70 PERCENT WORKCOMPLETE IN TWO DAYS

70 PERCENT WORK COMPLETE IN TWO DAYS
Kathmandu, 10 March: Seventy percent work has been completed in two days Thursday/ Friday to shift former Maoist fighters from one camp to another for integration in Nepal Army.
This was disclosed by Balananda Sharma, coordinator of a secretariat under a special committee headed ex-officio by the prime minister for integration and supervision of Maoist fighters.
Work started this week to close 15 of 28 cantonments
He remaining camps will house 6,500 of 9,900 former fighters for integration as Maoists and opposition parties work out difficult procedures for assimilation.
The process could be delayed
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MORE DETAILS OF OPPPOSITION TO DISTRIBUTE CITIZENSHIP TO CHILDREN ON NATURALIZED CITIZENS
Kathmandu, 10 March: The opposition parties and the hard-line faction of the ruling UCPN (Maoist) have come down heavily on the government's decision to provide citizenship by descent to children who were born when none of their parents had acquired Nepali citizenship, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Speaking at the Reporters Club, the leaders termed the move as 'national shame' and said it would put the Nepali citizens in the minority. Maoist Secretary CP Gajurel warned that they would not let the fresh agreement between the government and the Madhes-based parties implement. "We have opposed the four-point agreement signed with the Madhesi parties since the beginning and the new deal is a continuation of the same pact," Gajurel said.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had agreed to amend the constitution after the Madhesi parties in the government threatened to withdraw their support if the August 28 four-point deal was not implemented immediately. Gajurel urged Bhattarai to resign from his post.
CPN-UML leader Shankher Pokhrel said the government's decision tends to put the Nepali people in the minority. Pokhrel stated that the decision made without any consultations with the opposition parties would be thwarted. "We will not let the constitution be amended for this purpose," said Pokhrel. To amend the constitution, a two-thirds majority is required in the parliament.
Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Ganatantrik) leader Raj Kishor Yadav defended the agreement, stating that the constitution would be amended to provide citizenship to children of the Nepali people. He informed that PM Bhattarai and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had expressed strong commitments to address the demands raised by the Madhes-based parties.
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FOUR US UNIVERSITIES AGRO HELP
Kathmandu, 10 March: Four US universities have formed a research consortium
to build a food-secure and climate resilient future of Nepal and contribute towards agriculture-led growth, Pragati Shahi writes in The Kathmandu Post.
The researchers in the consortium include Netra Chhetri, assistant professor at the Arizona State University, Krishna Poudel, assistant professor at the Louisiana State University, and two other researchers from North Carolina State University and Virginia Tech University.
According to Chhetri, the consortium is on a scoping visit to Nepal for a five-year project on food security under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“This is an interesting opportunity for universities, government and private sectors working in the sector to work together in research and implementing the project to make a food secure Nepal,” he said, adding that they will coordinate with all the national and international stakeholders. According to Chhetri, the USAID project, undertaken as part of the US government’s Feed the Future (FtF) Presidential Initiative to help poor countries fight hunger, is to be implemented in 20 different districts in Far-Western and Mid-Western and Western regions. The FtF in Nepal aims to help 165,000 vulnerable people, mostly small-holder farmers by increasing agricultural productivity, improving nutritional status of women and children under five, and increasing resilience of vulnerable communities. In June last year, Nepal was declared one of the recipients of the fund worth US $ 46.5 million of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme, a multilateral mechanism to implement the pledges made by the G8 to help poor countries.
South Asia is home to the largest number of people living under food insecurity and where around 300 million are malnourished in lack of micronutrients. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, 33 out of 75 districts were reported to be food deficient in Nepal in 2011-2012.
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TOILETS IN KAILIOT TO KEEP GIRLS IN SCHOOL
Kathmandu, 10 March:Construction of girls’ toilets in government schools in Kalikot district has helped girl students, who faced several problems during school hours without the facility, Tularaam Pandey reports in The Kathamandu Post from Kalikot..
According to the District Education Office, 55 girls’ toilets were constructed last year while 48 are under construction. Construction of each toilet costs Rs 200,000.
“We started a campaign to build girls’ toilets in view of the decreasing number of girls attending school and their dropout rate,” said District Education Officer Arun Prasad Neupane. He said girls hesitate to come to schools during their menstruation period without a girl-friendly toilet. “We believe the campaign will encourage the girls to be regular at school,” he said.
Neupane added that the dropout rate due to the lack of girls’ toilets stands between 25 and 35 percent in the district.
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