Dev Kumar Sunuwar

KATHMANDU (AFP) – , Feb 22 – International donors in Nepal on Monday suspended millions of dollars in funding for education programmes following allegations of corruption against a government minister.
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DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 22 –

Nepal will be the first country to attain the United Nation (UN)’s universal target on elimination of Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) among South Asian Countries, officials said on Monday. Nepal aims to eliminate the deficiency within this year. Read more…

FEB 22 –
The ambitious US $2,626 million School Sector Reform Programme (SSRP), the biggest reform plan in the country’s education sector in 39 years, has run into heavy weather after nine top donors decided to suspend their assistance citing corruption at the highest level of the Ministry of Education (MoE). Of the total amount, donor agencies had pledged US $525 million while the government would be footing the rest of the bill. The nine donors — the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Department of International Development, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Australian Aid International, European Union and the UNICEF — decided to withhold aid after the MoE failed to respond to the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) corruption charges against the Minister for Education Ram Chandra Kuswaha. Read more…

FEB 21 –
Although the Interim Constitution 2007 provisioned for free basic health services for all Nepalis, its implementation hasn’t been easy. The government’s failure to equip rural health posts with 22-40 essential medicine and minimal manpower are indications of the challenges that lie ahead. Notably, 60 percent of the country’s health budget comes from donors. Hence, the success of free health depends much on the steady flow of funds from abroad. It was in part to remedy this donor dependence that the government started the social health insurance scheme as a pilot project in six VDCs of six different districts two years ago. In each of the six VDCs, people were charged small amounts in health insurance which would in turn build into a community health fund to finance medial expenses of the sick and the infirm. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 21 –

Nine top donors have decided to suspend their assistance to a major education project, citing the government’s unwillingness to control corruption at the highest level of the Ministry of Education (MoE). Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
Kathmandu, Feb 18 -

Exorbitant fees at Indian universities need not deter students from Nepal and other SAARC member states, who want to enroll at these institutes of higher education. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 15 –

The British government has made it clear that it will not be able to help Nepali students get back the money they had transferred to ‘illegal’ universities and schools in the UK. The British authority said it was not its responsibility. Read more…

FEB 10 –
In line with the government initiative to make state institutions more inclusive, the Tribhuvan University (TU) last year had decided to reserve seats in its faculty for the deserving members from the disadvantaged groups, which include women, indigenous communities, Madhesis, dalits, differently-abled and those from backward districts. But ever since the TU Senate, the university’s apex body, decided to amend TU Service Act to reserve 50 percent seats for people from disadvantaged groups, the opposition to it has been growing. Various groups affiliated to Bahun and Chhetri communities had in January padlocked TU Service Commission office demanding that the decision be revoked. More protests against the decision are in the pipeline. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 09 –

Controversy has not stopped dogging Tribhuvan University’s (TU) vacancy announcement—published a month ago—for 402 lecturers under its reservation policy. Read more…

DEV KUMAR SUNUWAR
KATHMANDU, FEB 07 -

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has finally forwarded the ati-tobacco bill to the Legislature-Parliament for endorsement despite concerns from some quarters. Read more…