PRACHANDA ALSO RETURNS GOVT. FACILITIES

MAOIST CHIEF ALSO RETURNS GOVT. FACILITIES

Kathmandu, 19 Dec.: Maoist Chairman Prachanda Saturday retuned free state facilities, including expensive free car and fuel, after a supreme court ruling they were irregular.
UML top leader and former Premier Madhab Kumar Nepal was the first to come into action after a court ruling Thursday.
Prachanda is a former government chief.
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GOVT. MULLS DISTRIBUTING 65 FREE MEDICINES

Kathamandu, 10 Dec.: To make free health services more effective, the government is preparing to distribute 65 medicines including medicines for non-communicable diseases free of cost through public hospitals and health facilities across the country. Arjun Poudel reports in Republica.

The Primary Health Revitalization Division (PHRD) under the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has proposed distributing 25 additional medicines including those for non-communicable diseases like heart, mental health, diabetes, asthma and blood pressure.

The government agency has proposed free distribution of medicines for non-communicable diseases for the first time. Several surveys have revealed that number of people affected by the non-communicable diseases are higher than those suffering from communicable diseases. According to a source at PHRD, medicines for depression, neurosis, and epilepsy have been added to the list of free medicines.

The division has also called for including medicines for fungal infections and gastritis to the list. Also, the division has proposed pulling out medicines for allergy and asthma after health workers complained the medicines, currently being distributed for free, are not effective. The district hospitals across the country are providing 40 different medicines free of cost.

The office has also proposed increasing the number of free medicines at Primary Healthcare Centers (PHC), health posts and sub-health posts. Primary Healthcare Centers are providing 32 medicines free of cost.

Medicines for blood pressure will be provided to the people living in the Himalayan region. Survey shows that more than 30 percent of the patients visiting the hospitals have high blood pressure. Due to their poor economic conditions they cannot continue the medicine, which has to be taken throughout life.

The office has also proposed providing all types of saline free of cost. "We have also decided to revise antibiotics doses," PHRD Director Dr Anand Shrestha said. He admitted that some of the medicines being distributed by MoHP are not in use and some are impractical.

"The newly-added free medicines will not be distributed across the country at once," he said, adding, "First piloting will be conducted in nine districts and next year a program will be formally announced in fiscay year budget," he said.

The PHRD says that proposal for more free medicines was prepared after consulting health experts, representative of ministry, division chiefs of Department of Health Services (DoHS), doctors, PHC in-charges and paramedics working at health posts across the country. He said the ministry has yet to endorse the proposed list of free medicines.
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DIESEL PROJECTS HITS PROJECTS

Kathmandu, 10 Dec.: Diesel shortage has hit the implementation of large development projects, including national-priority projects like Mid-hills Highway and Sikta Irrigation Project, among others. The problem is further accentuated by the daily 6-hour long power-cut, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Republica.

Diesel supply is scarce for over a week now as Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) reportedly failed to clear its dues to its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and IOC in turn cut down on the supplies.

At present, NOC is incurring a loss of Rs 1.26 billion a month. "IOC is supplying only 60 percent of the regular quantity that we need to maintain normal supplies," said an NOC source.

Sadly, such poor management of the much-needed fuel has hit the transportation of construction materials and operations of heavy equipment at different project sites -- mainly big ones, said Ramesh Sharma, former president of Federation of Contractors´ Associations of Nepal (FCAN).

"The fuel was on a short-supply for a month. But since one week, the supply has completely dried up as NOC did not release required fuel to the projects," he told Republica. In order to push the state-owned petroleum monopoly to resume normal supplies, contractors are planning to approach NOC requesting it not to cut down on the diesel supply, which is crucial for the development works that have just begun catching momentum.

Yaksha Dhoj Karki, proprietor of Sky Builder which is involved in the construction of Bagmati Irrigation Project, said fuel-shortage has hit the construction work at the project he is implementing. "If the situation persists, a timely implementation of the project will be in question," he stated.

"Construction works in postal roads in Tarai, Pushpa Lal Mid-Hills Highway and irrigation projects such as Sikta, Sunsari-Morang, Bagmati, Babai and Mahakai as well as dozens of other rural road projects initiated by local consumers groups are all reeling under fuel crisis," he said.

According to government records, more than a hundred excavators, around 200 trippers, 60 rollers, around one-dozen pre-mix asphalt plants are presently engaged in big projects across the country. Apart from that, over 200 excavators are in use in different rural roads being constructed by local consumer groups.

Suresh Kumar Agrawal, acting managing director of NOC, said supplies to big projects have been slashed significantly due to short-supply of fuel. “Demands from different projects have gone up. However, we are not in a position to supply them as much fuel as they want. It will create unbearable crisis in the market,” said Agrawal.

According to Mukunda Dhungel, spokesperson of NOC, the corporation is presently supplying as much as 60 percent of total volume that big projects have demanded. Amid lack of finances to ensure enough imports, NOC is presently importing less fuel and distributing just around 2,000 kiloliters (KL) of diesel a day against the demand of 3,000 KL in the country.
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