Chairman Prachanda heads the sub-committee with
representatives of major parties to resolve differences on themes to be incorporated in constitution to institutionalize a declared republic.
The experts’ committee instead of a commission, as envisioned
in an interim constitution, will recommend a new state structure.
Government Friday registered a proposal at parliament secretariat Friday for the 11th amendment of the interim constitution to form a
experts’ committee.
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RESCUE OF HUNDREDS OF STRANDED TOURISTS AT FOOT OF MOUNT EVEREST BEGINS

Kathmandu, 5 Nov. Rescue of nearly 2,000 stranded tourists, guides and helpers at Solukhumbu, the foot of Mount Everest, the 8848 meters Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, started Friday with their airlift by helicopters which flew them back to the capital.
Nearly 100 persons for five days following extended bad weather in the hilly regions were rescued Friday.
Airlines couldn’t fly in and out of Lukla, the only airport in the district named after Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the first conquerors of Everest in 1954.
Helicopters plucked the stranded tourists from flatland downhill from Lukla.
Healthier tourists walked or bussed to the nearby townof Jiri for a journey back to the Nepali capital.
Bad weather also disrupted flights in and out of the resort town of Pokhara in the West for two days.
The Rising Nepal adds:






As flights from Lukla could not resume owing to continuing bad whether in the eastern and central hill for the fifth day, the government and private sector have started initiatives to rescue tourists stranded in Lukla.
More than two thousand tourists returning from the Everest Region have been stranded in Lukla due to the stoppage of flights.
Around three thousand tourists were stranded for more than a week in Lukla in last year.
Meteorologists forecast no improvement in the weather even on Saturday. Talking to The Rising Nepal, senior weather expert Rajendra Shrestha said that the weather could improve from Sunday afternoon.
It is estimated that around 500 tourists come to Lukla each day from the Everest Region.
Helicopter flights have also been completely stopped at Lukla due to zero visibility in the region, according to Tourism Crisis Cell.
However, four seated helicopters have started rescuing tourists from Surke of Solukhumbhu, a nearest helipad from Lukla, it informed.
To rescue the stranded tourists from Lukla, a private sector team has taken the initiation to rescue those tourists by the MI 17 helicopter of the Nepal Army.
According to Bikram Neupane, former President of Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA), the government has started initiation to rescue the stranded tourists from Lukla.
Tourism organizations including HRA, Nepal Mountaineering Association, Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Nepal Tourism Board have requested Nepal Army to rescue the stranded tourists, he informed.
Speaking at a press conference organized in the capital to inform about the rescue process of the stranded tourists, Neupane said that Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattrai himself directed the Ministry of Defense to rescue those tourists as soon as possible.
Most probably the rescue process would start from Saturday by using the helicopter of the Nepal Army, he informed.
As we could not rescue all two thousand tourists on a day, priority would be given to those tourists who are sick and have emergency air ticket to fly abroad, he informed.
According to the plan, rescued tourists would be brought to Manthali, the headquarters of Ramechhap district, he said.
The decision of the Nepal Army is learnt to have been delayed regarding the rescue due to the long chain of command.
"If the NA makes the MI 17 helicopters available, TAAN has decided to take the responsibility of fares," Kumar Thapa, treasurer of TAAN said.
There are only two MI17 helicopters operating in Nepal. It is learnt that MI17 helicopters of Shree Airlines have also been chartered to rescue tourists from Saturday.
According to Thapa, food and accommodation for the tourists has been a problem in Lukla and Surke due to the increasing number of tourists each day.
As the problem has been frequent, the government should put in place a quicker response mechanism, tourism entrepreneurs said.
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NEPAL RANKS 157th IN UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEXr

Kathmandu, 5 Nov. Nepal ranks in the 157th place out of 187 countries in the human development report (HDR), said a UNDP report released Friday, The Rising Nepal reports..
The Human Development Report 2011 entitled ‘Equity and Sustainability: A better Future for All,’ shows Nepal’s HDI increased from 0.428 in 2010 to 0.458 in 2011. Last year, Nepal ranked 138th out of 169 countries in 2010.
In the current report, Nepal has been ranked 157th despite its progress in the index owing to the Inequality-Adjusted HDI, which places Nepal among the 20 most unequal nations in educational attainment.
Despite Nepal’s achievement in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) particularly in health and education, it is in the lowest rung among seven SAARC nations except for Afghanistan.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives have been ranked 134, 145, 97 and 109 respectively. Afghanistan is placed on the 172nd position.
Norway tops the HDR list while Democratic Republic of Congo is at its bottom.
The report exclusively focuses on the impacts of environmental degradation on the poor countries.
"The development gains could not last longer without reducing grave environment risks and deepening inequalities," it said.
The report underlines that the development progress in the world’s poorest countries could be halted or even reversed by mid-century unless effective steps are taken to show climate change, prevent further environmental damage, and reduce deep inequalities within and among nations.
Presenting the key features of the report, Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, former vice chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC), claimed that Nepal could move towards the top of the HDR list as its recent Nepal Living Standard Survey had shown its poverty going down.
The report illustrated that the process of development should be carried out without further damaging the environment and maintaining equitability.
"It links between sustainability and equality is especially relevant to developing countries like Nepal which have experienced increased in inequality despite significant reduction in poverty," he said.
He said that the country’s developmental gains failed to deliver equitable outcomes to some social groups which continue to fall far behind the national average.
Lunching the report, Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, NPC vice-chairman, said that the development policy should embrace inclusiveness and growth together to ensure social justice and security.
He said that Nepal pursued blind economic development for decades and now it needed to focus on its ways to achieve sustainable development which ensures involvement of all social groups.
Robert Piper, the UNDP Resident Representative for Nepal, said that the report emphasised on the benefits of integrating sustainability and equity for promoting human development.
"It reminds the need to put equality in outcomes at the center of development debate," he said.
Piper said that the United Nations strived to reduce global warming by bringing the countries together.
The simulations for the report suggested that the global HDI would be 19 per cent higher by 2050 than that of today with development countries experiencing largest gains of 24 per cent provided that no environmental challenges and disasters persist.
The Human Development index is based on the three key dimensions of education, health and livelihood.
Approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide

lack electricity while 2.6 billion lack access to health productivity, said the report.
In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa over 90 per cent of people lack access to cooking fuel while 85 per cent lack access to improved sanitation implying that the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people of the society carry double burden of deprivation.
Similarly, 97 per cent of multidimensional poor of South Asia lack access to clean drinking water, toilets or modern cooking fuels and 18 per cent lack all three of them.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) based on the pervasiveness of environmental deprivations among the multidimensionally poor on the issues of lack of improved cooking fuel, drinking water and sanitation, places Nepal on the category of countries with the lowest share of environmental deprivations among the multidimensionally poor but with fairly high access to water which is around 78 per cent.
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