Nepal

Kathmandu, September 28

Five government officials were awarded Integrity Icon-2019 by Accountability Lab, Nepal, at a public event yesterday.

Accountability Lab is an organisation that works to strengthen accountability system in various countries.

The officials who have been honoured for their integrity are: Section Head under the Ministry of Forest and EnvironmentProject Facilitation Section Gyanendra Kumar Mishra, Food Investigation Officer at Department of Food, Technology and Quality Control Iswar Subedi, Chief Administrative Officer of Chulachuli Rural Municipality, Illam, Kajiman Rai, a teacher at Shree Bhanu Secondary School in Dhumsichaur, Tanahun, Prem Bahadur Darai and senior Auxiliary Nurse Midwife at Mugu District Hospital Punya Prabha Devkota.

The award was handed over by Anup Raj Sharma, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission.

Congratulating those who had received the awards, Sharma said awards such as Integrity Icons would be instrumental in promoting integrity. He said, &When we look back into history, we can observe that people with integrity have always been the real change makers. I look forward to seeing these icons continue their journey of being change agents in public service.&

Accountability Lab has been organising this global campaign every year since 2014.

Narayan Adhikari, CEO and co-founder of Accountability Lab Nepal, said the time had come to empower young local leaders who could lead the new generation and make them responsible leaders.

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Kathmandu, September 28

A total of 11 persons have lost their lives due to rabies this year at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku.

According to STIDH, all these rabies patients were referred to the hospital from different parts of the country.

Despite efforts of the government, including free rabies vaccination, many people lose their lives each year due to the disease.

According to the hospital, 19 cases of rabies were diagnosed in the hospital in fiscal 2018-19. They later succumbed to the disease.

Rabies is a viral infection that attacks the central nervous system and spreads commonly through the bite of an infected dog, cat, bat, or jackal.

World Health Organisation has set a target of eliminating dog-transmitted rabies by 2030. WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control have established a global ‘United Against Rabies& collaboration to provide a common strategy to achieve ‘zero human rabies deaths by 2030.&

&To meet the goals of zero rabies death in Nepal, local and provincial governments should notify each rabies case to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division so thatwe can identify vulnerable areas and come up with effective programmes and plans to control rabies,& said Anup Bastola, Consultant Tropical Medicine at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital.

&Vaccinating dogs en masse is a must if we are to bring the number of rabies deaths to zero. It is the most cost-effective method,& said Bastola. &Though vasectomy helps decrease the number of dog population, mass vaccination of dogs helps control rabies that is transmitted from animals to humans and to animals,& added the doctor.

There is sheer negligence among people about dog bites. People are ignorant and unaware about rabies. Many people come to the hospital only after they develop symptoms of rabies. They visit the hospitals with signs of hyperactivity, excitable behaviour, hydrophobia (fear of water) and sometimes aerophobia (fear of drafts or of fresh air). Every dog bite should be taken seriously and immediate medical help should be sought. Proper health education and information about rabies should be given to people across the country if we are to report zero cases by 2030, he added.

The World Rabies Day is celebrated on September 28 each year with the aim of raising awareness about rabies prevention. This year it was celebrated with the theme ‘Rabies: Vaccinate to Eliminate&.

According to World Health Organisation, dogs are the main cause of human rabies deaths, contributing up to 99 per cent of all rabies transmissions to humans. People are infected after being bitten or scratched by an infected animal. Transmission can also occur when infectious material, usually saliva, comes in direct contact with human mucus or fresh skin wounds.

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Kathmandu, September 28

Former Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya passed away yesterday at the age of83.

His daughter Sangita Satyal said the former CJ was suffering from lung cancer and was bed-ridden for almost a week. Recently, he was diagnosed with fourth stage of lung cancer.

Former CJ Upadhyaya was cremated at Pashupati Aryaghat as per Hindu tradition.

Upadhyaya is survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons.

The full court of the Supreme Court passed a motion today condoling Upadhyayadeath.

The Supreme Court issued a press release saying that untimely demise of former CJ Upadhyaya had caused an irreparable loss to the field of law and justice. The SC said that the contribution made by former CJ Upadhyaya in the legal field would always be memorable. Upadhyaya was born on 5 December 1937 in Siraha district.

Upadhyaya, who joined the judicial service on 14 October 1963, served the judiciary for almost 40 years. He first became Dadeldhura Area Court judge and was promoted to Justice of the Supreme Court on 3 September 1991 before becoming the chief justice on 17 December 1999. He retired from service on 5 December 2002.

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Kathmandu, September 28

National Child Rights Council has intensified its rescue operation in Kathmandu.

According to NCRC, 98 street children were rescued from various places of Kathmandu in the last nine days.

The NCRC has stepped up operation to rescue street-children in a bidto meet the governmentaim of making Kathmandu a street-children-free city. Last Wednesday, it rescued 45 street children (30 boys and 15 girls) from various places such as Ratnapark, New Road, Basantapur, Jaisi Dewal, Thamel, Durbarmarg and Pulchowk.

NCRC is carrying out the rescue operation in coordination with Nepal Police, Children Search Coordination Centre and various other organisations such as Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre. NCRC has also claimed that it has rescued 140 street children in the current fiscal year. Children aged between four and 18 were rescued during the period, according to NCRC officials.

All the rescued street children have been sent to various child care centres. As per the data with NCRC and CSCC,there are around 300 street children inside the valley.

Police Inspector Mohan Bikram Dahal, also a head of CSCC, said, &If we keep on rescuing street children in the current rate, we will be able torescue all street children within a few months.&

Dahal, however, stressed the need to find the root cause behind abandonment of these children. He said most of these children ended up on the streets after running away from their houses due to family conflicts triggered mainly by poverty.

&If we fail to address the root cause of the problem, children will continue to end up on the streets,& Dahal said.

The NCRC also said they had inspected and monitored around 100 child care centres since mid-July and rescued over 200 children from five illegal child care centres that wereoperating without fulfilling the basic criteria.

Administrative Chief at NCRC Krishna Prasad Bushal said, &We found that five out of 100 child care centres were operated illegally, which meant that there could be more such centres,& adding, &All illegally operating centres and centres that do not meet basic standards will be closed soon.&

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