Nepal

Kathmandu, July 19

The Ministry of Health and Population could not complete its planned projects and activities due to budget crunch, according to a progress report of fiscal 2018-19.

The report stated that the ministry completed only 79 per cent of the projects and activities in the fiscal year 2018-19, across the country.

From among 65 projects and activities mentioned in the policies and programmes of the fiscal, it completed 51 projects, 10 are in progress and work on four projects has yet to start.

According to the health ministry, it has failed to construct a building with 1,500 beds for Bir Hospital in Changu Narayan. The ministry was neither able to open trauma centres in seven provinces, nor it could provide MBBS doctors for each local level as mentioned in its policies and programmes.

&We have not been able to complete all the projects and activities due to lack of budget. The ministry received only 4.48 per cent of its total annual budget. Most of the budget allocated for the ministry was spent in salaries. We could only spend 0.48 per cent of the budget for development of health sector. The government should allocate at least 10 per cent of the total budget if we have to bring positive changes in the health sector and upgrade health facilities in the country,& said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Upendra Yadav.

The government has allocated Rs 56.41 billion budget for the ministry for the current fiscal.

Disseminating its progress report amidst a press meet today Pushpa Chaudhary, secretary at the ministry, said a total of 35,600 patients were provided financial assistance for treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, renal failure, Alzheimerdisease, Parkinsondisease, head and spinal injury and sickle cell anaemia. The government had spent a total of Rs 2.2 billion in financial assistance of such patients.

The government has been able to formulate eight laws on health related issues. It has been successful in formulating laws such as National Health Policy-2018, Public Health Service Act- 2018, National Health Insurance Policy, Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights Act-2018, among others, said Ram Prasad Thapaliya, secretary at the health ministry. Of the total 744 under-construction buildings of health facilities across the country, construction work of 214 buildings was completed in the fiscal 2018-19.

&To provide quality health services from hospitals, the government had implemented Minimum Service Standard in 83 district hospitals and as it was effective in providing quality health service, we have implemented the standard in all the health centres across the country,& said Thapaliya.

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Kathmandu, July 20

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) reached agreement to allot party departments to former CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre after more than a year of their merger to form a single party.

Earlier, the party had decided to appoint former UML leaders as chiefs of 18 departments out of 32 departments.

It had decided to appoint leaders of former CPN-Maoist Centre as chiefs of remaining 14 departments.

The party, however, remains divided on allotting the Training Department to one of the former parties. The department plays crucial role in the indoctrination of the partyrank and file.

Ishwar Pokharel the former UML leader and Narayan Kaji Shrestha the former CPN-Maoist Centre leader have claimed the position of the chief of the Training Department.

The two parties had merged in May 2018 to form the NCP, but had failed to allocate responsibilities to party leaders due to factional feud.

Although the party leaders reached agreement on the allocation of 32 departments to former UML and CPN-Maoist Centre leaders, they are yet to forge consensus on which leaders will lead those departments.

Departments allotted to the former CPN-UML include finance and planning, industry and commerce, election, justice, law and human rights,- tourism promotion and civil aviation, provincial affairs, physical infrastructure and transport management, youth and sports, foreign affairs, labour and employment, organisation, federal parliament, social welfare, cooperative and poverty alleviation, urban development, general administration, health and population, and policy.

The 14 departments allotted to the then CPN-Maoist Centre include consumer interest and import, agriculture and land management, fund and finance management, drinking water and sanitation, water resource, irrigation and hydropower, publicity and publication, library and archives,, political affairs and good governance, national security promotion, forest and environment, science and technology, education and human resource, literature, art and culture, and local levels.

Yesterday, six members representing the erstwhile CPN- UML — Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Bishnu Paudel, Bamdev Gautam and Ishwar Pokharel — of the powerful nine member Central Secretariat had agreed to appoint senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal to lead the Foreign Affairs Department of the party.

They also agreed to appoint Khanal as head of the Policy and Research Institute of the party and Gautam as head of Organisation Department.

There was long tussle in the party for awarding Organisation Department to Gautam.

Earlier, Co-chair Oli didn&t support Gautam as chief of the department, whereas another Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was supposed to support his long-time colleague Ram Bahadur Thapa, had supported Gautam for the post of chief of Organisation Department.

Devendra Paudel, a leader close to Dahal, told The Himalayan Times that the two co-chairs of the party Oli and Dahal were doing their homework to decide on the appointment of the department heads.

He said party leaders were trying to forge consensus on the person who would lead the Training Department.

He said the partysecretariat meeting planned for tomorrow would come up with names of the in-charges and co-in-charges of all 77 districts.

&It will, however, take some time to choose the heads of the departments,& he said.

Bishnu Rijal, a leader close to Nepal, said that tomorrowmeeting would not come up with the names of the department heads. &Tomorrowmeeting will decide on who will be the in-charges and co-in-charges of the districts,& he said.

He also said there was a problem regarding school department.

&If this department implies more disputes, then the two co-chairs may keep it under them,& he added.

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Kathmandu, July 19

The National Human Rights Commission has made a series of recommendations to the government for the improvement of human rights situation of migrants workers who are often subject to exploitation in various forms.

In its report titled ‘Rights Situation of Migrant Workers& made public earlier this week, the rights body said there was an urgent need to initiate action against the wrong practice of recruiters by carrying out monitoring of activities of foreign employment agencies in an effective manner. &Though existing laws do not stipulate provision of agents in foreign employment sector, they continue to prevail, often working against the interest of aspiring migrant workers. Therefore, the government should control their illegal activities pronto,& the NHRC stated.

The government should ensure that foreign employment agencies maintain transparency while charging money for aspiring migrants, only eligible persons should be permitted to pursue foreign employment by providing adequate skill training and the government should also ensure that workers are not cheated at any stages of migration, according to the report.

The NHRC stated that the government had failed to implement the provision of ‘free visa, free ticket& as promised to aspiring migrant workers. There are two ways from which aspirant migrant workers can go for foreign employment, one is through institutional channel and the other is through individual basis.

Migrant workers going for abroad employment through individual basis has increased after the government took the decision on ‘free visa, free ticket& provision for destination countries in the Gulf region. Despite this provision in place, recruiters have been charging fees on the aspirant migrant workers illegally. &The NHRC strongly recommend the concerned authorities to implement the ‘free visa, free ticket& provision in the interest of migrant workers,& it said.

The NHRC has also urged the government and the concerned authorities to raise awareness among the target groups about safe and dignified foreign employment as well as services and facilities to be provided by the Department of Foreign Employment with the help of local levels. In yet another recommendation, NHRC has suggested the government to lift the age bar and ban imposed on women for foreign employment. &The government is requested to make arrangements for sending aspirant women migrant workers in a safe and dignified manner by lifting age bar and ban imposed on women out migrants,& it said.

The government had taken adopted the restrictive measure to protect aspiring women migrant workers from forced labour and other forms of exploitation. Currently, only Nepali women aged 24 and above are eligible to take up domestic jobs in the Gulf countries and Malaysia. In March 2017, the ParliamentInternational and Labour Relations Committee had instructed the government to impose a ban on Nepali women migrating to these countries for employment as housemaids.

Various studies shows that the governmentprotectionist measure had adverse consequences on women out migrants. The age bar provision has not discouraged younger women from migrating for foreign employment. The age bar is more likely to increase womenout migration in an illegal manner raising the risk of trafficking. It has also resulted in undermining economic and social opportunities for women.

The government has been recommended to direct concerned local levels to issue birth registration certificate to the children of returnee women migrants, born from unwanted pregnancy due to their sexual exploitation during foreign employment. The recommendations include maintenance of financial discipline in the DoFE and Department of Immigration; signing of bilateral labour agreement with agencies working against exploitation of migrant workers, forced labour and human trafficking; effective implementation of national and international laws related to the rights of migrant workers; protection and rehabilitation of persons maimed during foreign employment; justice to the victims; and action against the guilty.

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