old news
Students padlock Purbanchal University offices
BY BHIM GHIMIRE
A group of irate students from Puset College and Koshi Health Engineering College resorted to vandalism and padlocked offices with the demands that the provision of chance examination university should not be scrapped as well as reduction of tuition fees. They also broke the windscreen of a vehicle in the course of protests.
Talking to the Post, examination controller Sushil Kumar Jha said he is not authorized to take decision on his own over the students’ demands as the posts of senior officials have remained vacant for the last several months. "There is no examination committee to change the provision of chance examination and the date of examinations," he said.
The posts of Service Commission Chairman and Registrar at the University have remained vacant for long due to prolonged political wrangling over post sharing among major political parties.
Lately, the post of Science and Technology Faculty Dean has also become vacant as Prof Dr Pradip Raj Pradhan retired this week after his four-year term.
Absence of top officials has badly affected all academic, administrative and financial activities of the University.
Likewise, there has not been an executive council meeting for the last eight months due to the absence of Registrar. This has affected regular activities including budget approval, formulation of annual policy and programs of the University.
Worse still, hundreds of students, who passed their examinations over the last four academic sessions have been deprived of academic certificates due to deferral of the Convocation Ceremony.
KTWR set to restrict bird hunting
BY BHIM GHIMIRE
"The management of the wildlife reserve had to take such decision to preserve protected species of birds including swans from the local hunters," said Gangaram Singh, a conservation officer at the reserve.
According to Singh, such announcement will be made during the fourth bird festival being held from 2 February 2004 at the reserve. "After the announcement, the visitors will be prohibited from doing any activity that harms the lifestyle of the birds," he added.
Despite such efforts to preserve birds, locals claim that the reserve is not serious enough. According to locals, in number of cases they have registered complaint against the bird hunters, but the reserve has not initiated action against on any of those complaints.
Meanwhile, the fourth bird festival is being organised by the locals in support from private sectors including Aqua Mineral waters and the Nepal Tourism Board, along with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Reserves.
"We would utilise this festival as a tool to create awareness among local peoples regarding the conservation of wildlife," said Sadanand Mandal, the co-ordinator of the festival organising committee.
The festival would include several programmes including food festival, tree plantation, bird counting, trekking, exhibition of local customs and cultural troops. The programme also includes inter-school quiz and art competition among others.
Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is Nepal’s first wetland enlisted in Ramsar Convention on Wetland that aims to halt the loss of wetlands and to conserve the wetland across the world through wise use and management.
The restricted area covers 8,000 bighas of land that runs from reserve’s western border to the Koshi barrage. The area is a dwelling of several indigenous birds and a stopover of scores of species of travelling birds.
According to the estimates, there are 469 species of birds in the reserve and of these species around 200 types of birds are found in the said restricted areas. The reserve covers 175 square kilometre area of three districts—Sunsari, Saptari and Udayapyur.
