NSC to be activated, says PM

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 7 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said the National Security Council that has remained inactive will be made active to resolve the Maoist and Kalapani issues.

"Though the constitution has made provision for the council, it has so far remained inactive ... this will now be turned active to resolve issues like the Maoist insurgency and the Kalapani issue," the prime minister said.

Koirala, who has remained the prime minister during most of the post-democracy years, was addressing an interaction programme on "Ten Years Since the Restoration of Democracy," today.

"There has been much progress in the sectors of education, communication, health and water supply during the past ten years than in the entire 30 years of Panchayat," Koirala claimed.

"We have spent and concentrated more on building our party than for development of the country," he admitted. "There should be a national consensus on every issue even on law and order within political parties."

Speaking at the same occasion, leaders of other major political parties said not much has been done by Nepali Congress (NC) governments ever since the restoration of democracy.

"The entire problem lies in the working procedure of NC. There is even rampant corruption in the various government programmes...they only feed the NC workers," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of CPN-UML. "We cannot dream of a healthy government if this goes on."

He urged the government to take "democratic practices to the grassroots level rather leave it for the elite class only."

President of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Surya Bahadur Thapa accused the successive Nepali Congress (NC) governments of failing to provide acceptable development policy. "We cannot place our trust on NC when it comes seeking national consensus from other political parties...their internal conflicts have changed history."

General Secretary of CPN-ML Bamdev Gautam accused NC for failing to fulfil the basic needs of the people ever since the restoration of democracy. "The successive governments of NC have failed to give anything useful to the society," he said.

Also speaking at the programme, Speaker Tara Nath Ranabhat accused political parties of sheltering corrupt cadres and not initiating any checking mechanism to monitor them. "Only the changing of governments since the restoration of democracy is not an achievement...it is in fact drawing us backwards," he said.

ADB proposes reform plan draft

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 7 - Asian Development Bank (ADB) today made public the bank funded draft on the Action Plan for Civil Service Reform that calls the government to reorganise ministries, strengthening of constitutional bodies and legislative reform to improve accountability of civil service.

The action plan has suggested the government to merge some of the Ministries to reduce the size of the cabinet. The action plan has suggested merging Ministries of Agriculture and Land Reforms, Ministries of Education and Youth, Sports and Culture. It has suggested that the government split Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and merge them with Ministries of Culture, and Ministry of Transport, Information and Communications respectively.

Besides, the action plan has also proposed merging Ministries of Housing and Physical Planning with Works and name it Ministry of Infrastructure Development. It has also proposed developing Ministry of Water Resources to Ministry of Water Resources and Energy. Among other, the plan proposes transferring Population to the Ministry of Health and merging Ministries of Environment and Soil Conservation.

Besides, Ministry of Women and Social Development is proposed to merge with ministry of Labour and Ministries of Commerce while Industries and Supplies are proposed to be merged.

The action plan proposes dissolving altogether two ministries --Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of General Administration.

The recommendations come at a time when Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is stressing on cutting down the number of ministries from present 26 to 19 and implementing the recommendations made by Administrative Reforms Committee - 1992.

"The civil service cannot fulfil its mandate because of limited staff, limited budget and lack of specialized training," said Vokes.

According to the bank, it has proposed to begin the implementation of the first phase of its 5-year reform programme in the year 2000 itself.

The Action Plan presented by Janet Tay Consultants Pte Ltd. at the Workshop on Formulation of Action Plan for Civil Service Reform organised by ADB has also recommended for the establishment of anti-corruption prosecution team in the Attorney General’s Office and establishment of Anti-Corruption Court in the Supreme Court.

It has also recommended for creation of undercover investigators for Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and transfer of Department of Investigation of Corruption under the Home Ministry to CIAA.

The action plan has further suggested for the improvement of the quality of civil service managers, increase accountability for performance and encourage meritocracy in human resource management practices.

"There is a need among civil servants for a change in attitude towards corruption, meritocracy, work and service to the public and the country," said Janet Tay, of Janet Tay Consultant while presenting the Action Plan.

The plan has further suggested that the pay of civil servants be related to the value of job rather than arbitrary factors.

In its study on what makes the bureaucracy inefficient majority of the 857 respondents blamed poor pay. The other factors were -- corruption at high level, nepotism and favouritism, political interference, bias in promotion practices, quick leadership changes, poor motivation and lack of clear-cut policies listed on the top. Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said the government realises compensation and work facilities provided to the civil servants is low.

"The government should review its priorities, policies and strategies so as to reshape the Civil Service Act Rules and Regulations," said Poudel. "Our bureaucracy at present badly needs enthusiasm and commitment to serving the people and accelerating the pace of development activities."

Leaders analyse post-1990 era

KATHMANDU, April 7 (PR) - Leader of the main opposition the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal today said the current crises the country is facing is all due to the mistakes committed 10 years ago, right after the restoration of democracy.

"Leaders of the Nepali Congress (NC) are still repeating the same mistakes they made 10 years ago," said Nepal speaking at a conference "Democracy and Human Rights" organised here today to mark the 10th anniversary of the Popular People’s Movement in 1990. "It is time that they realised when the mistake was made and looked into it," he said.

Citing examples of women trafficking and corruption in private schools and nursing homes, Nepal said human rights situation is very poor in Nepal. He added the present government has been unable to make any right decisions to tackle these problems.

Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, on the other hand said human rights problems in the country is due to economic disparity. Referring to the Maoist insurgency, he said that the government is ready to stop shooting if the Maoists do it first.

Vaccination drive put on hold

LALITPUR, April 7 (PR)- The test programme on vaccination against Hepatitis E was put on hold by the Lalitpur Sub Metropolitan City today.

The municipality is no longer associated with the committee that was formed after the controversy over the vaccine had arisen, the press release signed by Deputy Mayor Ramesh Chitrakar said, calling for dissolution of the committee. For the past one year, in eight wards of the municipality, the test of a new vaccine against Hepatitis E had been carried out by Walter Reed of Rims Research Unit Nepal (WRORRUN).

There had been protests from locals on the vaccine use alleging that people had been used as guinea pigs. The organisation was accused of operating without the permission from the municipality.

A period of 13 months had been slated for the test. For those participating in the test, one month after the last shot, abstinence is required as stated by the manual for the test. People had become wary of it since it also states that pregnancy should be avoided for 13 months after marriage.

The release states that letters have been sent to all agencies involved in the research to clarify on insurance policies, the programme’s benefit on the people and fully inform the general public the details about the programme.

Besides that, the Municipality is demanding that part of the profit from the research be returned to the people of the community. Unless the assurance is received, the research cannot be restarted, it said.

Sherpa women brace up to climb Everest

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, April 7 - To this date, Sherpa women have been left tending their children, looking after the yak herds or at the most cooking, cleaning and carrying climbing gear to lower camps while their men gained world fame for their mountaineering skills guiding thousands of mountaineers to the highest peaks in the world.

Now five Sherpa women are leaving for the world’s highest mountain on Saturday in their bid to break the tradition and become the first team of Sherpa women to scale Mt. Everest.

Though women have been included in the mountaineering expedition their job have been limited to cooking, cleaning up and carrying climbing gear to lower camps. The only Sherpa woman to scale Everest was Pasang Lhamu who died on her way down from the 8,850 meters peak in 1993.

The five-woman team plans to scale the mountain during the popular spring mountaineering season along with at least a dozen other western teams.

"We have had many of our men scaling the mountain, telling us heroic and tragic tales but they have always discouraged us from climbing telling us we are not good enough to face the harsh conditions on the mountain,’’ Mingma Yangji Sherpa told The Kathmandu Post.

Most women in the Sherpa community, like in most part of Nepal, are housewives who attend to family and children and help in farming.

These women take up the task of looking after the yak herds taking them to grazing pastures during the warm spring months when their men are employed by western mountaineers.

Now most if not all the mountaineering expedition to various peaks in Nepal and Tibet hire Sherpa guides to carry their climbing gears and help them to the summit.

While these world famous Sherpas gain fame climbing the world’s highest peaks, their women have been left to carry supplies for smaller trekking groups climbing low altitude peaks.

"We are tired of being the shadow of our men ...if they (men) can do it so can we and we are going to prove to them that we are equally good if not better at climbing,’’ said Mingma, who runs a lodge for trekkers at Thangboche on the way to Everest.

Mingma’s dream began to take shape when the first Sherpa woman Everester on her way to the summit stayed at her lodge. "She told me nothing should come on the way of our dream and womenfolks should not be discouraged by the men in the community," Mingma said.

A mother of two children, Mingma like other women in her community began her mountaineering career as a cook in 1989 and opened lodge with her husband in 1992. Her husband left her for a younger woman leaving her to raise her two children.

Though Everest has been climbed over 800 times since two men first set foot on it in 1953, every climb comes with its own set of risks. The mountain have been the icy grave for nearly 180 people who have been killed in their bid to step on the highest point on earth.

"On the day I told my children about my mission, my 13-year-old daughter cried all night. But I am doing this for their future and for the women folk of my community,’’ Mingma said.

Mingma and her four companions -- Lakpa Sherpa, 26, Dolma Sherpa, 23, Kasang Dikki Sherpa, 26, and Dawa Yangzi Sherpa, 22 -- have never scaled any big mountains but have practised on smaller trekking peaks that are below 6,000 meters.

"These women may not have climbed big mountains but during practice in the Langtang area, they showed stamina and will that is more than enough to climb Everest," said Ang Tshering Sherpa of Asian Trekking who equipped and partially sponsored the expedition.

Summit date has been set for the early or mid part of May when the weather gets favourable.