Kathmandu, April 4, 2006

The District Administration Offices (DAO) of Kathmandu and Lalitpur today issued orders banning public gatherings in areas within the Ring Road in the Valley. According to separate statements issued by the Chief District Officers of the two districts, the ban will be in place from Wednesday, a day before the seven-party alliance’s scheduled four-day general strike and capital-centred demonstrations. The statements said the ban has been imposed due to the “increasing violence and unruly activities” in several parts of the Kathmandu Metropolis and the Lalitpur Sub Metropolis. Students drumming up support for the general strike today clashed with riot police in front of various campuses here. Around 24 students were injured, while police rounded up 200 of them from the Shankher Dev Campus. The students were also protesting against autocracy. Traffic was disrupted in front of the Shankher Dev Campus and the Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus as activists of eight student unions burnt effigies and tyres on the road. The agitating students then engaged in a clash with the police in front of the TC campus for half an hour in the afternoon.

NT to launch new services

In a bid to make the telecommunication service more competitive and provide customers with more amenities, Nepal Telecom (NT) today announced various services that would come into effect from April 14, the Nepali New Year. Post-paid subscribers of NT would now be entitled for free calls worth Rs 500, which is equivalent to the minimum monthly payment. Earlier NT was providing free calls worth Rs 250 only. Likewise, NT would also be beginning ‘E-Mail Alert’ service for its post-paid subscribers from the new year day. However, the service has been restricted to the NT’s Internet and e-mail subscribers only. “These service have been introduced in test phase and is free of cost. Once we get charge clearance from Nepal Telecom Authority, the service would be charged,” said Surendra Thike, spokesperson at NT. “Long awaited GPRS system could also be expected from the second week of May,” added Madan Kaji Shakya, director at the

NT. Other services that NT would be launching from April 14 would be recharge card worth Rs 200 with ownership tax of four rupees, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service and balance transfer service for pre-paid subscribers. USSD that NT has introduced as an substitute for existing voice announcement for balance query and recharging procedure would help in decreasing traffic density making connection quicker, said Shakya.