Nepal Rastra Bank issues Rs 100 bank notes with map of Nepal comprising disputed areas
Kathmandu (PTI): Nepal's central bank on Thursday issued new Rs 100 denomination bank notes that have a revised map of the country, including the controversial Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura territories, termed as “artificial enlargement” by India.
The new note from the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) bears the signature of previous Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. The date of issuance of the bank note is mentioned as 2081 BS, which denotes the previous year, 2024.
During the Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli-led government, Nepal had updated the map, comprising Kalapani, Lipulek and Limpiyadhura territories, through a Parliament endorsement in May 2020.
Clarifying the matter regarding the updated version of map, an NRB spokesperson said that the map is already there in the old Rs 100 bank note and it has been revised as per the government's decision.
Among various denominations of bank notes such as Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 500, and Rs 1,000, only the bank note with Rs 100 denomination bears the map of Nepal, others do not, he clarified.
India maintains that Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belong to it.
India had in 2020 reacted sharply, calling Nepal's revised map a “unilateral act” and cautioned Kathmandu that such “artificial enlargement” of territorial claims will not be acceptable to it.
Nepal's new Rs 100 bank note has Mt Everest on its left side while there is a water mark of Rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, on the right.
There is a faint green colour map of Nepal printed in the background at the centre of the bank note. The Ashok Pillar is also printed near the map with the text “Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha.”
On the back side of the bank note, there is a picture of one horned rhino. The bank note also has a security thread and an embossed black dot, which helps blind people to recognize it.
Nepal shares a border of over 1850 km with five Indian states - Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
