House stalled again

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - The House proceedings were stalled once again today due to the standoff between the ruling Nepali Congress and the main opposition CPN-UML over the resignation of a State Minister.

UML is seeking resignation of Minister for State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammed Aftab Aalam over his brother’s alleged involvement in abduction of an UML activist in Rautahat.

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

The alleged kidnapping came a day after bomb explosion at the State Minister’s house at Rajpur Faradawa in Rautahat. UML claims that Alam abducted Kaushal as a revenge for the robbery in his house.

Deputy Speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav, who chaired today’s session had to call off today’s proceedings after 25 minutes after the opposition gheraoed the rostrum shouting slogans.

The Upper House was stalled in the same fashion after the opposition shouted slogans against Aalam immediately after the Chairperson Mohammed Mohsin ruled for the regular proceedings. Mohsin adjourned the House till Wednesday.

State Minister Aalam has been vehemently opposing the allegations. "All the allegations against me are baseless. If UML had any morality it would have also talked about my torched house," said Aalam.

Meanwhile, Kaushal who came to Kathmandu after being released by the abductors claims that 16 people including the State Minister’s brother Mohatab were involved in his kidnap. He also said a vehicle belonging to the State Minister and the District Forest Office were used in the abduction.

"They then took me to the State Minister. He ordered them to thrash me and send me across the border to India that night," Kaushal said. "I was then sneaked to Sheikh Jarnail’s ( State Minster’s uncle) house where I was tied with a rope and thrashed." Kaushal showed the rope marks on both his hands.

"After that they then interrogated me about the fire at the state minister’s house and the murder of Shambhu Patel (State Minster’s personal assistant) ," Kaushal said. "When I said that I had no clue, they beat me again. After a while State Minister appeared and ordered to wrap me in a sack so that beatings could not be marked."

Patel was murdered by unidentified gunmen at his residence two months back.

State Minister Aalam states Patel’s well-wishers must have abducted Kaushal after the police failed to arrest Kaushal whom they claim was involved in the murder. "It is natural that Patel’s relatives were agitated after the police failed to take action against Kaushal," said the state Minister.

Kaushal, however, said the State Minister abducted him because he was the coordinator of the three-member probe committee formed by the District Development Committee to look into the Aalam’s alleged involvement in the abuse of budget allocated for the district. The probe committee had prepared a report against Aalam.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML has withdrawn the chakka jam it called seeking Aalam’s ouster since the past four days. The next phase of chakka jam is slated for April 8.

Two cops injured in rebel ambush

By a Post Reporter

SURKHET, April 3 - Two policemen were seriously injured in a police-Maoist encounter today in Maintada VDC-5, 37 km east of the district headquarters here, police said.

The encounter began after a team of 12 policemen, all from the Striking Force at Mehelkuna Jyakreghari, escaped an ambush placed by the Maoists. Though the police has not confirmed any casualties on the Maoist side, they said three Maoists were killed in the encounter.

Police have taken one Dhan Singh Regmi into custody while police constable Ram Kumar Pun and Assistant Sub-Inspector Bishnu Shrestha -- the injured -- have been taken to Nepalgunj for medical treatment.

Our Nepalgunj-based correspondent adds the situation of Pun is critical whereas Shrestha’s condition is described as out of danger. Both are receiving medical attention at Bheri Zonal Hospital.

PAC calls for financial updates

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - The meeting of Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today decided to send a directive to the Finance Ministry asking them to send the financial updates and audit report of the state-owned industries and the corporations that are on the list to be privatised.

The government has kept 31 industries and corporations on the list to be privatised. Himal Cement, a few shares of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Salt Trading Limited, Nepal Tea Development Corporation and Butwal Power Company are to be privatised in the first phase.

Speaking on why the committee took the decision, member of PAC Hridayesh Tripathi told reporters after the meeting that the financial status of such corporations have to be made clear before they are privatised.

Radio Nepal official shunted out for skit

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - Mukund Prasad Acharya, Executive Director of Radio Nepal, the state-owned radio station that completed its 50 years yesterday, was called back to the Ministry of Information and Communications here today for staging a skit that criticised parliamentarians at a special programme yesterday.

Mahesh Adhikari, the Deputy Director of Radio Nepal has been appointed the acting Executive Director.

According to the Minister for Information and Communications Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta, Acharya was recalled for allowing his employees to stage a programme that "criticised lawmakers and the entire parliament".

A skit with political satire was performed before Their Majesties the King and the Queen at a special programme organised to mark the golden jubilee of Radio Nepal yesterday. The MPs were described as germs who led to the infection in the throat of the protagonist. The doctor who checks the protagonist says the infection was caused by 205 germs (hinting at MPs of the House of Representatives) that had to be removed through operation.

However, the message of the skit was that anyone who dares to destroy democracy will himself be destroyed.

Gupta said former NTV General Manager Tapa Nath Shukla has been assigned to investigate the incident. "The report will be prepared in three days after which we’ll take action against all those who were involved in presenting the skit," said Gupta.

Gupta also added that the person who looked after the entertainment part of the programme will be investigated. He said the person who wrote the skit will be suspended. Dipak Giri who wrote, directed and performed as the protagonist in the skit is an employee on contract.

Gupta said the Board should have checked what was going on and should not have allowed it to be performed.

Unconfirmed report states the reason behind Acharya’s transfer was the letter he wrote to Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of the main opposition CPN-UML. According to sources, Acharya wrote the letter to Nepal requesting him to allow them to use the office vehicles yesterday -- Sunday, the official public holiday -- as the corporation was celebrating its golden jubilee. UML has been seizing any vehicle that commutes on a public holiday and handing over to the traffic police.

Nepal is said to have directed his cadres not to stop Radio Nepal’s vehicles yesterday. The source said the government was furious at Acharya for asking permission from the opposition.

DECONT hands memo on labour

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT) handed over a memorandum to State Minister for Labour Surendra Hamal today.

The 21-point memorandum states that not much has been done for the upliftment of the labourers ever since the restoration of democracy and that the labourers are still deprived of various legal rights.

Their major demands include representation of labourers at the managerial level, immediate rise in minimal wage of labourers, enforcement of accident insurance for all labourers, implementation of all labour laws, amendment of various legislations for the welfare of the labourers and bring into action the provisions of National Welfare Fund, among others.

Nepal’s progress not highlighted

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - US-educated professionals today highlighted the predicament of a growing number of Nepali students who have chosen to stay back in the United States after completing their studies.

But all the three panelists at the discussion entitled "To Go or Not" (whether to return home) stressed that Nepal, as a young democracy, did offer ample opportunities to those who were willing to take initiatives now.

A follow-up to a similar discussion organized in January in the American city of Boston, today’s panel was organized by Fulbright Alumni Association of Nepal (FAAN) and United States Education Foundation-Nepal (USEF-N)

Kanak Mani Dixit, Editor of Himal magazine, said Nepal had made some impressive achievements in recent years but the positive features are not being highlighted, mainly due to the failure of the academia. He said the trend of brain drain was "haemorrhaging" Nepal.

Bikash Pandey, a hydropower engineer, said the private sector had come a long way in the last 10 years of democracy. Education, media, Internet, private airlines and hydropower companies have made tremendous progress. "People are guilty of looking at the wrong places to see the changes," he said, pointing out that people were obsessed with looking at the failed political leaders. "Nepal still offers opportunities to establish institutions," he said, adding this was not possible in the United States.

"You will encounter frustration the moment you land at (Kathmandu) airport," said Ajaya Ghimire, an MIT alumni, who now runs a successful finance company here. "You want to take the first flight back (to US)."

With personal initiative and deft handling of human relations, he said, one can achieve quite a lot in Nepal too. "The greatest thing I have brought from the US is the willingness to use my own mind."

Cables worth Rs 200,000 stolen

HETAUDA, April 3 (PR) - Electric cables worth Rs 200,000 belonging to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) were stolen early yesterday from a village in Makwanpur.

According to eyewitnesses, a government vehicle (a blue crane) with registration number 3069 fled with the five rolls of wire at about 3:00 a.m. Sunday from Lothar Bazaar of Manahari Village Development Committee-1. Lothar lies on Hetauda-Chitwan Section of the East-West Highway, some 38 km west to Hetauda. The cables were dropped at Lothar a month ago for electrification of nearby Manahari Bazaar, the NEA Chief at Hetauda, Baidhya Nath Sharma told The Kathmandu Post.

Chief Sharma, however, claimed that there is no government-owned crane with such a registration number.

Meanwhile, Manahari VDC Office has warned the NEA, District Administration Office and District Development Committee of agitation if the NEA fails to electrify the VDC by April 9.

UML sit-in at RNAC head office

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - Some 300 demonstrators of the main opposition CPN-UML organized an hour long sit-in here at the Royal Nepal Airlines’ (RNAC) head office in New Road today to protest against the alleged corruption in the corporation.

The demonstrators stopped employees from entering the main building at 9 am and asked those inside to come out, disrupting normal work, officials said. The demonstrators later held a protest rally that ended in a gathering at Bhadrakali.

"RNAC is well known for various scandals of corruption linked with `aviation mafias’. The sit-in is only a symbolic protest against corruption in the corporation," said CPN-UML central committee member and coordinator of the protest programme KP Sharma Oli while addressing the gathering. "If the government is not serious about putting a lid on corruption in the corporation, then CPN-UML will soon take to punishing the guilty itself."

He didn’t elaborate what the nature of punishment would be.

CPN-UML had also organized a sit-in recently at various government offices including the land revenue, customs and the survey department. It has also launched a movement to nab government vehicles plying the streets during public holidays. Today’s protest programme is part of CPN-UML’s month-long anti-government movement for allegedly failing to control corruption, price-hike and lack of security within the country.

LDCs require Int'l support to progress

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 3 - For Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of the world, poverty is the biggest challenge, which cannot be solved by its governments alone, in a short period of time. "Such countries need assistance and support from the international community to come out of their problems," said Minister for Industry and Commerce Ram Krishna Tamrakar.

Minister Tamrakar was addressing UNCTAD Regional Expert Meeting for LDCs in Asia and the Pacific today, jointly organized by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), National Planning Commission and UNDP (United Nations Development Program).

On the occasion he said debt problem was a serious obstacle in the pursuit of economic and social development of LDCs (Least Developed

Countries). "LDCs are greatly affected by high debt servicing liability. The initiative taken by G7 countries in Cologne should be implemented for the total debt relief of LDCs," he added.

Stressing on the quota-free-access to the market of developed countries, Minister Tamrakar said the land-locked poor countries like Nepal were in a very disadvantaged position with very high transport costs and poor trade facilitation environment, which is eroding their competitive edge and pushing them to further marginalization.

In order to develop supply capacity of LDCs, he said the international community should assist in developing institutional capacity, such as trade fair center, export promotion zone, inland container depots (ICD) etc. The Minister also demanded a separate fund to address all such problems of least developed countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Henning Karcher, Resident Representative of UNDP in Kathmandu said that the condition of LDCs would be improved significantly with the enhanced regional and subregional cooperation in trade.

"One of the greatest handicaps for LDCs lies in the fact that their domestic markets are extremely small. If LDCs are to attract foreign direct investment, opening possibilities for export to larger market in the region is absolutely indispensable.

"No significant foreign investor will establish a plant to produce only for the tiny domestic market of a host LDC," he added.

Suggesting the LDCs, Dr Karcher said, rather than competing on the basis of cheapnes of labor, countries must emphasize their uniqueness in a world in which tourists are getting increasingly tired of finding Mc Donalds and Coca Cola at every destination. "Should the home of the highest mountain earth, the home of the high Himalayas, a country with an enormous cultural heritage and the birth place of Lord Buddha not be in a position to attract more tourists than Singapore?" he questioned. Singapore attracts 9 million tourists every year while Nepal gets only 500 thousands.

Saying ODA (Official Development Assistance) resources were extremely scarce these days and donors focussed more on those countries that show greatest efficiency and effectiveness in the use of aid, Karcher suggested that in the spirit of exchanging ideas and information, LDCs may wish to focus on aid effectiveness under the broad theme of good governance.

On the occasion, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Special Coordinator for Least Developed, Land-locked and Island Developing countries, UNCTAD and Executive Secretary of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries also addressed the function.

Earlier, welcoming the guests, Dr Shankar Sharma, Member of National Planning Commission said that LDCs cannot improve their conditions without support from the developed countries. Sharma also highlighted that the conference was one of the three meetings being organized as part of the preparatory process for the Third United Nations Conference on LDCs in Brussels. Speaking on the occasion Chairman of National Planning Commission Prithvi Raj Ligal said commitment on international level is more on paper than in implementation. He called upon all the concerned governments and international organizations to really assist LDCs. The inaugural session of the three-day meeting was also addressed by Mario Ferrucci, Deputy Head of Unit, External Relations, European Commission Headquarters, Brussels and M Aynul Hasan, Chief, LDCs Section, Development Research and Policy Analysis Division, Representative of ESCAP.

ML student wing for sealing border

KATHMANDU, April 3 (PR) - The pro-ML All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) today demanded that the border between Nepal and India be sealed.

ANNFSU has also urged the government to take a "stronger stand" on the issue of border encroachment. The demands have come from a recently concluded two-day national conference on Nepali Nationality in the 21st Century. The student body has also called policymakers to give high priority to micro hydro-power and that the government persue a multi-purpose water policy. The organisation plans to hold its 15th National Conference April 27-30 in Chitwan.