Bank runs out of cash

PUTALIBAZAAR: Shortage of cash at Nepal Bank Ltd office at Syangja district headquarters has hampered banking transactions. The bank office, which has daily transactions worth Rs 25 million, has been without cash since Tuesday. Even a cheque for Rs 5,000 could not be cashed. Teachers, employees and member of the general public have been thronging the bank to encash their cheques. But the bank has been providing customers drafts free of cost and sending them to Pokhara, according to assistant manager Ratna Prasad Aryal. — RSS

9 years without power

TANAHU: There is no electricity distributed to the people of Purkot village development committee in northern Tanahu though it is more than nine years that electric poles have been erected and electric wires extended. This apathy shown by concerned bodies has affected about 500 households of the VDC. — RSS

Rural energy initiative

Kathmandu: Rural energy entrepreneurs from 12 developing countries have launched a mutual-support alliance to strengthen the role of the private sector in expanding rural energy access, called REDCO Alliance. Leading international rural energy entrepreneurs held a ‘South-South Rural EDCO Exchange’ programme at Southern Indian state of Karnataka, South India last week, which brought together entrepreneurs from around the world to focus on the role of private Rural Energy Delivery Companies (REDCOs) in expanding services to rural areas, particularly with solar energy. — HNS

QA eyes Kenyan route

Kathmandu: Qatar Airways is spreading its wings in Africa this winter with the launch of scheduled flights to Nairobi from November 2005. The Kenyan capital will be served non-stop five-times-a-week from Doha. Nairobi, which becomes Qatar Airways’ ninth destination in Africa, is the trading and regional capital of East Africa and gateway to superb holiday offerings such as safaris in the Masi Mara and beach vacations along the Indian Ocean coast of Mombasa. — HNS

Alternative medicines

NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Thursday gave a go-ahead to the proposal to introduce a legislation to regulate pharmacy practices in homeopathy and alternative Indian medicines like ayurveda, unani and siddha. The Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy Pharmacy Bill will seek to establish the Central Pharmacy Council of India to regulate the practice of pharmacists in homeopathy and Indian medicine, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Thursday. — HNS