19 arrested for leaking SLC question papers/ 14 students exempted in Salyan/66-year-old man appeared in SLC exam

19 persons including an exam centre chief have been arrested on charge of leaking the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) question papers in Morang on Thursday Morning.

Police detained Dr. Uddab Pokharel, chief of the exam centre at Star Boarding School (SBS), Biratnagar and Dilli Pokhrel, Asst. chief of the exam centre, and sixteen others, all of whom are associated with different tuition centres in the district, for leaking the question papers, informed SP Dipak Thapa.

The other arrestees have been identified as Manish Sohani Swornakar of Cosmic Education Center at Biratnagar-14, Tika Dhakal, Lilam Pradhan, Prashant Shrestha, Ranjan Shahi, Bhisma Dhamala, Anuj Dahal, Saroj Bhattarai,Saurav Kharel, Ram Thandaar, Yubaraj Bastola, Upendra Mandal, Durga Poudel, Gaurav Ranbansi, Mitra Dhamala and Nirmal Pradhan.

The different tuition centres are Excel Academy, Ideal Education Centre, Royal Star Tuition Centre and Purbanchal Education Centre. All of them were arrested while they were making photocopies of the question papers. Exam centre chief Pokharel is also the owner of Excel Academy and the principal of Star Boarding School.

The leaked question papers were confiscated 10 minutes before the commencement of today’s exam scheduled to start at 8:00 am.

14 students exempted in Salyan

14 students, in Salyan, were exempted from the exam on Thursday for cheating during English exam in Tribhuwan Higher Secondary School, Khalanga Centre, source confirmed.

66-year-old man appeared in SLC exam

Aash Bahadur Gurung, 66-year-old man, of Bijayabasti in Parsa district is giving SLC exam from the examination centre situated at Sharashwoti Higher Secondary School.

His desire to earn higher education after passing SLC has encouraged him to continue study even at this old age, he told RSS.

SLC exam starts in Nepal – 2 hours relief in load shedding

Nepal government has reduced the load shedding from 14 hours a day to 12 hours a day to let students appearing in the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, starting from Thursday, March 24, 2011.

The SLC exam taken after grade ten is popularly termed as an Iron Gate for after it’s toughness and a door to higher education. Before plus two system was introduced about a decade back, SLC exam was the end of school and entry into university.

This year’s SLC statistics:

• Total exam days – 9
• Students – 496,243
• Exam centers – 1,672
• Regular examinees – 436,411
• Exempted examinees – 59,832 <
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• Number of open schools – 89
• Students from open schools – 8,140 students (7,794 regular and 346 exempted)
• Highest number of students – 32,860 (Kathmandu)
• Least number of students – 122 (Manang)

Examiners:

• Total – 47,242 personnel
• Superintendents – 1,672
• Assistant superintendents – 2,395
• Invigilators – 19,843
• Peons – 6,612

The government effort to reduce cheating in the SLC exam has been very unsuccessful. This time Education ministry has promised to be strict in enforcing the law. The Education Act states that students breaching the exam code can fined up to Rs. 100,000 or jailed for six months or or both.

Fire guts Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal leaving thousands homeless

More than 200 huts were burnt to ashes after a fire swept through a United Nations Bhutanese refugee camp, Goldhap camp, at Pathari, Morang in eastern Nepal on Tuesday.

Two people were seriously burned and taken to hospital, and 18 others were treated for minor injuries. The fire destroyed a food store run by the World Food Programme and a health centre in the camp.

The fire that originated from a hut inside the refugee camp was fanned out by heavy winds in the afternoon. Fire engines from Itahari, Dharan, Biratnagar and neighbouring towns were called in to put out the fire. It took police and locals over two hours to bring the fire under control.
The fire has made thousands people homeless. Two years ago also, 12,000 refugees were left homeless after fire broke out in the Goldhap camp.

Raju Acharya received World Owl Hall of Fame special award

Houston Nature Centre has honored Raju Acharya with the World Owl Hall of Fame special award for his outstanding contribution in the research and conservation of owls.

The Special Achievement Award was awarded to Acharya on March 5, 2011 at the International Festival of Owls held in Minnesota, US.

In the photo above, Raju is seen talking in a media event in Pokhara on March 21‚ 2011. (Photo credits – Krishnamani Baral)

A graduate in Environmental Management, Tropical Forestry and Agro-forestry, Raju Acharya is the director of Friends of Nature, a youth-led social and environmental organization and has been working in owl conservation for the last three years. Before that he had worked for Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) for ten years.

In an interview with Republica he told that he is interested in establishing an owl hospital in Nepal and develop it also as a conservation education center.

Locals obstruct foundation stone-laying programme of Late NC Leader Girija Prasad Koirala’s statue

The Shankhapark area near Maharajgunj became tense on the Monday morning after locals obstructed the foundation stone-laying programme of Late Nepali Congress (NC) veteran leader, Girija Prasad Koirala’s statue. It is reported that several dozens of locals created obstructions and protested against the programme of erecting late Koirala’s statue. The locals claimed the public park should not be used for a political purpose. A public place cannot be given name of any party or leader. They even buried the pit, which was dug for laying the foundation stone. No clash has however been reported. Police have tightened security in the area to prevent from clash between the NC cadres and the locals became apparent, sources confirmed.
The programme was organized to commemorate the first death anniversary of late Koirala and was scheduled to be presided over by Speaker Subhas Chandra Nembang. Proceedings had to be aborted midway through the programme after the locals continued protest.

More Holi Photos – Karishma Manandhar home

In addition to the photos of Holi celebration in the blog, more photos of Holi in Karishma Manandhar home are posted below.

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Are Nepali Calendars mathematically incorrect?

If Astrologer Ratnanidhi Shukracharya is to be believed, the calendars prepared with the approval of Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Committee are mathematically incorrect and faulty. That was according to a complaint lodged at the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly and Culture.

The current calendar has 32 days in the months of Asar and Sawan months while there are only 29 days in the months of Mansir and Magh. Shukracharya claims that it was in clear violation of mathematical rules. He says, as per the mathematical rules there can’t be more than one months with either 32 days or 29 days i
n a year.

Man arrested for death rites of ‘alive’ 601 CA members

On Sunday morning, police arrested Rakesh Kumar Sharma, a local resident of Bardiya, on the charge of performing death rites, shraddh, as per Hindu tradition in the names of 601 Constituent Assembly alive members. Khanal had been performing the rites every month dismissing the relevance of the Constituent Assembly (CA) as the new constitution was not drafted on time and therefore considering the tenures of each of the 601 CA members as being expired. He had already performed such rites in Bardiya, Nepalgunj and Chitwan District Police Office, Kaski, head SP Yadav Raj Khanal said he was arrested for creating anarchy in the society by performing the death rites of those still alive. He added, Khanal has been detained at Ward Police Office Baidam for further investigation.

Movie Awards in Nepali Film Industry and NEFTA Film Awards

When we see a couple of movies being released in Nepal almost every weeks, we get a feeling that the Nepali film industry is a successful industry. Every actor/actress seem very busy in one shooting or the other. The film personalities are busy in a number of events including movie launch, music launch, premiere shows, foreign shows and so on. Question arises – can the ‘book’ (film industry) be judged by its cover (all the hypes)? 

Movie awards is another aspect the industry has progressed a lot. In the last two years, we have seen a huge increase in the number of Nepali Film Awards. Different organizations and associations are organizing such film awards without any coordination with each other. A few years back in the history, there were only music awards and there were nothing like movie awards. Now, the situation has reversed and there are more movie award ceremonies than music award events. 

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A birthday snow spray in a pesticide packaging (Update with – Video)

Birthdays are fun filled and the kids are the ones who would love it the most. When it comes the happiness of our kids, we forget all the hardships and spend lavishly.

Ang Tenzind Sherpa wanted to make fun in one of his loved one’s birthday (we didn’t ask whose birthday it was). He bought a snow spray costing him  Rs. 250 in Gemini store in Boudha. But, when he opened the snow spray package, the familiar smell wasn’t pleasant. It smelled like a pesticide. It was actually recycled pesticide package with a paper cover with the details of snow spray.

The main poi
nt Ang mentions is that, "There was a smell of pesticide, and I’ve vomited more then five times since yesterday."

It is clear from the photos he has posted in Facebook, that the packaging was that of "Hit" branded pesticide. The pesticide can’t be considered healthy to be sprayed on kid’s birthday cake.

In our question about the manufacturer of the product, Ang told that the packaging was written in Chinese, so he is not sure about the company that produces it. If the product is produced out of Nepal, we can’t do anything about it. The only responsible business will be the importer of the product.

Ang is facing health issues due to the product and many others might have faced sucproblems. When consumer products create health problems, somebody should be held responsible for the problem. In this case, who is responsible for the damage it does to the health of the users?

Is it Gemini Store?

Is is Nepal Government?

We hope somebody will take a
ction against such irresponsible practice to create problem to the health of general public.

Following photos show the paper, and the actual pesticide can underneath (photo credits – Ang Tenzind Sherpa) :

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Given the current political situation and lack of proper monitoring of products being sold in market, we would like to ask the users to be careful while using new product available in the market. And, we would also like to ask the businesses to take the health and safety of their customers seriously and stop the sales of potentially harmful and fake products.

Update Ang Tenzing Sherpa has created a video of the spray and posted in YouTube:

Hundreds held during Holi celebrations in the Capital

In a bid to discourage the hooliganism during Holi celebrations, police have taken under control over 200 people involved in unruly behaviors and violent activities from various places in the capital on Saturday. The arrested include those throwing water balloons at passers-by and forcibly smearing colors on them. Likewise, dozens of drink-drivers and those violating traffic rules were also nabbed, police said. On Saturday, holi in the capital was celebrated more peacefully than in previous years. In all three districts in the Kathmandu valley, lots of groups, celebrating holi by singing and dancing, were also noticed. Though clashes were observed in some places between youths, no serious incidents have been reported.

Holi at Karishma Manandhar home – Photo feature

Karishma Manandhar organized a special event on the occasion of holi at her home. They also celebrated the birthday of film producer and director, Binod Manandar. The actual birthday of Binod Manandhar, Karishma’s husband was on the day before Holi. Also present in the occasion was the Karishma and Binod daughter, Kabita Manandhar.

In the special program, present film related personalities were – actresses like Rekha Thapa, Nandita KC, Rejina Upreti, and Sushma Karki. Among the actors, present were – Yashraj, Niraj Baral, Naresh Poudel, Aakash Adhikari, Ashok Sharma, Shovit Basnet, Sudarshan Thapa, Ukesh Dahal, Kiran KC, and Shayam Bhattarai. Other personalities include Rajendra Khadgi, Himal KC, Govinda Rai, Prabhu Shamsher, Dinesh DC. Also present in the occasion were various singers, journalists and Manandhar family friends.

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Tharu Movie – Abhagan Banal Shuhagan

Tharu movie – Moladev Films presents

A Tharu Movie – Abhagan Banal Shuhagan
The full movie, single part
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Happy Holi – Karishma Manandhar organizing a special event

Note: Click here for The Photos of the Event

Today is the festival of color in Nepal, Holi. We wish all our readers a very happy Holi! We hope everybody will make it enjoyable to everybody and they celebrate the festival amongst themselves.

Karishma Manandhar Event:

In the occasion, actress Karishma Manandhar is organizing a holi celebration in her home at Godawari, Lalitpur. Karishma has invited many of the Nepali movie personalities to celebrate holi in her home. The holi celebration starts at 10 AM in the morning and will run till about 5:00 PM in the evening. The event reminds me of photos of Rekha Thapa celebrating holi last year.

The actor Rajesh Hamal is on his way back from Japan and he is going to celebrate Holi in Thailand. He is returning back to Nepal on Sunday.

Bitter-Sweet – Lola Festival

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Ex-minister Wagle arrested, sent to Dillibazaar prison

Former minister and Nepali Congress leader, Chiranjivi Wagle was sent to jail as per yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict.

Probably this is the first action against corruption in the post-1990 period. Police arrested Wagle on Thursday evening from his bungalow near Kalopul in the Capital and presented before Kathmandu District Court (KDC) before sending him to the Dillibazaar prison.

The Supreme Court yesterday passed the verdict ending a nine-year-old graft case against Wagle ordering an 18-month jail term and Rs 20.3 million fine for amassing wealth by abusing his authority during the period between May 29, 1991 and Oct. 4, 2002 when he assumed seven ministerial offices.

Wagle refused to cough up the fine. In case of inability to pay the fine, the fine will be converted into jail term and the jail term will be five years, four months and 25 days,” said Chitra Bahadur KC, Chief, Judgment Execution Section of the Kathmandu District Court.

Emerging from the KDC, Wagle claimed that the verdict was an injustice to him. “This is the prize I have received for my contribution to the country and democracy for 49 years,” added Wagle.