MADESHSBADI PARTES CONSULTING PM BHATTARAI SUNDAY

MADESHBADI PARTIES CONSULTING PM SUNDAY
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Following a consultative meeting at the residence of TMLP Chairman Mahanta Thakur at his residence Saturday, a front of five
tarai-based parties in government decided to ask Maoists leading the government to implement a four-point accord.
The front is holding a meeting with Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Sunday urging the government chief to implement the agreement that pushes southern regional issues, including mass recruitment of terai youth in Nepal Army
Hard-liners in UCPN (Maoist) charge establishment faction of Chairman Prachanda and the premier signed the four-point deal without discussions and approval in the party.
Madeshbadi parties are also pressing for distribution of naturalized
citizenship in the region with an open border and porous border with India.
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WOMAN KILLED BY WILD ELEPHANT IN BARDIYA NATIONAL PARK
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: A woman was killed by wild elephant late Saturday afternoon inside the Bardiya National Park
She’s the 7th person to be killed by wild elephants on the park on the Indo-Nepal border.
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GP KOIRALA COMMEMORATIVE STAMP ISSUED
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.:: Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala has expressed the belief that all the problems facing the nation could be addressed if we moved forward in keeping with the letter and spirit of the seven-point agreement, RSS reports from Sundarijal.

Speaking at a programme for affixing the first cancellation marks on the commemorative stamp depicting the portrait of the late Girija Prasad Koirala, the supreme personality of Nepali politics, here on Friday, NC president Koirala said the Unified CPN-Maoist should free the Nepali people of the worries by extending support for the smooth conclusion of the peace and constitution writing processes.

The programme was jointly organised by the Department of Postal Services and the BP Museum Development and Management Committee.

Koirala said the state restructuring should be done in such a way that the unity of the three geographical regions—the mountainous region, the hilly region and the Tarai region—remains intact and it further strengthens the goodwill in society.

The NC president also stressed that the UCPN-Maoist should build the environment of trust for the conclusion of the peace and the constitution writing processes by returning the land and properties it had seized during the conflict period to their rightful owners.

Minister for Information and Communications, Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta affixed the first cancellation marks on the commemorative postage stamp.

He said the State has not been able to unite all the ethnic groups and the oppressed and marginalised communities sentimentally, stressing the need for accommodating the aspirations of all the communities to that end.

Chairman of the BP Museum Parashu Ram Pokharel presided over the programme.One million units of the commemorative postage stamps of Rs. 10 denomination have been issued today [Saturday].
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DEUBA BLASTS SRC REPORT
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress Senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has expressed dissatisfaction over the report of the State Restructuring Commission (SRC), RSS reports from Lalitpur.

Speaking at a cultural programme organised by the Nepal Tamang Association on the occasion of the 2848 Duk Sonam Lhosar in Godawari, Lalitpur on Saturday, leader Deuba said the SRC report has caused frustrations among the people.

He said that it was a matter of concern that two different reports were brought out on the sensitive and serious issues like the restructuring of the State.

Claiming that the SRC report which has proposed two separate regions in a single district would jeopardise the harmony existing in the Nepali society, Deuba stressed the need of listening to the people's voice instead of the political parties while taking the nation into federal structure.

The NC senior leader further underscored the need of piling pressure on the bodies concerned to ensure the rights of all the backward castes and communities including the Tamang people.

Also addressing the programme, NC Lalitpur district president Madan Bahadur Amatya said the role of all the political parties was important to guarantee the rights of the Tamang Community.

Association Lalitpur district chairman Ramkrishna Lama said the Tamang people were committed to fight for securing their rights and identity.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“Corruption thrives when political leaders are themselves corrupt. It is very unfortunate that politics has become a means for financial gains. I am fully committed to freeing politics of corruption. I believe maintaining good governance would be possible only if politics is freed of corruption.”

(PM Bhattarai, Republica, 12 Feb.)
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ADAMANT TIBETANS SHOW ID; FREED TO GET ENTRY INTO KATHMANDU
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.:: Tibetans who were held at the bordering city of Raxaul in India for the past one week were allowed to leave for Kathmandu on Saturday, The Himalayan Times reports from Birgunj.

Out of 209 Tibetans on their way to Nepal from Bodhgaya in India, 175 were denied entry after they failed to produce required documents at the immigration office. They, however, showed identity cards issued by Jarong Thubten Mindrol Donga Chholing Buddhist Monastery in Sitapaila, Kathmandu today [Saturday], after which immigration officials freed them. They also produced facsimile copies of documents issued by District Administration Office, Solukhumbu, which identified them as Tibetan refugees.

“We let them go after warning that their movement without papers could lead to their arrest,” said an immigration
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FORMER MAOIST PLA FIGHTERS ANNOUNCE PROTESTS AGAINST
CHEQUE SNATCHING
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Combatants from Chulachuli-based PLA First Division in Ilam and its subordinate camps, who opted for retirement and were robbed off cheques bearing their retirement pay, have announced a struggle programme, The Himalayan Times reports from Damak.

Forming a struggle committee — Janamukti Sena Nepal First Division Struggle Committee — they announced their struggle programme at a press conference in Damak, Jhapa today.

As per their programme, which starts today, the combatants will halt vehicular movement in the eastern region from 12 noon till 2:00 pm on the first day of agitation. They also plan to draw the attention of the government to the need to address their demands by February 16. On February 17, they will halt all vehicular movement in the eastern region.

Formed under the coordination of Purna Bahadur Limbu, the struggle committee has put forward a number of demands including the unconditional return of seized cheques and identity cards in the presence of political parties, equal distribution of relief to disqualified combatants and combatants inducted into the YCL from the fund of millions of rupees in the PLA fund and reimbursement of the amount withdrawn by commanders from the seized cheques, among others.

Meanwhile, speaking at the conference, many combatants condemned the act of check-snatching.

“A new feudalism has started in the Maoist party with the cheque-grab. We gave ourselves to topple such feudalism once, but now are suffering at the hands of our own party men,” lamented retiring combatant Pradeep Kumar Shrestha.

According to the struggle committee, the cheques of 400 combatants were seized at the Chulachuli-based headquarters and its three satellite camps. Limbu said, of the 400 victims, cash has been withdrawn from the accounts of 300 combatants under the direction of commanders. Combatants have also warned they will not keep mum if their party downplays their contribution.
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WOEFUL TALE OF FORMER MAOIST COMMANDER FIGHTER
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: A revolutionary adventurer, Ran Bahadur KC was trained in guerilla warfare even before the Maoists formally launched insurgency in the spring of 1996, and subsequently became a member of the party´s core combative force comprising 12 personnel, Kiran Pun writes in Republica..

KC was also among the 37 combatants led by party leader Barshaman Pun, who overran the Holeri police station on February 13, 1996 in one of the three major attacks on security forces launched by the Maoists on the first day of the People´s War.

Promoted to the rank of Battalion Commander in the PLA hierarchy, KC was on the frontline of the successive battles with the well-trained state soldiers and was lucky enough to survive.

Sixteen years on, a visibly weak KC, now 41, finds his revolutionary zeal flagging and his political conviction dying.



“I lost scores of colleagues in the battles and I regarded myself lucky to survive. But I was wrong. Now I think they were lucky because they lost their lives for their conviction and did not have to see these days of deception and disillusionment,” said KC from Rolpa, who stays with his relatives at Kusunti, Lalitpur.

A diabetes patient, KC now stays with relatives in Kathmandu and struggles for two square meals a day.

Immediately after the attack on the army in Krishnabhir in 2003, he seriously fell ill, and was taken to Chitwan Hospital for treatment. There he was diagnosed with diabetes, and could no longer participate in the war. After spending some time in Rolpa, he sold his house for treatment in Kathmandu.

“I worked as a full-timer in Kathmandu, but the party soon stopped giving me money. I was compelled to do odd jobs for survival,” he says.

The former Maoist commander worked as a construction laborer, and then became a taxi driver. But he sold his taxi after failing to pay the loan.

After the party formed the government following the CA polls, he knocked on the doors of the leaders for a job. “They informed that they had arranged a job for me, but it surprised me that they wanted me to work a sweeper at a public school,” he said.

It came as a relief when party leader Matrika Yadav later arranged a job as a gardener for his wife Asha at the National Zoo Center.

It has made him feel more miserable to know that his former colleagues in the cantonments are now returning home with hefty paychecks. KC, who has to be administered insulin everyday for survival, on the other hand, is dependent on a meager salary of his wife. He would have been a division commander had he stayed with the PLA.

During the PLA verification process in 2007, he asked the party leaders and commanders to make arrangements for his registration at the cantonments. “But they told me that a cadre like me should stay out of the cantonment to launch people´s revolt. But there has been no such revolt,” he said.

Now KC says he is disillusioned with the ideals he once cherished so much.

“The party leaders have given all the benefits to their kith and kin, but we, who spilled blood and sweat for the revolution have been left to fend for ourselves,” he said.
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INFERTILITY CASES RISING
Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Life has never been so difficult for 32-year-old Meena Thapa (name changed) of Terathum. If she is not able to conceive some time soon, her married life might come to an end, Anjali Subedi writes in Republica..

Married for seven years now, Thapa realized last year that she has an infertility problem, and she is receiving treatment at an infertility center at Bujulibazar, New Baneshwor. However, despite having to spend a hefty amount on the treatment, there is no guarantee she will be blessed with a baby.

“I am undergoing treatment and it´s so expensive. However, it is not certain I´ll eventually have a baby. I wish instead that I had never married,” said the visibly distressed woman. “I will let my husband marry another woman if the treatment fails,” she added.

The Thapa couple run a small grocery shop at Gairidhara. They planned their stay in Kathmandu in the hope that good mkedical treatment might solve their problem.

Mrs. Thapa´s case is definitely not exceptional. Sedentary lifestyle, unsafe sex, late marriage, overuse of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, water and environment pollution and improper food habits, among other things, are causing more and more couples to take recourse to infertility treatment centers, doctors state.

For instance, at least six new cases of infertility are registered per day at the renowned infertility center at Bijulibazar, as compared to just one case a day or less only five years ago. While infertility in men or women can literally devastate their personal and family life and their finances, doctors admit that treatment and cure cannot always be guaranteed.

According to Chariman of Om Hospital Dr Bhola Rijal, infertility is such a serious problem that married couples can go to any extreme to cope with it. He also says that a cure cannot always be guaranteed. According to him, infertility is not only physical, it is even more a psychological or social problem, and the factors that cause it need to be addressed.

“The misery of such couples is beyond measure, and sadly, the problem is just getting worse. This calls for serious intervention by the government; the entire health sector has to be revamped,” he remarks.

The assessment of Dr Uma Srivastav, founder of the infertility care center, is no different. “If you ask me whether infertility is on the rise, my answer is definitely yes, and it´s on the rise both in the cities and villages. The lack of proper health services in the villages has worsened the problem,” Srivastav said.

“People come here for treatment all the way from Dailekh, Jajarkot, Rukum and Rolpa. Many come when it is too late,” she adds. According to her also, there used to be one client per day or less until five years back. Now, at least six cases are registered in a day. “Awareness levels have increased, but not sufficiently.”

According to Dr Srivastav, late marriage, obesity, induced abortion in the first pregnancy and inactive lifestyle are the main reasons behind infertility among women in urban areas. “And the common causes like genital tuberculosis, infection in the related parts and poor egg quality apply to all.”

As far as males are concerned, abnormal sperm production, sub-fertility and blockage of sperm delivery are common reasons preventing them from fathering children, Srivastav said. “Excessive consumption of tobacco and alcohol, sexually transmitted diseases and abnormal hormones pose high risk of infertility for both males and females.”

Dr Rijal adds that infertility in Nepal is also rising because of the increasing number of males going abroad for employment. “In course of treatments I have found the problem of infection or tube blocks due to infection in a maximum number of women.

“Millions of Nepalis who work in India and other countries transmit sexual diseases to their wives, and in case of lack of timely treatment, the tubes are permanently blocked in some women. Men might also lose their fertility due to excessive manual work.”

Rijal says,“People are least aware about reproductive health, and they have no access to timely treatment when problems arise, which leads to them becoming totally infertile.”
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