W I T H O U T F E A R O R F A V O U R

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Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj
Vol XXXI No. 316 | 8 pages | Rs.5
Tuesday, January 09, 2024 | 24-09-2080
23.9° C -5.5° C
Dipayal Jumla

Today Nepal confirms

p National

Ongoing upgrade of a 14-km dirt

road in Bardaghat in Nawalparasi
West has the potential to offer an
alternative to the Daunne section of
the East-West highway and reduce
traffic congestion. Pg 2
Amid discontent in the ruling alli-
ance and Nepali Congress over the
selection of candidates for the January
25 upper house election, 52 individuals
on Monday filed nominations for 19
seats across the country. Pg 3
p OPinion
Referring to a suspicious
July 2016 death of a Dalit
man involved in an inter-caste
love affair, Mitra Pariyar
doubts the victim will
receive justice, accusing poli-
ticians of shielding the alleged
perpetrators. Pg 4
spread of JN.1
The Covid sub-variant has been confirmed in 7 out of 16
swab samples sent for whole-genome sequencing.
q ARJUN POUDEL
KATHMANDU, JAN 8
Nepal on Monday confirmed the
spread of the JN.1 sub-variant of the
coronavirus in the country.
Of the 16 swab samples on which
whole-genome sequencing was car-
ried out at the National Public Health
Laboratory, the JN.1 sub-variant was
detected in seven samples, which is
around 44 percent of the total.
Whole-genome sequencing is a com-
prehensive method of analysing the
entire DNA sequence of an organism’s
genes. Researchers believe that
POST PHOTO: DEEPAK KC whole-genome sequencing of coronavi-
Police detain Aarati Sah’s brother Prem, who was staging a demonstration demanding justice for his deceased sister, outside the office of the rus could be instrumental in tracking
National Human Rights Commission in Pulchowk on Monday. Aarati was found dead at her home in Janakpur on May 21 last year under the severity and properties of the virus.
suspicious circumstances. Her maternal family alleges she was murdered by her husband and in-laws. The WHO classifies JN.1 as a sepa-
rate ‘variant of interest’ given its
rapid spread around the globe. The
UN health body, however, said that
Despite El Niño effect, Nepali farmers
based on available data, “the addition-
al public health risk posed by JN.1 is
currently evaluated as low”.
Several countries, including China,
lated points along the porous border.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health
and Population has asked the general
public to avoid crowds and follow public
health measures. Officials at the minis-
try said that positive cases of Covid
infection have started rising again.
And what concerns officials is that
most people testing positive for the
virus are those returning from India.
Health Ministry officials claimed
that the agencies under the ministry
were alerted and surveillance meas-
ures stepped up following the confir-
mation of the JN.1 outbreak in India.
Doctors in Nepal had warned that it
is just a matter of time before the new
sub-variant spreads across the coun-
try. Officials say infected people have
been moving around freely.
Health experts link the
uninterrupted
cross-border movement

reap bumper paddy harvest with the rise in cases.

Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia
and Singapore, have reported upticks in
new coronavirus cases. The JN.1 strain,
first detected in September in the US, is
a descendant of BA.2.86, a highly Even after confirming a coronavi-

p Money
Aviation authorities in the United
States of America said on Sunday
the door plug that blew off a Boeing
737 Max 9 jet was found in the
backyard of a school teacher in
Portland, Oregon. Pg 5
p World
Indian Supreme Court on Monday
quashed the release of 11 Hindu
men who had been jailed for life for
gangraping a pregnant Muslim
woman and murdering her relatives
during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Pg 6
The country produced an all-time high of 5.72 million
tonnes of paddy, amounting to nearly Rs200 billion.
q SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, JAN 8
Despite the El Niño phenomenon,
Nepali farmers are expected to har-
vest a record 5.72 million tonnes of
paddy this fiscal year.
The growth in paddy output may
give some respite to the Pushpa Kamal
Dahal-led administration as the coun-
try’s economy struggles with low out-
put and high inflation.
The year-on-year paddy production
could grow by about 4.33 percent this
fiscal year, reaching a new record,
according to a preliminary forecast by
the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock Development.
Based on the minimum support
mutated variant of the Omicron
strain of the coronavirus. India
rus infection, people are being allowed
to go home without any agency moni-
has of late recorded a surge in new
cases of coronavirus infections
toring their movements.
“With the uptick in cases in our
attributed to outbreaks of the neighbourhood, it was only a matter
September) finalised during the 25th sub-variant JN.1 in several states. of time before the new sub-variant
session of the South Asian Climate Health experts link the uninter- spread in our country as neither the
Outlook Forum (SASCOF-25) suggest- rupted cross-border movement for authorities nor the public have taken
ed that most of Nepal may receive the rise in cases in Nepal. effective safety measures,” said Dr
below-normal rainfall. Thousands of people from both Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of Clinical
Based on the SASCOF-25 consensus, countries enter each other’s terri- Research Unit at Sukraraj Tropical
Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and tories every day on top of the large and Infectious Disease Hospital.
Meteorology also issued its monsoon number of those who use unregu- >> Continued on page 2
forecast stating that in most parts of
the country, there is a chance of
below-normal rainfall and more likely
still, heatwaves.
The year-on-year rice
production could grow
by 4.33 percent this

p Sports
Regular skipper Rohit Sharma and
stalwart Virat Kohli returned to
India’s T20 squad after a year’s gap for
the home series against Afghanistan
amid speculation about their future in
this format. Pg 7
price announced by the government,
the total value of the paddy amounted
to Rs193 billion, excluding its byprod-
ucts like straw and husk.
“This is the highest recorded pro-
duction,” said Sabnam Shivakoti,
spokesperson at the ministry. “The
paddy output will have a positive
impact on the country’s gross domes-
tic product.”
Experts say a good harvest checks
inflation and energises the economy.
The record harvest comes on the
heels of the projected drought during
the monsoon.
In April last year, South Asian mete-
orologists had said that most of Nepal is
likely to experience below-normal mon-
soon rains or drought-like situations,
after three years of normal rainfall.
The climate outlook for the 2023
southwest monsoon season (June to
fiscal year, officials say.
Based on the report, agriculture
scientists had even urged the govern-
ment to seek an alternative paddy
cropping system, mostly in drought-af-
fected areas.
The climate outlook, however,
turned in the farmers’ favour.
“Initially, based on the forecast, we
[the ministry] too had planned a
drought adaptation strategy—reduc-
ing risks associated with drought,”
said Shivakoti. “First, rains came late
in the southern Tarai districts, the
country’s food basket, delaying paddy
transplantation. However, there was
good rainfall later and transplantation
recovered, except in a few districts.”
>> Continued on page 5

UK permits judges in England and Wales

to use AI in writing legal opinions
The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, while giving permission, also warns against
using AI in research and analyses due to risks of misinformation and bias.
Judges walk into Parliament after a Service at Westminster Abbey in London on Oct 1, 2021.
q Associated Press
LONDON, Jan 8
England’s 1,000-year-old legal sys-
tem—still steeped in traditions that
include wearing wigs and robes—has
taken a cautious step into the future
AP/RSS
by giving judges permission to use
artificial intelligence to help produce
rulings.
The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
last month said AI could help write
opinions but stressed it shouldn’t be
used for research or legal analyses
because the technology can fabricate
information and provide misleading,
inaccurate and biased information.
“Judges do not need to shun the
careful use of AI,” said Master of the
Rolls Geoffrey Vos, the second-highest
ranking judge in England and Wales.
“But they must ensure that they
protect confidence and take full per-
sonal responsibility for everything
they produce.”
At a time when scholars and legal
experts are pondering a future when
AI could replace lawyers, help select
jurors or even decide cases, the
approach spelled out Dec. 11 by the
judiciary is restrained. But for a pro-
fession slow to embrace technological
change, it’s a proactive step as govern-
ment and industry — and society in
general — react to a rapidly advancing
technology alternately portrayed as a
panacea and a menace.
“There’s a vigorous public debate
right now about whether and how to
regulate artificial intelligence,” said
Ryan Abbott, a law professor at the
University of Surrey and author of
“The Reasonable Robot: Artificial
Intelligence and the Law.”
>> Continued on page 2

C M Y K

National
p District Digest
Murder convict nabbed
after 22 years
PARASI: Police arrested a 58-year-old
man, a resident of Manjhariya in
ward 10 of Ramgram Municipality,
who was on the run for the past 22
years after being convicted of a mur-
der. According to Deputy
Superintendent of Police Resham
Bohora, he was convicted of a mur-
der in 2002 and had been absconding.
He was arrested on Saturday and was
presented before the Parasi District
Court on Sunday. He has been sent to
prison to serve his term, said Bohora.
Advert boards to be removed
from Pathibhara area
TAPLEJUNG: The Pathibhara Area
Development Committee has ordered
removal of all hoarding boards, sign
posts, and banners from the
Pathibhara shrine area by January
21. According to Prajin Hangbang,
executive director of the Pathibhara
Area Development Committee, boards
hanging on almost every tree, from
Kafle Pati to Pathibhara Temple, have
caused visual pollution in the area
and affected natural vegetation. All
hoarding boards and banners, includ-
ing those used by governmental and
non-governmental organisations and
private businesses to advertise their
businesses, have to be removed by
January 21, and those ignoring the
notice will face legal action, said
Hangbang.
KAHS performs uterine
surgery using laparoscopy
JUMLA: The Karnali Academy of
Health Sciences (KAHS) Teaching
Hospital, Jumla, successfully per-
formed a uterine surgery using the
laparoscopy technique on Sunday
night. Doctors said it was the first
such operation at the Academy.
According to Dr Rajiv Shah, director
of the hospital, and Gynaecology and
Obstetrics Specialist, the operation
on the uterus of 35-year-old Samjhana
Pandey, a resident of Gidikhola in
ward 4 of Tatopani Rural
Municipality, was done using laparos-
copy. She had a long history of uter-
ine infections and miscarriages.
Pandey got married at the age of 17
and has been suffering from the prob-
lem ever since. Her condition is nor-
mal, and she will be discharged from
the hospital after one week, said
Shah.
JN.1 not deadly
but still a threat
>> Continued from page 1
“What is concerning is a lot of
elderly people are being hospitalised
in recent days after contracting seri-
ous respiratory illnesses.”
Experts say almost all variants of
the coronavirus outbreak in India
have found their way into Nepal and
even if the JN.1 sub-variant is not as
deadly as the Delta variant, the virus
still poses a serious threat to the elder-
ly and people with compromised
immunity.
Over 12,000 people died and hun-
dreds of thousands were infected in
the first, second and third waves of
the Covid pandemic.
Public health measures have been
lifted following the decline in the
infection rate of the Omicron variant
in 2021.
‘Jolly useful’: UK judges welcome permission to use AI in writing legal opinions
>> Continued from page 1
“AI and the judiciary is something
people are uniquely concerned about,
and it’s somewhere where we are par-
ticularly cautious about keeping
humans in the loop,” he said. “So I do
think AI may be slower disrupting
judicial activity than it is in other
areas and we’ll proceed more cau-
tiously there.”
Abbott and other legal experts
applauded the judiciary for address-
ing the latest iterations of AI and said
the guidance would be widely viewed
by courts and jurists around the world
who are eager to use AI or anxious
about what it might bring.
In taking what was described as an
initial step, England and Wales moved
toward the forefront of courts address-
ing AI, though it’s not the first such
guidance.
Five years ago, the European
Commission for the Efficiency of
Justice of the Council of Europe
issued an ethical charter on the use of
AI in court systems. While that docu-
Bardaghat road expected to ease congestion on
Daunne section of East-West highway
The 14-km road will provide people in rural areas of Nawalparasi West better access to markets to sell their produce.
q NABIN PAUDEL
PARASI, JAN 8
An ongoing road upgrade work in
Bardaghat of Nawalparasi West
has the potential to offer an
alternative to the Daunne section of
the East-West highway and reduce
traffic congestion.
A 14-km dirt road connecting
Bardaghat Municipality of Lumbini
Province and Dumkibas of Binayi
Triveni Rural Municipality of
Gandaki Province is the proposed
alternative to the Daunne section
(Bardaghat-Dumkibas) of the East-
West highway.
The operation of the road section is
expected to reduce hours-long traffic
jams on the Butwal-Narayanghat sec-
tion’s Daunne stretch, which is usual-
ly in poor condition due to frequent
landslides.
The blacktopping work kicked off a
month ago. The aim is to upgrade
the road section to an access road to
connect Bardaghat Municipality’s
hilly areas with ward 10 of the
municipality.
The mountain roads are prone to
accidents and landslides during the
rainy season and dry landslides in the
winter. For years, due to the risk of
traffic jams and accidents, the locals,
transport operators, and even passen-
gers have been demanding an alterna-
tive route to the Daunne section of the
International Livestock Research Institute to help Nepal
produce vaccine against lumpy skin disease
The government had also sought a master seed virus from India to produce vaccine doses within the country.
The disease killed over 50,000 cattle and infected nearly 1.5 million in Nepal last year.
q POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JAN 8
Kenya-based International Livestock
Research Institute has agreed to help
Nepal produce a vaccine against
lumpy skin disease, which killed thou-
sands of cattle and infected hundreds
of thousands throughout the country
last year.
The Department of Livestock
Services has been working to produce
vaccines within the country after a
massive outbreak of the disease in 2023.
“It takes a few months to produce a
vaccine against the lumpy skin dis-
ease in the country as it is a stepwise
process,” said Dr Chandra Dhakal,
information officer at the department.
“We have been working to develop
vaccine doses in the country and have
held technical workshops. The
International Livestock Research
Institute has agreed to provide us with
a master seed virus.”
The international agriculture
research institute, co-hosted by Kenya
and Ethiopia, works with partners
worldwide to enhance the roles that
livestock play in food security and
poverty alleviation, mainly in Africa
and Asia.
According to officials at the
Department of Livestock Services,
Tanzania-based Hester Biosciences
Africa Limited will provide technical
support to the government agency in
ment is not up to date with the latest
technology, it did address core princi-
ples such as accountability and risk
mitigation that judges should abide by,
said Giulia Gentile, a lecturer at Essex
Law School who studies the use of AI
in legal and justice systems.
Although US Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Roberts addressed the
pros and cons of artificial intelligence
in his annual report, the federal court
system in America has not yet estab-
lished guidance on AI, and state and
A file photo shows, people stand outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, on Friday, March 17, 2023.
A section of the dirt road in ward 10 of Bardaghat Municipality in Nawalparasi West, pictured recently. Once the work is completed, this section
is expected to serve as an alternative route to the congested Daunne stretch of the Butwal-Narayanghat section of the East-West Highway.
East-West highway.
Shambhulal Shrestha, mayor of
Bardaghat Municipality, said that the
plan is to upgrade a four-kilometer
section of the 14-km stretch in the
current fiscal year.
This stretch was constructed a few
years ago as a dirt road to connect the
residents of the Bikat Patuke settle-
ment of Bardaghat Municipality with
Nepali farmers incurred heavy losses due to the disease last year.
producing vaccine doses. The organi-
sation has a 20-year track record of
manufacturing and distributing live-
stock drugs and vaccines.
Lumpy skin disease, which is
caused by a virus, is an infectious dis-
ease that primarily affects cattle. The
virus, which is from the family
Poxviridae, mainly spreads through
blood-sucking vectors—ticks, mites,
and mosquitoes. Over 50,000 cattle had
died and nearly 1.5 million were
infected by the highly contagious dis-
ease in Nepal last year.
Nepal has also requested India for a
master seed virus and some technical
help to produce a vaccine against the
deadly diseases. Minister for
Agriculture and Livestock
county courts are too fragmented for a
universal approach. But individual
courts and judges at the federal and
local levels have set their own rules,
said Cary Coglianese, a law professor
at the University of Pennsylvania.
“It is certainly one of the first, if
not the first, published set of
AI-related guidelines in the English
language that applies broadly and is
directed to judges and their staffs,”
Coglianese said of the guidance for
England and Wales. “I suspect that
the administrative office of the munic-
ipality.
“It was difficult for the residents of
the municipality to reach the adminis-
trative centre, plus having an alterna-
tive route to the Daunne section has
become imperative. After the upgrade,
this road is going to be a fast-track
road connecting Lumbini and Gandaki
provinces,” said Shrestha.
Post file Photo
Development Bedu Ram Bhusal dur-
ing his India visit last year requested
his counterpart for the master seed
virus for vaccine production and vac-
cine doses to deal with the spread of
the infection of lumpy skin disease.
The concerned agency had also fur-
nished a concept paper as sought by
the Indian authorities for vaccine pro-
duction.
Without the master seed virus,
which is pure, safe and immunogenic,
vaccine production is impossible,
according to officials. Nepal has the
capacity and expertise to produce ani-
mal vaccines within the country, and
what is lacking is seed virus, they say.
The country has been producing more
than 56 million doses of 13 different
many, many judges have internally
cautioned their staffs about how exist-
ing policies of confidentiality and use
of the internet apply to the public-fac-
ing portals that offer ChatGPT and
other such services.”
The guidance shows the courts’
acceptance of the technology, but not
a full embrace, Gentile said. She was
critical of a section that said judges
don’t have to disclose their use of the
technology and questioned why there
was no accountability mechanism.
ap/rss
TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024 | 02
POST PHOTO: NAVIN PAUDEL
According to Shrestha, Rs50 million
has been allocated for the four-kilo-
metre section, which will connect
Simsar in ward 10 of Bardaghat
Municipality with Sansarkot, the hilly
area in ward 2 of the municipality.
“The contract for the work has been
awarded to Surke Construction
Company for Rs 36.2 million,” he said.
After the upgrade, the municipality
types of animal vaccines and has been
exporting them too.
Officials at the department said that
they have approached organisations
in African countries after they realise
that India would not offer the help
they sought.
The organisation has a
20-year track record of
manufacturing livestock
drugs and vaccines.
Due to the disease last year, farmers
incurred heavy losses, including
deaths of animals, a decline in dairy
production, and their consequent
impact on farming. Farmers in the
hill districts lost more of their oxen
because they continued putting the
sick animals to work due to a lack of
information about the disease.
Some animals also died of vaccina-
tion at the time of infection due to the
double impact—infection of virus and
stress effects of the vaccination.
Dhakal said that the department is
procuring one million doses of the
vaccine against the deadly disease in
the ongoing fiscal year. The
vaccines will be administered to cattle
free of cost.
“I think that this is certainly a use-
ful document, but it will be very inter-
esting to see how this could be
enforced,” Gentile said. “There is no
specific indication of how this docu-
ment would work in practice. Who
will oversee compliance with this doc-
ument? What are the sanctions? Or
maybe there are no sanctions. If there
are no sanctions, then what can we do
about this?”
In its effort to maintain the court’s
integrity while moving forward, the
guidance is rife with warnings about
the limitations of the technology and
possible problems if a user is unaware
of how it works.
At the top of the list is
an admonition about
chatbots, such as
ChatGPT.
At the top of the list is an admoni-
tion about chatbots, such as ChatGPT,
the conversational tool that exploded
into public view last year and has gen-
erated the most buzz over the technol-
ogy because of its ability to swiftly
compose everything from term papers
to songs to marketing materials.
The pitfalls of the technology in
court are already infamous after two
New York lawyers relied on ChatGPT
to write a legal brief that quoted fic-
tional cases. The two were fined by an
angry judge who called the work they
had signed off on “legal gibberish.”
Because chatbots have the ability to
remember questions they are asked
plans to set up a marketplace for the
food and products produced in the
hilly areas as the local producers will
have improved access to transport ser-
vices. The municipality also intends
to promote the hilly areas as a tourist
destination.
Lal Bahadur Magar, a resident of
ward 10 of Bardaghat, said that the
upgrade of the road section means
they can now sell their produce in the
other markets.
“In the absence of an operational
road, it was very difficult even to
reach the administration centre of the
municipality. But now that the
upgrade work is underway, we are
hopeful for the new ventures it will
bring,” said Magar.
“The road section will open
doors for us to sell the local crops,
livestock, and other cottage industry
products.”
The road upgrade will provide an
alternative, minimising accidents and
traffic jams on the Daunne section,”
says Magar. “This also provides access
for travellers when the Daunne sec-
tion is closed or disrupted by a land-
slide,” he added.
According to Kamal Thapa,
coordinator of Surke Construction
Company, the work of clearing and
cleaning the dirt road along with the
construction of canals is underway
from ward 10 to ward 2 of the
Bardaghat Municipality.
Ireland upper house
chair in Kathmandu
photo: courtesy of parliament secretariat
Timilsina (R) presents souvenir to Buttimer.
q POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JAN 8
Chairperson of Ireland’s upper house,
Jerry Buttimer, arrived in Kathmandu
on Monday on a five-day visit to Nepal.
He is visiting Nepal at the invitation
of National Assembly chair Ganesh
Prasad Timilsina, leading a five-mem-
ber delegation. Following his arrival,
Buttimer met Timilsina at the latter’s
office in Singha Durbar and discussed
various issues of mutual interests.
“During the meeting, chair
Timilsina requested the visiting lead-
er Buttimer to play a role to lift the
European Union’s ban on Nepali
Airlines,” Timilsina’s secretariat said
in a note issued after the meeting.
According to the Parliament secre-
tariat, Buttimer is scheduled to meet
President Ramchandra Paudel, Prime
Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal,
Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud
and Education Minister Ashok Rai
during his stay in Kathmandu.
and retain other information they are
provided, judges in England and Wales
were told not to disclose anything pri-
vate or confidential.
“Do not enter any information into
a public AI chatbot that is not already
in the public domain,” the guidance
said. “Any information that you input
into a public AI chatbot should be seen
as being published to all the world.”
Other warnings include being
aware that much of the legal material
that AI systems have been trained on
comes from the internet and is often
based largely on U.S. law.
But jurists who have large case-
loads and routinely write decisions
dozens—even hundreds—of pages
long can use AI as a secondary tool,
particularly when writing back-
ground material or summarizing
information they already know, the
courts said.
In addition to using the technology
for emails or presentations, judges
were told they could use it to quickly
locate material they are familiar with
but don’t have within reach. But it
shouldn’t be used for finding new
information that can’t independently
be verified, and it is not yet capable of
providing convincing analysis or rea-
soning, the courts said.
Appeals Court Justice Colin Birss
recently praised how ChatGPT helped
him write a paragraph in a ruling in
an area of law he knew well.
“I asked ChatGPT can you give me a
summary of this area of law, and it
gave me a paragraph,” he told The
Law Society. “I know what the answer
is because I was about to write a para-
graph that said that, but it did it for
me and I put it in my judgment. It’s
there and it’s jolly useful.”
C M Y K
03 | TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024
National Assembly candidacies fuel
discontent in ruling coalition, Congress top court against
Senior Congress leaders express dissent. Alliance partner Janamat Party revolts by fielding two candidates.
q Post Report
Kathmandu, Jan 8
Amid growing dissatisfaction within
the ruling alliance and inside Nepali
Congress over the selection of candi-
dates for the upcoming upper house
elections, as many as 52 candidates
across the country filed their nomina-
tions for the 19 seats on Monday.
Four Nepali Congress leaders
including the general secretaries duo,
Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash
Sharma, have registered their “notes
of dissent” over the party’s pick of
candidates.
Similarly, the Janamat Party, a
fringe party that supports the ruling
coalition but was denied even a single
seat in the upper house, has revolted
against the coalition by fielding its
own candidates in Madhesh and
Lumbini provinces.
The Humla district unit of the CPN
(Maoist Centre) also expressed its res-
ervations over candidate selection and
announced a boycott of the election,
which is scheduled for January 25.
The terms of 20 lawmakers in the
59-strong upper house expire on
March 3. While 19 seats will be filled
through elections, one member will be
nominated by the President at the
Cabinet’s recommendation.
The main opposition CPN-UML,
however, picked its 19 candidates with-
out any dispute. Nevertheless, the
election has stirred discontent in the
largest party, the Nepali Congress.
The party announced its candidates
for the election late in the afternoon
on Monday amid differences between
two rival camps led by party President
Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Shekhar
Koirala and Gagan Thapa.
General secretaries duo Thapa and
Sharma, and two other leaders—
Arjun Narsingh KC and Bal Bahadur
KC—also registered their separate
“notes of dissent” over the party’s
selection of candidates.
One major dissatisfaction in
Congress is over the selection of
People take a ride on water bicycles at Na: Pukhu in Bhaktapur recently.
Bangladesh’s Awami League helps itself to fourth straight win
q The Daily Star
Dhaka, Jan 8
As predicted, Awami League (AL) has
won a record fourth straight term in
an election that saw the second lowest
voter turnout since the restoration of
democracy in 1991.
The turnout was 27.15 percent at
3:00pm, but after voting closed at
4:00pm, the Election Commission esti-
mated the final tally could stand at
around 40 percent, a 13 percent jump
in an hour.
The 2018 election, dubbed as a
“night-time election,” saw more than
80 percent vote cast.
The turnout in the controversial
February 1996 polls was 26.5 percent,
the lowest in Bangladesh’s history.
Unofficial results from the Election
Commission as of 3:00am today show
162 AL picks and 50 AL independents
have won the race.
At least three state ministers and 14
incumbent MPs suffered heavy defeats
at the hands of the rivals from their
own party.
Jatiya Party (JP) bagged 11 seats,
while AL’s alliance partners Workers
Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal
(JSD-Inu) one each.
With this win, Sheikh Hasina is
poised to become the longest serving
prime minister in Bangladesh since
independence. Earlier, she was prime
minister from 1996-2001.
Anti-graft body moves
Nepali Congress candidates after filing their candidacies on Monday.
Krishna Prasad Sitaula from Koshi
Province, a leader close to Deuba said.
“The party president had promised
Sitaula a place in the National
Assembly in exchange for his support
in helping Deuba become party presi-
dent in the last general convention. So
we agreed to his nomination,” the
leader said.
Sitaula had lost the parliamentary
election from Jhapa to Rastriya
Prajatantra Party chief Rajendra
Lingden.
Leader Koirala, however, supported
Sitaula’s nomination considering the
latter’s role in the peace process and
constitution-making. General
Secretary Sharma also echoes Koirala.
Koirala added that there has been
an agreement between Deuba and
Prime Minister Dahal to elect Sitaula
as next chairman of the National
Assembly.
“Sitaula will lead the upper house
in order to complete the remaining
tasks of the peace process,” General
Secretary Sharma told the Post.
The term of the present chairman,
Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, will expire
Voter turnout was second lowest since restoration of democracy in 1991.
Following Bangladesh Nationalist
Party’s boycott threat in the lead-up to
the election, the Hasina administra-
tion undertook a series of strategies
that allegedly include creating pres-
sure and a failed attempt to cut a deal
with BNP to bring it to the polls.
Subsequently, Hasina went for a
tight-fisted seat-sharing with Jatiya
Party and other allies, and invited
essentially any and all her party lead-
ers and activists to join the race as
independent candidates in efforts to
make the election look participatory
and competitive.
As part of the deal, AL gave up 26
seats for JP and six for its 14-party
alliance partners. Of the six, three
went to JSD, two to Workers Party and
one to Jatiya Party (Manju).
Within hours after voting began
Sunday, 11 JP candidates withdrew
from the race, alleging widespread
vote rigging. In total, 43 candidates
of the party officially quit the polls.
Besides, more than 200 of its candi-
dates unofficially pulled out, saying
the election was “one-sided and
staged.”
Voters showed little interest as the
outcome of the polls—basically a race
between Awami League candidates
and Awami League “independents”—
had long been known.
Across the country, presence of vot-
ers was noticeably thin with many
election centres hardly seeing any
queue throughout the day.
In many centres, election officials
and polling agents sat idly with very
little to do, as seen by 76 journalists of
The Daily Star who covered more than
350 centres in 37 districts, including
Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chattogram,
Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Rangpur
and Sylhet.
In the capital and elsewhere,
the ruling party candidates arranged
Post Photo
on March 3.
Similarly, the candidacy of Anand
Prasad Dhungana of Madhes Province
has courted controversy.
The two general secretaries have
expressed their reservations against
Dhungana’s candidacy arguing that
he does not truly represent the senti-
ments and spirit of the Madhesi peo-
ple just because he is from Dhanusha
district.
“Although the representation of
caste, class, region and people who
have made special contributions, and
experts in various fields of national
life was envisioned in the National
Assembly, that did not happen in the
selection of candidates,” Thapa said
in this note of dissent, adding, “Our
constitution envisages the representa-
tion of castes, classes and regions that
are not represented in the National
Assembly... It also emphasises the
presence of experts who have made
special contributions in various fields
of national life.”
Of the ten seats the coalition allocat-
ed Congress, the party picked seven
candidates from the Deuba group while
Sheikh Hasina is poised to become the longest serving prime minister in Bangladesh since independence.
food and transport for voters, who
still did not turn up in numbers
as expected.
However, a good number of seats
saw a significant turnout as the AL
nominated candidates and AL inde-
pendents fought neck-and-neck. In
some cases, some heavyweight AL
picks were blown away by their party
colleagues who ran as independents,
many of whom are sitting MPs.
the remaining three came from the
dissident Koirala-Thapa
Although the rival camp had demand-
group.
ed four seats, it was allotted three seats.
General Secretary Thapa, however,
said he would respect the party’s
majority-based decision despite the
reservations.
Similarly, Sharma, the other gener-
al secretary, reacting to the overall
selection of candidates, said he is not
happy with the party president’s work
approach.
As per the Nepali Congress charter,
the selection of the candidates should
be decided by the party parliamentary
board. But Deuba has not given full
shape to the party parliamentary board.
“How can the party’s office bearers
take such crucial decisions?” Sharma
said while stressing the need for .
The Nepali Congress also should be
diligent in maintaining the distinc-
tiveness of the national assembly, said
Sharma, adding that the principle of
inclusiveness should not only be a
mere provision in the party but a guid-
ing principle in reality.
The KC duo in their note of dissent
said the selection of the candidates
violates the criteria set by the party’s
central working committee. They
pointed at ‘mistakes and procedural
lapses” in candidate selection, which
they said ignores the constitutionally
guaranteed principle of inclusiveness.
Some members of the ruling alli-
ance, especially the fringe ones, are
equally dissatisfied over the allocation
of upper house seats.
The CPN (Unified Socialist) was
aiming for seats, but is now forced to
settle for two. After being denied even
a single seat, the Tarai-based Janamat
Party fielded Ram Shankar Mahaseth
from Madhesh and Bal Govinda
Chaudhary in Lumbini.
“People are frustrated by the
monopoly of the four ruling parties,
which are bent on capturing all state
organs,” Janamat Party chief CK
Raut said at an interaction in
Bhaktapur.
Post Photo: Depeak kc
Sporadic incidents of violence were
reported in different districts, leaving
one person dead in Munshiganj and
many others injured in other places.
Separately, an assistant presiding
officer in Gazipur died of a “heart
attack” while on duty.
Ruling party supporters were seen
frequenting the polling centre areas in
many places while some were even
seen inside the booths. Voting in seven
Special Court verdict
on BPKIHS corruption
Special Court in June last year had convicted three
former top officials of BP Koirala Institute of Health
Science and acquitted other three.
q POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, JAN 8
The Commission for Investigation of
Abuse of Authority on Monday
appealed at the Supreme Court over
the quantum of punishment and
acquittal of former officials of BP
Koirala Institute of Health Science in
corruption cases.
The anti-graft body has sought big-
ger punishment against those who
were convicted and annulling of ver-
dict in the case of those who were
acquitted by the Special Court, accord-
ing to a statement issued by the CIAA
on Monday.
On June 1 last year, the Special
Court had convicted three former offi-
cials of the BPKIHS—Balbhadra
Prasad Das, former vice-chancellor;
Arbinda Kumar Sinha, former direc-
tor; and Nanda Kumar Thapa, former
registrar. They were sentenced to one
year of imprisonment and fined
Rs25,000 each.
The anti-graft body had prosecuted
them on charge of financial irregulari-
ties in the purchase of various goods
and equipment for the hospital such as
Diagnostic Kits and Reagents (VIDAS),
Diagnostic Kits and Reagents
(Accent-200), High End Color Doppler
System, Operating Table, EMG,
Electrical Operation and Maintenance,
Air Condition, Fetal Monitor Doppler
and Newborn Warmer, Fully Automated
Rotary Microtome and Gloves.
But the Special Court had given a
clean chit to another former registrar
Tul Bahadur Shrestha, account chief
Dinesh Raj Dahal and deputy manag-
er Amit Srivastav on the ground that
they were not involved in procure-
ment of goods and services and were
only involved in making payment
according to the decision of the insti-
tute’s central executive committee.
The court had also acquitted the
suppliers, Chetan Agrawal and Umesh
Kumar Agrawal, from corruption
charges on the ground that they didn’t
collude with officials of the hospital
cartoon courtesy of the daily star
of the 42,000 polling stations across
299 seats were suspended due to
irregularities.
International reactions are yet to
come. However, a few foreign observ-
ers lauded the election process and
arrangements for voting, saying the
polls were by and large free and fair.
The voting was held amid repeated
calls from the US and some other
Western nations for a free and fair
NEWS
post file photos
who were charged with corruption.
The CIAA had prosecuted all of
them for causing a loss of Rs40.89 mil-
lion to the institute by paying unnatu-
rally high prices while procuring var-
ious goods.
In an appeal registered at the
Supreme Court, the anti-graft body
said that the quantum of punishment
meted out to them was not enough.
“The Special Court should have sen-
tenced Das, Sinha and Thapa with
additional punishment as per the sec-
tion 24 of the Corruption Prevention
Act 2002,” the statement said.
The section 24 says that if the
offender is an office bearer of a consti-
tutional organ or body to be nominat-
ed or appointed by officer belonging to
the special class of Government of
Nepal or officers of equivalent rank,
Head, General Manager or officer of a
public institution of equivalent rank,
such person shall be liable to the pun-
ishment of imprisonment for a term
of three years in addition to the pun-
ishment prescribed for such offence.
In the appeal, the CIAA has stated
that Das was convicted for corruption
in the purchase of High End Color
Doppler System but Dahal, who was in
the evaluation committee and one who
made the payment, was not convicted.
Likewise, Shrestha, who signed a
receipt generated through illegal acts,
was spared by the Special Court,
according to the CIAA.
Convicting one and leaving others
who were involved in the same pro-
curement process is mistaken, the
CIAA has said.
Likewise, the CIAA also claimed
that the suppliers were given a clean
chit even though they supplied the two
operating tables at more prices than
estimated cost while that wasn’t done
in an emergency arrangement.
According to the CIAA, then
account chief Dahal should have been
convicted along with Das for the pro-
curement of an EMG machine, which
was also procured at more price than
the estimated cost.
election. In September last year, the
US announced sanctions on some
individuals for undermining the vot-
ing process, and warned of further
sanctions on the same grounds.
AL General Secretary Obaidul
Quader has termed Sunday’s voting “a
victory of democracy and people of
the country”.
“The election was held in a free, fair
and peaceful manner overcoming
many obstacles. They [BNP] wanted to
confuse the international and nation-
al friends of Bangladesh by spreading
propaganda,” he said.
BNP, which enforced a hartal
Sunday, did not give an immediate
official reaction.
But the party’s Standing Committee
Member Abdul Moyeen Khan said
their boycott proved to be successful.
“The countrymen have refrained
from casting their votes. Even Awami
League supporters did not go to the
polling centres,” he told reporters at
his Gulshan residence after polling
ended.
BNP had been waging a movement
to topple the government and force it
to install a neutral administration
to oversee the election, but the
government snubbed the demand as
unconstitutional.
BNP’s street programmes ended in
a whimper on October 28, when
police foiled its Dhaka rally following
clashes between BNP and AL activists,
some of whom were joined in by
law enforcers.
The government then quickly
launched a countrywide crackdown
on opposition leaders and supporters.
By the time the nation went to polls
Sunday, more than 27,000 BNP leaders
and activists were rounded up and
over 1,700 were sentenced to jail in
political cases in just about two
months.
C M Y K
 TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024 | 04

Opinion

Silence and shame in Ajit Mijar’s killing

Our View Caste hatred often
precipitates caste violence,
Clear the road and hardly any criminal
is sentenced to jail.
Hurdles in our power generation and distribution
systems make it hard to export much electricity. MITRA PARIYAR

Two days after Nepal and India inked some major deals including
an agreement to increase the volume of Nepal’s electricity export
to India to 10,000MW in 10 years, officials from the two countries
on Saturday reached a number of other agreements on enhancing
cross-border electricity transmission capacity. A meeting of the
secretary level Joint Steering Committee took various decisions Last Monday, some Dalit lawyers, poli-
to expedite work of under-construction cross-border lines as well ticians and Dalit rights activists,
as to upgrade capacity of some existing ones. The bilateral body including myself, gathered in Lalitpur
also ordered the Joint Technical Team to study the feasibility of to discuss ways to make a last-ditch
new high-voltage cross-border transmission lines that will be effort to deliver justice to Ajit Mijar. A
needed to boost power trade between the two countries. According young Dalit from Kavre district,
to officials involved in the negotiations, they have agreed to carry Mijar was allegedly killed in July 2016
out a study on the possibility of at least three new cross-border by the family of his girlfriend as their
power lines. upper-caste pride could not tolerate
The JSC’s decisions—that came after the meeting of the Joint their woman’s marriage to the son of a
Working Group co-chaired by Nepal’s Foreign Minister NP Saud shoemaker.
and India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar—are timely Yet again, the ancient Manubadi post file photo
initiatives to enhance cross-border electricity transmission capac- laws triumphed over modern secular A typical ‘murder’ step by Mijar’s family and relatives; in upper-caste politicians and played a
ity. Officials working in this field say the first major step towards laws. Mijar’s corpse has been lying in a Madly in love, Mijar wanted to marry most other cases of caste violence, the role in denying justice to the poor
exporting 10,000 MW of electricity to India in 10 years is to mas- morgue at the TU Teaching Hospital, his girlfriend from the same village. victim’s families are easily drawn away and helpless victim’s families. The rul-
sively increase the capacity of the cross-border lines. Through the Maharajgunj, to date, leaving no sign However, the girl’s family vehemently from pursuing justice for small com- ers know the ancient trick: Diamond
existing transmission capacity, we can supply hardly 1,300MW. of justice for the victim’s family. objected because of caste reasons. pensation by the government. cuts diamond.
This highlights the extent of work that needs to be done. While Silence all these years notwithstand- The proposed marriage would have
this calls for effort from both the sides, the work on Nepal’s part is ing, a renewed interest among some been a huge blow to family honour and State’s typical response Plea for support
disproportionately higher. Dalit activists has led them to pursue prestige, and it would also offend their As in most other cases of caste vio- The Supreme Court will take another
The electricity transmission capacity of Nepal has for long been justice now because the case, lost at the deities. lence, certain political forces have two or three years to arrive at a verdict.
poor. The system of evacuating electricity from hydropower plants district and high courts, has arrived at Days after the girl’s elder sister and actively protected the elected murder- Meanwhile, the bill from the hospital
isn’t efficient. Protests in transmission line project sites have been the Supreme Court. other relatives threatened Mijar, he ers by derailing the legal process. Yet morgue has become huge, which
a perennial problem. As with other development projects, It is common knowledge that for disappeared. A few days later, the police again, their suspicions of foul play Mijar’s parents and kin cannot pay.
land acquisition and site clearance are common obstacles for most Dalits, Nepal’s democracy is a in Dhading found his corpse hanging have been proven by international They need all sorts of support and
building transmission lines. Obstruction on construction of trans- hoax. The rule of law is a joke. Caste from a tree. They hastily jumped to the human rights organisations such as assistance to ensure the criminals do
mission lines is common too. Officials say this could badly affect hatred often precipitates caste vio- conclusion that it was a suicide and Amnesty International, which not win. Yet again!
the evacuation of power from many under-construction hydroelec- lence, and hardly any criminal is sen- that it was an unidentified body by the observed that the police did not proper- Like the notorious Soti murders, the
tric projects. For instance, it took 13 years to complete the tenced to jail. The landmark recent roadside. Thus, the corpse was buried ly investigate the likely murder. When Mijar murder has become an issue of
ruling by the West Rukum Court on the under suspicious circumstances. the high court in Patan upheld—on national shame. This casteist state
74-km-long Bharatpur-Bardaghat line, which was inaugurated in
lynching of Nabaraj BK and his five When the news reached the April 25, 2022—the ruling of the probably does not feel it that way, but
August last year. Separately, authorities have failed to resolve the
friends earlier has provided a glimmer deceased’s family in Kavre, they asked district court and acquitted the three many people, both Dalits and others, do
long-standing dispute between the Nepal Electricity Authority and
of hope. for the body to be exhumed and a legal suspects, the desperate family and so strongly.
the residents of Shankharapur, on the outskirts of the capital city
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal process to be initiated. Their suspi- their supporters Dalit activists met The nation, including human rights
Kathmandu, over the planned 400kV transmission substation at
Dahal (who was seen as a liberator of cions of a cruel murder were also with the Attorney General, Raman groups and media, as well as the repre-
Lapsephedi.
the downtrodden) and the rest of the alluded to, if not vindicated, by a sepa- Shrestha (from the Maoist party), and sentatives of international diplomatic
With the pace of power generation accelerating in recent years, powers seem to have zero interest rate investigation by the Dalit sought his intervention to take the case and donor agencies, must throw their
there is an urgent need for more high capacity transmission lines in delivering justice; instead, as Commission. to the apex court. But he simply ignored weight behind yet another iconic case.
for the evacuation of electricity from power plants built in any lawyers and activists suspect, the The marks on his body and face indi- their plea. Street protests also play an indirect but
part of the country and to ensure efficient distribution of the ener- parties and their leaders have been cated a possible cold-blooded murder. The lawyers fighting on behalf of the major part in the justices’ thinking. If
gy across the country. People often question how they have to bent on protecting the criminals. Supported by some Dalit activists and victim’s family claim they have been the victim ultimately gets justice, it
endure power cuts even as they keep reading and hearing of power On several occasions, I have publicly lawyers in Kathmandu, on July 17, pressured by some powerful people to will hugely boost Dalit’s morale and
spillage in the country. This is happening because of transmission asked some of our government minis- 2016, Mijar’s family filed a murder case drop the case. Also, these advocates do also restore their faith in the state.
bottlenecks and inefficient distribution systems. Enhancing the ters and other influential politicians if at a police station in Gajuri, Dhading. not have any support, financial or oth- Similarly, Dalit activists, not least
energy distribution system is essential also because reliable ener- the dead body of a Dalit man kept They have long maintained that they erwise, from the Dalit Commission or the youths, should launch peaceful
gy supply is a basic need to expand economic and business activi- in a fridge for so long does not in any will not cremate their son’s body until any Dalit NGOs or groups. protests in Kathmandu’s streets.
ties. Smooth domestic supply helps boost cross-border trade, as the way pinch their sense of morality and justice is done. Worse still, some Dalit leaders them- Resorting to violence will never serve
energy generated at a hydropower plant first needs to be connected humanity. This is quite a bold and appreciable selves have become stooges of the the purpose.
to the national grid.
Resolution of issues related to local protests, sight clearance and
environment concerns has become urgent. The government
should have clear policies on resolving such recurring issues and

Nepali women in foreign policy

establish robust inter-ministerial coordination so that such dis-
putes are resolved on time, and construction isn’t hindered. There
is no way of realising the goal of exporting 10,000MW electricity to
India in 10 years with a business-as-usual approach.

Despite an inclusive
Their view constitution, appointment
and recruitment are highly
based on proportional representation,
emphasising equality. A notable
provision stipulates that at least one-
third of the total members elected from
each political party represented in the
and leading efforts within the South
Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation and Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, lack of
tion and women-friendly government
policies, the appointment and recruit-
ment processes are highly male-domi-
nated, with only a few token female
representatives in most governmental

Improving visibility male-dominated.

federal and provincial parliaments
must be women, amounting to 33 per-
cent. If a political party fails to do
women’s representation in certain
positions persists.
The appointment of high-level offi-
bodies.

Prioritising women
A robust contingency plan for transportation ANJAN SHAKYA
so, it must ensure, through proportion-
al representation, that women make
cials, including the secretary-general,
secretaries at the federal and provin-
The scarcity of female ambassadors
mirrors women’s overall limited par-
services during foggy conditions is needed. up at least one-third of the total
members elected to Parliament from
cial assemblies, the House of
Representatives and the National
ticipation in diplomacy. The rep-
resentation of women should be more
that party. Assembly who hold foreign and nation- robust among experts in foreign policy
As winter sets in across Pakistan it brings with it the inevitable The constitution mandates that the al affairs responsibilities, still remains within our society. Women engaged in
challenge of fog, which significantly disrupts road, rail and president and the vice-president repre- male-dominated. various ministries, departments,
air travel. To mitigate the impacts of this yearly occurrence, a sent different genders or communities, Consequently, a significant lack of municipalities, chambers, private sec-
comprehensive strategy is necessary. Enhancing communication ensuring diverse representation in the women in key executive positions indi- tors and fields such as journalism face
between authorities and travellers is crucial. Real-time updates Women bring diverse perspectives and election process. Similar rights extend cates a persistent gap in their involve- significant barriers to accessing inter-
via hotlines, websites, social media, and news outlets can enable experiences to the table in foreign poli- to positions of the speaker and the dep- ment in foreign policy planning, deci- national relations.
commuters to make informed decisions. cy. Achieving gender balance and uty speaker, the chairperson and the sion-making and implementation. The government must prioritise
Since fog and worse still, smog, have become permanent fea- acknowledging women’s capabilities vice-chair of the National Assembly, According to the Ministry of Foreign appointing female ambassadors to com-
tures of the cooler months, the government must proactively plan is therefore crucial. Their inclusion federal and provincial parliaments, Affairs, there are around 64 female offi- pensate for the numerical gap at the
to combat these issues. This includes acquiring special aircraft for not only enhances the overall quality mayor and deputy mayor and women cials compared to 245 male officials senior level in the Ministry of Foreign
artificial rains whenever needed. Recently, the Punjab government of foreign policy discussions but also ward members. These roles entail dealing with diplomacy and foreign Affairs (MoFA) until it becomes more
sourced such aircraft from the UAE, but the measure was only promotes peace. engagement with the international affairs, highlighting the ongoing representative at the senior level.
temporary. A permanent solution with readily available artificial In Nepal, the number of female arena in diplomacy, interactions with underrepresentation of women in Having the first female secretary is a
rain equipment is needed. Furthermore, Lahore and Islamabad officers in foreign affairs has increased foreign delegates and advancing these critical roles. The representation significant development in the foreign
airports are equipped with the advanced Instrument Landing in recent years, but their engagement women in various leadership capaci- of female diplomats is also scarce, with policy sector.
Systems (ILS CAT-III(B))—an anti-fog system enabling airplanes in the sector still remains limited. ties. These developments instil hope only three women out of 33 ambassa- Despite the challenges, Nepal’s
to land at low visibility levels. Such technology must be installed female ambassadors have demonstrat-
across the country’s airports. ed exceptional performance in foreign
lands, particularly during the Covid-19
Exploring additional technological solutions, such as
crisis. Their achievements, recognised
Ground-Based Augmentation (GBAS) and Advanced Surface
internationally, highlight women’s
Movement Guidance and Control Systems (A-SMGCS), can
immense potential in diplomatic roles.
improve visibility on runways and taxiways, thus reducing flight The Nepali Times, in an article
delays and cancellations. On the ground, enhancing road and rail “Nepal’s women envoys make a mark”
infrastructure to combat fog-related disruptions is essential. (September 29, 2020), reported that
Mainstreaming the installation of reflective road markings, ade- Nepal’s female ambassadors were bet-
quate street lighting, and fog detection systems can improve visi- ter at ensuring the welfare of Nepalis
bility on highways. Similarly, the railway sector can benefit from abroad and projecting the country’s
improved signalling systems and fog-safe devices, maintaining the international image during the Covid-
safety and regularity of train services. 19 crisis. It also validated the perfor-
In addition, there should be an emphasis on creating mance of women ambassadors during
a robust contingency plan for transportation services during the pandemic. Moreover, the general
foggy conditions. This involves not just rerouting and reschedul- public has appreciated the performanc-
ing, but also ensuring that there are enough resources, es of female ambassadors. Although
such as additional buses and trains, to manage the increased pas- the ability of women to excel in foreign
senger load when services resume normal operations. Public diplomacy is clear to all, they are still
awareness and safety measures also play a vital role. Campaigns not receiving the opportunities guaran-
focusing on safe driving practices in foggy conditions, such as teed by the Constitution.
reducing speed, using fog lights, etc can significantly reduce the Foreign policy stands as a pivotal
risk of accidents. area for women’s participation and
Collaboration with the Met department for accurate forecasts empowerment. It is imperative to go
can assist in planning, including the scheduling or rerouting beyond mere promises, redouble efforts
of flights, trains and buses during times of minimal fog occur- to fulfil commitments and create an
rence. Furthermore, investing in research to better understand inclusive space for women in diploma-
fog formation in different regions of Pakistan can lead to more cy. As Mary Ann Sieghart said, “Men
are considered competent until proven
targeted and effective solutions. Additionally, authorities should
otherwise; women are considered
consider implementing variable message signs (VMS) on post illustration incompetent until she proves other-
major highways. These electronic signs can provide real-time
Despite possessing the potential to even among women from the grass- dors. This suggests that Nepal has wise,” we must change societal percep-
information about fog conditions and alternative routes, thereby accomplish remarkable feats, their con- roots, inspiring them to pursue such appointed 10 male ambassadors for tions and promote gender equality.
enhancing safety. The use of thermal imaging cameras in fog- tributions are often underestimated, positions in the future. every female ambassador, according to Women’s inherent skills in manage-
prone areas can also aid drivers and authorities by providing hindering gender balance. a Ministry of Foreign Affairs report. ment, diplomacy, hospitality and crisis
clearer images than those captured by standard cameras in Women in diplomacy Between 2019 and 2022, five female handling make them valuable contribu-
low-visibility situations. Constitutional provisions Despite Nepal’s commitment to wom- ambassadors out of 33 served the tors to the field of foreign policy, and
In embracing these comprehensive strategies, Pakistan can The 2015 Constitution of Nepal pro- en’s rights and empowerment in its nation. Such figures indicate that the we shouldn’t let mere prejudice falter
effectively turn the challenges posed by fog into opportunities motes women’s participation in foreign policy, including involvement percentage of female ambassadors has their success.
for growth and innovation in its transportation and public various spheres, including foreign in initiatives like the Security Council decreased from 15.15 percent to 9.09
safety sectors. affairs. Women are granted the Resolution 1325 on women, peace and percent in the given period. Shakya is a former ambassador
— Dawn (Pakistan)/ANN right to participate in all state bodies security, sustainable development goals Despite Nepal’s inclusive constitu- of Nepal to Israel.

C M Y K
05 | TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024
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NADA elects its working
committee members
KATHMANDU: The 47th Annual General
Meeting (AGM) of the Nepal
Automobile Dealers Association
unanimously elected Karan
Chaudhary as its president. The AGM
held on Friday elected 17 central
working committee members, all
unanimously. The meeting also
appointed Dhurba Thapa as the
immediate past president to the work-
ing committee, Akash Golccha as sen-
ior vice president, and Puskar Ojha,
Tej Narayan Sah, Rajan Babu
Shrestha and Nirakar Shrestha as
vice presidents. The meeting elected
Surendra Upreti as joint secretary,
Bikram Shinghaniya as secretary,
Milan Babu Malla as treasurer, and
Pankaj Agrawal as joint treasurer.
The meeting elected Sanjay Kumar
Shrestha, Kul Bahadur Chhetri,
Krishna Prasad Shrestha, Ganesh
Prasad Bhattarai and Bhadra
Bhandari as members.
Malaysia conglomerate to sell
budget carrier to AirAsia X
SEPANG: Malaysia conglomerate
Capital A said Monday it plans to sell
its budget airline AirAsia to its medi-
um-haul affiliate AirAsia X in a bid
to streamline operations. Under the
terms of the non-binding agreement,
AirAsia Malaysia and AirAsia sub-
sidiaries in Cambodia, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines would
be merged with AirAsia X, it said.
The new entity would handle short-,
medium- and long-haul flights,
Capital A chief executive Tony
Fernandes told reporters, enabling
the conglomerate to focus on its
non-aviation businesses. “We are
going to merge the two airlines and
double passenger traffic to 200 mil-
lion (per year) from about 80 to 90
million currently,” Fernandes said.
AirAsia has a fleet of 166 A320 and
A321 planes while AirAsia X has 17
A330s in operation. (AFP)
Germany ready to sell
Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia
JERUSALEM: Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s
government on Monday defended
plans to lift Germany’s longstanding
veto on sales of Eurofighter jets to
Saudi Arabia, saying Riyadh has
adopted a “constructive approach” in
the Israel-Hamas war. Germany,
Britain, Italy and Spain jointly build
the jet and each can veto deals. But
German Foreign Minister Annalena
Baerbock, on a visit to Israel on
Sunday, signalled that Berlin was
ready to lift its blockade. “We do not
see ourselves, as the German federal
government, opposing British consid-
erations on other Eurofighter
(sales),” Baerbock told journalists,
as she underlined the Saudi role in
the Middle East security crisis since
the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war
on October 7. (AFP)
133.33
Koshi province overtakes Madhesh in rice production
145.90 >> Continued from page 1
Shivakoti attributed the historic
169.48 harvest to other factors like a suffi-
156.68 cient supply of chemical fertilisers
and low pest outbreaks and floods,
89.21 apart from the rainfall.
Nepal imported chemical fertilisers
99.63 worth Rs40 billion in the last fiscal
year, the highest shipment on record.
100.17 According to the Customs Department,
9.23 chemical fertiliser imports amounted
to 426,007 tonnes.
18.62 Of the total imports, 252,434 tonnes
was urea worth Rs 22.95 billion, 129,934
35.55 tonnes was di-ammonium phosphate
(DAP) worth Rs16.10 billion and the
36.58 remaining was potash.
Paddy is transplanted across most
3.80 of Nepal in June and harvested in
36.30 October-November.
Paddy is Nepal’s biggest earning
28.67 farm commodity, with tens of thou-
sands of farmers relying on its
10.11 income. The high output, according to
economists, may cool down inflation
and pump the economy.
The country has 1.43 million hec-
2,059.49pts tares of land suitable for growing
1.80% paddy. The grain is generally planted
twice a year—in June and February.
However, spring paddy in February is
NWCL HRL
planted on only 104, 712 hectares.
9.99 9.99
“As productivity is high during the
spring, we can boost production if we
BGWT
0.07 focus on spring paddy,” said Shivakoti.
Last year, the monsoon entered
Nepal on June 14, a day after the nor-
mal onset date but remained inactive
for several weeks.
LLBS The ministry said the productivity
-2.67 also increased to a record high of 3.98
tonnes a hectare.
However, the area under paddy pro-
duction dropped by 1.73 percent this
Price Per tola
fiscal year.
Agriculture expert Rajendra Upreti
said a combination of factors boosted
output, including a reduction in
post-harvest losses due to increased
farm mechanisation.
Source: FENEGOSIDA He said that some perennially
parched areas like Siraha and
Dhanusha, however, were largely
affected by the drought.
“Some of the central Tarai districts
lack proper irrigation infrastructure
and there are not enough tube wells to
water the farm.”
Investigators find blown out door plug from
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane
q AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
WASHINGTON, Jan 8
US aviation authorities said Sunday
the door plug of an airplane panel that
blew out during an Alaska Airlines
flight has been found, a part that could
potentially help with the investiga-
tions into the cause of the accident.
The National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) chief said a teacher,
named only as “Bob,” found the panel
in his backyard in the city of Portland,
in the US state of Oregon.
“I am excited to announce we have
found the door plug,” NTSB chair
Jennifer Homendy said at a press
briefing.
“We are really pleased that Bob
found this,” she added.
“He took a picture. I can just see the
outside of the door plug from the pic-
tures, the white portions. We can’t see
anything else but we’re going to go
pick that up and make sure that we
begin analyzing it.”
Airlines and safety bodies around
the world grounded some versions of
the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets pending
inspections, with dozens of flights
canceled after the incident.
The Federal Aviation
Administration “is requiring immedi-
Angry farmers stage Germany-wide tractor blockades
q AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BERLIN, Jan 8
Furious farmers opposed to Berlin’s
plans to cut tax breaks for agriculture
used tractors to block roads across
Germany on Monday, kicking off a
series of crippling strikes sinking
the country deeper into a winter of
discontent.
In Berlin, dozens of tractors and
lorries stationed in the city centre
blasted their horns to signal their
anger at the start of a planned week
of action.
Rail workers will likewise launch a
three-day strike on Wednesday, with
unions seeking a pay rise to compen-
sate for months of painfully high
inflation.
Workers in sectors across Germany,
from metallurgy and transport to edu-
cation, have turned to industrial
action in recent weeks.
Wage negotiations have taken a bit-
ter turn as Europe’s biggest economy
struggles with weak growth.
“We are exercising our basic
right to inform society and the
political class that Germany needs a
competitive agricultural sector,”
German Farmers Association
President Joachim Rukwied told
Stern magazine.
“That’s the only way to ensure
the supply of high-quality, home-
grown food.”
Some perennially parched areas like Siraha and Dhanusha were highly affected by the drought.
“There is a saying that if paddy
output rises by 10 percent, it boosts
the GDP by 1 percent. Hopefully,
increased output will offset the
imports of rice from India and control
the market price.”
The government has raised the min-
imum support price for paddy by more
than 7.5 percent, to Rs33.65 a kg for the
fiscal year 2022-23.
Based on the minimum support
price, the total value of the paddy out-
put amounted to Rs193 billion, exclud-
ing its byproducts like straw and
husk. Nepal had recorded a record
high paddy harvest of 5.62 million
ate inspections of certain Boeing 737
MAX 9 planes before they can return
to flight,” the agency said on X.
It added that around 171 aircraft
worldwide would be affected, with
each inspection taking four to eight
hours.
US-based Alaska and United
Airlines fly the largest number of
MAX 9 planes of any carrier and said
on Sunday they had grounded their
aircraft for inspection.
The plane manufacturer
said its chief executive
has set a safety
meeting for Tuesday.
Other airlines with smaller MAX 9
fleets, including Turkish Airlines,
said they did the same.
Boeing has so far delivered about
218 of the 737 MAX planes worldwide,
the company told AFP.
Alaska Flight 1282 had departed
from Portland International Airport
and was still gaining altitude when
the cabin crew reported a “pressuriza-
AFP/rss
Picture taken with a drone shows farmers on their tractors driving past Hartenfels Castle and crossing the river Elbe in Torgau, eastern
Germany, as they take part in protests against the federal government’s austerity plans, on Monday.
Farmers began gathering on
Sunday evening at the Brandenburg
Gate landmark in the heart of the gov-
ernment quarter in Berlin.
The sector has been up in arms over
government plans to withdraw certain
tax breaks for agriculture this year.
tonnes in 2020-21 as it had a surplus of
farmhands with hordes of migrant
workers returning home amid Covid
lockdowns. Adequate fertiliser sup-
plies and a good monsoon helped
farmers to produce a bumper harvest.
But paddy output shrank the follow-
ing year.
In 2021-22, the harvest dropped by
8.74 percent year-on-year to 5.13 mil-
lion tonnes due to unseasonal October
rainfall. The downpours damaged
paddy crops worth Rs8.26 billion, the
highest losses on record, according to
the ministry’s report.
Nepal’s economic well-being is inti-
tion issue,” according to the FAA.
The plane quickly returned to
Portland and there were no major
injuries.
Images posted on social media
showed a gaping hole where the side
panel had blown out, with emergency
oxygen masks hanging from the ceil-
ing. The plane manufacturer late
Sunday said its chief executive Dave
Calhoun has set an all-employee
safety meeting for Tuesday at the com-
pany’s factory in Washington state,
and canceled an overlapping leader-
ship summit.
“In light of the Alaska Airlines
Flight 1282 in-flight event, we are can-
celing the Summit to focus on our
support to Alaska Airlines and the
ongoing...(NTSB)investigation, and
any of our airline customers experi-
encing impact to their fleets,” Calhoun
said in a Boeing statement. Passenger
Kyle Rinker told CNN the problem
occurred soon after takeoff.
“It was really abrupt. Just got to
altitude, and the window/wall just
popped off,” he told the broadcaster.
The NTSB said no one occupied the
two seats nearest the panel, but the
Oregonian newspaper quoted passen-
gers as saying a young boy seated in
the row had his shirt ripped off by the
“We simply don’t get enough money
for what we produce, while we work
365 days a year,” said Jenny Zerbin, 34,
told AFP in Berlin.
“We want to support farmers,” said
Zerbin, who set off from her home
in the region of Brandenburg on
Post file Photo
mately tied to the rainy season. Water
from the skies is the lifeblood of
Nepal’s Rs5.38 trillion economy which
is farm-dependent, as nearly two-
thirds of the farmlands are rain-fed.
According to the ministry, the
contribution of paddy to the country’s
gross domestic product amounts
to 4 percent.
The ministry said that the per capi-
ta cereal requirement in Nepal is 181
kg. Of the total requirement, rice
should make up 121 kg. But as Nepalis
appear to be ardent rice eaters, the per
capita rice requirement is 137 kg.
According to the ministry, Koshi
sudden decompression, injuring him
slightly.
According to Aviation Week
magazine, airlines that choose MAX
models with smaller seating configu-
rations can have the door sealed up,
making it look like a typical window
from the inside.
The NTSB dispatched a team to
Portland to examine the Alaska
Airlines craft.
The board’s chair, Jennifer
Homendy, said it was “very, very fortu-
nate” that the incident had not ended
in tragedy.
“We have the safest aviation system
in the world. It is incredibly safe,” she
said. “But we have to maintain that
standard.”
Homendy revealed that the panel
had fallen off over the Portland sub-
urb of Cedar Hills, and urged resi-
dents to come forward if they found it.
The plane, which had been heading
to Ontario, California, was certified
airworthy in October and was newly
delivered to Alaska Airlines, accord-
ing to the FAA registry website.
“Safety is our top priority and
we deeply regret the impact this
event has had on our customers
and their passengers,” Boeing said in
a statement.
Sunday to take part in the protest with
her son.
Farm vehicles blocked the centres
of cities including Berlin, Hamburg,
Cologne and Bremen, with up to 2,000
tractors registered for each protest.
Outside cities, demonstrators tar-
Money
province surpassed Madhesh prov-
ince in terms of paddy production, as
some districts in Madhesh province
were hit by drought.
Paddy production in Koshi province
jumped by 7.45 percent to 1.43 million
tonnes, the highest output among all
provinces, with productivity averag-
ing 4.43 tonnes per hectare.
Paddy production in Madhesh prov-
ince dropped to 1.33 million tonnes,
down by 3.68 percent year-on-year.
In Lumbini province, output
totalled 1.31 million tonnes, followed
by Sudurpaschim (599,124 tonnes),
Bagmati (504,624 tonnes), Gandaki
(391,121 tonnes) and Karnali (145,063
tonnes). About 90 percent of the
world’s rice is grown and consumed in
Asia. As a staple food for more than
half of the world’s population, it is
one of the most important crops sus-
taining global food security.
El Nino is a natural and occasional
warming of part of the Pacific that
brings dry weather. A strong El Nino
means less rainfall, which affects
water-intensive crops like rice.
Following early reports of El Nino,
and its associated risks, countries
across Southeast Asia have imposed
restrictions on the export of rice to
other countries, leading to higher
prices for countries that depend
on imports.
India imposed a ban on the export
of non-basmati rice on July 20 last
year after considering its own
needs. On August 25, a month after the
export ban on non-basmati rice, India
slapped a 20 percent export duty on
parboiled rice.
While government officials say that
Nepal will no longer need to import
rice from India due to the bumper
harvest, rice traders say varieties
which Nepal’s urban consumers eat
are normally not produced inside the
country. The Indian government
granted Nepal a quota of 95,000 tonnes
of rice after imposing a ban on the
export of non-basmati rice.
Vibhor Agrawal, a member of the
Association of Nepalese Rice, Oil and
Pulses Industries, told the Post that
urban consumers prefer long-slender
grains and aromatic rice which Nepal
does not produce.
EU approves
900-mn-euro
German aid for
battery plant
q AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BRUSSELS, Jan 8
The EU approved Monday a 900-mil-
lion-euro German state subsidy for
electric vehicle battery firm Northvolt
to build a plant in Germany that might
have otherwise been lured to the
United States.
EU competition chief Margrethe
Vestager said the aid, equivalent to
$985 million, is the first granted under
a system set up last year to counter
the massive subsidies on offer under
Washington’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“It is Germany who matches the
aid that Northvolt would otherwise
have been given due to the Inflation
Reduction Act in the US,” Vestager
said.
Vestager said that if no state aid
had been offered in the European
Union then Northvolt’s investment
would gone across the Atlantic.
“Either we could do nothing....or we
can enable that a member state can
match the aid in order for the invest-
ment to take place here,” she said.
geted motorway access ramps, snarl-
ing traffic in a coordinated nation-
wide show of discontent.
Police reported blockades and
major disruptions due to slow-moving
tractor convoys from the early morn-
ing hours across Germany.
Authorities in the rural northern
state of Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania said all of its autobahn
ramps were impeded.
The protest also caused disruptions
at Germany’s borders with France,
Poland and the Czech Republic, caus-
ing traffic to back up at crossing
points, according to local media and
German police.
Thousands of protestors had
already descended on Berlin to protest
against the planned subsidy cuts in
December, blocking roads and dump-
ing manure on the street.
The protests prompted the govern-
ment to partially walk back the reduc-
tions on Thursday. A discount on vehi-
cle tax for agriculture would remain
in place, while a diesel subsidy would
be phased out over several years
instead of being abolished immediate-
ly, the government said.
The agriculture sector however said
the move did not go far enough
and urged Berlin to completely reverse
the plans, which were announced
after a shock court ruling forced the
government to find savings in the
budget for 2024.
C M Y K

world
p Briefing
US fighter jets to fly over
Bosnia in warning to
‘secessionist’ Serbs
SARAJEVO: Two F-16 fighter jets will
fly over Bosnia on Monday to under-
line US support for its territorial
integrity against “secessionist activi-
ty” by Serbs at odds with the coun-
try’s 1990s Dayton peace accords, the
US embassy in Sarajevo said. The
overflight will be part of bilateral air-
to-ground training conducted along
with Bosnia´s national armed forces
in areas of the Balkan country’s
north not controlled by Serbs, the US
Embassy in Sarajevo said in a state-
ment. An embassy statement referred
to renewed separatist agitation by
Milorad Dodik, the nationalist,
pro-Russian leader of Bosnia’s post-
war Serb region who has long called
for it to secede and join its neighbour-
ing ally Serbia. “This bilateral train-
ing is an example of advanced mili-
tary-to-military cooperation that con-
tributes to peace and security in the
Western Balkans, as well as demon-
strates the United States’ commit-
ment to ensuring the territorial
integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina
in the face of anti-Dayton and
secessionist activity,” the statement
said. Washington brokered the
Dayton deal that ended Bosnia´s
1992-95 war, in which about 100,000
people were killed and two million
displaced. (Reuters)
Pope calls for universal ban on
surrogacy, says it exploits
mother and child
ROME: Pope Francis called on Monday
for a universal ban on what he called
the “despicable” practice of surro-
gate motherhood, as he included the
“commercialization” of pregnancy in
an annual speech listing threats to
global peace and human dignity. In a
foreign policy address to ambassa-
dors accredited to the Holy See,
Francis lamented that 2024 had
dawned at a time in which peace is
“increasingly threatened, weakened
and in some part lost.” Citing
Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israel-
Hamas war, migration, climate crises
and the “immoral” production of
nuclear and conventional weapons,
Francis delivered a list of the ills
afflicting humanity and the increas-
ing violation of international human-
itarian law that allows them. But
Francis also listed smaller-scale
issues that he said were threats to
peace and human dignity, including
surrogacy. He said the life of the
unborn child must be protected and
not “suppressed or turned into an
object of trafficking.” “I consider
despicable the practice of so-called
surrogate motherhood, which
represents a grave violation of the
dignity of the woman and the child,
based on the exploitation of situa-
tions of the mother’s material needs,”
he said.Saying a child is a gift and
“never the basis of a commercial con-
tract,” he called for a global ban on
surrogacy “to prohibit this practice
universally.” (AP)
Germany sees 51 percent jump
in 2023 asylum applications
BERLIN: Germany saw asylum applica-
tions jump by around half last year,
according to official data released on
Monday, adding to pressure on the
government to make good on its
promises to bring down irregular
migration. In 2023, 351,915 asylum
applications were registered in
Germany, up 51 percent compared to
the year before, the Federal Office
for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)
said. “The asylum figures for 2023
show that we must consistently con-
tinue our course to limit irregular
migration,” Interior Minister Nancy
Faeser said in a statement.
Germany’s centre-left coalition
government has toughened up its
stance on migration as it trails in
opinion polls behind right-wing par-
ties. In recent months, Faeser has
announced temporary police controls
at Germany’s borders, while also
working to conclude migration
agreements with partner countries in
a bid to speed up deportations.
In her statement, the minister lauded
a recent agreement to reform
European Union asylum policy, under
which those with little prospect of
protection status will have their
application processed at the bloc’s
external borders. (Reuters)
New tensions stir old fears near North Korean border
q Reuters
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea, Jan 8
As Kim Jeoung-hee huddled in a bomb
shelter on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong
Island, scared and confused with
around 250 other people, memories
flooded back of the day in 2010 when
North Korean troops shelled near
their homes.
Authorities told them to take shel-
ter on Friday as North-South tensions
spiked again. This time no-one aimed
any shells at the small patch of land
just on the southern side of the two
Koreas’ disputed maritime border.
But the alarm was a reminder of
how vulnerable Yeonpyeong remains
more than 13 years after the bombard-
ment that killed two soldiers and two
civilians there, and left an uncon-
Israeli strike kills an elite Hezbollah
commander in the latest escalation
Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil, the most senior militant in the armed group killed since October 7.
q Associated Press
BEIRUT, Jan 8
An Israeli airstrike killed an elite
Hezbollah commander on Monday in
southern Lebanon, the latest in an
escalating exchange of strikes along
the border that have raised fears of
another Mideast war even as the
fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting
toll on civilians.
The strike on an SUV killed a com-
mander in a secretive Hezbollah force
that operates along the border, accord-
ing to a Lebanese security official who
spoke on condition of anonymity in
keeping with regulations. Hezbollah
identified the slain fighter as Wissam
al-Tawil without providing details.
He is the most senior militant in the
armed group killed since Hamas’
October 7 attack into southern Israel
triggered all-out war in Gaza and low-
er-intensity fighting between Israel
and Hezbollah, which has escalated
since an Israeli strike killed a senior
Hamas leader last week in Beirut.
US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, who is back in the region this
week, appears to be trying to head off
a wider conflict.
Fighting continued in northern
Gaza, even after Israel said it has
largely wrapped up major operations
there to now focus on the central
region and the southern city of Khan
Younis, where thousands more
Palestinians fled.
Israeli officials say the fighting will
continue for many more months as the
army seeks to dismantle Hamas and
return scores of hostages taken dur-
ing the militants’ October 7 attack.
The offensive has already killed
over 23,000 Palestinians, devastated
vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, dis-
placed nearly 85 percent of its popula-
tion of 2.3 million and left a quarter of
its residents facing starvation.
Medics, patients and displaced peo-
ple fled from the main hospital in
central Gaza as the fighting drew clos-
er, witnesses said on Monday. Losing
the facility would be another major
blow to a health system shattered by
three months of war.
Doctors Without Borders and other
aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in
recent days, saying it was too danger-
ous. That spread panic among people
Cold snap grips parts of Europe
Strong winds of nearly 100 km/h blew off roofs, brought down trees onto roads and
downed electricity poles and power lines in some parts of the country.
AFP/rss
A person lies over a heating duct as pedestrians walk past on a street in central Paris on
Monday, as the first cold wave of the winter strikes France.
q Agence France-Presse
WARSAW, Jan 8
Schools were closed and electricity
failed in several parts of Central and
Eastern Europe on Monday as a cold
snap moved in from Scandinavia, with
Poland seeing overnight temperatures
plunge to minus 23 degrees Celsius.
The Polish weather service issued
safety warnings for most of the coun-
try as temperatures are set to plum-
met further this week.
Around 2,200 households were with-
out power in the northeast, where
school bus services were cancelled.
The corresponding
actions marked
a further escalation
between the rivals.
firmed number of North Korean casu-
alties after South Korea fired back.
“Every time I hear a bang I
get scared,” Kim told Reuters on
Monday, standing in the same bomb
shelter, a bunker buried in a hill with
toilets, a small kitchen and blankets
inside. “Everyone is living with that
nightmare.”Friday’s scare came after
North Korea fired off more than 200
shells a few miles from the island, and
AP/rss
This undated picture released by Hezbollah Military Media, shows senior Hezbollah leader
Wissam Tawil (left) who was killed in Kherbet Selem village, south Lebanon, on Monday.
sheltering there, causing many to join
the hundreds of thousands who have
fled to the south of the besieged terri-
tory. Tens of thousands of people have
sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals,
which are struggling to treat dozens
of people wounded each day in Israeli
strikes. Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals
are even partially functioning, accord-
ing to the UN humanitarian office.
Omar al-Darawi, an employee at the
Al-Aqsa hospital, said the facility has
been struck multiple times in recent
days. He said thousands of people left
after the aid groups pulled out, while
patients have been concentrated on
one floor to be treated by the remain-
ing doctors.
“We have large numbers of
wounded who can’t move” he said.
“They need special care, which is
unavailable.” More dead and wounded
arrive each day as Israeli forces
advance in central Gaza, backed by
heavy airstrikes. Gaza’s Health
Ministry said on Monday that 249
Palestinians have been killed and 510
others were wounded across the terri-
tory in the last 24 hours.
World Health Organization staff
who visited on Sunday saw “sickening
scenes of people of all ages being
treated on blood-streaked floors and in
“Due to the cold, there were prob-
lems with school transport,” regional
government spokesman Krzysztof
Guzek told the PAP news agency.
In Latvia, a temperature of minus
29.5 Celsius (minus 21.1 Fahrenheit)
was recorded in Daugavpils, the coun-
try’s second-largest city, with weather
forecasters predicting similar arctic
conditions through the week.
Hungary’s national weather service
warned of wind gusts of up to 90
km/h (56 mph) in the northeast and
temperatures slipping to minus 12C in
some areas by Friday and Saturday.
Strong winds of nearly 100 km/h
still more over the weekend, in what it
described as artillery drills. The South
responded on Friday with its own live-
fire exercises.
The corresponding actions marked
a further escalation between the
rivals. In November North Korea said
it would deploy stronger armed forces
and new weapons on its border with
the South, a day after Seoul suspended
part of a 2018 military accord in a
protest over Pyongyang’s launch of a
spy satellite.
The breakdown of the 2018 agree-
ment left many on Yeonpyeong fearing
they could be back in the firing line.
Kim said he and other island lead-
ers met with South Korean military
officials earlier on Monday to air their
concerns about Friday’s alarm,
including what he said was a lack of
chaotic corridors,” Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN
agency, said in a statement. “The
bloodbath in Gaza must end.”
Thousands more Palestinians fled
Deir al-Balah and refugee camps in
central Gaza, heading south along the
coastal road to an area known as
Muwasi, on the outskirts of Rafah at
Gaza’s southern end, where already
more than 1 million people have
crowded. The UN children’s agency
UNICEF warned that 90 percent of
Gaza’s children under 2 were consum-
ing only bread and milk, and that
cases of diarrhea were skyrocketing.
“As the threat of famine intensifies,
hundreds of thousands more young
children could soon be severely mal-
nourished, with some at risk of death.
We cannot allow that to happen,” said
Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s execu-
tive director. The situation is even
more dire in northern Gaza, which
Israeli forces cut off from the rest of
the territory in late October.
Entire neighborhoods have been
demolished, and most of the popula-
tion has fled. Tens of thousands who
remain face severe shortages of food
and water. The WHO said late Sunday
it has been unable to deliver supplies
to northern Gaza in 12 days because of
blew off roofs, brought down trees
onto roads and downed electricity
poles and power lines in some parts of
the country.
Hungarian authorities warned in
particular to ensure that pets and ani-
mals in shelters or strays are not
exposed to the extreme cold.
“Sub-zero temperatures can pose
a threat to our pets, and it is
particularly important that we all take
action to protect animals during this
period,” Peter Ovadi, the official
responsible for animal protection,
said in a statement.
In Moldova, around 22,000 clients
were without electricity on Monday as
the frigid temps forced flight cancella-
tions and delays at Chisinau Airport.
Public transportation in the capital
was also halted and schools were
closed until Thursday.
Snowfall forced two flights to be
diverted from Iasi Airport in Romania
and sections of main roads closed in
eastern regions.
Germany’s weather service said
that temperatures could fall as low as
minus 15C overnight, but added that it
was not unusual for the country to see
such temperatures in January.
“What was abnormal, however, was
how ‘hot’ it was at the beginning of
January in Germany,” a spokesman
for the German meteorological agen-
cy, Andreas Walter, told AFP.
Temperatures had risen across
much of the country at the start of the
year, hitting 17C in Frankfurt.
clarity and communication. They also
requested that the military help pro-
vide food in the future, after children
and elderly had to spend up to four
hours underground. “Considering
what happened 14 years ago, this
shouldn’t have been dealt with this
way,” Kim said. “If there’s a real emer-
gency, residents deserve to know what
really is happening.”
The ferry service was also suspend-
ed that day, effectively trapping resi-
dents on the island, Kim said.
“Everyone here has been held hos-
tage,” he said.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry
acknowledged it had not sent the
islanders a notice when North Korea
started firing on Friday, but said that
was because the drills were taking
place some distance away.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024 | 06
heavy bombardment and the inability
to guarantee safe passage with the
Israeli military.
Even there, Israel still battles what
it describes as pockets of militants.
An airstrike early Sunday flattened
a four-story home filled with displaced
people in the urban Jabaliya refugee
camp, killing at least 70, including
women and children, according to
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for
Gaza’s civil defense. There was no
immediate confirmation from the
Health Ministry, which has struggled
to maintain its operations in the
north. Search efforts were still under-
way on Monday. Civil defense officials
circulated a graphic video showing
the aftermath, with several bodies
scattered amid the rubble.
Jabaliya, which was built for
Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war
surrounding Israel’s creation and is
now a dense, built-up neighborhood,
has seen weeks of heavy fighting.
More than 23,000 Palestinians have
been killed, about two-thirds of them
women and children, and more than
58,000 wounded, since the war began,
according to the Health Ministry in
Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does
not distinguish between combatants
and civilians.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian
casualties because the group operates
in populated residential areas, but the
military almost never comments on
the intended target in strikes that kill
large numbers of civilians. The mili-
tary says it has killed some 8,000 mili-
tants, without providing evidence, and
says 176 of its own soldiers have been
killed in the offensive.
Blinken, who was meeting leaders
in the United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia on Monday after talks in
Jordan and Qatar, once again spoke
of the need for Israel to adjust its
military operations to minimize harm
to civilians and allow more aid into
the territory.
But his main focus appeared to be
preventing the war from spreading.
A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a
sensitive air traffic base in northern
Israel on Saturday in one of the big-
gest attacks in three months of fight-
ing. The militant group said was an
“initial response” to the killing of
Hamas’ deputy political leader Saleh
Arouri in Beirut last week.
India’s top court
quashes release of men
in Muslim woman’s
gang-rape: Lawyer
q Reuters
NEW DELHI, Jan 8
India’s top court on Monday quashed
the release of 11 Hindu men who had
been jailed for life for gang-raping a
pregnant Muslim woman and murder-
ing her relatives during Hindu-
Muslim riots in Gujarat state in 2002,
a lawyer in the case said.
The court directed the men to sur-
render to prison authorities within
two weeks, the lawyer added.
The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three
months pregnant when she was gang-
raped and seven of her relatives,
including her three-year old daughter,
murdered during the riots that killed
more than 1,000 people, most of them
Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was
Gujarat’s chief minister at the time
and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party still rules the state.
The men, convicted in 2008, were
freed by the Gujarat government in
August 2022 after the prison they were
being held in recommended their
release considering the time served
and their good behaviour.
Their release drew condemnation
from the victim’s husband, lawyers,
and politicians. Local media reported
that several petitions were filed in the
Supreme Court challenging the remis-
sion, including one by the victim her-
REUTERS
Television journalists seen outside the premises of Supreme Court in New Delhi, January 2020.
Four killed in
combined Russian
air strike on Ukraine
q Reuters
KYIV, Jan 8
Russia sent dozens of missiles across
Ukraine early on Monday, killing at
least four civilians and hitting resi-
dential areas and commercial sites in
its latest combined air attack,
Ukrainian authorities said.
Two people were killed in the west-
ern Khmelnytskyi region, local offi-
cials reported, where critical infra-
structure had also been struck.
In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was
killed and a shopping centre and
scores of private homes and apart-
ment buildings damaged after nine
Russian missiles hit the south central
city, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor.
“The mad enemy once again struck
civilians,” regional governor Serhiy
Lysak wrote on the Telegram messag-
ing app. “Directed missiles at people.”
Ukraine’s National Police said a
total of 38 people in total had been
wounded across the country.
Russia said it hit military-industri-
al targets in Ukraine from sea and air
on Monday.
“This morning, a multiple attack
was carried out with high-precision,
long-range, sea and air-based weap-
ons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic
missile system, on facilities of the
military-industrial complex of
Ukraine,” the defence ministry said in
a daily dispatch.
Ukraine said its air defences had
destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles, a much
lower shoot-down rate than normal,
which Kyiv attributed to the large
number of ballistic missiles fired
by Russia which are more difficult
to intercept.
“On the one hand, you have lots of
missiles not shot down,” air force
spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on
Ukrainian television.
“The explanation is simple: they
were flying on a ballistic trajectory,
and into the regions where we
can’t shoot them down.” All eight
drones launched by Russia were also
shot down.
The strikes came amid a cold snap
sweeping Ukraine, with Vilkul, the
Kryvyi Rih mayor, also reporting that
15,000 residents were without power
and that local trams and trolleybuses
were not running. In the eastern city
of Kharkiv, an industrial site and edu-
cational facility were damaged after at
least four missile strikes, Governor
Oleh Synehubov said.
self. In its verdict on Monday, the
court held that Gujarat did not have
the authority to reduce the sentence
since the trial was moved to Mumbai,
making neighbouring Maharashtra
state responsible for the decision.
“The court has said that the law is
clear, the appropriate government is
the government where the accused are
tried and sentenced,” advocate Vrinda
Grover, among the lawyers appearing
for the petitioners, said.
The bench also held that a 2022
Supreme Court order, which directed
the Gujarat government to consider
remission, was obtained fraudulently,
local media reported.
“Gujarat government usurped the
powers of Maharashtra government...
which in our opinion is a nullity,” the
court said, according to news website
Live Law. The Gujarat government
will comment on the verdict only after
going through the detailed order, a
senior state official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity as they are
not authorised to speak to the media.
There was no immediate reaction to
the verdict from the 11 men.
The main opposition Congress
party welcomed the decision.
“Bilkis Bano’s tireless struggle is a
symbol of the victory of justice
against the arrogant BJP govern-
ment,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
posted on social media platform X.
C M Y K
07 | TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024

Sports | Medley
FA Cup
Results (Third round) Rohit and Kohli back in
India’s T20 squad
Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool
Luton 0-0 Bolton
Man City 5-0 Huddersfield
Forest 2-2 Blackpool
Peterborough 0-3 Leeds
Shrewsbury 0-1 Wrexham
The batters have not played T20Is since India’s semi-final
West Brom 4-1 Aldershot defeat to England at World Cup in November 2022.
West Ham 1-1 Bristol City q Reuters missed out though the Indian cricket
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 board did not offer any explanation
ICC Men’s T20 Team Rankings for any of the omissions or inclusions
Regular skipper Rohit Sharma and in its statement on Sunday.
1. India 11. Namibia stalwart Virat Kohli returned to Pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah
2. England 12. Ireland India’s T20 squad after a year’s gap for and Mohammed Siraj have been
3. New Zealand 13. Zimbabwe the home series against Afghanistan rested, ostensibly to keep them fresh
amid speculation about their future in ahead of the five-Test home series
4. Pakistan 14. Scotland this format. against England beginning later
5. Australia 15. Netherlands Both the batters have not played T20 this month.
6. South Africa 16. Nepal Internationals since India’s defeat to India kick off the series against
7. West Indies 17. UAE England in the semi-finals of the Afghanistan in Mohali on January 11
World Cup in Australia in November followed by matches in Indore and
8. Sri Lanka 18. Oman 2022. Bengaluru.
9. Bangladesh 19. PNG While they have been active in other
10. Afghanistan 20. Canada formats, speculation was rife whether India T20 squad
they would play the T20 World Cup in
Ap/Rss West Indies and the United States in Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill,
Serie A Arsenal’s Jakub Kiwior (centre top) June.
Both Hardik Pandya and Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma,
hits the ball to score an own goal
Results Suryakumar Yadav, who shared the Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper),
during the FA Cup against Liverpool.
Empoli 0-3 AC Milan T20 captaincy burden in Rohit’s Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube,
Roma 1-1 Atalanta absence, were left out of the series Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi,

Arsenal’s struggles continue

against Afghanistan reportedly Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan,
Salernitana 1-2 Juventus because of injuries.
Torino 3-0 Napoli Wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul Mukesh Kumar
Udinese 1-2 Lazio
Frosinone 2-3 Monza
The Gunners risk falling short again this season, just like in the last season when they
South Africa’s Klaasen
Inter Milan 2-1 Verona
Lecce
Sassuolo
1-1
1-0
Cagliari
Fiorentina
faded late on and were beaten to the Premier League title by fast-finishing Man City.
Quote of the day q Associated Press
LONDON, Jan 8
Otherwise, Arsenal risk falling
short again this season, just like in the
last campaign when the team faded
on the opening day of the Premier
League season on August 11. The
Belgium playmaker came on as a
retires from Test cricket
Three straight losses, an elimination late on and were beaten to the Premier 57th-minute substitute—when City q Reuters
from the FA Cup, and the ominous League title by fast-finishing were 2-0 ahead—and provided the LONDON, Jan 8
sight of Manchester City back in form Manchester City. cross that fellow replacement Jeremy
and boosted by the return of Kevin De “If the team are getting hammered, Doku converted for the final goal in a South Africa wicketkeeper-batter
Bruyne. not playing well and not deserving to one-sided match at Etihad Stadium. Heinrich Klaasen has retired from red
These are worrying times for win football matches, I would be much City manager Pep Guardiola wel- ball cricket despite the country’s Test
Arsenal. more worried,” said Arteta, attempt- come back a midfielder he described coach Shukri Conrad suggesting he
In a heavyweight third-round ing to stay positive. “I love winning as “exceptional” and ”unique.” would form part of his plans in 2024.
matchup in the FA Cup, Arsenal’s and we have to win many more “Kevin helps us to win games and Powerful middle order hitter
increasingly alarming problems in games.” there are few like him in the world,” Klaasen has become a mainstay of the
It’s a personal dream come true. front of goal were further exposed in a Guardiola said. “I’m pretty sure Kevin South African white ball side, with his
— Dorival Junior said in a statement posted by Sao 2-0 loss to Liverpool on Sunday. felt how our people are in love with record-breaking 174 from 83 balls
Paulo on X. The club said Junior has quit as their
coach to take charge of Brazil’s national team.
An end-to-end contest was settled by
two late goals—an own-goal by
Arsenal are out of the him. This mutual respect will last
forever.”
against Australia in a One-Day
International in September underlin- Heinrich Klaasen was set to return to the
Ap/Rss

Junior will replace Fernando Diniz, who was fired Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior in the FA Cup and League Cup Phil Foden scored twice, Julian ing his ability. team this year with current wicketkeeper

and sit five points

following a string of losses. 80th minute and a fierce strike by Alvarez added another and there was He played four Tests between 2019 Kyle Verreynne failing to impress.
Luis Diaz in the fourth minute of an own-goal for the defending champi- and 2023, managing 108 runs at an
Copa del Rey stoppage time.
Arsenal have now lost four of their behind Liverpool. ons, who saw defender Manuel Akanji
go off injured in the first half.
average of 13.00, but was set to return
to the team this year according to
the United States, it appears he will
feature prominently in the global
Results (Round of 32) last seven matches in all competitions, Erling Haaland was still deemed not Conrad, with current wicketkeeper leagues in the shortest format.
including their last three in a row. fit enough to feature for City, but Kyle Verreynne failing to impress. Cricket South Africa’s Director of
Amorebieta 2-4 Celta Vigo
“We need to reset,” Arsenal manag- “But at the moment, the thing we should be back soon to complement “After a few sleepless nights won- Cricket Enoch Nkwe confirmed
Burgos 0-3 Mallorca er Mikel Arteta said. “This (upcoming have to change, what we have to reset, the returning De Bruyne and Doku as dering if I am making the right deci- Klaasen was still part of their white
Racing Ferrol 1-2 Sevilla winter) break is good. It has come at a is up here,” he added, pointing to his Guardiola’s team go for an unlikely sion, I have decided to retire from ball plans.
Castellon 0-1 Osasuna good time.” head. repeat of their treble of major tro- red-ball cricket. It’s a difficult deci- “We look forward to seeing him
Arsenal have had 48 shots in their Even more worrying for Arsenal phies won last season. sion that I have made because it is by excel in the white-ball arena and con-
Unionistas 1-1 Villarreal- match last two home games—taking in the and Arteta, Man City look in prime City are third in the Premier far my favourite format of the game,” tinue to make valuable contributions
abandoned after
2-0 loss to West Ham in the Premier shape heading into the second half of League, five points behind first-place Klaasen said in a statement on to South African cricket in the years
floodlight failure
League on December 28—and not the season, with a 5-0 win over sec- Liverpool with a game in hand, and Monday. “But for now a new challenge ahead,” he said.
Eibar 0-3 Athletic Bilbao scored a goal. That statistic, plus a ond-tier Huddersfield in the FA Cup are through to the round of 16 in the awaits and I am looking forward to it.” South Africa recently lost opener
Cartagena 1-2 Valencia knee injury to first-choice striker notable for the return from injury of Champions League. The 32-year-old has not elaborated Dean Elgar to Test retirement, while
Barbastro 2-3 Barcelona Gabriel Jesus that made him miss the De Bruyne after nearly five months “I know he can handle the pres- on what that challenge may be, but others who have prematurely given up
game, could yet tempt manager Mikel out. sure,” Guardiola said of De Bruyne, with confirmed stints coming up in first class cricket to focus on the T20
Malaga 0-1 Real Sociedad Arteta to go into the transfer market De Bruyne hasn’t played since sus- “but I don’t want to put all the pres- the SA20, Indian Premier League, the circuit include Quinton de Kock, AB de
Tenerife 2-0 Las Palmas this month. taining a hamstring injury at Burnley sure on Kevin’s shoulders.” Hundred and Major League Cricket in Villiers, Faf du Plessis and David Miller.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Dear Aries, luck, love, and adventure are on your
side, helping you chase inspiring dreams. Reflect on
spiritual healing, embracing changes that shape
your identity. Be cautious of ongoing challenges
from late November or December.
HOROSCOPE
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
Dear Cancer, work gets a boost of luck this morning.
Show teamwork skills, fostering collaboration. It’s a
good time for self-care, and pampering your body.
Think about new routines for more security and
control when making personal changes.
LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
Dear Libra, spread positive words. Think about how
your thoughts can help achieve recent goals.
Communicate well, especially about matters of the
heart. Check if you undervalue yourself in relation-
ships and make changes.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
Use energy for self-love and enjoy alone time. Seek
comfort with family tonight, bringing healing and
nurturing vibes. If you sense secrets or notice
strange patterns in the last two months, don’t hesi-
tate to ask questions for clarity.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Embrace vulnerability and change, dear Taurus.
Navigate personal growth with optimism and deter-
mination, leaving behind fear. Find peace as the
evening nears. Be cautious of frenemies, and trust
your intuition about distancing from certain people.
LEO (July 23-August 22)
Let your heart speak today. Share love and friendship
uniquely. Follow passions for spiritual growth.
Explore art therapy for confidence this afternoon.
Reflect on past events from November to December,
avoiding destructive patterns in yourself.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
Dear Scorpio, good money opportunities are coming
today. Focus on your financial goals, knowing there’s
enough for everyone. Spend on wellness or organisa-
tion tonight without guilt. If your mind needs a
break, take it easy and reset properly.
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)
Show grace in your online communities. Stand out by
spreading positivity in a world that’s often negative.
Look for good news to break. Enhance friendships
through communication tonight, but be cautious
with those you’re not fully comfortable with.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
Gemini, romance brightens today, whether single or
in a relationship. Embrace connections that bring joy
and support. You might feel like playing matchmaker,
but be cautious in building alliances, ensuring they
truly serve you in the long run.
VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
Virgo, love how you want to be loved today. Show
care for fulfilment as the afternoon nears. Home and
connections bring warmth. Heal intimacy wounds
tonight, evolving relationships by letting others in.
Avoid pressuring others to solve your issues.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
Love supports you, broadening your horizons in love
and personal goals. Dare to dream bigger, and trust
in manifestation and attraction. Address ego issues
for healing and growth. Don’t let hurt feelings or
emotions cloud your perspective this night.
PISCES (February 19-March 20)
Pisces, balance boldness and fairness in your profes-
sional goals. Success doesn’t have to be a competition
but do stand up for yourself. Work on self-worth
tonight, especially if asking for more is challenging.
Consider taking a break from socialising.

Crossword Sudoku

Yesterday’s Solution

C M Y K
 TUESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2024 | 08

Culture & Lifestyle

(C.R.P.D.) - 3/052/053

Why you should learn

to appreciate others
We have to understand how to show admiration as the way people
receive it can greatly vary from person to person.

Shutterstock

Against all odds

The mental health challenges of individuals with disabilities, which are a result of
societal misconceptions and discrimination they face, are often neglected.
q Aarati Ray eyes,” shares Sharma. He also ers who specialise in disabilities,
Kathmandu highlights the accessibility prob- especially in smaller cities.

S
lem with materials and infrastruc- “Not everyone with a disability
amjhana Rijal, Sanjiya ture, “How can the government necessarily wants to discuss their
Shrestha, and Shantanu expect one to come forward and disability in counselling. They
Shutterstock

Sharma lead distinct lives,
yet they share a common
challenge—facing mistreat-
ment and barriers due to society’s
q Dipesh Tandukar daily lives is drastically different. Couples in rela- misconceptions about disability.
share their problems when the
path to the office and office
premise itself is inaccessible?”
According to the 2021 census, 2.2
percent of the population in Nepal
want to talk about mental health
stuff just like anyone else in coun-
selling. You do not have to perceive
them as only their disability. Still,
you also have to understand the

I
tionships might feel as if they aren’t being loved Rijal, who is blind and is a board is disabled, with various categories things that come in people’s lives
have often come across an interesting by their partner. Employees in workplaces might member of Chain For Change including physical, low vision, because they are different or have a
contrast when meeting and talking with feel as if their bosses or managers are only (CFC), a youth-led NGO working to blind, deaf, hard of hearing, speech disability,” adds Dr Raghavan,
people on the topic of appreciation; there are concerned with the work they do and not their ensure social inclusion and active impairment, psycho-social disabili- challenging the prevailing percep-
those who have been told that they are loved personal well-being. Students in schools might feel participation of people with and ty, and intellectual disabilities. tion in mental health practice and
and appreciated, and on the other side, there as if all their teachers care about is assignments. without disabilities, notes, Dr Prathama Raghavan, a men- other sectors of limiting people
are those who have never been told any of these. Children and adolescents might feel as if their “Disability is often viewed as a tal health and disability profes- because of their disability.
This concept of appreciating people may seem like parents don’t really care about their opinions and problem, and if someone with disa- sional in Kathmandu, states, Shrestha says considering two
a small deal, in fact, most people wouldn’t even emotions. bilities grapples with mental “People with disabilities face struc- critical factors—the type of disa-
consider this to be an important topic of interest. The thing here is that this is what most couples, health issues, it’s seen as a result tural and ideological challenges bility based on ‘functional limita-
However, genuine appreciation has such an employees, students or children feel or assume, of the person’s weakness.” that have little to do with their tion’ and ‘severity’—the govern-
amazing impact on people, and this is especially and this might not necessarily be true. The truth She stresses that mistreatment actual limitations. I consider disa- ment and organisations should
true for young and growing children. could be completely opposite, but because they and biases, not the disability itself, bility as natural human diversity.” adopt inclusive policies addressing
In the 60s, Dr Haim Ginott emphasised the have never been told verbally or shown that they can make a person susceptible to When asked if people with disa- individual, family, and societal
importance of love and affection in children. He are truly appreciated for who mental illness. bilities are more vulnerable to aspects for intervention.
explained the importance of validating children’s they are the way they want. Recounting a per- mental illness, Dr Raghavan says “Challenging societal stereo-
feelings and expressing love and affection to foster Hence, the gap. sonal experience, they aren’t more prone to mental types on disability requires grass-
a healthy parent-child relationship. Psychologist Take a moment to think and she says, “Once, I illness. Still, they are vulnerable to roots awareness. It’s crucial to inte-
Carl Rogers added upon this and explained that ponder if you have truly shown was told not to experiencing more distress due to grate disability and mental health
simply loving our children isn’t enough. We have gratitude and appreciation to use my white being looked at differently and dis- education into school curricu-
to love them unconditionally, he said—for who anyone recently. Have you told cane. For a blind criminated against. “People’s per- lums,” observes Sharma. He also
they are, not for what they do. your parents how much you love person, a white ception of what one can do and revealed that his life has changed a
them? Have you, from the bottom
Mental Health cane is like a cannot is so dependent on the lot since his injury, and he has been
of your heart, appreciated them body organ. How norms of being able-bodied that focusing on healing himself and
You don’t need to do something for all they have done for you? What about your
significant other? Have you told them how much
can someone be asked not to use a
part of their body?”
they don’t expect individuals with
disabilities to be capable,” she says,
his mental health ever since.
Sharma firmly believes in not let-
big. You just have to show that you appreciate having them in your life and that
you care about them? Have you seen what your
Similarly, Sharma, a freelance
writer, mental health advocate, and
adding that these perceptions can
affect one’s mind as the way we see
ting psychological and physical
conditions define a person. He
you care and are willing to listen. children are up to these days? Have you asked motivational speaker, also reveals ourselves is influenced by the peo- says, “Don’t let it take over or give
them how they are doing? Have you asked the he has faced discrimination and ple around us. others that power.”
people around you to put in the effort at work? stereotypes. About eight years ago, Shrestha, who is a visually The experiences of Rijal,
The issue here is not that children are not loved Have you told them that they are doing great he fell backwards from a height of impaired mental health counsellor Shrestha, and Sharma echo the
by their parents, they are. It is that most children and they can be better? And finally, have you 30 feet, which left him with a bro- and sexual and reproductive health struggles of people with disabili-
have never been told that they are loved by their appreciated yourself for all you have done and ken spine, ribs and right femur. His and rights (SRHR) facilitator, ties who are ‘victim-cum-warriors’.
parents. This is not the parents’ fault either; it’s been through? Have you taken a moment, like real- left hip was also dislocated. While shares her hospital experience, Thousands face discrimination
just what we have been taught and what we have ly taken a moment, to ponder and appreciate the his broken bones healed with time, “During the checkup, the doctor and inaccessibility, yet they stand
seen around us. We don’t normally say how much moment you are at and told yourself that you are his spinal cord is permanently was not talking to me. She was con- as pillars of encouragement and
we appreciate someone and that we love them with doing great? injured. stantly asking my caretaker ques- hope for one another. The question
a sincere heart because of the fact that it is not A lot of these might be small things that might “After my injury, I had not only tions about what problem I was remains: when will this struggle
something we have been taught. However, it has seem like a candle in the daylight, but for some, it mental issues but also physical having. Such cases of health pro- end? Dr Raghavan says, “We must
been observed that if children don’t feel that their can be that lantern in the darkness that guides ones as I was paralysed. Whenever fessionals linking physical or men- build an inclusive system and envi-
parents accept, appreciate and love them, they them. You don’t need to do something big. You just I go outside, people around me tal health issues directly to a disa- ronment that accommodates all
develop various mental health problems, like low have to show that you care and are willing to listen start to look and whisper. I have bility or not communicating with kinds of bodies and minds. It’s
self-esteem, chronic feelings of depression, insecu- to their worries and help them through it. You can learned to handle it now, but you patients are very common.” She high time we recognise that the
rity, worthlessness and many others, while the start with small steps. Show them that you can try. can imagine how uncomfortable it further points out that there are real issue lies not in disability but
opposite can be told for children who feel valued Show them that you are willing to put in the effort. can be under those judgmental not many mental health practition- in people’s distorted perceptions.”
and appreciated by their parents. They grow up to So, have you really shown gratitude and apprecia-
show gratitude with positive affect, optimism and tion? If not, then, why not start? Why not say
satisfaction with social relationships. something nice to the person beside you? It just
It is certain that appreciation is tied to a child’s might make their day.
growth and development in certain ways and lev-
els. However, we also have to understand how to
show appreciation because the way people receive Tandukar is a mental health
appreciation and love can drastically vary from professional. He is the
organisational psychologist
Photos provided to the post

one person to another. This has been wonderfully

explained by Gray Chapman in his book ‘The Five and the project manager at
Love Languages’. It is so very important to show The Revolution Project.
appreciation in the right way because while some
people will feel appreciated when they are praised
for what they did, others may want gifts or even
simply some positive or encouraging words.
Unfortunately, what we do come across in our Samjhana Rijal Sanjiya Shrestha Shantanu Sharma Dr Prathama Raghavan

q LINDSEY BAHR going to get the Oscar boost out of it. Some laughed to find themselves both at the sink at
Los Angeles, US grumbled about the last-minute seating the same time.

T
assignments for high-profile attendees who “I want to change,” Pom Klementieff said to
he Golden Globe Awards weren’t told who their tablemates would be her ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ co-star Karen
likes to think of itself as until late Saturday afternoon. Gillan.
the party of the year, but Many of the most famous faces were seated Gillan agreed and Klementieff sighed,
instead of a debauched, on the stage level where Harrison Ford took “Let’s go back, back to hell.”

What you
champagne-fueled romp, his seat early, at a table with Selena Gomez,
it can sometimes feel more like a who was excited about the Nobu sushi being
strange high school reunion for the served. Soon Martin Short joined Gomez, in a The big winners:
extremely famous. place clearly marked ‘Meryl Streep’. Short Best movie drama: Oppenheimer

didn’t see on
Some are catching up with old
friends and co-stars, some are kiss-
ing their dates in plain sight and some
fawn over the cool kids they haven’t
quickly got up to speak with Ford, who ges- Best musical or comedy: Poor Things
tured to him to stay seated. Short ignored, and Television drama series: Succession
both were soon in stitches laughing. Later, Cinematic and box office achieve-
Ford made his way over to his ‘Indiana Jones’ ment: Barbie

camera at the
yet met. Sometimes, it happens on
camera, as with ‘Poor Things’ director
Yorgos Lanthimos swooning over his
proximity to a personal idol, Bruce
director Steven Spielberg and old co-star Kate Actor in a movie drama: Cillian
Capshaw to catch up. Murphy (Oppenheimer)
As they talked, Ben Affleck made a beeline to Female actor in a movie drama: Lily
studio exec Tom Rothman, who chatted and Gladstone (Killers of the Flower

Golden Globes
Springsteen, but most of the time, those
interactions are saved for when the cam-
eras are off—though Timothée Chalamet
and Kylie Jenner clearly didn’t get the
memo that there were still live cameras
even during the commercial breaks.
You’d never know that the Golden
It can sometimes feel more like a Globes were coming back from several
scandal-plagued years inside the same ball-
strange high school reunion for room where they’ve been held for years. The
chatter was about how fun it felt to be back,
the extremely famous. whether or not Travis Kelce would show
with Taylor Swift (he didn’t) and who was
AP/RSS
Emma Stone poses with the award for best
performance by an actress in a motion picture,
musical or comedy, for ‘Poor Things’ at the
81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.
laughed before Affleck left to take his seat next Moon)
to his pal Matt Damon. Kristin Wiig also made Male actor in a supporting movie
sure to stop Paul Giamatti to congratulate him role: Robert Downey Jr
for his performance in ‘The Holdovers’. (Oppenheimer)
In a different part of the room, Gary Female actor in a supporting movie
Oldman gave his ‘Oppenheimer’ director role: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The
Christopher Nolan a kiss on the cheek as they Holdovers)
passed one another, and the voiceover through
the loudspeaker urged everyone to get to their
Best screenplay: Justine Triet and
Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall)
seats as soon as possible.
Elsewhere, ‘Priscilla’ star Cailee Spaeny
Male actor in a television drama:
Kieran Culkin (Succession)
looked starry-eyed along her way to her seat,
while a waiter gushed to Quinta Brunson how
Female actor in a television drama:
Sarah Snook (Succession)
gorgeous she looked. Animated film: The Boy and the
The night started getting long, about two Heron
hours in, when many took a break in the Director: Christopher Nolan
restroom. It was there that Natasha Lyonne (Oppenheimer)
spotted Elizabeth Olsen and gushed about her
dress, and where a few other Marvel stars  – Associated Press

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