Rebels hurl petrol bomb at a shop in New Road

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - Three suspected Maoist rebels today hurled petrol-bombs at a electrical shop in the heart of the capital city, ahead of the Thursday’s nationwide armed shutdown called by NCP(Maoist).

The noon time (2:45 pm) attack caused no injury or substantial damage to the Ganabahal Pipalbot-based Bansal Electricals. But witnesses and neighbours caught one of the "three young rebels" and handed him over to the police.

"Three strangers suddenly chipped in and ordered everyone of us, including our customers, to go out saying `we are taking action against this shop’," said Gyani Adhikary, a staff at the shop selling sophisticated electricity lamps.

"A minute later when everybody was out, one of them shouted `action’ and they hurled two petrol bombs made out of Horlicks bottle at the shop’s exterior," said another staff Narendra Karki.

Subsequently, Karki added, he and others at the neighbourhood chased the rebels along the road leading to Dharahara (Bhimsen tower) shortly afterwards. Only one of them could be caught. Police would not disclose the name and origin of the arrested rebel.

Arun Jalan, owner of the ten-year-old shop, said the rebels had dropped the third explosive, a gelatin, inside the shop into a box containing fan. The explosive damaged nothing but the fan, Jalan added.

He also claimed that he had been receiving telephone calls from some unidentified people demanding donations for the last few weeks.

Maoist activists are said to have involved in massive mobilization of its supporters ahead of the April 6 armed shutdown.

But most of these programmes are far from accomplished in the capital city due to strict police vigilance.

HM opens VSAT installation

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - His Majesty King Birendra today formally threw open the installation linking Radio Nepal with VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) at the Radio Nepal premises amidst a special ceremony.

Her Majesty the Queen was present on the occasion, organised to mark the Golden Jubilee of Radio Nepal. Radio Nepal entered 50th year of transmission today. The state-owned radio station was established in 1951 after the dawn of democracy.

With this link-up, Radio Nepal’s central broadcasting services can be heard all over the country. The technology is said to have linked up the stations at Pokhara, Dharan, Bardibas, Surkhet and Dipayal to the central station. Prior to this, Radio Nepal’s entertainment, news and other programmes were broadcast via three different telephone lines.

At the function, His Majesty the King felicitated artistes Hari Prasad Rimal, Tara Devi, Natikaji, Shiva Shanker, Prakash Man Singh, and technician Krishna Bahadur Khatri with certificates and shawls for their contribution to the country’s first radio station. His Majesty also felicitated the Secretary of the Health Ministry Shree Kanta Regmi with a shield for helping Radio Nepal by raising funds to broadcast health awareness programmes.

Minister for Information and Communication Jayaprakash Gupta said besides entertaining, Radio Nepal now has an additional responsibility to strengthen democracy by awareness messages and information. Minister Gupta also announced the opening of an FM station at Jumla in the mid-hills. He also affixed a cancellation mark on a postal stamp issued to mark the Golden Jubilee of Radio Nepal.

The radio station which has been the favourite radio station of the people is now accessible in all the parts of the nation, said the Executive Director of Radio Nepal Mukunda Prasad Aryal.

Radio Nepal which went on air as "Democracy Radio" with a 250 watt transmitter can now be heard by 80 percent of the country’s over 22 million population for about 15 hours every day.

Talks over Alam stalled

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - A meeting between representatives of the ruling and opposition lawmakers today failed to resolve the deadlock that emerged after the main opposition CPN-UML stalled the parliament and demanded resignation of a junior minister.

Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, Minister for Communication Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta and the Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya today met with CPN-UML’s Khadga Prasad Oli, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Subash Nebwang and Iswor Pokhrel.

The meeting ended without any agreement.

"We will accept nothing less than the resignation. The only compromise we are going to allow is that the state minister voluntarily tender his resignation," Oli told The Kathmandu Post.

The main opposition is demanding that Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammed Aftab Aalam resign over his brother’s alleged involvement in abduction of a CPN-UML worker in Rautahat.

The opposition claim that the state minister’s brother Mahatab Aalam abducted Jayaprakash Kaushal, a Rautahat District Development Committee member, and physically abused him. Kaushal was rescued by police later in the evening.

The alleged kidnapping came a day after bomb explosion and fire in the day at State Minister’s house in Rajpur Faradahawa, Rautahat on March 30. Aalam’s residence was bombed, fired and looted by an armed group.

CPN-UML is claiming that the kidnapping was a revenge for the robbery at Aalam’s house and alleged the state minister for ordering the kidnapping.

The area where the incident happened borders neighbouring India and is notorious for armed robbery by dacoits.

DPM Poudel said that the talks were quite fruitful and urged the opposition to consider the government’s situation.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat has called an all-party meeting on Monday morning in a desperate bid to resolve the issue.

On Friday, CPN-UML lawmakers had gheraoed the Speaker, stalling the House proceedings.

Meanwhile reports from Rautahat say that CPN-UML supporters blocked the Mahendra Highway at Chandranigahapur protesting the incident.

Road repair spells trouble

By a Post Reporter

AMARGARI, Dadeldhura, April 2 - People of Baitadi, Bajhang and Darchula are having tough time these days due to routine traffic blockage due to ongoing road maintenance operations on Dhagari-Dadeldhura-Baitadi Highway.

The highway is routinely blocked every Wednesday to Friday for the road black-topping. The black topping is a part of the Third Road Reform Project with the financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In those three days the road is open only upto Bagbazar of Dadeldhura and passengers going beyond, especially people from Baitadi, Bajhang and Darchula, are facing trouble.

Book reveals underlying rot

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - A huge chunk of the annual income of Guthi Sansthan (land trust body) is spent on administrative expenses rather than on the conservation of cultural heritages.

This is stated in a book Guthi Sansthan Bibaran (Report on the Guthi corporation) made public at an interaction programme organised by National Concern Society, an NGO. The book states that the annual income is far less than its administrative expenses. The administrative expenditures of the guthis during 1997 exceeded the income. The corporation’s income in 1997 was put at Rs 15.17 million, while the expenses were 124.93 percent of it.

Only a small chunk of the income goes for the conservation the cultural heritages. While only 25.12 percent of the revolving fund goes towards conservation.

Shyam Raj Dhungel, chief administrator at Guthi Sansthan, said the guthis owe over Rs 113 million to the government offices. "Despite our continued calls to the concerned ministries for the payment, they have failed to do so," he said.

Advocate Balram Shrestha said the Guthi Sansthan Act 1976 (2033 BS) being "too traditional" has failed to confer any rights to the guthiyars (guthi-owners).

According to Shrestha, guthis started selling off their land to meet expenses after the government stopped allocating budget. The government stopped allotting budget to the guthis after 1995.

Guthiyars condemned the corporation of not penalising those guilty of land encroachment and providing minimal amount of money to hold various jatras (cultural festivities). "There is no difference between the amount provided to us 100 years ago and now," said Ganesh Ram Lakchhi, Chairperson of Madhyapur Art Council. "The corporation still gives us three rupees to buy a he-goat and two rupees for a duck."

The guthiyars among others demanded that an independent monitoring institution that would look into the transactions of the guthis be formed. There are 2082 guthis under the Guthi Sansthan, which was established in 1964.

Early morning robbery in Rupandehi

By a Post Reporter

BHAIRAHAWA, April 2 - One person was killed and two others critically injured in an early morning attack on Sunday by masked raiders.

According to the local police, the 6-8 assailants armed with axes and heavy sticks, entered the premises of 41 years old Rambrikshya Harijan, resident of Semarpani in Rupandehi’s Bagaha village around 3.15am and in the ensuing scuffle killed Subash Harijan, the 18-year old son of Rambrikshya.

Also wounded in the attack was Rambrikshya’s neighbour, Pancham Harijan who was caught in the raid. Subash Harijan died on the way to Gorakhpur in India where he had been taken for treatment.

The thieves made off with Rs.6,000 in cash and pieces of jewellery from both houses.

To date, the assailants remain at large.

Koreans here to scale Manaslu

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - In 1991, Korean alpinist Kim Hong-Bin lost all his fingers to frost bite and almost got killed at Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Seven years later, he returned back to the mountain and conquered it.

Now he is on a mission to scale all the tallest mountains in all seven continents. So far he has climbed Mt. Elbrus in Europe, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mt. Aconcagua in South America and Mt. McKinley in North America. This autumn he is targeting the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest.

But before attempting on Everest, Kim and six Korean mountaineers will try to climb Mt. Manaslu this spring. The team left Kathmandu for the mountain this weekend.

"I can handle most things on my own like zipping my jacket or eating ... it is just minor things like tying a knot I need to take other’s help," Kim told The Kathmandu Post before heading to the mountain.

Losing his figures however did not stop Kim from challenging the snow after the accident. Kim turned to downhill skiing where one does not need to rely on the poles but slide down at top speed.

During the National Winter Games in Korea in 1995, Kim won the third prize. "I hope I will qualify for the Winter Olympic that is scheduled to be held at Salt Lake City in the United States as a member of the Korean Olympic team," Kim said.

The 36-year-old alpinist from Kwangju, Korea, used to be a cross country skier and byathalon athlete until he lost his fingers in the accident that made it impossible to hold the bow to shoot the arrow and ski poles to push across the snowy terrain.

During the 1991 expedition to the 6,194 meters high McKinley in Alaska, when Kim was climbing solo, high altitude sickness struck him at 5,700 meters point.

Alone, sick and unconscious in his tent, it was 12 hours before rescuers found him and brought him down from the mountain.

"All I remember is losing consciousness, feeling sleepy and trying to keep my numb hands warm," said Kim, who despite being rescued lost all his fingers to frost bite.

He said it was lack of nutritious food that made him fall sick. He said he ran out of Korean food during his last few days before the accident and was totally dependent on western food that he did not like too much.

The team to Manaslu has not hired any Sherpa guides and will attempt to do the trip on their own. Kim however will have plenty of experienced hands to help him in this climb.

One of the climber Lee Dong Ho has already climbed Manaslu once before and is making a second climb this year while another companion Han Wang Yong has climbed eight peaks that are over 8,000 meters tall including Mt. Everest, Annapurna, Lhotse, Dhaulagiri and Cho-Oyu.

Toll tax Bill introduced in Parliament

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, April 2 - If things go as planned, the government will soon be relieved of shedding the costly cost of repairing roads across the nation.

A Bill brought to implement a new system that would allow the government to collect road toll and use the money for repairing roads has been registered at the parliament secretariat by the government and soon expects to get it rolling for discussion.

The Road Board Bill 2000 once endorsed by both Houses of parliament and given the Royal Assent will allow the government to collect toll on all major highways in the country.

"The main objective of bringing this Bill and implementing the program is to collect funds for repairing the roads which takes a chunk out of the development budget," said Hiranya Lal Regmi, Secretary at the Ministry of Works and Transport.

According to the ministry, at present the annual cost of repairing roads is estimated to be Rs. 1.3 billion. However, the government has been able to allocate only Rs. 440 million for repair works.

"The budget allocated for road repair and maintainance is not enough to meet the demand," Minister for Works and Transport Khum Bahadur Khadka said in his remarks. "International trends show that for every rupee spent on toll towards repairing the roads, they save upto Rs. 3 on saving... well maintained roads save bundle on repairing cost of vehicles and slow down depreciation of these vehicles."

Once the Bill is enforced, the government would save upto Rs. 1 billion in the first year alone and by the next ten years, the toll collected would be enough for road repair and the government will not have to allocate any money towards the cost of repairing the road network.

The government has so far invested Rs. 60 billion in the road network, according to the government data.

Beside directly collecting toll from motorists on highways, the Bill proposes that direct and indirect taxes be collected on use of all the road network, on the fuel consumed by the vehicles plying on these roads, additional fines and charges levied on motorists and permit for foreign registered vehicles on excursion of Nepal will also be collected for the same purpose.

The Board members would include officials from Ministries of Finance, Works and Transport and Local Development, representatives from National Planning Commission, Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Engineers’ Association, Nepal Association of Travel Agents, Transport Entrepreneurs, Consumer’s forums, farmers and experienced transporters. The Chairperson would be elected from among the members.

"An independent trust will be created to collect the toll and taxes which would involve private sector also," Minister Khadka said. "This would supplement the Road Repair Tax Act of 1995."

The Board will be entrusted with the job of allocating the funds for road repair, planning and implementing road repair programs annually and report back to the government about the progress.

The government is yet to determine on how and on what basis the toll and taxes will be collected. Secretary Regmi said the details will be worked out on the regulations that will be drafted once the Bill is endorsed.

"The toll and taxes will be announced during the government’s annual budget estimate and highway toll would be based on per kilometre basis," Regmi said.

At present the government collects toll only at two places in the country. The point at Mugling collects toll for vehicles entering the capital while the one at Malekhu collects tolls on vehicles heading out of Kathmandu. The money collected on these two points total only about Rs. 20 million annually.

For now the toll will be charged on only paved roads that make up only about 5,000 kilometres of the total 13,709 kilometres of road in the country.

RPP pessimistic over government's show

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - Leaders of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) today expressed pessimism over the government’s present arrangements to foil the "armed shutdown" called by the underground Maoists on April 6.

Addressing a party function, RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa accused the government of making mistake by transferring over the powers of Chief District Officers to the police.

"This new arrangement will not help control the insurgency," Thapa told party workers.

On Friday, the government decided to confer the powers of Chief District Officers to the police force to tackle the "armed shutdown" called by the Maoists. The provision grants the police the authority to shoot if necessary, declare an area as "riot area" and impose curfew.

Referring to the hotline setup by the Home Ministry on Thursday, Thapa said the "setting up of hotlines alone would not justify the claim to ensure law and order."

Thapa also said that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala can never live upto his claims of curbing corruption unless he gets rid of the corrupt people within the party.

"There are some people within the Nepali Congress who have been the root cause of the corruption that goes on in the country and the Prime Minister has to get rid those people," said Thapa. He, however, failed to elaborate on who "those people" were.

"He (Koirala) has not been able to deliver anything innovative," said Thapa. "That makes him no different from the former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai."

General Secretary of the party Pashupati Shumsher Rana, referring to the Nepal-India high level official talks on resuming Indian Airlines (IA) flights to Kathmandu that ended in deadlock yesterday, said; "Foreign policy of the country itself would be questioned if we allow people from another country to supervise our security arrangements."

"Police morale is low and the government has not been able to do anything concrete to boost up their (police) morale. The state is in retreat," said Rana.

He said the government’s ability to ensure security will be tested during the "armed shutdown".

Spokesman of the party Kamal Thapa said the Prime Minister’s pledge that the government will work for restoration of peace and security, improved administration and corruption control would not turn into reality. "Nepali Congress does not have the vision to resolve Maoist crisis, curb corruption and reform administration."

Ultras rob NGO

By a Post Reporter

HETAUDA, April 2 - Maoist insurgents looted property worth thousands of rupees from two different places in Makwanpur on Saturday, according to police.

Late yesterday, some 50 masked and armed insurgents entered a house belonging to Community Development Health Office, a non-governmental organisation at Fafarbari Village Development Committee and absconded with property worth thousands. The NGO has filed a case at the District Police Office, Hetuada claiming loss worth Rs 470 thousands in the incident.

"Maoists looted a television, a computer, a deck, a couple of camera, three calculators and cash Rs 25 thousands besides other petty things," said Superintendent of Police at the DPO Narendra Kumar Khaling. "They also broke a furniture and Landcruiser jeep belonging the NGO."

According to eye-witnesses, they were shouting pro-Maoist slogans while they went out of the building.

Similarly, some 60 unidentified hoodlums (suspected Maoists) entered the house of Maila Thing at Sarikhet VDC-2 and robbed Indian Rs 200 thousands, seven tolas of gold. "They also torched marijuana and other valuable documents and land ownership certificates," said Police Inspector at DPO Govinda Khadka.

According to the DPO, though the police were deployed to nab the the robbers, they are still at large.

Work on Mahakal Chaur garden gets underway

By Suman Subba

KATHMANDU, April 2 - On a day when the dust and grit swirled around Mahakal Chaur, near Bouddhanath, and the temperature climbed under the hot sun, the Mayor of Kathmandu, Israeli embassy staff and school children set out to clear a four and a half ropani area of drying grass and vegetation.

With the heat tearing through sun hats and sunglasses, Einath Granov, wife of the Israeli Charge d’Affaires, Shlomo Granov, said, while her daughter looked up from under her cap, "This is a moment to be cherished, for it is rather special. We are turning this barren acre of land into something that will be life giving."

In collaboration with the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Israeli embassy, volunteers and children from Nepal Adarshya, Gyanodaya and Ratna Rajya schools were clearing the four and a half ropani site in order to build a garden for the local children and the elderly.

"This is going to be a garden of peace, so its name is Shalom which means peace in Jewish," said Einath Granov. "Before my husband and I joined the ministry, we were agriculturalists back in Israel. This has made us, on a personal level, aware of the need for such things as parks and corners of greenery," she added.

Fourty years ago, on 1 June 1960, Israel set up its embassy in Kathmandu and ever since the officials have been working steadily to forge greater links between Nepal and Israel, as well as dealing with problems of 10,000 yearly Israeli tourists.

Only recently three Israeli tourists caught in a snow storm in Muktinath were rescued by the embassy. Now back in Kathmandu, the three were there helping with the cleaning of the Shalom, or Garden of Peace which was effected to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between Nepal and Israel.

"This garden is going to be wooded off to one side and swings and slides are going to be installed for the children and benches for the elderly on which they can sit," said the Charge d’Affaire’s wife. "Since I have a young daughter, I personally know how important it is to have a place where children can play."

The planting of 100 trees and hedges is slated for May once the external improvements and repair to the site are completed.

As the local women sweepers were asked to move away and scatter the dry dust in another corner of the land, the Mayor of Kathmandu, Keshav Sthapit said, "Already eight other similar parks have been developed with the help of other embassies."

Standing on one of the several uneven and parched patches of ground which littered the site he continued, "In this context, working as partners, we granted the land to the Israeli embassy with the agreement that they would fund the project and once complete, the KMC, with the help of local consumer groups, will maintain the garden.

"It seems that everyone connected with the project in whatever way was excited to help. Of course there’s still a long way to go. We estimate that it will be finished by 7th May," said Shlomo Granov, after the signing of the memorandum between the KMC and the embassy, standing less than a stone’s throw away from the broken barbed wire fence still purposelessly enclosing the site.

Ethnic groups air social stigma

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 2 - Majority of the ethnic communities (65 percent) feel that caste-based discriminations still exists immensely in Nepal, according to an opinion poll conducted by Media Services International (MSI), a research institute.

According to a press release issued today by MSI, 56 percent of the 65 percent referred to social ceremonies (wedding and funeral rituals), 20 percent to social and community activities, 13 percent to justice dispensation, 4 percent in career to setback despite notable achievements, and 8 percent to problems like untouchability.

Twenty-nine percent of the respondents said they were not aware of any such discriminations and 6 percent preferred not to express any opinion on the issue.

While 67 percent of the respondents said the level of cast-based discrimination had decreased after the restoration of democracy, two percent said the level had increased.

When asked to specify where they have been denied economic opportunities, 43 percent said employment opportunities, 21 percent said in facilities given to the landless, 17 percent said in obtaining loans from financial institutions, 13 percent said in special programmes meant for the ethnic group and 5 percent said on other areas.

To a question as to what language would they prefer their children to be educated in, 42 percent preferred Nepali, 29 percent English and 28 percent went for their own language.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said the government had not done enough to preserve and develop the culture, their customs and languages whereas 28 percent thought the government had done "something" to this matter.

Fourty-one percent of the respondents said improvements could be made in the special programmes designed for the preservation of tradition of the nationalities.

The research was conducted in a sample size of 1068 people from -- Yolmo, Thakali, Rai, Limbu, Gurung, Chepang, Magar, Lepcha, Jyapu, Tharu, Dhimal, Satar, Jhangad and Danuwar groups. The districts were -- Sindhupalchowk, Kaski, Bhojpur, Lamjunyg, Paanchthar, Chitwan, Makwanpur, Ilam, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Palpa, Dang, Jhapa, and Sunsari.