HAPAN

JAPAN ASSISTANCE FOR ELECTION
Kathmandum 24 July: - The government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant assistance of Rs. 142 million to the Nepal for Constituent Assembly (CA) election purpose.
According to a press release issued today by the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, the Japan ese government is to provide the grant assistance for the purchase of products and services to be used in the upcoming election to the second CA.
In a programme organised at the Ministry of Finance at Singha Durbar today, Secretary at the Ministry, Shanta Raj Subedi, and Ambassador of Japan to Nepal, Kunio Takahashi, signed the agreement.
The main objective of this project is to support the Election Commission of Nepal to conduct the CA election , which has been fixed for November 19, 2013.
The assistance will be spent to purchase 70,000 ballot box stickers, 350,000 coloured security seals and 35,000 fences.
Also on the occasion, Japan ese Ambassador Takahashi said that Japan ese support has been instrumental in peace building and development of Nepal.
He expressed the commitment that the Japan ese government will provide the support continuously as a partner for the development of Nepal.
Similarly, Finance Secretary Subedi expressed sincere appreciation to the contribution of Japan in socio-economic development of Nepal. RSS

Nn

NEPAL’S SHAKTI SAMUHA BAGS  MAGSAYSAY AWARD

Kathmandu, 24 July: Nepal's Shakti Samuha, or Power Group, the world's first NGO created and run by human trafficking victims is being honoured by the prestigious Magsaysay award, AP reports fro Manila..
The group's founders are being recognised for working to root out human trafficking and transforming their lives to serve other trafficking survivors. The group has established a halfway home that provides shelter and assistance to survivors and emergency shelters for women and girls at risk of trafficking.
Afghanistan's first and only female governor and a humanitarian worker from Myanmar's Kachin minority are among this year's recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, often regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize.
The Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation announced Wednesday that it had selected three individuals and two organisations as this year's awardees, including a Filipino doctor, an independent commission eradicating corruption in Indonesia and Shakti Samuha.
The awards, named after a popular Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, honor people and groups who change their societies for the better.
Habiba Sarabi, 57, was chosen for helping build a functioning local government and pushing for education and women's rights in Afghanistan's Bamyan province despite working in a violent and impoverished environment in which discrimination is pervasive, the foundation said. Public education and the ratio of female students have increased in her province, where more women are taking up careers that were forbidden under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
"In the face of widespread hostilities toward women assuming public roles, her courage and determination are outstanding," the foundation said of Sarabi, a member of an ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan.
Lahpai Seng Raw, a 64-year-old widow, was selected for helping rehabilitate damaged communities in Myanmar amid ethnic and armed conflicts. The emergency relief, health care and sanitation projects of the civil society group that she helped found in 1997 in then-military-ruled Myanmar has today reached over 600,000 people across the country.
Another awardee, Ernesto Domingo, a 76-year-old physician, has dedicated his career to pushing for the poor's access to health services and for groundbreaking and successful advocacy of neonatal hepatitis vaccination that has saved millions of lives in the Philippines, the foundation said.
Indonesia's Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, or Corruption Eradication Commission, won for its successful campaign to prosecute erring officials, recovering more than $80 million in assets, and undertaking civil service reforms and citizen anti-corruption education.
Each awardee will receive a certificate, a medal and a cash prize.
nnnn
ABSCONDING INDIAN SCHOOL PRINCIPLE FOLLOWING
DEATHS OF NEARLY TWO DOZEN SCHOOL CHILDREN
FINALLY SURRENDERS
Kathmandu, 24 July:  The absconding principal of Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School, where 23 children had died after eating midday meal, surrender ed on Wednesday, according to TV reports, Times of India reports from Patna..
Earlier in the day, a notice was pasted at principal Meena Devi's home to present herself before the police immediately failing which the process of attachment of her property will start, Saran Superintendent of Police Sujeet Kumar said.
Meena Devi is an accused in the FIR filed in connection with the midday meal tragedy . She has been on the run for over a week.
The SP said there is no time line for the process and police raids were on in different locations to net the principal.
Meena Devi has been charged in the FIR under IPC 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). A probe report by Saran Commissioner Shashi Shekhar Sharma and DIG Vinod Kumar submitted to the government has found the principal responsible for the tragedy.
Meanwhile, the primary school, which has been tagged with the government middle school in the same village, is yet to start functioning at its new location.
District education Officer Shyamdeo Paswan told that there were two teachers in the primary school, including the principal. The second teacher, who was absent on the day of the incident, is undergoing treatment for some medical problem in Patna.
He said in the rest of the schools in the district the mid-day meal programme is going on as per the new instructions of the government that includes mandatory provision of the principal and teacher tasting the food before it is served to the students.
Meanwhile, the 24 children and a woman cook Manju Devi admitted at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) after the midday meal tragedy is still under observation.
"They will be in PMCH for another 4-5 days before the doctors are fully satisfied about their health," hospital superintendent Amarkant Jha Amar said.

nnnn