President Bhandari stresses increasing access to health education

Kathmandu / July 17: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has underlined the need of ensuring everyone’s access to health education as per the aspiration of the people.

The President in a function organised on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Institute of Medicine here today said health service has a direct connection with the lives of the people.

Stating that ‘prevention is better than cure’, the President was of the view that medical science should be benefitted from the developments in science and technology. Describing health and education opportunities as one of the major factors for rural-urban migration, the President drew the attention of bodies concerned towards that end.

“The Constitution has ensured people’s access to quality healthcare services and the IoM has its contribution to the production of skilled health professionals.”

Also speaking on the occasion, Minister for Health and Population, Bhawani Prasad Khapung, said it is challenging to ensure healthcare services in rural areas and it has posed a challenge in the implementation of the people’s fundamental rights to basic health services.

“Nepal has achieved success in the vaccination drive against COVID-19, and so far 11,952 people have lost their lives to the virus. But now we have more strong health mechanisms and we hope the situation would not be worse as previous if the crisis returns.”

He took time to say that Nepal achieved significant progress in heart surgery, and liver and kidney transplantation.

TU Vice–Chancellor Dharmakant Baskota said under the IoM, 2,300 people receive OPD services and 700 inpatient services on a daily basis while IoM Dean professor Dr Dibya Singh Shah said the TU teaching hospital that had started services as a 301-health facility has now 1,000 beds. Under the IoM, Bachelor’s to PhD degree programmes are available. It was established in 1972 with the support of the Japan Government and it has seven constituents, one central and 15-affiliated colleges across the country.

It is the hub for study, teaching and research for around 50 streams under the medical sciences.

IoM former Deans Prof Dr Mohin Shah, Prof Dr Hemanga Dixit, Prof Dr Gopal Prasad Acharya, Prof Dr Madan Prasad Upadhayay, Prof Dr Bhishma Raj Prasai, Prof Dr Hari Govinda Shrestha, Prof Dr Arun Sayami, Prof Dr Dharma Kanta Baskota, Prof Dr Rakesh Prasad Shreevastav, Prof Dr Keshav Prasad Singh and Prof Dr Jagadish Prasad Agrawal were felicitated on the occasion. RSS

Government to provide Rs 7 billion loan to NOC

Kathmandu / July 17: The government is to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to make the supply of petroleum products smooth.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to NOC, the state-owned petroleum importer and supplier, to pay the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) the dues it owes to the latter due to the adjustment in the price of petroleum products.

Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology today to make the Council of Ministers’ decisions public, Communications Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was short of money to pay to the IOC.

The Council of Ministers has likewise decided to provide through the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, to NOC Rs 598 million 680 thousand, the amount in lieu of price adjustment in terms of infrastructure tax on petroleum products.

The government has taken a decision to extend the term for the financial management of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years from the date of the Cabinet decision.

The Council of Ministers has decided to promote Investigation Director at the National Investigation Department, Kuldev Thapa, to the post of Additional Chief Investigation Director. It has decided to give continuity to the prohibition on the import of 10 various goods until August 30.

Minister Karki, who is also the government spokesperson, shared on the occasion that the Council of Ministers has given approval for tabling in the Federal Parliament the bill designed to make amendments to the Truth and Reconciliation and the Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) Act, 2071 BS.

The Cabinet meeting has approved the standard on providing relief for the goods destroyed in course of prevention and control of bird flu and the incentive allowance to those persons mobilized for its control.

Likewise, the meeting decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 500 thousand each to the family of Er Satish Kumar Goit and driver Radha Krishna Thapa Magar who died in a mishap that occurred in course of testing the tunnel of the Melamchi Water Supply Project. It has also released the amount collected at the people’s level for the communities affected by the Jure landslide.

A decision has also been made to abrogate the registration in the name of the Properties Management Department of the land of 4-1-3-0 ropanis area at the then Katunje Village Development Committee-2 in Bhaktapur. The Supreme Court had decided that the land plot had been ill-gotten as per clause 35 of the Misappropriated Property and Equipment (Freeze, Control and Confiscation) Act, 2070 BS.

The Council of Ministers has decided to accept a Jadeite Stone Buddha statue to be provided as a gift by the Lumbini Garden Foundation.

The government has provided approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for signing on behalf of the Government of Nepal a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding establishing a bilateral consultation mechanism between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and Italy by arranging the counterpart.

Likewise, a decision has been made to provide approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write to the Government of Egypt informing it about the completion of the process of ratification on Nepal’s part for the implementation of the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation reached between Nepal and the Arab Republic of Egypt on July 16, 2007.

The meeting has decided to give approval to the Chief of the Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma to participate in the Annual Chiefs of Defence Conference-2022 to be organised from July 25 to 27 in Sydney, Australia.

The Council of Ministers has decided to appoint Pradip Sharma Poudel of Parbat to the post of Executive Director of the National Information Technology Centre. It has decided to authorise the Director General of the Department of Postal Service to reach an agreement with one or more than one airline’s companies as per the requirement for managing the transportation of international postage at a rate not exceeding the rate determined by the International Postal Union. RSS