GPVT. SEEKS REVIEW OF COURT ACTION

GOVT. SEEKS APPEAL OF COURT ACTION

Kathmandu, 27 Jan..: Government Friday registered a writ at the supreme court Saturday even on a public holiday to review a decision not to extend the tenure of the constituent assembly after it express in the last week of May.
The court didn’t register the first appeals of the government and parliament which was rejected by the registrar of the highest court.
The assembly has been charged with responsibility drafting a constitution.
Chairman Subash Newang had said the court decision must be respected.
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MAOIST FIGHTERS TO BE SENT BACK IN THREE DAYS
Kathmandu, 27 Jan.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Saturday directed a secretariat under a special committee to send back frmer gurrillas from 28 camps in another three days, Finance Minister Barshaman Singh Pun and aide of the government chef said.
A delayed meeting of a special committee chaired by the premier was held Saturday amid charges by opposition the government isn’t simultaneously integrating former combatants and bidding them farwell on a Maoist strategy. is all set to initiate the process to bid farewell to those combatants who opted for voluntary retirement during the regrouping process within three days.
During the meeting held Friday morning, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai directed his secretariat to initiate the process at the earliest to bid farewell to the combatants.
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SOCIAL SECURITY TO ALL NEPALIS N 10 YEARS
Kathmandu, 27 Jan.: The government’s national directorate committee on social security has proposed ensuring minimum social security coverage to the entire Nepali population in the next 10 years, Prithvi Man Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post..
The committee headed by National Planning Commission secretary Yubaraj Bhusal has prepared a draft of the national framework on social security that also seeks to ensure access to basis services for people irrespective of class, ethnicity, sex, age, disability and geographical location. The proposed framework calls for introducing social insurance programmes and their expansion and reducing the risk of poverty and deprivation by providing necessary resources and inclusion measures.
As per the proposed framework, social security for people would be provided in two ways — ground floor approach and first floor approach. The first approach seeks to provide access to minimum social security to all the people irrespective of class, ethnicity, area and religion. Minimum social security covers a basic package of ensuring rights and handing over of cash and goods as well as basic services. “The government should ensure basic social security through the use of the taxes it collects from the people,” suggests the proposed framework.
The second approach seeks to provide social security through the contribution of government agencies, the private sector, cooperatives and non-governmental organisation whose nature would be contributory and voluntary. “The role of the state remains as a regulator and facilitator in this approach,” states the draft.
A member of the directorate committee said that the ground floor approach was for universal access to basic social security, and the first floor for ensuring support from other sectors except the government which will reduce the burden on the state to provide social security to all. “The second approach is for those who can contribute to receive social security coverage,” said the committee member.
The proposed framework suggests starting providing social security to vulnerable groups and expanding the programme to higher income groups. Other strategies included in the proposed framework are making basic services accessible to all by making a special mechanism for targeted communities, preparing a sectoral work plan to implement the national framework and revising the current social security programmes.
Currently, there are several social security programmes including senior citizen pension, allowance for widows, child protection subsidy, child delivery benefits, school tiffin programme, programmes for Dalits and the disabled, endangered communities, aid for martyrs’ families, various scholarship programmes and provision of free treatment for targeted communities.
There is a social care programme for children and senior citizens and programmes like food for work, youth self-employment programme, and there are programmes offered by the Employees Provident Fund and the Citizens Investment Trust for employees of the organised sector. Since fiscal 2009-10, the government has also started collecting a 1 percent social security tax on the first slab of taxable income from all government and private sector employees.
As the new three-year interim plan also mentions ensuring minimum social security for all and talks about expanding the coverage by preparing a national guideline, the government formed the directorate committee to prepare a framework of short- and long-term result-based programmes on social security. After preparing a draft of the framework, the committee has been holding discussions with government officials, civil society, employee unions and Constituent Assembly members.
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STEM CELL TRANSPLANT PROJECT TO BE LAUNCHED

Kathmandu, 27 Jan.: Binaytara Foundation (BTF) and the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System have partnered with B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, Bharatpur, Nepal, in a project to develop the country’s first Blood and Marrow stem cell Transplant (BMT) centre, The Rising Nepal reports.
Stem cell transplant is a standard procedure for the treatment of many types of blood cancer. The planned BMT center in Bharatpur will aim to serve not only the 30 million people of Nepal but also millions of people from neighboring India, a press release issued by BTF said Thursday.
The joint initiative by BTF and University of Illinois will facilitate the training of physicians, and support in the development of a modern blood bank. A block of 5 patient rooms at B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital has been allocated for the care of patients who will receive BMT.
University of Illinois Blood and Marrow Transplant Programme and Centre for Global Health will assist BTF’s efforts to work closely with staff in Nepal via telemedicine training programmes as well as hosting physicians from Nepal in Chicago, Illinois.
Prof. Damiano Rondelli, MD, a renowned BMT expert at the University of Illinois Hospital and collaborator of BTF, will head the project.
"After visiting the Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur with Dr. Binay Shah last May,

we immediately felt the challenge to help patients with blood cancer in Nepal. Many of these patients are in need of stem cell transplant but they currently don’t have this option. We are well aware of the many challenges that this project will face but we are fully committed to allow Nepal to achieve this goal," Dr. Rondelli said.
"It is like climbing a new Himalaya peak and we will get on the top. BTF and the University of Illinois Hospital resources are ready to succeed."
Recent World Health Organization reports suggest that deaths from cancer are increasing to epidemic proportions in developing countries.
At B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, 600 patients with leukemia, 110 patients with lymphoma, and 40 patients with multiple myeloma were diagnosed in one year alone, 2010.
"A BMT facility in Bharatpur, Nepal will serve thousands of patients from Nepal and neighboruing states of India,” a statement saud.
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