Nepal

• Over 1,000 patients in Kathmandu
• Govt urged to declare national public health emergency

Kathmandu, September 11

Dengue is spreading at an alarming rate in Kathmandu, with the district witnessing over four-fold hike in the number of patients in just two days.

Kathmandu district recorded 254 dengue cases till Sunday. But by Tuesday that number had surged to 1,170. The number of dengue patients in two other districts of Kathmandu valley, however, has remained stable over the past two days.

Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital sees a surge in the number of patients seeking treatment for dengue, on Wednesday, September 11, 2019. Photo: Rajesh Gurung/THT

Bhaktapur district, for instance, had registered 33 dengue patients till Sunday. The number remained the same till Tuesday. Lalitpur, on the other hand, witnessed three new dengue patients in the last two days, taking the number to 35.

&One of the major reasons for rapid spread of the disease in Kathmandu district is poor sanitation,& said Baburam Marasini, former director at Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.

Kathmandu district is also an entry point to the valley, so many buses that arrive here from other districts bring in mosquitoes as well, according to Marasini. &This is another reason for sharp hike in dengue patients in the district,& said Marasini.

&Moreover, many dengue patients from across the country are in Kathmandu for treatment. Since many public hospitals that treat dengue are located in Kathmandu district, chances of those not infected contracting the disease are very high.&

The surge in number of patients in the district has filled a public hospital that treats dengue to the brim. Teku-based Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, where patients are tested for infectious diseases such as dengue and are treated, now receives 400 dengue patients every day.

&The government should not charge people who visit hospitals for dengue test,& opposition Nepali Congress lawmaker Sujata Pariyar told the House of Representatives today. &If the infection is confirmed, the treatment should be provided at a nominal cost.&

This is the first time Kathmandu district has seen such a large number of dengue patients. The disease has also affected 55 other districts. Till Tuesday, 5,095 people had tested positive for dengue across the country, up from 3,899 on Sunday.

As the number of dengue patients is increasing rapidly, opposition Nepali Congress lawmaker Radheshyam Adhikari today called on the government to declare ‘a national public health emergency& so that effective preventive measures could be taken to control the spread of disease.

&The number of dengue-affected districts has shot up from two to 56 in the last five months,& Adhikari told the National Assembly. &If health emergency is declared, the government can tap funds from different sources and even pool resources to purchase test kits and send them to dengue-affected areas rapidly. This will control the spread of disease,& he added.

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Kathmandu, September 11

The State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives today failed to forge consensus on issues of marital naturalisation as lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties are sharply divided on the issue.

Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Jhapat Bahadur Rawal told the panel that foreign women married to Nepali men should be made to wait for 10 to 15 years to obtain Nepali citizenship. &We should not grant foreign women married to Nepali men naturalised citizenship the moment their marriage is solemnised,& he said. Rawal told THT that he was in favour of at least seven-year waiting period for foreign women married to Nepali men to obtain Nepali citizenship as was the provision in India.

&Laws of other countries in this region are not as liberal as ours. Even in Bangladesh, foreign women married to Bangladeshi men get naturalised citizenship only after two years,& he added.

Nepal Workers and Peasants Party lawmaker Prem Suwal said there should be a waiting period of 15 years for foreign women married to Nepali men before they could obtain naturalised Nepali citizenship. He said citizenship laws should be enacted keeping in mind Nepalopen border with India.

NCPBrij Kumar Gupta, Samajwadi Party-NepalRam Sahay Yadav and Nepali Congress lawmakers Devendra Raj Kandel, Meena Pandey and Dila Sangraula demanded that the existing provision that let foreign women married to Nepali men obtain naturalised citizenship immediately after marriage should not change.

Kandel said if the provision of allowing foreign women married to Nepali men to obtain naturalised citizenship immediately after their marriage was changed, lawmakers representing Tarai districts, where such marriages were common, could take to the streets. He added that Nepal and India enjoyed cultural relations from time immemorial and hence change in the provision of marital naturalisation could also harm Nepalties with India. He handed over a written letter to panel Chair Shashi Shrestha, saying he opposed changes in provisions related to marital naturalisation.

&In India, foreign women married to Indian men can immediately get their name registered in the voters list and get Aadhaar card and passport. They can contest elections and enjoy all other rights on par with citizens,& Kandel told the panel.

Samajwadi Party-Nepal lawmaker Ram Sahay Yadav said he demanded to know the ill effects of the current provision relating to marital naturalisation, but the naysayers did not reply. &Some people are looking at the constitutional provisions of the entire world, but they should know that we make our laws keeping in mind our own situation and peculiarities,& he added.

Chief Attorney of Province 2 Dipendra Jha backed Kandel. He told THT that those citing the example of Indian nationality law to justify the incorporation of a waiting period for marital naturalisation in the citizenship bill lacked clear understanding of Indian citizenship law. &In India, foreign women married to Indian men get their names enrolled in voters list and get Aadhaar card immediately. On the basis of voters list, they can easily get passport,& he said.

He added that lawmakers who were trying to change the provisions related to marital naturalisation were trying to make an argument that did not have constitutional sanction. &Had the framers of the constitution thought of such a restriction for marital naturalisation, they could have stated this in the constitution,& Jha said. He added that those advocating restriction for marital naturalisation wanted to pursue the flawed concept of nationalism.

Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai told the panel that the Parliament could think positively about giving all rights other than political rights to those who were born to Nepali mothers and foreign fathers but were later abandoned by their fathers.

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