Pokhara, June 25, 2008

In a rare act of bravery, a 13-year-old boy rescued a two-and-a-half-year old girl, who had fallen into a Seti river gorge at Nayagaun of Pokhara yesterday.

The boy, Kamal Nepali, rescued Aradhana Pradhan of Pokhara Birauta at 12 pm today, 22 hours after she fell into the gorge. Nepali was assisted in his mission by a Nepal Canoeing Association team, Nepal Police, Army, Armed Police Force and locals. The canoeing team had come all the way from Kathmandu to rescue the girl, who had fallen into the gorge at 2 pm yesterday.

The army, police and technical experts had given up hope of rescuing the girl, but the boy went down into the gorge with the help of a rope and rescued the girl, who was stuck at a depth of 60 feet, half an hour later. “I saw Aradhana lying flat with her face down. I put her in a basket and took her out,” Nepali said. Kamal sustained minor injuries on his left leg and was administered oxygen at the Manipal Hospital.

The locals had put up tents at the site throughout the night to help the security personnel and rescue team. Born in an impoverished farming family in Tutunga of Pokhara, Kamal is the youngest son of Nil Bahadur and Man Kumari Nepali and a first-grader at the Siddha secondary school here.

The waiting masses took out Kamal Nepali in a procession at the Pokharabazaar after the rescue act. Aradhana had come with her parents to the Seti banks for a cremation.

Done deal at last

Kathmandu, June 25, 2008

Top leaders of the seven party alliance signed an agreement and a cabinet meeting approved a bill to amend the interim constitution, under which president, vice-president and the Constituent Assembly chair will be elected by a simple majority of the Assembly in the absence of a consensus.

The bill will be registered at the parliament secretariat tomorrow. “Now the deck is clear for the formation of the post-election government. PM G P Koirala will announce his resignation in tomorrow’s CA meet. We expect that the fifth amendment bill will be passed by the CA meeting to pave the way for the election of president,” said Prachanda.

He also made it clear that they had not reached any understanding on the presidential candidate as has been reported in the media. Minister for Health and Population Girirajmani Pokharel wrote a note of dissent on the government’s decision to include representation of main opposition leader in the National Defence Council, saying that the majoritarian system would weaken the culture of consensus politics and create problem while drafting new constitution.

The agreement itself leaves formation of the Defence Council to the Assembly to decide amid differences between Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist. The Prime Minister heads the 6-member Council that includes home and defence ministers as ex-officio memebrs and three other ministers are nominated by the Prime Minister.