Submit your Article

West Nawalparasi ranks fourth in terms of the prevalence of child marriage within the Lumbini Province.

It is said that early marriage remains as one of the major social issues in the district.  In response to this concern, the Susta Rural Municipality in the district has launched a program aiming to discourage child marriage. The program titled ' Daughter, Bright Future Programme' has been launched to contain early marriage within the locality.

Under this initiative, the local government provides a financial incentive to new born baby girls within the locality. Rural municipality Vice-Chair Gita Chaudhary said that every newly born daughter in the area is eligible for a cash offering of Rs 25,000. This assistance is specifically intended to support the girl's education and prevent early marriages.

However, the offering comes with certain conditions to ensure its effectiveness. The birth registration must be completed within 35 days of the baby's birth, expectant mothers should undergo health check-ups at least eight times during pregnancy, child's delivery is required to take place within a health institution, there must be a commitment to ensuring the child's education up to class 12 and the couple should have maximum two offspring.

Furthermore, the monetary assistance can only be withdrawn after a period of 20 years from the initial deposit.

Fourteen of the 43 individuals applying for the vacant post of Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University have been shortlisted. The Recommendation Committee on Thursday announced the short-list for presentation and interview of the candidates.

The shortlisted candidates include Kusum Shakya, Keshar Jung Baral, Govinda Subedi, Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki, Gyanendra Prasad Poudyal, Tankanath Dhamala, Tirtha Raj Khaniya, Narayan Belbase, Prakash Ghimire, Bhojraj Aryal, Mahendra Prasad Sharma, Ram Chandra Basnet, Shiva Lal Bhusal and Surya Bahadur Thapa, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The post in the country's oldest university had fallen vacant with the termination of the tenure of Vice Chancellor Dharmakant Baskota on November 4, 2023.

Prime Minister and TU Chancellor Pushpa Kamal Dahal on November 10, 2023 formed the Recommendation Committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Education Ashok Kumar Rai for recommending the names for appointment to the post of Vice Chancellor.

Ministry secretary Suresh Adhikari and Dr Chandrakala Ghimire, the Chief of TU Central Department of Buddhist Studies, are the members of the committee.

Orange production has gone up in Solukhumbu, the mountainous district in Koshi Province. It has increased by more than 400 metric tonnes this season, the Agriculture Knowledge Center Solukhumbu said.

The district produced 469 metric tonnes more oranges in the current fiscal year 2023/24 compared to the previous fiscal year, 2022/23. Information Officer at the Center, Kul Bahadur Rai, said orange production in the district last fiscal year was 1,690 metric tonnes and it reached 2,159 metric tonnes in the current fiscal.

Orange is grown in 295 hectares of land in the district, but this year production could be reaped only from 257 hectares. Rai, the Centre's information officer, said the production increased this year with the increase in the number of high-yielding orange trees.

Oranges can be grown in seven out of the eight local levels in the district. Cultivation is not possible in Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality because of extreme cold, said Durga Bahadur Tiruwa, Chief of the Center.

Sixty percent of all orange production in the district comes from Thulung Dudhkoshi Rural Municipality, it is stated. The Deusa area of this rural municipality is the pocket area for oranges in the entire district.

Although the orange production has been going up in the district over the years, there is a problem of taking them to the market, farmers complained.

Sangam Rai, a farmer from Deusa who is into commercial orange farming, said that a sizable portion of the oranges produced in Deusa go to waste due to lack of market and transportation facilities.

The market for the oranges produced in the district is confined within the district itself. This means that the orange farmers have only a limited market for their orange. Ambar Rai, another farmer of Deusa, rued those oranges taken to Salleri, the district headquarters, for sale, which does not even sell at Rs 50 per kilo.

According to him, the orange growers have not been able to make profit due to the lack of market and there are no facilities to take their produce to bigger markets in other districts.

One percent of the children have congenital heart disease, said Dr Urmila Shakya, senior pediatric cardiologist at the Sahid Gangalal National Heart Center. She gave out this information while addressing a news conference the Centre organized Thursday in connection with the Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Week.

According to Dr Shakya, eight to 10 children out of 1,000 children born alive are found suffering from congenital heart conditions. She shared that this condition develops when the child is still in the womb due to some problem with the artery outside the heart or abnormalities in the interior parts of the heart.

Dr Shakya said that the mortality rate is high due to cardiac-related issues among the children who have complicated congenital heart conditions. To reduce such risk, Dr Shakya advised, pregnant women should pay attention to proper food intake and nutrition and totally abstain from smoking.

It is said symptoms about congenital heart condition can be seen in nearly two-thirds of the children within a month of their birth, and one-third of children showing such symptoms died within some days of their birth if timely medical treatment is not provided.

Dr Shakya also said that the causes can be identified only in 10 percent of cardiac diseases. It is said children with congenital heart conditions do not gain weight as per their age, are weak, the left part of their chest is raised and suffer from chest pain, fall unconscious, and have body swelling, among other problems.