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At least 120 people have been killed and tens of thousands affected by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains across Nepal, the government said yesterday, in the worst such calamity in nearly a decade. Some 35 people were still missing and 39 injured as emergency workers scrambled to supply relief to areas devastated by the floods. Torrential rains battered the low-lying region bordering India for three days last week. Yesterday, the government sent helicopters to a dozen districts where people were desperate for food and clean drinking water, Ram Krishna Subedi, a home ministry spokesman, said. “We have sent food packets to people because they have been without food for several days. We have also sent tarps, clothes and cooking utensils,” he told DPA. “We have been distributing free medicines to flood-affected people for a week. We have also sent water purifiers to prevent water-borne diseases,” he said. “We have been out on the road without food and clean drinking water for the past four days. Many elderly, pregnant and postpartum mothers and children have fallen ill,” a man from a flood-stricken area in western Nepal, was quoted as saying by the The Kathmandu Post yesterday. The Home Ministry said 26,000 emergency workers, including police officers and soldiers, were deployed in flood-hit areas across the country. Every year, floods and landslides triggered by rains cause numerous deaths in Nepal, where the monsoon season lasts from June to September. At least 39 people have died and more than 2.6mn have been affected after monsoon floods engulfed vast areas of northern Bangladesh, officials said. Many of the victims drowned while others were electrocuted, disaster management official Abdul Kuddus Bulbul told DPA. All of the dead came from the eight administrative districts most severely affected by the floods. Homesteads and farmland in vast areas of 18 north and north-eastern districts have been submerged by the onrush of waters from rivers in neighbouring India, Bulbul added. More than 350,000 people have been shifted to 1,558 temporary shelters, which were opened as water levels on major river basins including those of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna continued to rise, said Bulbul. Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury said the government had sent out an adequate quantity of dry foods to feed the flood-affected people. “We have allocated 2,541 tonnes of rice and more than 10mn taka ($123,663) as emergency support for the flood victims,” the minister said. Train services between Dhaka and five northern districts — Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh — have been suspended since Monday after railway tracks were submerged. Engineers were working to restore the lines, Sabah Uddin Ahmed, a railway manager said. More than 130 people were killed in June by landslides triggered by heavy rain in Bangladesh’s hilly south-east. As the devastating floods across Bangladesh have damaged crop fields and exerted pressure on food stock, the government has decided to further reduce import duty on rice from 10% to 2% to replenish stocks and keep its prices stable. Earlier, the government lowered the import duty from 28% to 10% during the flash floods. Food Minister Qamrul Islam disclosed the decision after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee held at the Secretariat in Dhaka yesterday. Talking to reporters after the meeting, he said the decision to cut down the import duty was taken to stabilise the rice market and a circular will be issued soon in this regard. The minister said they had a target to produce 19.1mn tonnes of rice in the country this year but it could not be achieved due to massive floods. He said the government has decided to import 1.5mn tonnes of rice and 5,00,000 tonnes of wheat to boost the stock. “The government has struck deals with Vietnam and Cambodia to buy 2,50,000 tonnes of rice from each country,” he said, adding that most rice imported from Vietnam has already reached the country. Asked how much rice has so far imported, Qamrul said, “Some 2,50,000 tonnes have already entered our sea boundary. The rest will be imported by the current fiscal year,” he said. There is no scarcity of rice in the country and the prices also remain people’s purchasing capacity, he claimed. The minister said the government will provide rice at 10 taka per kg among the poor people under the Food-friendly Programme from September which will continue for three months. Each of the 5mn families across the country will be able to buy at least 33kg of rice per month, he added. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed,  Agriculture Minister and Matia Chowdhury were present at the meeting.

At least 221 people have died and more than 1.5mn have been displaced by monsoon flooding across India, Nepal and Bangladesh, officials said yesterday, as rescuers scoured submerged villages for the missing. In Nepal, severe flooding has left tens of thousands of homes totally underwater in the populous southern lowlands, with nearly 20% of the population affected. “As per the data we have received so far, 111 have been killed, 35 are still missing and a search operation is underway,” Home Minister Janardan Sharma told parliament yesterday. A third of neighbouring Bangladesh is flooded, with at least 29 dead as relentless monsoon rains pound the densely-populated riverine country. “Another 1.5mn people have been marooned,” Reaz Ahmed, head of Bangladesh’s disaster management department told AFP. Almost 1,200 shelters have been erected across Bangladesh, while the army has been deployed to reinforce weakened river embankments and to assist with search and rescue operations. In the border district of Lalmonirhat, roughly 600 Indian nationals took shelter in Bangladeshi villages along with their stricken livestock, the district’s government administrator Shafiul Atif told AFP. India has also suffered from torrential downpours and flash flooding, worsening a monsoon that has already claimed lives. At least 81 people have died in the eastern states of Bihar and West Bengal, and northeastern Assam state, over the last few days, a government official told AFP yesterday. Train services have been cut entirely to the northeast, and at least 200,000 people are living in emergency camps in Assam, a remote state that suffers frequent flooding during the annual rains. In Nepal, residents in hard-hit Saptari district blamed the government for failing to solve the seasonal floods and quickly send aid to those in need. “Many have lost their homes. Families don’t have food or shelter. We are just helping each other,” said local resident Pankaj Mishra. “What we need is for the government to solve this problem. We have been suffering for decades every year. The river troubles us every year.” Kathmandu has been criticised for enacting a “one-door” policy requiring all aid for flood victims to flow through a government-run central disaster agency. The diktat threatens to delay the delivery of relief supplies say volunteers and aid agencies, which have warned Nepal faces a humanitarian crisis if food and water does not reach the worst-affected areas. “Unless there is an effective model of rescue and relief operation, one-door policy will only kill or aggravate the situation,” said local volunteer Arpan Shrestha. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang yesterday pledged $1mn in flood assistance to Nepal during a four-day visit to Kathmandu.

Farmers plant rice saplings in paddy fields in Sindhuli district, Nepal. 

Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains in Nepal's southern plains have killed at least 90 people and damaged more than 2,800 homes, the worst such calamity in nearly 10 years. Thirty-eight people were reported missing, 25 were injured and more than 3,000 pieces of infrastructure, including bridges and telephone towers, were damaged, the Home Ministry said on Tuesday. Torrential rains battered the low-lying region bordering India for three days last week. "Rescuing people trapped by floods is the government's first priority. We have also distributed relief materials to them," a ministry statement said. Pushkar Karki, a spokesman for Nepal Police, said his forces had coordinated with government agencies to provide relief.  In Jogbani, an Indian border town near the worst-hit city of Biratnagar, seven bodies were pulled from a flooded area on Tuesday, the Kathmandu Post reported. In Chitwan, home to the country's largest national park, an endangered rhino and six deer were found dead after the Narayani river inundated the area, the newspaper reported.   As the water level has subsided, authorities have issued warnings about a potential outbreak of water-borne diseases. "Patients of diarrhoea, jaundice and typhoid have increased in the hospital," a physician in Janakpur, one of worst-hit areas, told Kathmandu Post. The government announced that each of the disaster victims will be compensated with 200,000 Nepali rupees ($1,950). The Home Ministry said 26,000 emergency workers, including police officers and soldiers, were deployed. A dozen helicopters, several rubber boats and motor boats were being used to help with the operations.

Elephants were pressed into service to rescue hundreds of foreign tourists trapped in a Nepal jungle safari park, officials said yesterday, as the death toll from flash floods and landslides after four days of heavy rains rose to 70. In Sauraha, 80km south of Kathmandu, the Rapti River overflowed its banks, inundating hotels and restaurants and stranding some 600 tourists. Sauraha, on the fringe of Chitwan National Park, is home to 605 greater one-horned rhinoceroses, or Indian rhinoceroses, and is popular with foreign tourists, including Indian and Chinese visitors, mainly for elephant ride and rhino-watching. “Some 300 guests were rescued on elephant backs and tractor trailers to (nearby) Bharatpur and the rest will be taken to safer places soon,” Suman Ghimire, chief of a group of Sauraha hotel owners, said by telephone yesterday. Shiva Raj Bhatta of WWF Nepal said one rhino had died in the floods. Relief workers said 26 of Nepal’s 75 districts were either submerged or hit by landslides after heavy rains lashed the mainly mountainous nation, home to Mount Everest and the birthplace of Lord Buddha. The death toll, which had stood at 49 on Sunday, was expected to rise with another 50 people reported missing in the floods and landslides, Information and Communications Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet said. Basnet said more than 60,000 homes were under water, mainly in the southern plains bordering India. Estimates of losses were not available, with rescuers yet to reach villages marooned by the worst floods in recent years. “The situation is worrying as tens of thousands of people have been hit,” Basnet told Reuters. Large swaths of farmland in the southern plains, Nepal’s breadbasket, are under water and the Himalayan country could face food shortages due to crop losses, aid workers said. “The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop in the country’s most important agricultural region,” said Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for US-based non-profit group Heifer International. Monsoon rains, which start in June and continue through September, are important for farm-dependent Nepal, but they also cause heavy loss of life and property damage each year. In all at least 175 people have died across Nepal, India and Bangladesh, officials said, warning the toll could rise as the extent of the damage becomes clear. Three days of relentless downpours sparked flash floods and landslides that have killed at 22 in Bangladesh. The Nepal Red Cross warned that shortages of safe drinking water and food could create a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Himalayan country. “In many parts of the country there is a scarcity of safe drinking water creating a high risk of health hazards,” spokesman Dibya Raj Poudel told AFP. “Several villages and settlements are unreachable. Telecommunications, mobile phones are still not working so it is difficult to give a full assessment.”  A local volunteer in Saptari district — one of the worst affected areas — said the water level was receding but many people were still stranded on higher ground. “Water level has decreased a little bit but families still cannot return home. They are taking shelter in sheds. What people need now is clean drinking water and food,” volunteer Dipak Kumar Yadav told AFP. On the outskirts of Janakpur, in southeastern Nepal, local residents were sheltering in a local temple after the flood waters had totally destroyed their basic mud homes, though the water had mostly receded. Bangladesh deployed troops to shore up embankments in the north of the country, where flooding has killed 22 people. Local government administrator Kazi Hasan Ahmed told AFP up to 700,000 people had been marooned by flood waters after rivers burst their banks following days of heavy rain. “We’ve not seen such severe floods in Dinajpur since 1988,” he said, referring to the worst-hit district. “The town protection embankment was washed away by flood water, submerging most of the main town.”  The government’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre warned that water levels in some major rivers would continue to rise over the next 72 hours, raising fears the flooding could spread.

Elephants were pressed into service to rescue hundreds of foreign tourists trapped in a Nepal jungle safari park, officials said on Monday, as the death toll from flash floods and landslides after four days of heavy rains rose to 70. In Sauraha, 80 km south of Kathmandu, the Rapti River overflowed its banks, inundating hotels and restaurants and stranding some 600 tourists. Sauraha, on the fringe of Chitwan National Park, is home to 605 greater one-horned rhinoceroses, or Indian rhinoceroses, and is popular with foreign tourists, including Indian and Chinese visitors, mainly for elephant ride and rhino-watching. "Some 300 guests were rescued on elephant backs and tractor trailers to (nearby) Bharatpur yesterday and the rest will be taken to safer places today," Suman Ghimire, chief of a group of Sauraha hotel owners, said by telephone on Monday. Shiva Raj Bhatta of WWF Nepal said one rhino had died in the floods. Relief workers said 26 of Nepal's 75 districts were either submerged or hit by landslides after heavy rains lashed the mainly mountainous nation, home to Mount Everest and the birthplace of Lord Buddha. The death toll, which had stood at 49 on Sunday, was expected to rise with another 50 people reported missing in the floods and landslides, Information and Communications Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet said. Basnet said more than 60,000 homes were under water, mainly in the southern plains bordering India. Estimates of losses were not available, with rescuers yet to reach villages marooned by the worst floods in recent years. "The situation is worrying as tens of thousands of people have been hit," Basnet told Reuters. Large swaths of farmland in the southern plains, Nepal’s breadbasket, are under water and the Himalayan country could face food shortages due to crop losses, aid workers said. "The heavy rains hit at one of the worst times, shortly after farmers planted their rice crop in the country’s most important agricultural region," said Sumnima Shrestha, a spokeswoman for US-based non-profit group Heifer International. Monsoon rains, which start in June and continue through September, are important for farm-dependent Nepal, but they also cause heavy loss of life and property damage each year. 

Monsoon floods and landslides have killed at least 74 people across Nepal and India but officials fear that figure could rise sharply as rescuers search for dozens believed lost under mud and in submerged villages. Authorities yesterday upgraded the death toll from flash flooding across landlocked Nepal to 49 as the water kept rising, forcing thousands to flee for higher ground. “Another 17 are missing. Search and rescue works are underway but the water levels have not declined yet,” said Shankar Hari Acharya, the chief of Nepal’s national emergency centre. The Red Cross estimated a higher death toll of 53, with dozens more missing and injured and thousands of homes destroyed. In Nepal, the toll from this year’s monsoon — which typically lasts from late June until the end of August — has already eclipsed last year, with more than 100 people confirmed dead. Last weekend in the central lowlands, four girls from the same family drowned when they fell into a flooded roadside ditch. Nepal’s weather department warned that heavy rain was expected to continue for another day, following days of torrential downpours. “There isn’t a house without water,” said Raghu Ram Mehta, a resident of the southern district of Sunsari which has suffered nine deaths, the highest of any district. “Hundreds of families are taking shelter in local schools.” Footage aired on Nepali TV showed villagers wading through waist-high water with their belongings and using boats to reach higher ground. Families perched on trees with young children overnight as flood waters swept away homes in a village in the southern district of Chitwan, local media reported yesterday. In the popular jungle safari resort of Sauraha in Chitwan, hotels were forced to shift their guests to higher floors as water rushed in. A hotel owner said they used elephants to transport tourists to the nearest open highway and airport to help them return to the capital Kathmandu. Biratnagar airport in the eastern district of Morang was closed after being submerged in a metre of water, authorities at the international terminal said. “I have already instructed authorities concerned to rescue flood victims, move them to safer locations and immediately provide relief to them,” Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said in a video recording late on Saturday.

Three years after its last train hit the buffers, landlocked Nepal is building a new railway network to boost its ailing economy — helped by the rivalry between its powerful neighbours, China and India. The railway to India was a lifeline for the small southern frontier town of Janakpur, used to import everything from sweets to clothes and cosmetics and fuelling a vibrant border economy. But it fell into disrepair after years of neglect and since 2014 the train has sat stationary, its rusting carcass now a playground for local children, while Janakpur’s markets are empty. “When the train was running, we would have a lot of business. I was easily providing (for) my family,” said Shyam Sah, whose small family-run cosmetics shop has suffered an 80% drop in profits since the railway closed. Now it is being rebuilt with Indian backing, one of three new rail lines — one funded by China in the north and a third by Nepal itself — that the country hopes will help boost international trade. Nepal remains largely isolated from the global economy, dependent on aid and remittances. Growth slowed dramatically after a 2015 earthquake but is expected to normalise at 5% from 2018 — one of the slowest rates in South Asia — according to the World Bank. In recent years it has courted its two large neighbours for investment in an attempt to plug itself into a rail network that links the far eastern reaches of Asia with Europe. But geography is not on its side. The Himalayas form a natural border between Nepal and China, leaving it largely dependent on India — with which it shares a 1,400km open border — for the majority of its imports and exports. In recent years Kathmandu has tilted towards Beijing as part of a nationalist drive to decrease the country’s reliance on New Delhi. China has responded, ramping up its diplomatic ties with Nepal — mostly through large-scale infrastructure investments. In 2017, Beijing pledged $8.3bn to build roads and hydropower plants in Nepal, dwarfing India’s commitments of $317mn. Feasibility studies are also underway for a Beijing-backed railway connecting Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet, cutting straight through the Himalayas at an estimated cost of $8bn. Ankit Panda, senior editor at The Diplomat magazine, said that could be a game-changer for the small country. “The rail line with China holds potential depending on the demand side of the equation, on how China allows Nepal to leverage that link for commercial growth opportunities,” he said. But it has strained relations between India and China, who are currently locked in a tense standoff on a remote Himalayan plateau in Bhutan sparked by a new road being built by China. “China knows that its chequebook diplomacy with the smaller Asian states is a sore point with India, which simply cannot afford to put up the kind of capital outlays that the Chinese promise,” said Panda. The project is part of its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a massive global infrastructure programme to connect Chinese companies to new markets around the world that critics see as a geopolitical powerplay. Regional rival India snubbed the plan and skipped a summit in Beijing in May. New Delhi is funding the reconstruction of the Janakpur line, rebuilding the tracks to carry broad-gauge trains that will allow it to connect to the rest of the subcontinent’s expansive rail network. Meanwhile Nepal is building a 945km line that will cut across the southern plains from east to west. Nearly a third of the track has been built, but construction has stalled for lack of funds and it is not clear when it work will be finished. Some experts warn that Nepal has become a de-facto battleground in a geopolitical struggle for regional supremacy between India and China — a position that Kathmandu must navigate carefully. “None of them (smaller Asian nations) want to become a de facto satellite state,” said Michael Auslin, Asia expert and fellow with the Hoover Institution. “But by having both India and China essentially compete over it, from one perspective it makes it a battleground, from another perspective it means that Nepal is playing the two off against each other,” he added.

Nepal has begun rescue and relief operations after landslides and floods triggered by monsoon rain across the country claimed at least 49 lives, the government said. The torrential rains hit the country's southern plains and eastern hills, triggering landslides and inundating hundreds of towns and villages. The country's home ministry said on Sunday that the death toll had risen to 49, with 17 people injured and thousands left homeless. Some 36 people were missing in 23 districts across the country's densely populated southern plains, which border India. In a statement, Nepal's government said it had asked Indian authorities on Saturday to open the barrages at two rivers that flow into India. Some 8,000 police officers and army soldiers were deployed in the areas affected by the floods. "We have helicopters, motorboats, rafts on standby in several places. In Surkhet district, we have evacuated about 200 people to shelters," the statement said. Several highway bridges have collapsed and roads were blocked by landslides and floods, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, local media reported on Sunday. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said further heavy rains were expected on Sunday in the country's central and mid-western regions. Nepal is prone to natural disasters. In 2015, 9,000 people were killed when a powerful earthquake hit the Himalayan country.  Every year, floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains cause numerous deaths in Nepal, where the monsoon season lasts from June to September. 

Floods and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 25 people in the last two days across Nepal, officials said yesterday. Heavy rains have hit more than a dozen districts in the country’s far eastern region as well as some areas in the west since Friday morning, the home ministry said. Flooding has occurred across the densely populated lowlands that border India, while some remote districts in the hilly areas of the far east have been hit by landslides triggered by the monsoon rains. “We are still collecting the details of the loss. According to the preliminary reports to the ministry over 25 people are feared dead,” home ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle told AFP. The prime minister’s office issued a statement putting the death toll at more than two dozen since Friday. Thirteen people died in eastern districts and at least four others are missing, the head of the region’s police Ramesh Bhattarai said. Telephone and electricity lines have also been affected by the heavy downpour making it difficult to confirm the full extent of the damage in remote areas, the police chief added. Roads across the southern plains have been blocked by the rains and three highway bridges collapsed in western Banke district, Home Minister Janardan Sharma said at a press conference. Images on social media showed the runway at Biratnagar airport in eastern Morang district submerged in a metre of water with an empty plane stranded on the tarmac. Chief of Morang district police Arun BC said that airport had been shut due to the flooding. The most recent deaths bring the total death toll from this year’s monsoon to over 90, according to government figures. Nearly 100 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August. Last weekend in the central lowlands, four girls from the same family drowned when they fell into a flooded roadside ditch. Another girl died and one was injured when they fell in open drains that had been submerged by monsoon flooding in the Kathmandu Valley last month. Footage shot by a bystander shows one of the girls tentatively navigating a flooded road, before suddenly disappearing into the brown muddy water. A few seconds later she appears out of another drain about 10 metres away. The video went viral on social media in Nepal, sparking outrage over the condition of the roads in the capital. Nepal’s weather department issued an alert yesterday warning that heavy rains were expected to continue for another day, and advised districts to close schools and residents to stay indoors. Rescue teams of soldiers, police and local people have been deployed to help those trapped on rooftops or on higher ground, officials added, as TV pictures showed damaged roads and bridges. Weather experts said more rain was expected overnight and the government has told residents to remain alert. The Koshi river in the south of the country — a main waterway — was above the danger level, authorities warned. Monsoon rains from June to September are important for farm-dependent Nepal, but they also cause havoc each year.

A Nepali child takes part in the Neku Jatra-Mataya festival in Thecho village on the outskirts of Kathmandu. 

Nepali youths dressed in traditional cow costumes take part in a procession during the Gai Jatra festival in Kathmandu. The annual Gai Jatra festival, which dates back to the 17th century, pays respects to those who have died in the past year, with their families staging colourful processions through town centres. These are traditionally led by a cow or by young men dressed in white with headgear depicting a cow.

Immigration officials at Nepal’s international airport are colluding with traffickers to illegally send Nepali women to the Gulf where they are often exploited and abused, said a parliamentary report released yesterday. The parliamentary committee tasked with international relations and labour rights said the government had failed to protect Nepalis working overseas and turned a blind eye to allegations of trafficking. More than 60% of Nepali domestic workers who end up illegally in the Gulf travelled through the main airport in the capital Kathmandu, the report said. “(They) travel on tourist visas via Tribhuvan International Airport in direct collusion with immigration officials, airline company staff, security officials and the traffickers.”  “The rest travel via different cities in India, Sri Lanka, China and various African countries,” the report said. The women are lured to Gulf countries on promises of well-paid jobs in department stores or hotels. Instead, they are sent to work in private homes where their passports are usually confiscated. Rights activists in Nepal have long demanded the government do more to protect the 4mn Nepalis who work overseas — mostly in the Gulf and Malaysia. With remittances from migrant workers accounting for nearly a third of Nepal’s GDP according to government figures, activists suspect the authorities are reluctant to put pressure on host nations. “The government has been closing its eyes to the problem of human trafficking,” Mohna Ansari, spokeswoman for the Nepal’s Human Rights Commission, told AFP. Lawmakers on the parliamentary committee met with women who had escaped from abusive homes in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Many had suffered physical, mental and sexual violence, the report said. “Some women who have escaped and reached an embassy office have made reports about the human traffickers, but Foreign Affairs Ministry has failed to request the Home Ministry to take action against the culprits,” it added. The number of migrants leaving Nepal for work has surged in recent years with nearly half a million leaving in 2015, up from 200,000 in 2008, according to the latest available government figures. The vast majority are men working in construction, but around 20,000 women leave each year. Nepal has previously attempted to ban women from working as maids in private homes in the Gulf over allegations that they are often overworked for low wages and treated poorly, but enforcement has been patchy.

The Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Committee under the parliament is to onsite visit land purchased by Nepal Oil Corp in four districts for petroleum storage. Committee President Bhishmaraj Angdembe informed a meeting that a group of lawmakers elected from these four districts would be selected and sent for the onsite monitoring. He said that preparation was underway to send the group to Jhapa, Sarlahi, Chitwan and Rupandehi districts for onsite study. The group would collect real facts by holding discussion with representatives of concerned offices, people’s representatives of local-level and locals of the area, where the NOC had purchased the land, in four districts –kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

Tears were flowing when schoolgirl Bivsi emerged from Dusseldorf airport yesterday. Two months earlier, the German-born girl was deported from the German city of Duisburg to Nepal, her parents’ home country - a place she had never seen nor barely knew its language. Then, after weeks of protests and petitions by her fellow high school students, teachers and politicians, what initially seemed impossible was reversed: 15-year-old Bivsi and her parents were allowed to  return to Germany. At the airport, a dozen classmates were awaiting with pink heart-lined banners with this greeting: “Welcome back Bivsi, Bhim and Shrimaya.” Everyone was at a loss for words, but there were plenty of hugs, especially from her friends - Sara from Afghanistan, Rosemarie from Vietnam and Marcia from Angola. All of them students in the 9d class of a high school in central  Duisburg. “We are a bit proud that we accomplished this,” Sara said about the petition campaign. Another classmate, Nico, who has Italian roots, added, “Our class is a community where everyone is treated equally.” School director Ralf Buchthal also had a warm welcome for Bivsi. “Staying persistent is what brought about this success,” he said. Bivsi’s class, in which about half the students have an immigrant background, is an example of integration in Duisburg, a city in western Germany’s Ruhr industrial region. Regarded as an impoverished former steel town with a high percentage of immigrants, the city is struggling with its  negative image. The classmates were the first to protest when on May 29 Bivsi was hauled out of a classroom and then, with her parents, placed on a flight to  Kathmandu, 7,000km away. The deportation was legal. Her father, escaping the civil war in Nepal 20 years ago, made one mistake. Fearing possible political persecution later, he gave a false identity to German authorities. “It was my only mistake,” he said in a report broadcast by local broadcaster WDR. Otherwise he worked full-time in Germany, paid his taxes and contributions to the state pension fund. But when he was caught out and authorities moved to deport the family, at every stage of the way the deportation  was ruled to be legal. “They [the authorities] stuck to the legal rules,” said Eva Selic, a representative of the parents. “But it just felt wrong.” Bivsi, and above all her parents, got lucky, many of their supporters will say. Only rarely is a deportation rescinded. “That we also got the parents back is something we weren’t counting on,” Selic said. Bivsi was allowed back under a school exchange visa. For humanitarian reasons her parents were allowed to accompany her. Instead of being an applicant for asylum, she will return to the classroom as an exchange  student. After her graduation diploma she can file a follow-up application should she wish to pursue job training or to study further. Her parents may stay with her for as long as that takes. Yesterday, nobody wanted to ponder what bureaucratic obstacles must be navigated in the next three years. At the airport was also Bivsi’s brother Biswash, 22, who recently arrived in Germany. He had been raised in Nepal by his grandparents and relatives and now plans to study in Germany. Biswash already speaks German. And he has the keys to the family’s Duisburg apartment.  The landlord had kept the flat free for the family, just in case. Nepalese teenager Bivsi’s classmates staged rallies in support of the German-born girl in Duisburg, 548km from Berlin.

Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will embark on a five-day state visit to India on August 23, a media report said. Officials from both the countries were working to finalise the itinerary, agenda and the size of the delegation, the Kathmandu Post reported yesterday. Deuba’s visit to India will focus on implementing the past accords that were signed during his earlier visits in 1996, 2002 and 2004 as the prime minister, the report said. “We have received two clear instructions from the prime minister. Firstly, he is keen to implement the past agreements reached during his three visits to India,” two senior officials told the Post.  “While dwelling on the status of the India-funded projects, he also plans to discuss the issues, if any, that have impeded the projects,” said one official. “Secondly, the prime minister has told officials that there must be some concrete outcome from the visit.” The much-talked about Pancheshwar multipurpose project (PMP) as well as other energy and infrastructure related projects will be high on the agenda, the official said.  The PMP is a bi-national hydropower project to be developed on Mahakali River bordering Nepal and India. Development of PMP and is covered under integrated Mahakali treaty signed between the two countries according to which, equal sizes of underground power house will be constructed on each side of Mahakali river in India and Nepal.  Both sides had called for a plan of action for the early commencement of the Pancheshwar multipurpose project. But the detailed project report is yet to be completed, the daily said. “Time has come for both sides to find out why there has not been desired progress on several understandings reached in the past,” said Dinesh Bhattarai, foreign relations adviser to Deuba. During his visit, Deuba will also visit Bodh Gaya and Tirupati Balaji Temple.

A shopkeeper walks out holding a mask from his souvenir shop in Bhaktapur, near the Nepal capital Kathmandu, yesterday.

Nepal’s major political parties are gearing up for the third phase of the local-level polls to be held in the Madhesi province next month after it was postponed by the government, local  media reported.  The third phase of the local polls held in two decades is scheduled to take place in eight districts including in Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Dhanusha, Saptari and Siraha of southern Nepal under the Madhesi-stronghold province No. 2 on September 18.  Three major political parties Nepali Congress, CPN- UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) have focused their activities on Province 2 in view of the third phase of local level elections scheduled for September 18, deploying top leaders to prepare the ground for the election.  The Madhes-based political parties have also started their electoral preparation in various districts of the province No. 2 ahead of the third phase of local polls.  However, the newly-formed Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has not yet decided whether to take part in the polls or not as the party has stuck to its earlier demand of an amendment to the constitution to address their major demands.  Millions of Nepalis voted on June 28 in the second phase of the country’s first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil.  In the first round of polls held on May 14 in Provinces 3, 4 and 6, voter turnout was recorded at 71%.  Earlier, the Nepal government had postponed the date of elections in the disputed Madhesi-stronghold Province No. 2 by nearly three months and added a third phase in the polls. Local-level elections could not be held after 1997 largely as a result of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that claimed more than 16,000 lives in Nepal.  Nepal has been witnessing political instability. Some Madhes-centric parties opposed the elections on the ground that the new constitution be amended to accommodate their views: more representation in the parliament and redrawing of  provincial boundaries.  The Nepal government has tabled a new constitution amendment bill in the parliament to address the demands of the agitating Madhesis.

Indian envoy to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri inaugurated a school building in Udayapur district and laid the foundation stone for construction of a campus building for another educational institution in Basaha in the same district, for which India has extended Nepali Rs66.44mn as financial aid, a statement said. The newly-constructed building of Shree Janata Higher Secondary School in Jogidaha consists of 12 classrooms along with separate toilets for boys and girls on each floor, compound wall and furniture. He also laid the foundation stone for the Shree Narad Aadarsha Education Campus in Basaha. The Nepali Rs66.44mn financial assistance for the construction of these buildings falls under the Indian government’s Small Development Programme Scheme as part of India-Nepal Economic Co-operation Programme, an Indian embassy release said. Currently, more than 600 students are enrolled in this school and more than 65% of them are girl students. In his inaugural address, Ambassador Puri stressed on the importance of proper infrastructure for ensuring access to quality education to all. The ambassador urged students to make maximum use of the newly inaugurated building. He also announced the Mahatma Gandhi scholarship for two meritorious students of each school who score the highest marks in Class 10 for further studies in Class 11 and 12. The Shree Narad Aadarsha Education Campus, affiliated to Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, was established in 2003 and more than 175 students are enrolled in the campus and 75% of them are girls. The new infrastructure would provide much needed classroom space and create an improved environment for learning and contribute to the development of the education facilities in Udyapur  district, it said. Earlier, the Indian government has provided financial assistance of Nepali Rs81.50mn for five completed and ongoing projects in the district. Additionally, India has, in the past, provided 11 ambulances recognising the need of the people of the district.  Ambassador Puri also visited B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences at Dharan, which is the largest institute providing specialised healthcare services to eastern Nepal for decades.

Ram’s new hand was manufactured on a 3D printer in Nepal’s capital for just $30, an innovation that could be a game changer for many in the impoverished Himalayan country. Once a farmer, Ram lost his hands and toes within a few years of contracting leprosy, forcing the father-of-three to turn to begging in a desperate bid to feed his family. That’s where he was spotted by US-born Matthew Rockwell, the founder of Disaster Hack, a non-profit technology startup that is making functional prosthetic hands for those who couldn’t otherwise afford them. Disaster Hack makes its money doing tech consulting and teaching people to code, while running altruistic ventures on the side like teaching Nepalis IT skills and manufacturing low-cost, basic prosthetics. Rockwell - who flits between Nepal and the US, where he is part of the tech team behind the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert - brought a 3D printer to Kathmandu after a powerful earthquake struck the country in 2015.  Soon, he began printing new hands for those in need: a girl who lost both limbs after being electrocuted by hanging power lines, a construction worker whose hand was crushed beyond repair. “We’ve only distributed to five so far but we have a list that keeps on growing,” said Rockwell, sitting in a cramped office in Kathmandu, the 3D printer whirling behind him. Rockwell only has the capacity to make hands at the moment - a leg requires a more heavy-duty printer - but he has identified more than 7,000 people in Nepal who could benefit from Disaster Hack’s creations. “A traditional prosthesis costs anywhere between $1000 to $3000 to $5000,” Rockwell explained. “Now we’re able to produce prostheses for right around $30 so it (3D printing) lowers the cost dramatically for a functional prosthesis.” Rockwell hopes to bring down the cost even further by recycling plastic bottle tops to make the wire that feeds the printer. Nepal’s healthcare sector is chronically underfunded and ill-equipped but 3D printing can reduce both the cost and time it takes to bring medical equipment to those who need it most. The 3D printed hands being manufactured by Disaster Hack take nearly a full day to print, and are comprised of roughly 20 different parts. Rockwell hopes the mostly volunteer-run project will sow the seeds for something bigger. He has now trained 20 prosthetists at hospitals in Nepal in 3D printing, and signed a deal with Kathmandu’s largest university to set up the country’s first biomedical 3D printing lab. Meanwhile for Ram, a new hand could mean a chance to give up begging. “What should I say, I have nothing to eat. If I stay here I make 100 rupees ($0.97), 50 rupees,” he said from his daily spot on the corner of a busy intersection. He lifted the new prosthetic hand, and as he slowly contracted the plastic fingers to make a fist, a smile spread across his face.