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President Ram Chandra Paudel inaugurated the 5, 555 kg bell placed at Panchakot-4 of Baglung on Thursday.

The President also offered prayers at the Anantashree Brhamandiya Mahayagya being held in Panchakot since Wednesday.

The grand bell has been installed with the objective of developing Panchakot as a religious tourist destination.

Dozens of other religious structures including Sis Mahal, Gandaki Mata Temple, Yagyasala, a Hanuman statue have been built in Panchakot.

On the occasion, President Paudel also observed the 108 feet high Gandaki Vishwashanti Kalash built at the same place.

The grand bell was made at a cost of around Rs 20 million.

The Lumbini Provincial Hospital in Butwal has been declared the best among the government hospitals in the country. The result was based on evaluation of minimum service standards.

Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Sudarshan Thapa, shared that Lumbini Provincial Hospital has succeeded in being the first for the third time in the evaluation of the minimum service standards of secondary B level hospitals.

According to the Directorate of Health Minimum Service Standards Evaluation Committee, Lumbini Provincial Hospital has scored 89 points this year in the minimum standards evaluation.

Subjects like good governance and management of the hospital, clinical management and support services of the hospital are the main criteria in the evaluation. The evaluation committee consists of the Federal Ministry of Health and Population, Lumbini Province Health Directorate Dang and Nick Simmons Institute Kathmandu.

Patients from Palpa, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, Pyuthan, Syangja, Rukum, Rolpa and other districts of Lumbini Province come to Lumbini Provincial Hospital for treatment.

Loan shark and microfinance victims staged a protest outside the Baluwatar-based Nepal Rastra Bank on Wednesday.

They, who arrived in Kathmandu from various places of the country, marched from Siphal to Baluwatar putting forth various demands this afternoon.

During the protest, they demanded that cooperatives and microfinance institutions be scrapped.

The struggle committee put forth nine-point demands that include exempting loans, developing socialist economy, removing them from blacklist and releasing their collaterals and providing free loans to poor farmers among others.

The microfinance victims said that the state should address their demands and would not return home until the issue is resolved.

The victims complained that their demands have not been addressed yet despite the government’s repeated assurances.  

Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called the cooperatives and microfinance victims to Baluwatar and said that the government has been taking initiatives to resolve the problems.

While the government has been claiming that there will be no political interference in the selection of the Vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University, stakeholders have expressed doubts about the selection process.

Addressing a session at the Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara on Monday, they emphasized the need to eliminate political interference to enhance the quality of higher education in the country. Professor Dr Sanjeev Upreti said that appointing a capable academic as the head of TU alone wouldn’t be sufficient to enhance the quality of higher education. “We need to introspect on TU’s purpose and for whom the university is. It is imperative to assess whether it has fulfilled its objectives,” Dr Upreti said. “If TU is falling short of its objectives, we must identify the causes and find solutions to them.”

Dr Upreti said curbing political power plays, localizing the curriculum, initiating life skills education, and ensuring fair remuneration for teaching faculty are essential for TU’s improvement. “Despite spending 25 years teaching at TU after obtaining my PhD, I have realized that I have got more real life lessons from the streets than the university,” he said. “Our society harbors significant discrimination. But we don’t know about it in the university.”

He lamented that the prevalent practice of students, staff, and faculty being affiliated with political parties are undermining academic independence and fostering a decline in university standards. “Students don’t see teachers but as party cadres and vice versa. How can we expect academic independence in situations like these?” he asked.

Similarly, Dr Kusum Shakya, the dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, said TU should be transformed into a board of trustees model to bring about reforms. “I anticipated that the applicant presenting the most comprehensive reform agenda would secure the position of Vice-chancellor. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case,” she remarked. “In other countries, candidates openly articulate their plans, and the most promising proposals are endorsed.”

Shakya was one of the 14 applicants who vied for the position. The recruitment committee has recommended three candidates—Prof Dr Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki, Prof Dr Tanka Nath Dhamala, and Prof Dr Keshar Jung Baral—for the Vice-chancellor position.

Tribhuvan University has provided affiliations to over 1,000 colleges nationwide. It has constituent campuses in 75 out of 77 districts—except in Manang and Mustang. 

Dr Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional law expert, called for curriculum revisions to address contemporary issues. “Outdated curriculum is impeding our ability to educate students on current challenges. Teaching faculty must be experts on the subject matter that they are teaching. Otherwise, the objectives of the curriculum cannot be realized,” he added. 

Adhikari underscored the need to make universities truly autonomous. He stressed the need for disciplinary measures among staff and faculty. “Initiatives like electronic attendance systems in the university were met with resistance. We cannot drive reform initiatives this way,” he added.