According to family source, Purni Maya Tamang, 17, a tenth grader, was found drowned at the swimming pool yesterday evening when she along with her younger brother and other Bhutanese friends were swimming in the pool.

Purni’s younger brother, who first saw his sister drowned, pulled her out of pool with the help of neighbors prior informing the police for further assistance.

Her sister informed BNS that Purni Maya was found entirely unconscious with an inflated body when she was pulled out of the pool. It is not yet exactly known how she was drowned.

Sister and mother of Purni Maya further informed that when the police had reached the location, her skin had turned pale and that they immediately rushed her to St. Joseph Hospital.

Quoting her brother, who is escorting Purni Maya in the hospital, her sister said that Purni has been struggling critical state with the help of Oxygen under critical stage.

Permanent resident of Dagana district in Bhutan, the seven-member Tamang family moved to USA through resettlement program from Beldangi-I camp.

Reported by Nandita Khanal for BNS from Phoenix.

Our camp based correspondent informed that the 10-member family of Bhim Bahadur Khadka and two-member family of Bal Bahadur Thapa were made to return back to their temporary huts in Sanischare refugee camp.

The returnees quoted the Immigration Department officials at the TIA as saying that Khadka’s son was physically unwell to travel and that the travel document for Thapa family was expired.

]]> http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/tia-denies-to-aboard-flight/feed/ 4 http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/one-arrested-in-subba-murder-connection/ http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/one-arrested-in-subba-murder-connection/#comments Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:45:36 +0000 Editor http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/?p=4687 Camp based Police arrested one refugee from Beldangi-I camp in connection with the murder of former camp secretary Ramesh Subba. The arrestee is identified as Lal Maya Rai, 24 of Sector G from the same camp.

According to a news report in Kuensel, the accident occurred around 10 am along the accident prone Namling brag area, about 71 km away from Mongar. The truck plunged about 50 m below the road.

All passengers were monks, including the 48-year old umzey of the Geden dratshang in Ura, Bumthang.

While the driver and two monks, aged 12 and 16, survived and were taken to the Mongar regional referral hospital, the others died on the spot, said police. Including the umzey the others were nine, 11, 13 and 14 years old.

The 16 year old monk is in critical condition said the doctor on duty, Dr Namsa Dorji. “He suffered an eye injury, open fracture wounds in his limbs and massive bleeding,” the doctor said.

While the driver does not have external injuries, its yet to know if he suffered any internal injuries. “The 12 year old injured his head but he is stable,” Dr Namsa Dorji said.

An eyewitness, Karma Dolma, who was following the truck in a Hilux, said that the truck snaked several times before it went off the road. The truck was on its way to Bumthang.

Karma Dolma is the daughter-in-law of Geden Dratshang’s lam. She informed that the monks were returning from Trashiyangtse, after reciting Kanjur and attending the 49-day ritual for her brother’s death.

The Gyalpoizhing police and its rescue team, officials from the dzongkhag and the Gyalpoi Zimpon’s office reached the accident site at around 12 noon.

All bodies were found, with the last one recovered around 5:30 pm, after a search that took more than two hours, said police. The Gyalpoi Zimpon’s office gave a semso of Nu 10,000 each to the families of the accident’s victims and Nu 3,000 each to the injured passengers.

Police said that the cause of the accident is not known and that they are still investigating the case.

The last major accident at the same place happened in June 1998 when the then Druk Express killed 58 people including three Sherubste collge students.

During the construction of the east-west highway, Namling was the most difficult area. Elderly Bhutanese say that at one time 240 workers were buried alive in a mud slide during construction. The lateral route finally opened in early 1980s, 20 years after its construction started.

The EC funding covers a period of six months starting July 1, 2010 and ending December 31, 2010. The principal objective of the humanitarian intervention is to save lives by providing secure access to food and safeguard the nutritional status of the refugee beneficiaries currently living in seven camps in eastern Nepal.

The support aims at safeguarding lives and maintaining nutritional status of dependent refugee populations and meet their basic food consumption need.

The EC assistance to Bhutanese refugees started in the year 2006 and the total disbursements by the Humanitarian office alone has reached 9 million Euros till date. The Delegation of the European Union to Nepal also supports them through the UNHCR.

He also said that Nepali people would always be ready to support such activities.

The Bhutanese delegation with UML Chairman Khanal

“UML has always been supporting democratic struggle in Bhutan and would remain so in the upcoming days,” Khanal told a delegation of Druk Nation Congress (DNC) at his residence this afternoon.

In a press statement issued by the US Embassy in Kathmandu, it said these two milestones come during the on-going large scale resettlement of Bhutanese refugees to several countries around the world.  “We are gratified, together with our partners, to be able to help turn an unfortunate and often painful situation into something more hopeful for these people – America’s newest residents, whom we welcome with open arms and hearts,” said U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Scott H. DeLisi.  The United States, working with UNHCR, IOM and the other members of the Core Group (Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and the UK) began resettling Bhutanese refugees in early 2008.

The United States accepts some 75,000 refugees from around the world each year. The Bhutanese resettlement program is currently the third-largest resettlement operation for the United States. Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in all 50 States and receive support from U.S. federal and state governments as well as non-governmental organizations.

The statement further said that the U.S. is committed to accepting as many of the Bhutanese whom UNHCR refers to them for consideration in Nepal and who meet the requirements of U.S. law for refugee admission.

According to the statement, the U.S. continues to urge the Government of Bhutan to accept the return of those persons who are eligible and wish to do so as another important component of finding durable solutions for all Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

The grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction for the Upgrading Schools and Integrated Disaster Education Project will be used to reconstruct four primary schools which were severely damaged in a devastating earthquake that struck the country in September 2009. Funds will also be used to train district engineers in earthquake-resilient building design and construction quality management, and to teach disaster risk management skills to community members.

“By introducing a seismic resistant structural design into the Ministry of Education’s standard school design, the project will enable the Government to easily replicate it when building other schools,” said Makiko Watanabe, Rural Development Specialist in ADB’s South Asia Department

Bhutan lies in one of the most seismically active zones in the world and the 2009 earthquake was the most damaging natural disaster the country has experienced in recent times, with 12 people killed and thousands left without proper shelter. Among the worst hit areas were the districts of Mongar and Trashigang, two of the most remote and impoverished areas in the country. The Government of Bhutan and development partners provided swift assistance in the immediate aftermath of the calamity but without longer term support, including the rebuilding of damaged schools and other public facilities, there are concerns that already poor communities will be plunged even deeper into poverty.

The project is taking a ‘build back better’ approach which will see the four target schools restored using earthquake-resilient materials and design. Where possible, local materials will be sourced while private contractors doing the construction work will be encouraged to hire members of the affected communities, including women. Participating community members will also be taught earthquake resilient construction techniques that could potentially be applied to communal buildings or their own homes. Disaster risk management skills will be taught to district government officials and teachers and school administrators, who will in turn provide community training aimed at increasing awareness and ensuring effective responses to calamities.

“By providing disaster risk management training, communities will be prepared to proactively cope with future disasters,” Ms. Watanabe said.

The project is expected to benefit about 880 students and teachers at the affected schools and around 9,000 residents of neighboring communities.

Along with the ADB-administered grant, the Government of Bhutan will make an in-kind contribution of almost $824,000 with target communities providing $14,400 in-kind, for an overall investment cost of almost $3.84 million. The Ministry of Education is the executing agency for the project which is expected to be completed by August 2013.

]]> http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/adb-japan-extend-3-m-to-support-earthquake-resilient-schools/feed/ 0 http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/first-private-dzongkha-weekly-launched/ http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/main-news/first-private-dzongkha-weekly-launched/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:57:10 +0000 Editor http://www.bhutannewsservice.com/?p=4561 At a time when the quality of Dzongkha is being questioned and discussed in every possible medium comes an opportune attempt to apprise Bhutanese of their national language.

Beginners can take a plunge into the language, starting with the alphabets illustrated in elementary pictures and interpretations.

Students can refer their Dzongkha textbook contents in a simplest elucidation. Those who need help with essays and application writing can allude to tutorials. Office-goers can stay abreast about events unfolding around them in most comprehensible Dzongkha.

In short, it is Dzongkha in its highest reader-friendly form, or so the first private Dzongkha newspaper, Druk Neytshuel, promises its readers.

As for the first issue launched and distributed free yesterday, the 24-page paper.

Apart from news updates, a well-organised section on driglam namzha, religion, economy, sports, community news and environment maintained a neat presentation on fresh topics.

The highlight was the section titled “Gup Of The Week”, an attempt to bring communities in the limelight by profiling the leaders and exposing problems prevailing in each gewog.

The free issue, which has taken on well with the readers, will come for Nu 10 starting next week.

“Compared with the Dzongkha issues of other private papers, this paper is on a different level all together,” Sangay Tenzin, a monk with the Thimphu rabdey, said. “It appears more serious than the previous ones, who, at times, give us an impression that they’re functioning just so to adhere to government policy, and not out of a genuine i

One of the Dzongkha newspaper editors said the standard of the language and the news quality was impressive for a starter. “They should maintain it,” he said.

A few, however, felt the need to standardise the spellings of names and places and objects, as it read different in different newspapers.

The weekly paper, comprising a team of five reporters and two editors – graduates from the institute of language and cultural studies and former monks – feeds on 4 pages of advertisements in Dzongkha, and also caters to English ads in its inserts.

“We started off two months ago, with an intention to emulate government’s policy of promoting and preserving the national language,” Chungdu Tshering said.

One of the Dzongkha newspaper editors said the standard of the language and the news quality was impressive for a starter. “They should maintain it,” he said.

A few, however, felt the need to standardise the spellings of names and places and objects, as it read different in different newspapers.

The weekly paper, comprising a team of five reporters and two editors – graduates from the institute of language and cultural studies and former monks – feeds on 4 pages of advertisements in Dzongkha, and also caters to English ads in its inserts.

“We started off two months ago, with an intention to emulate government’s policy of promoting and preserving the national language,” Chungdu Tshering said.

Source: Kuensel