DIARRHEA SURFACES IN JAJARKOT, BHAJANG Kathmandu, 25 July: An elderly man died of diarrhea at Khalanga-6, Risang, in Jajarkot district on Tuesday, RSS reports from Surkhet. Dilaram Khadka, 73, of the district headquarters died of diarrhoea on the way to the district hospital, said local Birkha Karki. Karki said conjurers were invited to treat Khadka after the symptoms of diarrhoea. Locals said that the number of diarrhoea affected is on the rise in the area lately. However, the health posts are run without sufficient medicines and teams of health workers, locals complained. Similarly, diarrhoea has spread at Rilu VDC in Bajhang for a week. At least 24 persons have been affected in Ward No 5 and 6 of the VDC. Local Keshav Bohara said condition of 10 persons is critical. The locals complained that the only assistant-health worker at Rilu Sub-Health Post has not turned up the health post for over a month. Local Janak Nwal said the diarrhoea patients have visited witch doctors due to the absence of health workers. Likewise, the number of diarrhoea patients is increasing at Chharna, Thalara, Bungal and other areas in the district with the beginning of rainy season. Bishnu Drautyal, a teacher at Sainpasela, said that diarrhoea could take an epidemic form if provisions for timely treatment were not taken. nnnn> ________________________________________ EDUCATION DEPT. OVER ATTACKS ON EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Kathmandu, 25 July: The Department of Education (DoE) has expressed disappointment to the cases of vandalism on educational institutions happening lately and has urged the parties concerned to stop such acts and resolve the problems through dialogue, RSS reports. Issuing a press statement on Wednesday, the Director General at DoE, Mahashram Sharma, said that the incidents of vandalisms and shutdowns in schools is unfortunate at a time when the stakeholders have taken positively to the government´s decision to declare schools as Zone of Peace on May 25, 2011. Such statement of DoE has come after the student wing of the CPN-Maoist vandalized and set some college vehicles on fire in Kathmandu and Biratnagar demanding to end commercialization in education and replace the foreign names of the colleges with domestic ones. Similarly, the private higher secondary schools across the country were forced to close on Sunday and Monday. Sharma has said that all demands related to the education sector can be resolved through talks as well. nnnn ________________________________________