Sakin Blog

Kathmandu, Nepal - May 29, 2008. Nepal has become a Federal Democratic Republic from today after the Constituent Assembly overwhelmingly voted for abolition of the country’s 240-year-old monarchy. The historical first of the Constituent Assembly (CA) has endorsed a proposal to amend the interim constitution implementing the declaration of Nepal as a federal democratic republic.

The officiating chairman of CA, Kul Bahadur Gurung announced Federal Democratic Republican after a division vote late yesterday (May, 28) night. He said, “I declare that the proposal tabled by the government for implementation of a republic has been passed as 560 members out of 564 present today voted in favor of the proposal and 4 against.” The 4 against the decision was the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal.

Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula tabled the proposal for a republic at Wednesday’s CA meeting. The proposal said, “Nepal has turned into an independent, indivisible, secular, inclusive, federal democratic republic with sovereignty and state authority vested in the people.”

Further details:

• Former king and royal family members shall no longer enjoy any rights and privileges other than those of common Nepali citizens.
• Instructed the government to make sure that former king Gyanendra Shah and his family leave Narayahity Royal Palace within the next 15 days.
• Instructed the government to make necessary arrangements for the safety of all property inside the palace.
• Instructed the government to setup Narayahity Royal Palace as a historical museum.
• The proposal states that all constitutional provisions, laws, administrative rules and arrangements at variance with the proposal have been scrapped.
• A second sitting of the CA passed a separate bill to amend the Interim Constitution and make new arrangements for a president as head of state.
• The president will be supreme commander in chief of the army and will perform other duties as determined by the constitution.  The president will mobilize the army upon the cabinet’s recommendation.
• Declared that Nepal will mark Jesth 15 (in the Nepali calendar) as Republic Day every year and extended tributes to the martyrs whose sacrifices have brought the country to the present stage.

Lastly, I would like to wish all Nepalese Citizen “Happy Republic Day”
Enjoy
- Sakin

People take out a procession carrying the image of Lord Buddha marking the 2552nd Buddha Jayanti, the birth day of Lord Buddha, in Kathmandu, Tuesday, May 20 08

The 2552nd Buddha Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Gautam Buddha, the apostle of peace, is being observed Tuesday by organising various programmes with the message of peace and harmony among people.

As the birth, enlightenment and Nirvana of Lord Buddha falls on the same day of the full moon of the fourth lunar month (month of Baisakh), Buddhists around the world, including Nepal, observe Buddha Jayanti with respect and devotion to Buddha.

Gautam Buddha’s philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view. The teachings of the Buddha are solely to liberate human beings from the misery and sufferings of life.

With the realisation that there was more to life than the lavish and luxurious life he was leading, Prince Siddharth Gautam, who was born in the southern Terai region of Nepal in about 543 BC, left his palace in search for enlightenment and the true meaning of life. After much wandering and searching, Gautam finally attained enlightenment while meditating under a pipal tree. Henceforth, known as the “Buddha” or “the enlightened one” he began to preach “The Four Noble Truths” to all who would listen. According to this doctrine, people suffer because of their desires and the root cause of all misery is desire. These desires and consequently all problems can be totally eliminated by following the “eightfold path”- right conduct, right motive, right speech, right effort, right resolve, right livelihood, right attention and right meditation to gain mastery over suffering. Gautama Buddha lived and taught in northern India in the 6th Century B.C.

Buddha traveled far and wide teaching hundreds of followers. Even after death his disciples continued to spread his teachings.

The United Nations has been observing the Anniversary of Lord Buddha as a
public holiday since 2002.

The books on teachings and messages of Lord Buddha are said to be the largest publication throughout the world.

Buddha Jayanti is celebrated in all the Buddhist nations rejoicing the victory of Prince Siddhartha of Lumbini over pain, suffering and self.

The Buddhist monks say the day should carry special message of tolerance and self-discipline among all the Nepalis to establish permanent peace in the country.

Teachings of Lord Buddha are included in the world’s highly prestigious universities including the Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.

Lord Buddha, during his 80 year life, carried out a total of 84 thousand discourses which are compiled in various books including ‘Binaya’, Sutta, Abhidhamma and Tripitak.

Buddhists around the world today organize a variety of programmes at the Buddhist religious sites and spread the message of world peace of Lord Gautam Buddha.

(Source: Nepalnews)

The Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) has announced a month-long campaign to mobilise and motivate youths for development and corruption control.

The decision to launch the nationwide campaign was taken by the two-day meeting of the YCL central committee which concluded on Monday, YCL chairman Ganesh Man Pun informed.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Tuesday, Pun said tens of thousands of cadres would be mobilised for traffic management, development activities and ‘corruption control’ during the campaign.

The announcement comes at a time when the Maoist leadership is facing pressure from other parties to control YCL ‘highhandedness’ — with some parties even demanding that the Maoist party dissolve its youth wing.

Meanwhile, the YCL has also demanded that a separate ministry be set up to address the problems facing the youth.

YCL chairman Pun said that the issues of the youth like education and employment would be better managed through a separate ministry. According to him, the Maoist leadership has been requested to prepare for this

(Source: Nepalnews)

In the face of growing global food shortages and spiraling prices of food stuffs, the government has decided to restrict the export of rice, paddy and wheat.

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, on Wednesday, decided to ban the export of the food items, according to Secretary of the Ministry Purushottam Ojha.

“We have taken this decision in view of increasing food prices in the world market and their shortages so that we can avert any situation affecting food security in the country,” said Ojha.

From the eastern border point of Kakarbhitta, seven to ten thousand tons of wheat were being exported daily to Bangladesh.

Traders have said that in the last one month LCs have been opened to export 50,000 tons of wheat to Bangladesh.

While India has banned export of rice and wheat, the continuous outflow of food items from Nepal had affected the local market. The price of rice, wheat, flour had increased by 25 to 30 percent.

The government’s decision has come amid calls by the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) to restrict export of food stuffs.

(Source: Nepalnews)

KATHMANDU, April 28 - Nepal Telecom (NT) phone subscribers are going to enjoy ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), a high-speed internet access service,within two weeks.

Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) on Friday gave the green light to NT to operate the service that allows NT customers to connect to the internet without interrupting their phone connection. For this, the subscribers have to install a device called splinter — which costs less than US $50 in the international market — to begin browsing the service. The NT has not fixed the rate for the splitter yet.

Once this service comes into operation, subscribers troubled by low speed of net connectivity can heave a sigh of relief.

The regulatory authority has fixed the charge for unlimited service for dial-up modems rated at 128 kilobites per second (kbps) at Rs 900 per month. And customers won’t have to pay any additional charges.

At a press conference Sunday, Kailash Neupane, spokesperson of NTA said the authority has also asked NT to allow private service internet providers to sell the service.

“Infrastructure is ready to begin the service. All we need to do now is to follow procedural matters, and let customers enjoy cheaper and better internet browsing,” Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NT told the Post. “It will take anywhere between one and two weeks in the Kathmandu Valley. Outside the capital it will take two to four months.”

He said NT has the capacity to distribute the new service to over 20,000 customers in the Valley in the first phase.

Tariff rates per month
Service Type Price
128 kbps Rs 900
256 kbps Rs 1,500
512 kbps Rs 2,700
1 mbps Rs 5,000
2 mbps Rs 9,300

(Source: eKantipur)