Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (May 3, 2019).
First bird flu death in the country exposes passive surveillance and poor preparedness
The H5N1 bird flu virus that has been confirmed as the first cause of death in Nepal, 10 years after it was first detected in birds in 2009, is the world’s first H5N1 human infection since February 2017 and has raised issues of public health emergency of international concern as government and WHO officials refuse further information on the case.
“We are taking the help of the UN body to contain the disease,” Ministry of Health and Population spokesperson Mahendra Prasad Shrestha told the Post.
As experts from the World Health Organization headquarters and its Delhi office gather in the Capital to take stock of the situation, Shrestha says the government is taking the incident seriously and adhering to the standard protocols of international health regulations that Nepal is obligated to.
The deceased, a 21-year-old from Kavrepalanchok district, who had been residing in Bhaktapur and whose identity has not been revealed by the government, was first admitted to Nepal Medical College on March 24 after showing signs of fever and cough.
Conflict victims put pressure on government to amend Transitional Justice Act
Victims of the decade-long insurgency and human rights community have built pressure on the government to amend the Transitional Justice Act before taking forward the process to appoint officials to the two transitional justice bodies.
A recommendation committee formed by the government has started shortlisting the candidates to appoint them to the two commissions, which have been without officials since April 13.
At a press meet in the Capital on Thursday, conflict victims and human rights defenders charged the government with backtracking on its earlier commitment to moving the transitional justice process by amending the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act-2014 in line with the Supreme Court ruling and international practices.
“The government has tried to fool the victims by forming the recommendation committee without consulting with the victims,” said Suman Adhikari, former chairperson of the Conflict Victims Common Platform.
In quest for the ‘third force’, Bhattarai and Yadav discuss party merger
Days after the promulgation of the constitution in September 2015, Baburam Bhattarai quit the Maoist party and severed his ties with Pushpa Kamal Dahal—Bhattarai’s comrade in arms for years, together with whom he had waged the “people’s war”.
The war against the state was aimed at writing a new constitution through a constituent assembly, overthrowing the monarchy, federating the state and setting the efforts to create an equal and just society in motion. The human cost of the war stood at 16,000.
But just 11 days after the promulgation of the constitution, Bhattarai decided to chart a new course. He went on to establish a new party—Naya Shakti Party—in a bid to what he called build “a new alternative political force”.
In the months leading up to the constitution promulgation, Upendra Yadav, along with other Madhesi leaders, was spearheading protests, saying that the constitution-drafting process was flawed and the stakeholders—mainly then CPN-UML, led by Oli; the erstwhile CPN (Maoist Centre), led by Dahal; and the Nepali Congress, led by Sushil Koirala—were ignoring the the concerns of the Madhesis, Tharus and Janajatis.
Asian Development Bank vows to complete Melamchi project
The Asian Development Bank said it was committed to completing the Melamchi Drinking Water Project which has been a long time in the making, and that it would extend the completion deadline if necessary. Hun Kim, director general (South Asia) of the Manila-based multilateral lending agency, said the bank wanted to complete the project as early as possible, and that the Nepal government alone was not responsible for the delay.
This is the first response from the major donor after a row between the Italian contractor and the Nepal government threw the project into uncertainty in December last year.
“The Asian Development Bank is also partly responsible for the delay,” said Kim, without elaborating. “We can, if necessary, extend the project completion deadline,” he told a press conference at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank’s Board of Governors in Nadi, Fiji, on Wednesday.
The Melamchi Drinking Water Project is one of Nepal’s most talked about national pride projects which has been embroiled in controversy for years over politicisation and corruption.
In Mulkot, temperatures are high but the nearby Sunkoshi provides respite
The first time I saw Mulkot was from the window of a fast-moving rusty microvan on the BP Koirala Highway, on my way to Janakpur. After rushing past nothing but several kilometres of green fields and scattered hamlets, the town of Mulkot came into view, almost out of nowhere. The town hosts a decent number of hotels, and that left me intrigued: what’s there to see and do in this tiny town that it requires so many hotels? From the end of the town, the highway took an incline, and as the microvan chugged up the hill, I got a much better view of the town. Beyond the few hotels that flanked the highway, there
were lush green fields, and to the east of the town flowed the Sunkoshi, a river that originates in Tibet. I knew I had to visit—one day.
It was seven months after this fleeting encounter with Mulkot that I finally returned to seek answers. The afternoon that I reached Mulkot, the temperature was an exasperating 33 degrees Celsius. The air was warm, heavy and humid. Deepak Khadka, manager of the Taj Riverside Resort, suggested that summer afternoons like these were best spent relaxing indoors. I was happy to comply with his suggestion. So I retreated to my room, read an essay that I had planned to get to a month ago, and then drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up from my nap, it was already 3 pm, and still brutally hot. I made my way to a tiny cafe, where local men were watching a group of workers install a 200 Kva electric transformer.
“Can you believe that just five years ago none of these hotels and modern buildings existed here? Mulkot used to be just another village and most of the buildings were traditional houses,” said Manoj Shrestha, a local and managing director of the resort where I stayed.
28.12°C Kathmandu
