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PRIME BANK ANNOUNCES INCREASED PROFIT

Kathmandu, 5 Aug.: Prime Bank Ltd. announced a net profit of

Rs.479.790 million in fiscal year 2012/13 ending 15 July.

The bank recorded a Rs. 269.449 million profit the previous year.

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KUMARI BANK LTD.ALSO RECORDS INCREASED PROFIT

Kathmandu, 5 Aug.: Kumari Bank Ltd, also recorded an increased profit

The bank recorded an increased profit of Rs.291.548 million in the fiscal year 2012.13.

Profit increased from Rs,275.505 million the previous year.

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GOVT. LAXITY CAUSE OF BIRD FLU SPREAD
Kathmandu, 5 Aug.: Poultry farming experts say the government’s inability to check the spread of bird flu in Jhapa, Chitwan and Pokhara was responsible for the outbreak in the Kathmandu Valley. They argue that had the government tightened quarantine check at border points in Kathmandu and other places after Jhapa, Chitwan and Pokhara saw the bird flu spread, the outbreak would not have taken the present
proportion in Bhaktapur, Ishworkaji Khalhu writes in The Himalayan Times from Bhaktapur.  .

Poultry expert Dr Til Chandra Bhattarai said the bird flu infection had assumed epidemic proportions in the Kathmandu Valley after the government failed to cull the infected fowls within three days of getting infected in a scientific way.

“The government did not apply quarantine check at border points after flu detection in Jhapa, Chitwan and Pokhara,” Bhattarai said. He asked the government to set up laboratory in every district livestock office to test bird flu. He also demanded that the government formulate a regulation to manage poultry farming.

Another poultry expert Dr Balaram Kisi said the government’s act to destroy chickens, eggs and chicken feed only after the confirmation of the bird flu led the to its spread. “Immediate disease identification and immediate destruction is the only solution to bird flu,” Kisi added.

He argued that low compensation for the culled chickens by the government was another reason for bird flu spread. “As the governmental reparation is very low, poultry farmers are compelled to send their products to the market,” Kisi said. Dr Bhattarai said if the government provided actual cost of the fowls to the farmers, they would be ready to destroy the infected birds. Dr Bijay Kant Jha, chief, Livestock Directorate, however, claimed, “Rapid response teams are doing their job round the clock.”

PM concerned

KATHMANDU: After the outbreak of bird flu was reported in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi on Sunday instructed the concerned ministers and government bodies to take serious initiative with top priority to control its spread. Regmi met Minister for Health and Population Bidhyadhar Mallik and Minister for Agricultural Development Tek Bahadur Gharti and instructed them to make attempts to control the outbreak more effectively, said Regmi’s Press Adviser Bimal Gautam.

13,000 chickens culled

After bird flu was confirmed in three more poultry farms, the government on Sunday culled 13,052 chickens and buried them in Bhaktapur. According to District Livestock Office, Bhaktapur, 10,700 chickens belonging to Narayan Hari Khatri at Palase of Chitpol VDC, 1,300 at Ajay Ojha’s farm at Duwakot VDC and 990 brought up by Ishwori Thapa at Sipadol VDC were destroyed on Sunday.

Khagendraraj Bhatta at District Livestock Office Bhaktapur said 7,280 eggs at Khatri’s farm and 500 kg chicken feed from Khatri and Thapa’s farms were also destroyed. Bhatta said as many as 13 farms in the district have been infected. Dead fowl samples from eight poultry farms have been sent to Livestock Disease Research Laboratory for bird flu test.

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ENHANCED DRUB VIGIL AT AIRPORT

Kathmandu, 5 Aug..: The number of foreigners arrested for drug trafficking in Nepal has dropped to 28 in the fiscal year 2012-13 from 31 in the fiscal

2011-12m The Himalayan Times reports..

According to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), 28 foreigners, including two women, were arrested in 2012-13 against 31 foreigners in the preceding fiscal. SSP Rana Bahadur Chand, NCB deputy in-charge, said the law enforcement agency has intensified security vigil at the TIA after it found some foreigners using Nepal as their transit point for pushing the contraband into third countries.

“We have also deployed sniffer dogs at the country’s only international airport as manual checking is not always failproof,” he said, adding that all the foreigners arrested till now were trying to smuggle hashish.

The anti-drug officials were alarmed by the ever-changing modus operandi of some smugglers to push the contraband into foreign countries by concealing the drugs, hashish in particular, in handicraft items, luggage and cargo. An Italian national was arrested with three kg hashish concealed in a false bottom of a suitcase at the Tribhuvan International Airport yesterday.

Jianluigi Maran, 58, (passport number YA 3536889) was found in possession of the narcotic drug during a security check at the departure lounge of TIA at around 2.15 pm, while he was preparing to board an Etihad Airways plane bound for Italy via Abu Dhabi.

On April 3, German citizen Brend Klein Schmidt (passport number 247957934) was held with 21 kg hashish at the TIA while he was preparing to board a Qatar Airways flight for Germany via Doha of Qatar.

Foreigners are involved in pushing drugs, particularly hashish, abroad as Nepalis do not want to be mules and take the risk of being arrested due to the tight vigil in TIA, an investigator claimed.

Hashish, the only narcotic drug produced in Nepal, tops the chart of most smuggled drugs from the country.

One kilogramme of hashish fetches more than $13,000 in Europe against around Rs 10,000 in the local black market.

Investigators say demand for Nepali hash is high in the international market due to ‘its quality’.

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