7.8 MILLION STUDENTS AFFECTED BY TEACHERS' STRIKE UPDATE

7.8 MILLION STUDENTS AFFECTED BY TEACHERS’ STRIKE UPDATE

Kathmandu, 11 March: Nearly 7.8 million students were affected by Sunday’s
strike by teachers demanding permanent status for temporary teachers.
Altogether 47 demands were pressed.
Examinations of 8th grade were affected.
Students asked teachers to call off the indefinite strike.
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NENWANG URGES CONSENSUS
Kathmandu, 11 March: Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang has held discussions with top leaders of major three political parties in his attempt to forge consensus in peace process and constitution writing.
The CA Chairman organised the meeting to persuade the leaders to forge consensus in conflicting issues seen in peace process and writing of the statute. The meeting called by the CA chair ahead of the three-party meet is taken with due importance.
After the meeting, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' said the CA Chairman expressed best wishes to make today's three-party meeting result-oriented
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PM COMPLAINS PARTIES OBSTRUCTING WORK

Kathmandu, 11 March:: Despite the approaching deadline for promulgating the new constitution, the major political parties are yet to forge consensus on conflicting issues, mainly the form of governance, federalism, judiciary, and electoral system even as the top leaders sit for series of talks, RSS reports.
Like the previous meetings, a meeting of the Constitutional Committee (CC) held Sunday also failed to yield any fruit. Worse still, the parties failed to initiate deliberations in the remaining issues of constitution writing and some points that parties had already made agreement on.
At the meeting, no progress was achieved except opinions from Prime Minister and top leaders of major three political parties. Nepali Congress Vice-president, who was present at the meeting, said discussions were underway and next meeting is scheduled for March 13.
"Nothing was discussed at the meeting except expressing views from prime minister and other members of the CC," said UML leader Bhim Rawal.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai said he was prevented from working, thereby the present situation was going from bad to worse.

"History will judge me. I am prevented from working but situation is worrisome," leader Rawal quoted PM as saying at the meeting. PM's speech was filled with frustration and threat, Rawal added.
The leaders said that lack of trust among the parties and non-implementation of the past agreements were to blame for present situation of politics.Emerging after the meeting, Paudel said Dr Baburam Bhattarai is the luckiest prime minister after the CA elections adding that PM's expression of threat was not reasonable.

Co-chairman of Rastriya Janashakti Party Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani said no progress was mad eat the meeting as the meeting ended after the speeches of the top leaders.
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VICTIMS OF JAPAN’S TSUNAMI, NUCLEAR ACCIDENT REMEMBERED
Kathmandu, 11 March: A memorial meeting was organised here today [Sunday] commemorating the devastating tsunami triggered by magnitude 9 earthquake that hit Japan exactly on this day in 2011, RSS reports .



Vice President Parmananda Jha attended the memorial service held at the residence of Japanese ambassador Kunio Takahashi at local Tahachal and paid tributes to the victims of the tsunami.



Constituent Assembly chairman Subas Nembang, CPN (UML) president Jhalanath Khanal, president of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Pashupati Shumsher Rana, among other leaders, offered floral tributes to the memory of the thousands of Japanese nationals who lost their lives in the natural disaster.



Speaking on the occasion, Japanese ambassador Takahashi said people of Japan will never forget this massive quake that triggered the tsunami which paralyzed the normal life of his country.



He said the Japanese people had never imagined of this scale of destruction hitting their country and thanked the different countries including Nepal for the support provided in the reconstruction works following the calamity.



High-ranking Nepali officials and the chiefs and the representatives of the different diplomatic missions in Nepal attended the memorial service and expressed condolences.A minute's silence was also observed at the memorial function exactly at 11:31 am, Nepal standard time the tsunami hit Japan.



People in Japan and Japanese nationals throughout the world also observed silence today in memory of the tsunami victims, according to the Embassy of Japan, Kathmandu.Some 19,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the earthquake and the tsunami it triggered on March 11, 2011

The leakage of radioactive substance due to the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the aftermath of the tsunami also badly affected life. However, Japan has managed to check the impact due to the explosion of the nuclear power plant after long and arduous efforts.
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