Minister Tamrakar ignores PAC’s summons

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 25 - Members of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today accused Minister of Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar of disregarding the parliamentary committee’s summon notice.

Minister Tamrakar was summoned by the committee to update on PAC’s directive to reconsider the decision to close down 41 of the 77 Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) depots based on loan conditions and a hastily prepared report at a time when the rural parts of the country begin to face food shortages.

In a reply notice to PAC, the minister said due to special circumstances, he was unable to attend the meeting and the government was committed to supplying food grains to remote areas.

"The minister’s letter does not mention anything on our main concern on what the government was doing to reverse the decision as directed by PAC," PAC Chairman Subash Nebwang said.

This is not the first time that the ministers have ignored notice by the committee to be present and furnish replies to the concerns raised by the parliamentarians.

The committee and parliamentarians have repeatedly stressed the need for the government and the bureaucrats to be accountable to the parliament.

Last week PAC had summoned the Ministry of Supplies and NFC officials. They said reversing the decision to close down food depots would mean going against the agreement between the government and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

And they were compelled to honour the agreement between the government and ADB at a time when the process of receiving loan has begun.

PAC had decided to call the minister since the officials were not able to provide adequate replies.

"What could be so important that he could not be present at a parliamentary committee?" asked CPN-UML’s Birodh Khatiwada.

Based on the report that was rushed through, the government closed these depots on Dec. 31 last year. Many of these depots are in remote mountainous areas that are hit by food shortages every spring and in some areas lead to spread of diseases claiming hundreds of lives every year.

In the past officials have admitted that pressure from the Finance Ministry to complete the report by July 1999 had made them rush through the report without having time to consider the geographical and economical factors of the areas where the depots were shut down.

And failure to submit the report within the specified time would have meant delay or possible loss of the loan assistance from ADB. ADB had pledged to grant a loan assistance of US$ 50 million for the second agriculture programme but had set conditions that the number of depots and employees of the corporation needs to be cut down under the reforms programme.

KG 'A' may not be commissioned on time

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 25 - The disenchanted employees of Kali Gandaki A hydel project, who resigned en masse last week, have challenged that the project will not be completed on time, less than a week after the project’s Italian contractor, Impregilo SPA accepted their resignations.

Addressing a press conference held here to disseminate the actual circumstances leading to the surprise resignation and subsequent acceptance, the employees complained that they were "continuously subjected to verbal abuses and misbehaviour by the contractor company’s officials", and pointed out that "the experienced technicians should be re-positioned for good".

Altogether 57 technical staff of the country’s biggest hydel project, which will feed 144 MW of electricity into the national grid upon completion, tendered their resignations after SPA officials sacked one Gopal Prasad Mahato over charges of leaking company secrets on April 17. Mahato today denied the charge.

"How can Impregilo SPA complete the project on time when all the engineers, who have knowledge about the on-going incomplete works are here?" questioned Rajesh Pathak, who joined the project six months after the project works actually commenced in December 1998. "We know where the hooks are, we know where the marks are, and we know where the benches are."

"There are hardly four or five Italians engineers left there. They are insufficient...Even if the contractor company employs new technical staff, first of all it will have to train them. And it will take at least a year’s time to train them," Pathak added.

Mahato, a Contracts and Quantity Department staff, today clarified that he was browsing the computer of Assistant Personnel Manager Mahesh Gautam at around 10 a.m. on Monday April 17, and was looking for a file that could help one convert AD (After the Death of Christ) date into BS (Bikram Samwata).

"But mistakenly, another file -- Retrenchment Gratuity -- opened," he said, claiming that he was "completely unaware on what the file really was and what it was really about."

"Incidentally, one of our Italian bosses saw that file open and immediately warned to take action against the one who opened that. Later they decided to sack him...without even seeking clarifications," added Lekh Nath Kharel, another staff.

Then the other technical staff decided to hold talks with the management and submitted a letter demanding that the officials look into their problems. Consequently, the officials called a "useless meeting" with the employees.

"After the meeting failed to yield fruits we jointly tendered our resignations," the employees said. "And they promptly accepted that."

According to initial agreement reached between Impregilo SPA and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the contractor company was supposed to complete the project by November 2000. The date was later postponed to July 2001.

But the employees today claimed that "conspiracies are on to re-postpone the project completion date from July 2001 to Feb 2002."

"The company was looking for some pretence to postpone the project’s completion date," said Surya Narayan Shrestha, another technical staff. "Now that our resignations have been accepted, it will be easier for them to get the postponement proposal officially endorsed from NEA, the employer."

The employees also said that the working environment at the project site was not favourable for the Nepalis--"even for we engineers, leave alone poor labourers". "The Italian staff, would misbehave and verbally abuse us often with vulgar words that I can’t pronounce now," Shrestha said.

Shoot-out in club

KATHMANDU, April 25 (PR)- A man in Tahachal fired two rounds at a club during the early hours today after the club refused to shut down a loud party being held at the premises.

The Verge Inn Club that is known for loud and late parties has been venue for such parties almost everyday despite repeated complaints from neighbours of this quite residential neighbourhood.

Around 12:30 a.m. today, Siddhartha Rana, son of renowned businessman Prabhakar Rana, aimed and fired two shots from his pistol at the club’s signboard.

Police said Rana reacted after his repeated pleas to turn down the loud music blaring even after mid-night was refused by the club authorities. The bullets pierced the signboard in two places.

Police recovered one bullet cartridge from the site and in the evening Rana surrendered to the police with the weapon. A truce was reached between the club owners and Rana and he was released.

People living in the neighbourhood say that they have repeatedly complained to the police about the loud parties but no action has been taken. Instead, they have accused the police of giving protection to the club in exchange for a fee.

Many restaurants and clubs these days make illegal payments to the police in exchange for added protection and favours since these place are prone to trouble and for the police to turn their back when needed.

"This is the result of the allowing businesses like clubs and discos to be opened in residential areas without giving much thought to it," Superintendent of Police Bharat Bahadur G.C. said.

Adhikari remembered
Memorial medical college proposed

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 25 - Exactly one year back, CPN-UML Chairman late Manmohan Adhikari collapsed after attending a rally at Gothatar and died a few days later.

Today, residents of this village, east of the capital city, remembered the late Communist leader by organizing a free health camp.

Late Adhikari had made his last speech at the Gothatar VDC, as a part of his marathon election rally, and collapsed as he was about to board a vehicle.

"We are trying to carry out his idea of always serving old people and children through this camp," said Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Chairperson of the Man Mohan Memorial Academy.

Chairperson of the Gothatar VDC Krishna Hari Thapa also handed a proposal to provide 30 ropani land for the construction of a medical college that will be named Man Mohan Medical College, and two more ropanies for the construction of Man Mohan Park in the VDC.

"I assure you that the Academy will highly appreciate your proposal and do whatever we can to help," Bharat Mohan Adhikari said.

The two and a half kilometre road that links the 35 ward to Mulpani was named "Man Mohan Adhikari Road" today.

Late Adhikari’s wife Sadhana Adhikari also distributed fruits to the old people in the VDC.

The Academy will hold a tea programme at the CPN-UML central office on Wednesday and a subject discourse on "Man Mohan Adhikari and Nepal Communist Movement" on Thursday.

Late Adhikari, one of the first generation leaders of Nepali politics, was an active leader of the great revolt of 1950, and a key figure in the United Left Front which aligned with the Nepali Congress (NC) during the 1990 movement.

He also remained a supporter of a joint NC-left alliances to root out the 30-year long Panchayat system. He has also headed the CPN (Marxist) and became the chairman of UML since 1991.

He was the first Communist Prime Minister elected to office in a Constitutional monarchy.

Unlike other left leaders, he is also known as an active supporter of the multi-party system during the national referendum.

Poverty alleviation still distant

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, April 25 - Poverty has been an underlying theme of Nepal’s development plans since the 1950s. Anti-poverty efforts have been in place subsequently.

Yet the results of the efforts have been far from satisfactory, looking at the fact that "income poverty in Nepal has increased since late 1970s, mostly in the rural areas", says a report released here today.

According to Poverty Report 2000, released today the two decades of development has bypassed the rural population and advances in urban areas and their rural periphery have counteracted the trend.

"Official statistics of 1996 estimate that more than 40 percent of the population is poor, while estimates based on a poverty

line of one dollar per day put the figures at more than 50 percent," says the report.

The report released globally on April 4, states that while 75 percent of the nations have measured the extent and dimensions for poverty, less than a third of other countries have set targets for reducing it.

"It challenges the rich and poor countries to renew their efforts to combat poverty, and to place a greater focus on programmes that strengthen governance and empower people to improve livelihoods and opportunities," reads the press release issued today.

Poverty plans had worked better where they were not simply large clusters of micro projects but multi-sexual, multi-disciplinary and encompassed different parts of the country. According to Dr Henning Karcher, UNDP resident representative the report points out that credit-based schemes have suffered from mistargeting, declining repayment rates, high service delivery costs and inadequate institutional capacity.

"Much more attention needs to be paid to coordination, monitoring and evaluation," said Karcher. "In particular there would be merit in strengthening the capacity of the Poverty Cell in the National Planning Commission."

He said that decentralisation combined with social mobilisation, if properly organized and supported can significantly contribute to creation of wealth and growth through micro enterprises, jointly built irrigation schemes, roads and bridges and through jointly developing skills and knowledge.

Member of the National Planning Commission, Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel said that poverty alleviation programmes should be targeted to address the geographical diversities emphasising on local self-governance.

He said that the government is drafting an act to establish an institution that will have poverty alleviation as its target.

Teenagers rape minor

MAHOTTARI, April 25 (PR)- Two boys in their mid-teens picked up a nine-year-old girl from her house in Gaushala-5, Rajkhor, took her to a bamboo bush and left her unconscious after raping her.

Family sources said, Shyam Shah and Indal Shah of the village picked up Nita Kumari Shah from her house. The exact age of the duo has not been specified but locals said they are in their mid-teens.

That night, Nita was located only after her family members started looking for her when strong winds started blowing. He was found after an arduous search carried out by a group of villagers.

She is currently receiving treatment at Janakpur hospital. Police have arrested one of the criminals, while another one is still at large.