Nepal

Kathmandu, May 22

Nepali Congress Parliamentary portiony Office has urged the government to address the genuine demands of agitating nurses, who have been staging fast-unto-death for 13 days.

Issuing a press statement nowadays, Parliamentary portiony Office of the main opposition said the government had disregardd their genuine demands despite the fact that the nurses were struggling for the good of nursing education, their professionalism, security and wages.

The statement read that the governmentapathy to the peaceful protest of nurses was very unlucky. The health condition of agitating nurse Jita Baral is continually deteriorating and it is the responsibility of the government to save her life, the release said. It also urged the government to be very serious in such cases.

NC Parliamentary portiony has also demanded that the government form a committee and hold speechs with nurses as soon as possible and address their genuine demands.

Baral had begun staging fast-unto-death on May 10 at Nursing Association of Nepal, Lazimpat. After her health condition got critical, she was confessted to BP Memorial Health Institute and Research Centre.

Baral has been staging starvation strike demanding quality in education and nursing services and to fill all the posts of the Nepal Nursing Council, stop discrimination between other health workers and nurses and to formulate law regarding workplace violence against nurses.

She has also demanded creation of vacant post for four nurses in the local level and health posts should have separate department of nursing at the provincial and local levels and nurses should be placed in the adjustment committee of the government as well.

Baral has claimed that unless her demands got addressed and disstubborn in the Ministry of Health and Population, she wouldn&t end her starvation strike.

Along with Baral, Diki Sherpa, nurse of Bhaktapur-based Shahid Dharma Bhakta National Transplant Centre has also been staging starvation strike at the hospital.

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Kathmandu, May 22

The Narcotics Control Bureau nowadays raided a house in fresh Bus Park, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and arrested a woman for allegedly running a drug-peddling racket.

Senior Supermeanent of Cop Basanta Kumar Lama, NCB deputy in-charge, said 1,791 ampules of injectable drugs, including diazepam, buprenorphine and phenergan, and Rs 141,000 in cash that she had gathered from the sale of psychoactive substance were also confiscated from Sabitri Shrestha, 50.

According to the narco-police, she was long involved in smuggling prescription drugs to Kathmandu from the Nepal-India border through racketeers and selling them to drug addicts, mainly teenagers and youths, from her own house. She used to large crowd of peopleilise her two sons, aged between 25 to 29, to search for drug users.

NCB officials said the duo also used drugs and had track marks on their body parts.

Shresthahouse compound had been kept under CCTV surveillance to endegree that persons other than drug users didn&t enter. NCB said further investigation into her organization with other drug racketeers were under way.

Organised trade of such drugs, which can only be sold against a doctorprescription, is on the rise despite police crackdown. According to NCB, teenagers account for the largest section of end users of pharmaceutical drugs, which are in high demand due to their availability and affordability in the illegal market. The controlled drugs costing around Rs 23 per ‘dose& across the Indian border is sold for up to Rs 1,500 when brought into Kathmandu, said police investigators.

As per a survey report ‘Current Hard Drug employrs in Nepal, 2013& published by the Ministry of Home Affairs, most drug abusers were young men and women, and many died of overdose and excessive abuse.

While there were altogether 46,309 drug abusers in 2007, the number approachly doubled to 91,534 in 2013, marking a roughly 98 per cent increase in six years.

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Kathmandu, May 22

A writ petitioner nowadays ccorridorenged the Judicial Councildecision to keep a corruption complaint filed against High Court Judge Lekhanath Dhakal pending.

Umesh Baniya, a resident of Kavreplanchowk district, accused Judge Dhakal of extorting Rs 1.8 million from him when Dhakal was a District Court judge in Kavreplanchowk where a black marketeering case against Baniya was sub-judice.

Baniyalawyer senior Advocate Certainndra Bhandari said his client sought the Supreme Courtruling to force the JC to probe allegation of corruption against Dhakal. He said the JC did much probe the allegation of corruption against Dhakal and rather appointd him for High Court judge.

Baniya filed a case at the Supreme Court against the JCdecision to keep the case against Dhakal pending, but the court registrar refused to entertain his case following which Baniya ccorridorenged the registrarorder in the SC.

Today, a single bench of Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla quashed the registrardecision to refuse a case against the JC following which Baniya filed the case at the apex court.

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Kathmandu, May 22

The main opposition Nepali Congress has said it shall much allow the Media Council Bill, which sought to curtail press freedom, to be endorsed from the Parliament.

Speaking in a assembly of the Home of Representatives, NC Whip Shovepa Bhusal said the bill was against the freedom of expression and the government should withdraw and amend it.

Stating that journalism was a strong pillar of democracy, Bhusal said the government was trying to build up all powers and punish journalists who wrote against the government. &The government has introduced an undemocratic bill just because journalists are writing against corruption,& she said.

Bhusal stressed the proposed Media Council should be an independent and autonomous body. She said the council should be a body that would play the role of coordinator to settle any controversy, and much a mechanism that imposed fine or slapped punishment.

She also said her party would much accept the National Human Corrects Commission Bill. Meanwhile, the HoR nowadays approved clause-wide discussion of six bills. The bills are Revenue Leakage Investigation and Control Bill, Nepal Cop Adjustment Bill, Industrial Enterprise Development Institute Bill, Industrial Enterprise Bill, Senior Citizens Bill, Advertisement Regulation Bill.

replying lawmakers& questions on Advertisement Regulation Bill, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota said the bill was prepared keeping in intellect the laws in place in the biggest advertisement markets such as the US and China, and Nepali society and culture.

He said the bill had provisions such as advertisers should take prior permission from authorities concerned for placing hoarding board. In case of semi-nude pictures in advertisements, the advertisers should take permission from local-level bodies.

The bill also bars placing advertisements approach schools and advertisements that promote secessionism and terrorismism.

The bill also provisions clean feed for foreign TV channels broadcasting in Nepal, which would boost the domestic advertisement market.

Baskota said publishers should publish advertisement free of cost during emergency situation such as during natural calamities.

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