Submit your Article

The Revenue Investigation Department recovered around one quintal gold from Singamangal on Wednesday.

“Acting on a tip off, we conducted a special operation and recovered 80 to 100 kg gold,” Department Director General Nawaraj Dhungana said, adding, “This may be the largest amount of gold recovered in Nepal so far.”

Police said that the gold, passed undetected through the Customs Office of the Tribhuvan International Airport, arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday's Cathay Pacific flight.

The gold was brought in Kathmandu by concealing in the brake shoes of motorbikes and scooters.

The officials of the Revenue Investigation Department have arrested three persons on the charge of smuggling the gold.

The arrestees have been identified as owner of Ready Trade Dipip Bhujel, the importer of the gold, customs agent Rajendra Rai and the taxi driver.

The identity of the taxi driver has not been ascertained yet.

It has been said that the team of Revenue Investigation Department arrested the trio while they were taking the gold out of the airport area in a taxi (Sun Ba 2 Cha 2324).

Nepal Police spokesperson Kuber Kadayat confirmed that a huge cache of gold was recovered from Sinamangal on Wednesday.

“This is the first time that such a large amount of gold has been recovered. Investigation into the incident is underway. The value of the gold is around Rs one billion,” he said.

A group of business tycoons may be involved in smuggling the gold, Kadayat said.

The gold that had passed from the Customs Office at 2 pm was recovered after three hours.

The police suspect that this group may have smuggled a large amount of yellow metal earlier also.

During the preliminary investigation, it was found that 160 pieces of gold were brought in Kathmandu.

The TIA Customs Office said that it has no knowledge about the issue.

The seized gold has been sent to the Revenue Investigation Department in Hariharbhawan for weighing.

The gold will be taken to the Taksar Department of the Nepal Rastra Bank to identify the purity of the gold.

Some of the staffers of the Customs Department are also under investigation.

Syangja/Rupandehi: The mention of the word ‘dumping site’ or ‘landfill’ rarely elicits good feelings. No one wants to go near one, much less have a picnic there. But Waling Municipality in Syangja district has turned this general notion about landfill on its head. Yes, the spot where the town dumps its waste is also a picnic park—and a popular one at that. 

The first thing you’ll see as you enter the municipal waste disposal site is the greenery. The area is covered with vegetation, all the grass and trees with paved walkways. There is no whiff of foul smell about. This is explained by the fact that the municipal office only disposes of non-degradable waste here. 

Every individual household in Waling segregate their waste and municipal workers make sure that non-degradable wastes aren’t mixed with the degradable ones when they do their garbage rounds. Failure to segregate means the waste doesn’t get collected, and the concerned household must pay a fine. By simply involving the community in solid waste management, Waling Municipality has managed to keep itself tidy.    

It is also generating revenue through non-degradable waste. From plastic to paper, everything is sold to recycling companies. Once the non-degradable waste is dumped into the site, it’s further separated by the employees.
“Every material has a different price. Among glass bottles, prices differ between the bottles depending on their color. It’s the same for the plastic. Price depends on its quality,” says Dilip Khand, the former mayor of Waling Municipality, who currently manages the solid waste management site.

Annually, the municipality profits around Rs 2.5m to Rs 3m by selling recyclable waste. Multi Layered Plastic (MLP/plastic that’s found on wrappers) doesn’t get sold. But they have found a solution to manage this type of plastic as well. It gets shredded and is used as one of the components for asphalt.

As for the bio-degradable waste, it’s utilized to make vermicompost (biodegradable waste converted into organic manure with the help of earthworms). Waling Product Holding Multipurpose Cooperative is responsible for making and selling vermicompost. Some farming households make their own vermicompost, thus limiting their waste.

Fecal waste from households doesn’t get dumped in the river either. Each household is mandated to have a septic tank. The municipality is responsible for cleaning the tanks, for which each household pays Rs 5,000 per cleaning session. The fecal waste doesn’t go to waste either. It gets separated into solid and liquid forms. While the solid waste is turned into vermicompost, the liquid is turned into drinkable water.

A visitor to Waling will notice how clean the town is, from its neighborhoods to street to river.
“It is the willingness of the locals to keep their surroundings neat that makes Waling so clean,” says Khand.
But this enthusiasm and wisdom didn’t come overnight. At first, some town residents were opposed to the idea of separating their household waste, says Yogmaya Pangeni, coordinator at the Social Development Committee of Waling.
“They fell into line only after the town mayor announced that he would personally visit their homes to pick up and segregate their waste.”  

Besides Waling, the other place that’s doing a great job with waste management is Tilottama Municipality in Rupandehi, Lumbini Province. Like Waling, waste materials are segregated at their source, at the household level. Two garbage trucks are deployed twice a week, once to collect degradable waste and the other to collect non-degradable waste. But the waste is currently collected from only 11 wards (Ward No. 7 to 17) out of the total 17.

While the responsibility of solid waste management in Waling is taken by the municipality, the responsibility of managing waste in Tilottama is undertaken by WASH Cooperative. The non-degradable waste is separated, compressed, and packed for selling the materials to the highest bidder, while the degradable waste is turned into vermicompost.

These models of managing solid waste were initiated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as Promoting Green Recovery Project (PGRP/the project has already come to an end) in five different municipalities, among which two of them are Waling and Tilottama. Both the municipalities agree that this couldn’t have been possible without the UNDP’s assistance.

Before initiating the project in Tilottama, Aarju Karki, program officer for PGRP, says that the dumping site was merely a pile of garbage and nothing more. “With the combined effort of WASH Cooperative, Tilottama Municipality, and UNDP, we were able to make this dumping site systematic with added machinery and expertise on waste segregation,” she adds.

The pile of garbage that was dumped before the initiative started is also being segregated separately. “Some contractors take the responsibility of segregating certain areas from the dump and take what they need, while paying a certain amount to the cooperative,” she says. More than half of the waste from the pile has already been managed.

Besides, Tilottama Municipality is actively working on making sure that every household takes the responsibility of segregating their waste. Waste material from a household isn’t collected if not segregated. Also, the locals are encouraged to make their own manure. The municipality has distributed compost bins in every household. Dustbins have also been placed at different stops. The municipality employs two individuals in each ward to make sure no one litters the area.

“The officers are there to make sure that anyone who litter is fined (Rs 500). They also dispose of any non-degradable waste found in the area,” says Shanta Bashyal Bhattarai, one of the consumers in Tilottama.

One of the major forces driving these municipalities into managing and selling waste materials, besides keeping their environment clean, is its financial benefit.

“Solid waste management has become one of our important sources of income,” says Krishna Khand, mayor of Waling Municipality.

Even for Tilottama, their recent monthly revenue was Rs 365,880 from selling scraps. They haven’t yet started making profits, but with the ratio they’re working on, Khem Prasad Gautam, president of WASH Cooperative, says they will be making good profits in the coming years. 

The same initiative could be taken in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “The best way to move forward is to have solid waste management sites in each ward, since the waste produced in Kathmandu is more than what we see in Waling,” says Khand, former mayor of Waling Municipality.

It’s an investment that guarantees future returns. “One could do so much with waste materials that’s generated in the Kathmandu Valley,” says Khand. “When I travel around Kathmandu and see the garbage piles, I can’t help but think that it’s money that’s being littered, not waste.”

The local residents of Kakani Rural Municipality in Nuwakot and Dhunibesi Municipality of Dhading have decided not to allow the disposal of garbage collected from the Kathmandu Valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts) in the Bancharedanda landfill site until the agreement reached previously is fully implemented.

The dumping of garbage from Kathmandu has been halted from July 17 citing the non-implementation of an agreement reached last year between the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the locals.

The protest in the form of halting waste disposal would continue until the locals' demands are met, said the Kakani Rural Municipality chair Suman Tamang.

However, the KMC has a different take on the matter. The local people should facilitate in acquiring 3,000 ropanis of land in the area to construct a dumping site as the KMC cannot do it all by itself, said the KMC infrastructure advisor Sunil Lamsal.

Having been dumped in Sisdol for the past 15 years, the waste from the Valley has been disposed of in Bancharedanda from 23 August, 2022.

Following a halt in dumping the waste in Bancharedanda by the local people, a writ petition was filed in the court.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued an interim verdict, directing the local level not to implement their decision of charging fees to the garbage-carrying tipper truck and preventing them from disposing of garbage if they refused to make the payments in fees.

But the locals have halted the disposal of the waste in defiance to the verdict issued by the court.

Paddy is Nepal’s main food crop. Agricultural experts say farmers will get better yields if paddy seedlings are transplanted by mid-July. However, plantation has been completed on only around half of the paddy fields because of factors like a long spell of drought, shortage of fertilizers, and the impact of lumpy skin disease on oxen. 

Plantation had been completed on 65 percent of paddy fields by this time last year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, paddy transplantation has been affected this year due to the late onset of monsoon in Madhes, Kosi, and Bagmati provinces, and lumpy skin disease in Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces. About 90 percent of the fields in Madhes province, which is considered the country’s granary, are still barren. 

Paddy transplantation has been completed on 95 percent of paddy fields in Sudurpashchim Province.

Jhapa, the largest paddy producer in the country, has achieved 65 percent progress in paddy transplantation by mid-July. However, paddy transplantation has been completed on 95 percent of paddy fields in Kailali—the second-largest producer. Bajhang, a hilly district of Sudurpashchim Province, has made 100 percent progress in paddy transplantation.

Rabindra Kumar Kushbaha of Belgachhi in Gaushala-8 of Mahottari said paddy fields are barren even in mid-July due to a lack of sufficient rainfall. “Some farmers transplanted paddy by making alternative arrangements, but seedlings are drying up,” he said.

Most of the paddy fields of Dinesh Mahato of Gaushala-11 are barren. Mahato, who cultivated paddy in two and a half bighas last year, hasn't been able to transplant seedlings this year. “Seedlings are drying up in the seedbed,” he added.

According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center, Mahottari, paddy transplantation has been completed on only 15 percent of paddy fields in the district so far. “The situation is not worrying yet, as paddy transplantation here continues till the end of July. We might get adequate rainfall by that time,” Ram Chandra Yadav, chief of the center, said.

About 90 percent of paddy fields in Madhesh Province are still barren, according to the Ministry of Land Reforms, Agriculture, and Cooperatives. Paddy seedlings have been transplanted on only 33,773 hectares out of 354,383 hectares in eight districts of the province.

Banke of Lumbini Province has made only 50 percent progress in paddy transplanting. “Transplantation progress was only 15 percent at the beginning of June. Most of the farmers have already prepared seedlings in the seedbed. Transplantation will gain pace if there is adequate rain,” Shakil Ahmed, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Center, Banke, said.

Transplantation has been completed only on the paddy fields in Rapti Sonari, Baijanath, Duduwa, and Khajura and areas that receive water from the Sikta Irrigation Project. “Paddy had been transplanted in all areas of Banke, except Narainpur, by this time last year. Narainpur has made the least progress in paddy transplantation this year,” Ahmed added.

Baglung in Gandaki Province has reported 65 percent progress in paddy transplantation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center, Baglung, transplantation has been done on 3,824 hectares out of the total of 5,883 hectares.

56 percent progress in Koshi 

Koshi Province has achieved 56 percent progress in paddy transplantation till mid-July. According to the Agriculture Development Directorate, Biratnagar, this is seven percent more compared to the same period last year. “Paddy transplantation has been completed on 50 percent of paddy fields in high hilly areas, 47 percent in mid-hills area, and 60 percent in Tarai areas,” Prakash Kumar Danig, chief of the directorate, said.

Dangi said paddy transplantation is progressing smoothly in Koshi Province. “We had achieved 49 percent progress in the same period last year. Paddy can be transplanted in Tarai districts until late August,” he added.

Paddy is cultivated on 340,829 hectares out of 826,646 hectares of arable land in Koshi. Of them, paddy has already been transplanted on 191,000 hectares.

73 percent progress in Karnali 

Plantation is going on at a slow pace in Karnali which would have completed transplantation on 90 percent of fields by mid-July. According to Tilak Pandey, an information officer at the Directorate of Agricultural Development, Surkhet, transplantation has been completed on 73.79 percent of paddy fields so far.

Out of 15,240 hectares of paddy fields in Surkhet, transplantation has been completed on 10,023 hectares, or 65 percent. Progress in paddy transplantation stands at 53 percent in Dailekh, 85 percent in Jajarkot, 83 percent in West Rukum, 90 percent in Salyan, 100 percent in Dolpa, 84 percent in Humla, 97 percent in Jumla, and 84 percent in Kalikot.

66.71 percent progress in Gandaki 

Paddy transplantation has been completed on 66.71 percent of paddy fields in Gandaki by mid-July, compared to 79.45 percent in the same period of the last fiscal year.

According to the Directorate of Agriculture Development, Pokahra, most of the districts in the province depend on monsoon rains for paddy. Only 37 percent of arable land in Gandaki has irrigation facilities.

While paddy transplantation has been completed on 50 percent of paddy fields in Gorkha, progress in transplantation stands at 65 percent in Lamjung, 68 percent in Tanahun, 65 percent in Parbat, 40 percent in Syangja, 65 percent in Baglung, 80 percent in Kaski, and 85 percent in Nawalpur.

Highest progress in Sudurpashchim

Sudurpashchim has achieved 92 percent progress in paddy transplantation—the highest among the seven provinces of the country.

According to Keshav Raj Pandey, information officer of the Directorate of Agricultural Development, Dhangadhi, transplantation has been completed on 95 percent of paddy fields in Kailali—the largest paddy producer in the province.

“Likewise, Kanchanpur has made 91 percent progress in transplantation. Thanks to good monsoon rains, transplantation has been completed even on farms that do not have irrigation facilities,” Pandey added.

Transplantation, however, hasn’t made much progress in eight hilly districts of the province, which depend on monsoon rains. “These districts haven’t received rain for the past three to four days,” Yagya Raj Pandey, director of the directorate, said. “Nevertheless, we are hopeful that transplantation will be completed in the province within a week.”

Paddy is cultivated on 179,000 hectares in nine districts of Sudurpashchim. While Baitadi has reported 98 percent progress in paddy transplantation, progress in other districts stands at 90 percent in Darchula and Dadeldhura, 88 percent in Doti, and 85 percent each in Achham and Bajura.