Nepal

Kathmandu, September 6

The government is all set to expedite reconstruction of ancient settlements and development of smart cities in Kathmandu valley, with the technical assistance of South Korea.

A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed by the National Reconstruction Authority and Kathmandu Valley Development Authority with Seoul Housing and Communities in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, today.

As per the MoU, the SHCS will extend support to the NRA and KDVA for the reconstruction of ancient settlements of Sankhu, Bungmati and Khokana and for development of smart cities in the areas adjoining them.

NRA signs MoU to expedite reconstruction

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, NRA Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyewali said that the MoU would be a milestone to conserve ancient settlements and develop new cities in the valley. Chief Executive Office of SHCS Kim Seiyong said he was happy to share the knowledge and experience gained by South Korea with Nepal for the development of smart cities in Nepal.

A press release issued by the NRA said that SHCS would provide technical assistance to prepare a master plan and detailed project reports of the proposed projects in the first phase. SHCS will assist in institutional development of the NRA and KVDA in order to develop smart cities on the outskirts of the valley.

Earlier, the KVDA had started a study on developing four smart cities in the valley. It has designated four areas in the valleyeast, west, north and south to develop proposed smart cities. The smart cities will span over an area of 130,000 ropanis, with the biggest smart city located in north-east of the valley covering 100,000 ropanis land and the other three cities spreading over 10,000 ropanis, each.

The biggest smart city will stretch from Nagarkot to Talkot road, Jorpati, Mulpani cricket ground in Shankhu, Bhaktapur Purano Bato and Nepali Military Academy in Bhaktapur. The second smart city will cover Gundu and Balkot area. The third smart city will comprise Ranikot, Bhaisepati, Khokana, Bungmati and Chhimti. The fourth smart city will include Samakhusi, Tokha and the areas of Balaju by-pass, Kavresthali, Greenland Chowk.

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Kathmandu, September 6

If laboratory tests carried out at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital today are anything to go by, roughly 50 per cent of those who visit the hospital with fever and muscle pain are dengue-infected.

According to the hospital, of the 372 blood tests done today 175 tested positive for dengue. &There has been a significant rise in the number of dengue infected patients at the hospital. Unless people are aware and start working on their own, it is difficult to prevent the infection,& said Anup Bastola, spokesperson and consultant tropical medicine physician at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital .

With the rise in the number of patients at the hospital, it has started providing services to patients from a separate fever unit from Tuesday.

&There are at least 300 fever patients visiting the new unit of the hospital every day,& said Bastola. However, one should understand that every fever case is not dengue and every dengue is not fatal, he added.

Dengue virus is transmitted to humans when female Aedes aegypti mosquito bites a person. It is highly likely to bite early in the morning or before dusk.

&As there was an early pre-monsoon in the country it gave a favourable environment for the mosquitoes to breed. Mobility of people to and from dengue affected areas is a major cause for the rise of infection,& said Bastola.

There is a growing concern from various stakeholders on dengue prevention. Fever clinics have also been started at various hospitals in the country. Local levels should take initiative if we are to prevent dengue. We must keep our surroundings clean to help prevent mosquitoes from spreading,& said Epidemiology and Disease Control Division Director Bibek Kumar Lal.

Mosquitoes that cause dengue also lay eggs in water collected in flower pots, bottles, empty cans and air conditioners, according to Lal. They also lay eggs in places where rainwater gets collected, Lal added.

Symptoms of dengue include high fever, severe headache, pain behind eyes, pain in muscles and bones, rashes and back pain.

We have sent additional budget to at least 25 local levels across the country for dengue prevention. It has been quite difficult to create atmosphere of co-ordination among the three tiers of government. If we are to prevent dengue from spreading, then we must have a proper communication and co-ordination among three levels of the government.

We will be discussing further on plans and actions immediately upon the arrival of health minister tomorrow, said Mahendra Shrestha, spokesperson for Ministry of Health and Population.

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Kathmandu, September 6

The Supreme Court today stayed the Institute of MedicineMBBS entrance exam scheduled for tomorrow.

A single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by Aayush Ojha, Shivani Chaudhary, Neha Das, Hikmat Sunar and Jivan Neupane against the IoM, other medical institutions and the government.

The petitioners have named the Medical Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, IoM, Tribhuvan University, Patan Health Sciences Academy, BPKIHS and Kathmandu School of Medical Sciences as defendants.

The SC stated it was staying the IoM entrance exam planned for September 7 as issues raised by petitioners were related to provisions of the Medical Education Act and needed to be settled after hearing arguments from both the sides. The SC also ordered both the sides to present their arguments on September 11.

In the writ petition filed on Wednesday, the petitioners argued that the said medical institutions had planned to conduct MBBS entrance exams without allocating 75 per cent scholarship seats — a mandatory provision of the newly passed Medical Education Act.

The new act states that the objective of the law was to ensure geographical balance and social justice and institutional accountability.

The petitioners have said that BPKIHS allocated only 30 seats for scholarship out of 100 seats. Even its admission booklet states that it will make available only 33 seats for scholarship.

Kathmandu University has not stated how many seats it will make available for scholarship. Patan Health Science Academyadmission booklet states that it will make available 15 per cent seats for scholarship.

IoM has also not stated how many scholarships it will provide.

Meanwhile, TU officials held an emergency meeting and decided to postpone MBBS entrance exam scheduled for tomorrow. IoM Dean Jagadish Agrawal said bachelor level entrance exams scheduled between September 7 and 11 were also put off.

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Chinese FM Wang Yi to visit Nepal: MoFA

FILE: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gives a speech as he attends the opening ceremony of the new embassy of Uzbekistan in Beijing, China, August 19, 2019. Photo: Reuters

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Friday confirmed the two-day official visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Issuing a press statement today, the diplomatic mission in Kathmandu said the State Councilor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the PeopleRepublic of China Wang Yi is scheduled to visit Nepal from September 8 to 10.

During Wang Yistay in Nepal, he will call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister will also hold delegation-level bilateral talks with his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Monday, according to the statement.

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Kundali Bhagya 5th September 2019 Episode Kundali Bhagya 5th September 2019 Episode VideoLink: https://trailer.ecroaker.com/component/search/?videoid=dR_9YiDAH9w
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Kathmandu, September 5

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai today said the government was determined to construct the proposed Nijgad International Airport in Bara despite criticism from all corners.

&I know I will face criticism for executing the project. But I cannot please everyone. There will be protests, but I will face them with patience,& Minister Bhattarai said.

He was speaking at a programme organised to make public ‘Report on Environmental, Social and Economic Impacts of the International Nijgadh Airport, Bara& prepared by Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists.

NEFEJ report has raised questions on the project for its failure to draft the detailed project report.

The report has urged the government to carry out extensive study on environmental impact of the project before executing the project.

NEFEJ has pointed out 11 major lapses in environment impact assessment report of the proposed airport, which was okayed by the Cabinet in May last year.

The EIA stated that 2.45 million trees needed to be felled in the forest area of 8,049 hectare. It also suggested that 25 new saplings should be planted for each tree cut down for the project, but it did not mention anything about the place and time for doing so, according to NEFEJ.

Other major weaknesses in the EIA report were, it remained silent on the issue of water resources that will be affected by the proposed airport in the area, impact of noise pollution on the wildlife and exotic species, impact on Chure area, possible floods due to deforestation and relocation of people from Tangia settlement.

NEFEJ has also raised question over governmentability to control possible encroachment of the forest area after the construction of the airport.

NEFEJ also questioned why Nepal needed a big airport covering 8,000 hectare land, which if will be three times bigger than some of the worldlargest airports such as the UKHeathrow Airport, IndiaIndira Gandhi International Airport, and ThailandSubarna Bhumi Airport.

Answering queries of the stakeholders, Minister Bhattarai said that he was aware about the possible impact on the environment caused by the project.

&We will ensure that the project will have least impact on environment,& said Minister Bhattarai.

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