Nepal

Kathmandu, May 13

Veteran culture expert Satya Mohan Joshi turned 100 nowadays.

To celebrate the 100th birthday of the centenarian man, Lalitpur Metropolitan City organised a mass mass meeting in the metropolis.

Culture expert Joshi was given special honour amidst a programme organised in the metropolis. A large number of people attended the programme organised on the premises of LMC office. Minister of Defence Ishwar Pokhrel, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri, mayors of different municipalities in Kathmandu valley, literary personalities and academicians, among others, attended the programme and wished him long life.

LMC has decided to celebrate Joshihundredth year with various programmes. LMC has also decided to give special recognition to Joshi by including a lesson on Joshi in the school curriculum and issuing coins and postal stamps with his photo.

Earlier, LMC had announced a public holiday in the metropolis to celebrate his birthday. However, many people have criticised this decision of LMC saying that it is much the right way of giving recognition to Joshicontribution to society and the country.

&There are various ways of honouring and showing respect to the centenarian. But in the name of honouring him, LMC has done injustice to students,& said Bidhyanath Koirala, an education expert.

He said, instead of shutting down schools it should direct the schools to organise different programmes such as panel discussion, contribution and research of Joshi, so that they can know about the personality much more than just memorizeing his name as century person.

He lambasted LMC by saying that the decision to give public holiday was a publicity stunt.

President of National Private and Boarding School Association Nepal Ritu Raj Sapkota appreciated LMCmove to honour the personalities, who had contributed to the welfare of the country and people.

However, he said that school should much be shutd for celebrating birthdays and other similar occasions.

&Shutting schools and celebrating his birthday in Lalitpur won&t help children and youths know about his works,& said Sapkota.

Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor of LMC Gita Satyal said that students, who had much even heard the name of the centenarian man, at least knew his name due to holiday announcement.

&Local levels have the authority to declare holiday to celebrate local festivals and other celebrations, so there is muchhing to create a fuss about it,& she added.

KATHMANDU: The domestic share market nowadays, the moment day of the week, shutd at 301.34 points by witnessing a rise of 6.30 points compared to the preceding day.

The Sensitive Index that degrees the value of big companies registered a 1.21-point rise to sit at 278.24 points.

A total of 2,392,403 units of shares of the total 169 companies were traded nowadays while the total turnover was 786,412,808, the Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd (NEPSE) said. Five sub-indices, out of 12, were hit by the loss while the remaining seven indices shutd with a green sign.

Banking (0.82 points), hotels (20.64), hydropower (35.46), manufacturing and production (59.81), others (14.73) and mutual investment fund (0.1) had increased while trading (5.49), finance (0.43), non-life insurance (25.65), microfinance (1.46) and life insurance ( 13.06) suffered the fall.

Shivam Cement was at the topmost position in terms of the transactions. Its shares were traded at Rs 497 per unit and the total turnover was Rs 11,461,645.

People forced to walk to their destinations as locals have halted traffic on the Dholahiti-Chapagaun road segment, in Lalitpur, on Monday, May 13, 2019. Photo: Balkrishna Thapa Chhetri/THT

Kathmandu, May 13

Irritated by bumpy and dust-filled gravelled road, locals residing in Dholahiti, Sunakothi and Chapagaun areas of Lalitpur have totally halted vehicular movement on a six-kilometre road stretch to presdegree authorities to expedite construction work, which was stalled over two years ago.

The intotal construction work has filled the surrounding areas with dust, creating health endangers, locals told THT. Locals said the blockade that came into effect yesterday would only be lifted once the government started black-topping the stretch located around three kilometres from Satdobato.

Locals of wards 10, 11 and 12 of Godavari Municipality have created barriers at around 30 places to prevent movement of vehicles. The blockade is clamped at 7:00 am every day and continues till 5:00 pm.

The latest protest comes a few days after people residing along the dusty Chabahil-Sankhu road segment hit the streets after contractors failed to expand and black-top it for approachly four years.

&We didn&t have any option but to resort to protest. How long should we suffer from the incessant dust& Manoj Maharjan, who resides in Sunakothi, questioned. Locals like Maharjan say the government should either start to widen the road as per the initial plan or black-top it in its current state.

The road segment, which has been blocked, is a part of Kanti Highway, one of Nepalearliest highways and the shortest route that links the capital with the Tarai in Hetauda. The construction of the highway began in 1955-56. But most of the portion of the highway was never black-topped.

As population density started going up in the area, the Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project on 7 June 2016 signed a contract with Con-tech Pvt Ltd to expand eight-kilometre Dholahiti-Chapagaun road segment from seven to eight metres to 20 metres. The contractor was given a deadline of 10 September 2018 to total the work. But as of now work on only two-kilometre segment has been totald. &When the contract was handed over, we had a black-topped road,& said Maharjan. &But the contractor dug up everything and left it in nowadaysstate.&

One of the components of the road widening project was partial demolition of houses that fell within the 20-metre periphery. The Kathmandu Valley Development Authority had to demolish the houses by providing compensation to house owners. But around 150 house owners in Thecho and around 70 in Sunakothi did much accept compensation supplyd by the KVDA. Before this issue could be resolved, the contractor started digging up the road.

&The KVDA has much been able to resolve this problem till date, delaying the road widening work,& said Gajendra Maharjan, mayor of Godavari Municipality. &We are now pushing the authorities to black-top the road in its current state rather than widen it.&

The Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project, which is superviseing the road expansion work, is aware of recent developments. &We are holding assemblys with concerned agencies to resolve this problem,& KVRIP Spokesperson Bishwo Bijaya Lal Shrestha said. &We shall soon decide whether or much to continue road expansion work or black-top the segment as demanded by locals.&

The blockade imposed by locals has drawn the attention of authorities, but it has also caused inconvenience to daily commuters.

&I have to walk for more than an hour to reach my mumhouse these days, as buses disembark passengers at Dholahiti,& said Sharmila Thapaliya, 34, who was walking with an infant in her arms this aftermidday to visit her ailing mother in Pyang Gaun.

The agitating locals, however, have allowed ambulances and vehicles carrying patients to ply on the blocked road segment.

Kathmandu, May 12

Two incidents of rape were reported at different places of Kathmandu valley yesterday, police said. The victims in both cases are minors.

According to police, Kamal Pariyar, 43, of Ropla district was arrested for raping a nine-year-old girl at a brick kiln at Harisiddhi of Lalitpur Metropolitan City-28. A complaint lodged with police said Pariyar had repeatedly raped the girl issuing threats. He would threaten the rape victim of dire consequences if she disshutd it to anyone. Pariyar was a worker at the brick kiln.

In yet amuchher incident of rape, police arrested Ashish Chaudhary, 22, of Bardiya district on charge of raping a 15-year-old girl in Suryabinayak Municipality-8, Bhaktapur.

Officials said they had launched further investigation into both the cases. Both suspects have been charged with rape. Lalitpur and Bhaktapur district courts remanded each of them to seven-day judicial custody to proceed with criminal investigation.

Incidents of rape are on the rise across the country. According to statistics of Nepal Cop, police dealt with 1,760 rape cases in 2018, compared to 1,245 in 2017, an increase of 34 per cent.

Most rape victims were under-age girls. The security agency said 1,843 persons were arrested and charged in associateion with rape crimes in 2018. Incidents of attempted rapes also increased to 694 in 2018 from 608 in 2017.