NEW BANGLADESH AMBASSADOR PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO PRESIDENT Kathmandu, 11 June: Mashfee Shamas Bunte, new Bangladesh ambassador, presentedher credentials to President DR. Ram Baran yadav Monday. She is her country’s resident ambassador in Nepal. nnnn ELEVEN NEW JUDGES ON WATCH LIST Kathmandu, 11 June: The Judicial Council (JC) has placed 11 newly-nominated appellate court judges “who don’t have credible track records” in its ‘watch list.’ The judges include those nominated under the alternative category, Pranab Kharel writes in The Kathmandu Post.. While the public had rallied against some of these judges for their conduct in the district of their posting, others include those against whom complaints of financial misconduct have surfaced. The JC is planning to monitor their performance for a year and make them permanent or extend their tenure as alternative judges accordingly. Almost after five years, the JC on Sunday recommended 169 judges to be posted in the Appellate and District courts. “These individuals had not been promoted for a long time, which could have an impact on their career,” JC Spokesperson Krishna Giri said of the 11 judges. However, another informed source at the JC said their promotion was halted as their performance had not been satisfactory. The source said complaints have been lodged against them at the JC for abusing authority and indulging in financial irregularities. It said their judicial performance was also not up to the mark. Apart from these 11 judges, those recommended by the JC also includes Raj Kumar Ban against whom a judicial notice was issued. He was, however, given a clean chit by the JC, citing a precedent at the Supreme Court. Ban, posted in the Appellate Court, Pokhara, was found by the apex court to have interpreted the law in two different ways in a single case. While he allowed the release of one of the accused on bail, the other one was sentenced to jail. The apex court found Ban was involved in judicial misconduct for using a legal provision which did not apply in that case. Nnnn CHOLERA OUTBREAK HITS 200 IN NEPALGUNJ Kathmandu, 11 June: An outbreak of a disease symptomatic of cholera has affected local residents of Nepalgunj and the town’s adjoining areas, downing more than 200 people as of Sunday, Rajendra Nath writes in The Kathmandu Postfrom Nepalgunj.. Ram Bahadur Chand of the Banke District Public Health Office (DPHO) said they were waiting for a lab report from the National Public Health Laboratory to confirm the disease. “We suspect that polluted drinking water may be the primary cause for the disease but we are not quite sure if it is cholera,” Chand said. The cholera-like disease has mostly affected the residents of six wards in Nepalgunj. It has also been reported in Fattepur and Indrapur VDCs. As of Sunday, the Bheri Zonal Hospital received 290 patients suffering with the disease, said Dr Sarwesraj Sharma. Meanwhile, the DPHO has mobilised 85 female health volunteers equipped with water disinfectants and emergency medicines around Nepalgunj. An emergency meeting of the DPHO has also decided to run a weeklong public health awareness campaign. nnnn