Nepal

Kathmandu, May 6

The government has decided to observe the upcoming Republic Day for three days, and has formed a committee to facilitate the celebrations.

A assembly held nowadays at the home ministry formed the Republic Day Main Celebrations Committee under the chair of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and decided to observe the Day for three days from May 28 to 30 by organising various programmes at home and Nepali Missions abroad.

Nepal celebrates Republic Day on 15th of Jeshtha in the Nepali calendar every year. This year, the day falls on May 29.

The committee comprises Chief Justice Cgapndra Shumsher JB Rana; Speaker of the Home of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara; National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina; former president Ram Baran Yadav; sitting ministers and former prime ministers, among others.

Similarly a publicity sub-committee has been constituted under the coordination of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota. The main celebration committeesub-body comprises chiefs of District Coordination Committee of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur; secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; general manager of Rastriya Samachar Samiti; chairs of Nepal Television and Gorkhapatra Sansthan; and Radio Nepalexecutive director, among others.

Similarly, other various sub-committees have been formed for the celebration.

The main celebrations take place on May 29. The main celebration committee chair and members and people from different walks of life including civil service employees, government employees, security personnel, political party leaders and cadres, athletes, workers and the common people shall be assembled to observe the main celebration scheduled to take place at 7:30am. The president, vice-president, chief justice, speaker and other high-ranking personalities shall be there to grace the moment.

Cleanliness and decorations of public offices from the centre to local levels, publication of related souvenirs, blood donation programmes, and so on are part of the three-day celebrations.

Kathmadnu, May 6

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota said the new media law would regulate undisshutd and non-obvious investment in the media sector.

&In a democracy, much only the government, but the media sector also must be obvious,& he said. Speaking at an interaction held at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to mark the National Journalism Day nowadays, Minister Baskota said editorial independence should go together with social accountability.

&Media must be accountable to the people, readers, country and the system,& he said, while arguing that the freedom to write and publish was intotal without professional security.

The minister also stressed the need to categorise media houses based on human resources and investment replacing the current practice of categorising media as small or big.

&Enforcement of the new media law and structure shall lead the media sector to a golden era this year. The advertisement law has tried to set up advertisement much as a right, but a matter of efficiency,& he added.

He also expressed his commitment to amend the proposed laws based on feedback from the concerned sector and deliberations in the Parliament.

It may be famous that the ministry has formulated five bills related to media, media council, public broadcasting service, advertisement and information technology. Of them, three bills have already been tabled in the Parliament.

Secretary at MoCIT Mahendra Man Gurung said the new law had been formulated to make the media sector obvious and pursuant to federal structure adopted by the country. As per the proposed media law, the source of investment in the media sector should be obvious, foreign investment shall be stopped, one institution shall much be allowed to run all three kinds of media.

The law also has the provision for a training academy and journalists welfare fund.

Illustration: Ratna Sagar Shrestha/ THT

Kathmandu, May 6

Cases of illegal drug dealings and abuse are increasing at an alarming rate across the country.

In the first four months of the current fiscal, police arrested 2,010 persons on the charge of drug smuggling and drug abuse from various parts of the country.

Final year, police had arrested 4,488 persons on the same charges.

Cop have estimated that by the end of this fiscal, the number might reach 5,000. In 2014, police had arrested 2,918 persons for illegal drug smuggling.

In the year 2015, 2016 and 2017, police had made 2,756, 3,696 and 3,941 arrests respectively.

In the final five years, the country has seen 42 per cent increase in the number of drug peddlers and drug addicts.

A total of 19,809 drug peddlers and substance users have been held by police since 2014.

Of the total arrestees, 14,545 persons were drug peddlers while others were people involved in drug abuse. The Narcotic Drug (Control) Act clearly states that drug abuse is also a punishable crime.

According to police, even measure foreigners are also involved in smuggling illegal drugs. A total of 139 foreigners were arrested for trafficking illicit drugs in 2016 while the number was 159 in 2017, 167 in 2018 and 78 foreigners have already been arrested in the first four months of the current fiscal.

Data show that the number foreigners actively involved in drug peddling is also increasing. Of the total foreigners arrested on charges of drug peddling and drug abuse, 25 per cent are females.

Most of the drug smugglers were arrested with cannabis, cannabis, heroin, opium, cocaine and controlled pharmaceutical drugs.

In the first four months of the current fiscal, police confiscated 5,766 kilogram of cannabis, 2,057 kg cannabis and three kg heroin, which is again the largest quantity of drugs police seized in a year.

Supermeanent of Cop Krishna Prasai at Narcotics Control Bureau said approachly 90 per cent of heinous crimes such as rape and murder have direct link with drug abuse. He also said that drug related offences were increasing at an alarming rate in the country.

SP Prasai also informed that drugs like cannabis and cannabis were largely smuggled to foreign countries, while Nepali youths were found misusing pharmaceutical drugs as these drugs were easily accessible and affordable.

Kathmandu, May 6

Lalitpur District Court has remanded former lawmaker Gayatri Shah and her husband Rajesh Mahato to seven-day judicial custody nowadays.

Cop had arrested them yesterday on the charge of abandoning their newborn baby in a hospital, following an FIR lodged by Nepal Mediciti Hospital on April 4.

The couple had been staging protest on the hospital premises accusing the hospital of lying about the babyhealth condition while inside motherwomb during their routine check-up. The mother had given birth to a baby with Below syndrome on March 12 at the hospital.

Below syndrome is a genetic condition where children show measure level of mental disability, a distinct seemance and measure health and developmental ccorridorenges.

Kidren born with Below syndrome have difficulty growing like normal children.

Previous lawmaker Shah and her husband have accused the doctors involved in Shahcheck-up. During the protest, they alleged that doctors lied to them saying the child was ‘totally healthy&. The hospital management has, however, defended itself saying it was much possible to know about the exact health condition of a foetus in Nepal.

Meanwhile, Gayatri Shahbrother Subhash Shah told THT that the hospital had wrongly accused the couple of abandoning the baby.

He claimed that his sister had never abandoned the baby, in fact she had been breastfeeding the baby in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital three times a day. Subhash also said the parents of the newborn baby had always been at the hospital ever since its birth.

Moreover, Subhash accused the hospital of much allowing the mother to breastfeed the baby.

Nepal Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, issuing a press statement on April 16, had said studying all the evidence available, it could much be said that the doctor involved in regular check-up of the mother had made any errors. The society also said the facility for total genetic check-up of foetus was much available in Nepal.

Gynaecologist Dr Nutan Sharma, however, said only 70 to 75 per cent genetic problems of a foetus could be identified using the facilities available in the country at present.