BIBAHA PANCHAMI BEING OBSERVED IN JANAKPUR Kathmandu, 17 Dec.: Bibaha Panchamin Pashupati ending is ebeig observed Monday in Janakpur where the marriage of Lord Rama to Sita was solemnized. Devotees from India haeve flocked to the holy town to commemorate the marriage. Nnnn RPP-NEPAL RTH YATRA FOR HINDU STATE Kathmandu, 17 Dec.: RPP-Nepal, demanding a Hindu state, has launched a rath yatra from Janakpur to coincide with the day marking the auspicious marriage. They yatara or journey will end at Pashupatinath passing through Lumbini, the birthplace of The Buddha. mmmm The th APF. ARMY MEET IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu, 17 Dec.” APF plays Tribhuvan Club of Nepal in Martyrs Memorial D Division Football League Championship Monday. NRT plays Sarashwati in another match. nnnn CITY ROAD EXPANSIVE DRIVE MOVES ON AD HOC BASIS Kathmandu, 17 Dec.:City people must be wondering what a messy Kathmandu will look like in a few years’ time. Though roads have been widened in every nook and corner, there is no vision for the city, Samik Kharel writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Although more than a dozen of authorities are involved in the road expansion drive and city planning, none of them has a clue on how to develop the infrastructure. Many amenities—green belts, cycle lanes, and disabled-friendly footpaths—have been promised but the planners are unaware of where and how these will be built. Officials responsible say they don’t have a blueprint for a future Kathmandu. Most of them say they are doing only what they were instructed. “We don’t know the post-reconstruction face of the city. We are only doing the job assigned to us following set standards and simple engineering sketches,” says Gopal Khadka of the Kathmandu Road Division at the Department of Roads. Authorities involved in the expansion drive claim it is not their job to develop a blueprint. Chief of Kathmandu Valley Town Development Implemen-tation Committee Bhaikaji Tiwari says no design has been developed as to how the city’s infrastructure will be constructed. “Our task is to demolish structures encroaching upon the road and hand over the construction job to other authorities. It’s the duty of future planners to formulate a design,” says Tiwari. Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management, however, does not agree that works were being done without a plan. He said they have developed a design for the road stretch from Maitighar to Tinkune. “We have a proper design for the Maitighar-Tinkune road and we are developing further designs for other roads in the Valley,” said Sitaula. He added that Chinese engineers were surveying and developing a design for the Ring Road. “It will surely have bicycle lanes and a green belt,” he asserted. “It is next to impossible to develop bicycle lanes and green belts,” counters Shyam Kharel, head of the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project. “Even if there is a blueprint for the two, it is impossible to construct them along the Ring Road for lack of space. We have compromised a lot even in the building of standard footpaths due to the space crunch,” says Kharel. “The few bicycle lanes planned will have dead ends. We can just expect to build disabled-friendly footpaths and crossings, which is our priority.” While the authorities are discussing on a regular basis the future of the expansion, there are some officials who aren’t satisfied with the overall formulation and implementation of the plans. They said too many authorities were involved, resulting in the mess. Keshav Sthapit, commissioner of the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority, says the construction is in jeopardy. “We haven’t developed anything of a future plan,” laments Sthapit. “Meetings have been worthless as nothing related to the city’s future plan has been discussed,” he added. nnnn 185 MBBS STUDENTS FAIL LICENSING TEST Kathmandu, 17 Dec.: A total of 185 MBBS students have failed in the licensing examination held by the Nepal Medical Council on Saturday. The examination was supposed to be taken by 668 students, but two of them remained absent, NMC said after publishing the results on Sunday, The Kathmandu Post writes. The MBBS students are to take the test before they obtain a license for practice. Although the NMC is yet to name the students who failed, officials involved in the examination said a majority of them have studied abroad. Twenty-seven of the 38 students taking the Bachelor’s in Dental Surgery (BDS) exam have passed the test, NMC said. In this test, too, students who have studied abroad are the ones to fail, an NMC source said. Also, 13 doctors have failed the special examination of postgraduate medical doctors held by the NMC on December 1. Among the 295 applicants, eight did not show up for the examination. Among the failing doctors, 12 had studied in China, the Philippines and Russia, while one was a product of Manipal Medical School, Pokhara, it is learnt. According to NMC Chairman Dr Damodar Gajurel, the exam will ensure that only quality doctors with special training in their respective fields will go out among the public. He said the NMC, the regulatory body of medical studies and practitioners, will not register doctors as specialists if they fail the examination, meaning they will only be allowed to practice as MBBS doctors and not as specialists. Dr Gajurel said doctors who have completed their three-year master’s degree courses in Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Surgery (MS) and Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) abroad and in the country appeared in the special examination, while those who have completed their MBBS attended the mandatory examination. “With this result, we will once again make stricter regulations for those going abroad for studies to ensure that they get quality education,” Dr Gajurel said. nnnn