SPEECH: Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy of Nepal in Qatar Mani Ratna Sharma speaking at the programme. Right:  NRNA-ICC President Shesh Ghale speaking at the event.

By Usha Wagle Gautam


The sixth convention of Non-Resident Nepalese Association-National Coordination Council (NRNA-NCC) Qatar kicked off at Crowne Plaza Hotel over the weekend.
The convention was chaired by NRNA-NCC President Maksud Alam. Shesh Ghale, the president of National Coordination Council-International Coordination Committee (NRNA-ICC), was the chief guest.
Mani Ratna Sharma, Charge d’ Affaires at Nepalese Embassy, Nitesh Sapkota, second secretary at the embassy, and NRNA leaders from national and international committees including Kumar Panta (general secretary of NRNA-ICC from Germany), Ranju Thapa Wagle (NRNA-ICC secretary from Australia) attended. In all, more than 500 Nepalese attended the programme.
Shesh Ghale, the chief guest, urged all NRNA-NCC members to work for their country. “One of the major objectives of NRNA is to prevent Nepalese minors from going abroad for employment and [instead enabling them] to complete their schooling at home,” Ghale said. He said NRNA has been successful in setting up the Foreign Employment Information Center with the co-operation and co-ordination of Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment Board in Nepal. He reiterated that NRNA aims to rebuild 1,000 houses of poor families that were destroyed in the April 25 earthquake.
Charge d’ Affaires Mani Ratna Sharma appreciated NRNA-NCC’s co-ordination in the embassy’s recent venture of replacing handwritten passports of Qatar-based workers into Machine Readable Passports.
DB Chhetri, Oman NCC president, and JP Sapkota, NRNA-ICC member from Bahrain, declared their candidacy for NRN Gulf co-ordinator for the years 2015-17. Ratan Jha, former general secretary of NRNA-ICC from America, also declared his candidacy for NRNA-ICC President for 2015-17.  
Shiva Khadka, president of Gulmi Welfare Society; Shani Kumar Oli, Nepalese People Progressive Forum; and Ganesh Parsad Banjade, president of Federation of Nepalese Journalist (FNJ) Qatar; aired their support for selecting the next NCC Qatar’s working committee through mutual agreement and not an election.
Bimal Subedi of Nepalese People Co-ordination Committee; Ram Hari Gaire of Nepal Overseas Forum; and Hussein Khan of Terai Madhesh Democratic Party-Qatar (TMDP); said they supported elections.
Guru Narayan Ranabhat, the co-ordinator for the upcoming election, said the preparations have already been made.
Rekha Rai, president of Nepalese Women Association-Qatar, complained about the fewer seats provisioned for females in the working committee of NRNA-NCC. She also requested NRNA-ICC president Shesh Ghale to open up a technical school for women in Nepal.
The NRNA-NCC also released a book titled Doha Darpan Vol-6 on the occasion. The book details the work and activities of the current working committee during its tenure. A book on Qatar’s immigration and residency law, translated from Mohammed Ramjan Ali Miya from Arabic to Nepalese, was also released.
More than 80 Nepalese community leaders were honoured in the session for their relief efforts in the aftermath of Nepal’s earthquake.
The election for the new working committee for 2015-17 will be held on Friday. Candidate Prabin Gurung has no competitors for the post of second vice-president, as Shree Dorna Basnet and Mohammed Umer Alam have withdrawn their candidacies. There are 2,808 registered members of NRNA-NCC in Qatar.