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TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM

The number of heart, kidney and cancer patients in Ilam district of eastern Nepal has shot up due to the regular consumption of food grown by using excessive pesticides. According to the District Public Health Office, excessive use of car­cinogenic pesticides has turned Ilam into a district with a disproportion­ately high number of cancer patients relative to its population.

In the fiscal 2015-16, 73 cancer patients had sought government help for treatment. In the last fiscal year, 152 cancer patients were rec­ommended for government help. Similarly, in the same year, 89 heart patients, 29 kidney patients and two patients with spinal injury had been the beneficiaries of govern­ment assistance.

This year, with still a few more months to go before the fiscal ends, 134 cancer patients have already been recommended, according to Jeevan Kumar Malla, head of the District Public Health Office, Ilam. He adds that these figures only include those who request the Rs 100,000 government aid for cancer treatment, and that the number of people who don’t seek government help is also high.

Malla has no doubts that the pes­ticides are to be blamed. The prev­alence of cancer, as well as of other diseases, is particularly high in four local units: Suryodaya municipality, Ilam municipality, Mai municipality and Chulachuli rural municipality. These are areas that engage in exten­sive commercial vegetable farming.

Suryodaya is a pocket area for vegetable cultivation where most pesticides consumed in the district goes, while pesticide use is also high in Mai and Chulachuli.

Kathmandu: The Second South Asian Yoga Sports Competition is being organized in Pokhara. The various Yoga Sports Associations from around Asia, including one in Nepal, are jointly organizing the competition in May 2018.

Yoga Sports Association Nepal’s treasurer and coordinator of the publicity committee, Maniraj Kun­war ‘Yogi Shantidoot’ informed that the competition was being orga­nized to create public awareness of yoga as a sport.

The competition will see repre­sentation from Nepal, India, Bangla­desh and Pakistan.

At the meet, various yoga rules would be explained and put into practice. The organizing committee has further said that as the yoga is recognized by the World Health Organization and the UN, its pro­motion as a healthy life choice is important in Nepal as well.

It is believed that the principles of yoga were propounded by Lord Shiva and gradually transferred to the hermits and sages and, finally, to the common folks. RSS

SAPTARI: Chinese apples are being smuggled into India, via Bihar’s Kunauli bazaar located on Indo-Nepal border, appar­ently in collusion with the police and customs officers. The smuggling came to light after the Saptari District Police Office in eastern Nepal mount­ed a raid on the house of one Binod Raya, where the apples were being stored. The police team led by Inspector Heman­ta Bhandari seized 78 cartoons of apples and a bicycle used for smuggling.

The police admit that such smuggling of apples has been taking place for a long time. They said they learnt about Raya’s house after they caught four people red-hand­ed in no-man’s land as they were trying to smuggle apples. Those arrested have admitted to receiving Rs 20 for each cartoon smuggled across the border.

The law prohibits the export of Chinese apples via Nepal. According to the police, a criminal group of Indian nationals purchase apples in Nepal during the day, store them in border areas and smuggle them using bicycles in the thick of night.

By MANOHAR POKHAREL

The construction of the Bheri Bridge con­necting Chaurjahari of West Rukum and Kudu of Jajarkot has been stuck in limbo. The 150m-long bridge is part of the Mid-hill highway, also called the Pushpalal highway.Although construction began five years ago, even foundational work on the bridge remains incomplete. The Department of Roads (DoR) has attributed the delay to the tardiness and negligence on the part of YP Construction Kath­mandu, the company that has the Rs 150 million contract for the bridge. The company, on the other hand, blames the delay on a “flawed design estimate”.

Bishal Sharma, head of Chaurjahari municipality, says construction was affect­ed because the road section linking Chaurja­hari and Sallibazar is treacherous. He adds that despite repeated requests for speedy construction of the bridge, work has dragged on due to the construction company’s refusal to cooperate.

“The work that was supposed to be complet­ed in three years has dragged on for five years. The local government will take action against the construction company if it does not resume work in this fiscal year,” he said.

However, Raju Shrestha, proprietor of the construction company, offers a counter-nar­rative. He argues that the DoR’s plan had to be redesigned two years into construction. He puts the blame for the delay squarely on the DoR, which he alleges of making a perfunctory design without visiting the site. This, he says, made a second design necessary. But Shrestha is confident construction will be completed in next two years as a new design had already been drawn up.

The delay in building the bridge has adversely affected the construction of the Jajarkot section of the highway, depriving people of Jajarkot and Rukum of a motor road. This means they will continue to have to rely on a suspension bridge for mobility. The delay has also obstruct­ed work on the highway’s upgrade as well as town-planning at Chaurjahari.

 By Rajendra Karki | Jajarkot