PM sacks Minister Khadka
More turmoil in cards for Congress 

By Binaj Gurubacharya 

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today sacked Minister for Water Resources, Works and Physical Planning Khum Bahadur Khadka who was leading a rebellion against him.

However, instead of defusing the situation, the move has triggered a possible feud in the Nepali Congress (NC) and yet another power tussle in the country's most prominent political party with preparations initiated to remove Koirala from power.

Following the announcement of the dismissal, senior NC leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai immediately reacted by warning Koirala that the dismissal has "stirred the hornet's nest."

"This action has stirred hornet's nest which will disturb the entire equilibrium of both the party and the government," Bhattarai said in a statement.

Khadka was leading the pack of NC lawmakers who are demanding that Koirala either let go of the premiership or the party presidentship.

These rebels have been collecting signatures from NC lawmakers on a petition demanding that Koirala opt for only one position.

After Koirala returned from his visit to India earlier this week, Khadka told the prime minister that one person should not be allowed to hold two key positions. And the party presidentship should be passed on to the second generation and Koirala should give up his position as the party president and let Shailaja Acharya succeed him.

Khadka received the official word about his dismissal around mid-day today and is expected to address parliament on Wednesday morning.

Since democracy was restored in the country a decade ago and elections held, Khadka has been a member of the cabinet in almost all the governments that was either led by NC or of which NC was a coalition partner with the exception of the previous government led by Bhattarai. He has always been a known Koirala supporter.

"He (Khadka) has been a very faithful and loyal member of the party because of which he is recognized in the whole western Nepal as one of it natural leaders," Bhattarai said. "The PM has been ill advised to take this drastic action about an old and loyal friend."

Bhattarai and Koirala are expected to meet at Bhattarai's residence at Bhaisepati on Wednesday morning. Bhattarai side's main demand would be Koirala settle for only one position and give up his stand that he would hold on to both the positions for now.

And if the situation is not settled by the two leaders at that moment, the rebels could even file a motion of no confidence against Koirala at the parliamentary party seeking his ouster from the prime minister's office.

During the meeting held today at Bhaisepati late in the evening by the rebel group, more signatures were collected which according to them has exceeded the required majority number.

Koirala had assumed office in March after ousting Bhattarai, his long-time friend turned foe, from office he held since NC won the general election in May last year.

Members close to Koirala had rebelled against Bhattarai and twice filed proposals of no-confidence against him at the parliamentary party seeking change in leadership. These rebels had accused Bhattarai of failing as a leader failing to maintain law and order in the country and control corruption even among the members of the cabinet.

Bhattarai is seeking complete dissolution of the Central Working Committee to be replaced by an ad-hoc committee that for now would choose an acting president and conduct the party's general convention scheduled for November this year.

"I still hope that the prime minister will do something to mitigate the impact of this thoughtless action soon," Bhattarai said.

Easy imports of vehicles may harm environment

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - The recently reached agreement between Nepal and India which has paved way for "hassles-free" imports of Indian vehicles into Nepal, could have negative impacts on the country's environment, experts here say.

During Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's just concluded visit to India, the two neighbours agreed to permit the imports of Indian vehicles into Nepal under Nepal's new emission norms on the basis of self certification by Indian vehicle manufacturers based on type approvals.

"This means that no COP (Conformity of Production) test certificate-which is awarded six months after a vehicle starts operating-will be required for the Indian vehicles making their way into Nepal," says Amod Pokharel an environmental expert with Leaders' Nepal, an NGO which has regularly been monitoring the capital's air quality.

"Without COP it will be very difficult to ascertain a vehicle's actual emission standard...There is a strong possibility of Nepal turning into a dumping ground for India's sub-standard vehicles if such remains the case."

Last year, the government introduced Nepal Emission Standard 1999, the Nepali version of Euro I Emission Standard, effectively imposing a ban on the import of vehicles other than those meeting Euro I emission norms.

So strict the ban turned out to be that hundreds of vehicles imported from India, Japan and Korea were stopped at India's Raxaul bordering Nepal's Birgunj for months.

The vehicles bound for Kathmandu via Calcutta port were allowed to enter Nepal only after the importers submitted such documents as Type Approval (TA) and COP certificates. Manufacturers of Korean and Japanese vehicles had gone on to ask concerned ministries in their country to write official letters to Nepali authorities so as to confirm the emission standard of the productions.

Meanwhile, PM Koirala made contradictory remarks regarding the import permit while speaking at the House of Representatives.

Koirala today told the House that "the certification will be done on the basis of Type Approval from India's concerned authority". The joint communique issued during Koirala's visit mentioned that the two countries had agreed to permit the imports on the basis of "self certification (by Indian vehicle manufactures based on type approvals)".

"The statements are contradictory: Koirala talks about Type Approval from India's concerned authority, but the communique is silent on which Indian authority will actually issue the Type Approvals," Pokharel said.

MPs for severe punishment to Paras 

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties in a unanimous voice demanded prompt legal action against Paras Shah whose speeding vehicle had killed a prominent musician on Sunday night.

"This is murder and this is not the first time that Paras Shah has been involved in a murder. We demand that strong action be taken against him for the action," Nepali Congress lawmaker Mohan Bahadur Basnet demanded at the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament.

He said that every citizen in the country needs to abide by the law and there should be no discrimination against the rich and the poor and no one is above the law.

According to the police, musician Praveen Gurung died Sunday night at a hospital after his motorcycle was hit by a blue Pajero, driven by Prince Paras Shah, with the number plate Ba. 3 Cha. 692 near the eastern gate of the Royal Palace.

"This is a criminal case arising from negligence and no respect for human lives ... but in the rule of law everyone is equal and the guilty party should be severely punished," NC's Ramesh Lekhak said.

Raghuji Pant of the main opposition CPN-UML demanded that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala take up the matter with His Majesty the King.

"We demand that the prime minister take up the matter to His Majesty the King and inform him about the repeated cases of killing (by Paras Shah) and have title of prince removed like that of Dhirendra Shah," Pant said.

"This was no accident that occurred accidentally but murder which was a result of reckless driving and intoxication," CPN-UML's Rajendra Pandey said adding that that the government provide details on the incident and prompt action against the alleged.

Another member of the party Prem Bahadur Singh questioned that if there were repeated cases like this what was the use of rule of law in the country.

"Royal family or not, everyone is equal by the rights given by the Constitution and he should not be treated in an exceptional way," CPN-UML's Pradeep Gyawali said. "This is not the first case. Paras Shah has already murdered three people and continues to terrorize both civilians and police at gunpoint."

Reports said that Paras Shah after the incident had entered the police station and threatened the duty officer not to report the case. Few months back during a nationwide strike, he had been stopped by a police officer in the early hours. He attacked the officer who was hospitalized in a critical condition.

Lawmakers expressed condolence at the death of Gurung who had composed music for over 500 songs. He was employed at Rastriya Nach Ghar and the Yak and Yeti Hotel as a musician. 

India ready for total review of 1950 Treaty

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today told the parliament that India has agreed for complete review of the 50 years of ties between the two nations in "totality" during his visit to India.

"When I told the Indian Prime Minister and other ministers about the review needed in all the issues they all agreed with me and said they were ready and even agreed for a time frame to make the reviews," Koirala told the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament.

Koirala said that during the visit he held discussions with leaders of various opposition parties too and expressed the need for the review which, he said they too agreed with the proposal.

"There has been much changes in the past 50 years that was not imaginable when the ties were established 50 years back. The impact of the information technology has changed the world into a community and the economy of the world has also shifted in a different direction," Koirala said. "And I told them that we need to review in totality all the issues keeping in mind the changed context."

Koirala added that during his visit to the southern state of Andra Pradesh, he asked the leaders and the community there to assist Nepal in the development of information technology by providing training.

He was first scheduled to visit Bangalore, the information technology capital of India. However the disturbances arising from kidnapping of a film actor had forced the Nepalese entourage to change their destination to Hyderabad in Andra Pradesh.

"In the past we have limited our vision to neighboring states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh only. Now we need to shift our priorities to explore other areas too and that is why I went to the southern part to seek benefits for us," Koirala said.

Koirala said he expressed Nepal's concern about the border issues, the Laxmanpur Barrage and the Bhutanese issues.

"The leaders expressed serious concerns when I asked them cooperation to resolve the Bhutanese issue. I told them that unless the issue was resolved soon there could be negative impact not only for Nepal but also for India and Bhutan too," Koirala added.

For the past one decade, over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been living in United Nations-run camps in south eastern part of the country. Nepal has repeatedly asked India to intervene to resolve the refugee issue but the request has always been denied. India has maintained that the issue is bilateral and it should be resolved bilaterally even though the refugees used Indian territory to travel to Nepal and when these refugees tried to go back to Bhutan, Indian forces stopped them and pushed them back to Nepal.

Thinking of owning website? Beware! Squatter might be waiting for you

By Bhaskar Sharma 

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - Planning to have a website of your own company in the Internet? Hurry up ! You might end up paying a hefty sum to a squatter who might have registered a website in your name and waiting for your request to buy the site from him.

Someone seeking information on mountains of Nepal would naturally log on to the website of ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) typing www.icimod.org, but will be surprised to find an underconstruction notice of an internet communication company.

Poor ICIMOD, they have resorted to www.icimod.org.sg, which is obviously not what they would have wanted. But it seems they are not willing to negotiate or willing to pay a big sum to Internet Communication and Information Management of Development Issues (ICIMOD) registered under the name of Omni Business Corporate International (OBCI) in Kathmandu, just because the later one registered it earlier.

This act of registering website in the names of globally and locally famed companies in advance is being done by opportunists around the world, which is known as cybersquatting. 

Even before the editor of The Kathmandu Post thought of keeping a website of Cyberpost, a fortnightly IT page of the paper, somebody sent an e-mail inviting for the negotiation as he had already acquired the website www.cyberpost.com.

Cybersquatting, or unethical business practice in internet, legality aspect of which is still under discussion, is not uncommon.

With a very nominal charge of less than US $35  per year, one can acquire any website name that is not already registered.  Specially the lack of cyber laws, as in Nepal, makes cybersquatting even complicated and difficult, and benefit the squatters.

"Cybersquatting is an illegal way of making money. With increasing use of Internet in Nepal, the government should immediately formulate and enforce cyber law to check such unethical businesses," says Rajib Subba, General Secretary of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).

However, Nepal has just completed a preliminary draft of cyber law which is less likely to take a concrete shape in a near future.  However, Subba adds, Nepal should take lessons from rampant cases of cybersquatting worldover, and should take mitigation measures.

There are many interesting cases of cybersquatting.  A squatter has even registered a website in the name of the Indian Information and Technology Minister www.pramodmahajan.com, and the other one had already registered www.bbc.com, before the world renowned British Broadcasting Corporation thought of having its own website.

"I have been told that someone has registered a website in my name. I have only two options - either to ask the person responsible for it to wind up or fight him in court," Mahajan is quoted in the Internet.

According to an website, the BBC just last year bought www.bbc.com from Boston Business Computing. And recently, BBC had to fight against the much coveted domain names, BBC 1 and BBC 2, cyber-squatted by a Stephen Taylor who had allegedly planned to sell the domain names off to the highest bidder. BBC had to take out a high court injunction last March for the purpose.

In the meantime however Mr Taylor continued to build himself quite a reputation, having allegedly faced footballing giant Manchester United over the domain name Machesterunited.com. According to the BBC, Taylor planned to sell this particular domain name for £100,000.

Political will vital to curb corruption

By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 - Political commitment and sincerity is more important than making amendments to the existing laws to curb corruption, government officials and legal experts said here today.

"We have acts, laws and commissions to control corruption but the implementation part has always been poor," said Auditor General Bishnu Bahadur KC.

 He was addressing an interaction programme aimed at discussing the three bills brought to amend and intrigrate the present laws on corruption control, to manage the special court, and to amend Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Act 1992, which were registered in the parliament on 13 July and are waiting for discussion.

CIAA Commissioner Krishna Ballav Kaphle criticised the new bills saying that they were merely the repetition of the 1960 bill of the same nature with some poor polishing.

He said the provision on the bill to punish officials on the basis of amassed property disproportanate to their legal earnings was not proper. Rather, he suggested punishment on the basis of the damage he causes to the nation.

Spokesman of the Supreme Court Kashi Raj Dahal charged that while the whole country is suffering from political corruption, the bill is silent about the excessive expenditure of political parties. "This is only an another weapon to sabotage the already poor bureaucracy," he said.

He claimed that establishing Corruption Control Department  under the prime minister's supervision will promote authoritarian rule. The proposed bill in article 25 provides that a Corruption Control Department will be formed to investige and  file a case under the direct supervision and control of the prime minister.

He urged the government to approve the bill only after excluding the sections which in a way or other contradict the constitution.

Home Secretary Padma Prasad Pokhrel said corruption is getting rampant because there has only been nominal investment upgrading the mechanism for fighting corruption. "If corruption is a disease, we have not been able even to start building a hospital for this."

Former CIAA Commissioner Radharaman Upadhyaya said political will is essential to eradicate corruption. "Acts and laws alone cannot eradicate the menace of corruption. Political will is the key to  solution, which is still lacking."