Kathmandu, May 18

The government of Japan has extended grant assistance of up to 700 million Japanese yen, which is equivalent to Rs 683.20 million to the government of Nepal for implementation of the Economic and Social Development Programme.

Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Masashi Ogawa and Rajan Khanal, secretary at the Ministry of Finance, signed and exchanged a set of notes to this effect at the Ministry of Finance today on behalf of their respective governments, as per a media release.

Speaking at the event, Ogawa mentioned that Nepal is a country that is prone to many kinds of natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides and floods, just like Japan. Especially during monsoon, floods and landslides occur frequently in Nepal every year, claiming many lives and damaging various properties.

“As a true friend of Nepal, the government of Japan will cooperate with the government of Nepal as much as possible to
enable Nepal to become a disaster-resilient country,” the release has quoted Ambassador Ogawa as saying.

Through this programme, the Japanese government will provide equipment, including an automatic meteorological observing station and construction machines for road maintenance. These equipment are also used in Japan to improve disaster prevention capability to make early restoration and reconstruction possible after disasters, as per the ambassador.

The Embassy of Japan believes, that through this programme, the government of Nepal will improve its disaster management capability as well as its ability to implement economic and social development in a stable manner.

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Kathmandu, May 18

Nepali job-seekers aspiring to go to Malaysia for foreign employment have been left in the lurch as all the 39 health check-up institutions that had been licensed to provide bio-metric health check-up service have closed down their facilities today for an indefinite period.

The 39 concerned institutions have resorted to this measure as a protest against the government’s decision to open up the health check-up service for all medical institutions that have been registered with the government to provide such service.

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), Gokarna Bista, on Thursday had taken the decision to allow all 235 registered health institutions along with governmental hospitals to provide health check-up service for migrant workers.

Minister Bista had also said that the Malaysian companies — VNL, Mygram and One Stop Centre (OSC) — which have been taking extra charges from migrant workers seeking jobs in Malaysia will be asked to close down.

“We are very happy with the decision that the government took on Thursday as it is in the interest of all migrant workers who are seeking employment opportunities in Malaysia,” said Rohan Gurung, president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.

“We had been raising our voice since long to put an end to this monopoly of a few bio-metric health check-up institutions for migrant workers,” he added. “I would suggest the government to resolve this problem through the
diplomatic channel with the Malaysian government.”

MoLESS has written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to talk with the Malaysian government regarding the additional cost that Nepali migrant workers have been compelled to pay since long. Nepali workers are compelled to pay an additional Rs 9,500 to the Malaysian companies, which do not have valid authority to work in Nepal.

The company named Mygram, which takes online applications from migrant workers for medical check-up charges 125 Malaysian ringgit from each migrant worker. The company is not allowed to charge migrant workers and it is illegal, according to Secretary of the Labour Ministry Mahesh Dahal.

Meanwhile, One Stop Centre had been involved in collecting passports of migrant workers to apply for visas. OSC used to charge Rs 2,800 plus value added tax per passport. Similarly, the other company named GSC defines its work as migration security clearance and had been charging Rs 3,200 from each migrant worker illegally.

One government official, on the condition of anonymity, informed that the MoLESS has already written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to take legal action against any health institution that refuses to provide service to Nepali job-seekers.

“We hope the Nepali job-seekers inconvenienced by the strike of the health institutions will show patience as the government has taken the recent decision for their benefit,” the official added.

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Kathmandu, May 18

The District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu has asked 24 heads of government offices and contractors to submit all information related to public construction activities in Kathmandu district.

“The concerned officials and contractors have been given a three-day deadline to furnish the progress report and work schedule of their related construction works,” said Basudev Ghimire, assistant chief district officer of Kathmandu.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had, on Thursday, forwarded letters to all District Administration Offices across the country seeking detailed information and list of contractors who have not completed their works like construction of roads, sewage systems and bridges on schedule.

“We sent letters to the concerned heads of government offices and also to the contractors today as per the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” informed Ghimire. “If they fail to provide the necessary documents that we have asked for, we will initiate legal action and may even arrest them,” he added.

According to Ghimire, DAO Kathmandu has sent letters to 24 government offices, including the Department of Roads, Division Road Office of Kathmandu 1 and 2 sectors, Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, Department of Irrigation and all metropolitan offices of Kathmandu.

In the letter, DAO has asked all concerned offices and officials to provide information regarding the total number of contracts signed; names, contact numbers and addresses of the contractor firms; names of the supervising governmental officials; contract dates and also the reasons why the affected projects were not implemented on time.

“We have been receiving frequent complaints from members of the general public on why projects were not being implemented on time and also on why even those projects that were completed as scheduled have degraded within a short period of time,” said Ghimire, adding that these were the reasons why the government has taken this step to initiate action against erring government officials and contractors.

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