Nepal parched while India reaping big out of Gandak irrigation system

By Surendra Phuyal/Narayan Sharma

TRIVENI, Nawalparasi, Dec 18- Thousands of farmers across the southern plains of Terai are busy selling their autumn harvest such as sugarcane and paddy these days. Sixty-five- year -old Sahadev Yadav of Pratappur village is one of them.

Until three decades back, Yadav recalls, Nepali farmers like him used to export tonnes and tonnes of cash crops such as rice, wheat, and sugarcane to India’s food deficit states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP) bordering Nepal.

"That part of India then was really barren like a desert," Yadav says as he faces south, from where the West Gandak canal flows down to India’s UP. "But now this part is like a desert as we have a really bad irrigation network."

Three decades down the road, after the construction of the Gandak canals -the East Gandak which irrigates northern Bihar and parts of Nepal’s Parsa district (in the central Terai), and the West Gandak which drenches most of the cultivated land of UP - the northern Indian states have made a giant leap in terms of food production.

Adds another farmer, Asharaf Ali, 70, of Maheshpur in western parts of this Terai district. "They have beat us by several folds after they tapped the Gandak (Narayani) river water. The barren lands of India have turned all-green and yellow with crops. That is why they are having surplus food production these days."

Farmers and officials here say it is due to the success of the Gandak irrigation that the Indian farmers have become well-off enough to export their surplus paddy products to Nepal in cheaper prices. Thanks largely to the "Gandak-led Green Revolution" in Bihar and UP, Nepali farmers have been forced to sell their products in throw-away prices this year - between Rs 400 to Rs 600 per quintal, down from Rs 1,000 to 1,200 last year.

A by-product of the controversial 1959 water accord between Nepal and India, the East and West Gandak Canal Projects were completed by India in the late 1970s. Under the project, India constructed the Gandak barrage over Nepal-India border here to channel all the snow-fed river water into the East and West Gandak canals.

From these canals, India irrigates over two million hectares of the rugged terrains of Bihar and UP - which is 33 times the land area irrigated in Nepal - roughly 60,000 hectares. Two small regulators in the West Gandak Canal which passes through Nawalparasi, were supposed to release 300 cubic meters of water per second (cusecs).

But now, thanks largely to the situation in the mammoth barrage and the entire canal network, hardly 60 cusecs of water is released, according to senior engineer Bishnu Pradhan of the District Irrigation Office, Nawalparasi. And, to make things even worse India continues to maintain control over the canal head regulators agreed upon in the water accord.

As the irrigation network continues to remain dysfunctional, farmers working in their farms near the porous Nepal-India border say, "it is the ‘Gandak Samjhauta’ (agreement) that cheated us and is yet to ditch our future generations and economy at large."

According to farmers, the bad irrigation network has not only hampered the farming of grains such as rice and wheat. This has affected the entire agriculture sector, including sugarcane cultivation.

Senior Engineer Pradhan says that the maintenance and repairing and desilting works have never been carried out in the 25-year-old canal although improvement works were done with the "good old World Bank’s money".

"We should not only blame India," says Pradhan. "We need to desilt the canal and improve the system from time to time."

The West Nepal Canal under the West Gandak Canal was to irrigate not only Nawalparasi but also Rupandehi district in the west. But works to convert this ambitious plan into reality are far from done. How, Nepal is going to reap maximum benefits from her own Narayani (Gandak) river water remains to be seen.

Police denies arms drop in Rolpa

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Police have denied claims that underground Maoists dropped arms into Rolpa district by helicopter. An unconfirmed report claimed that the Maoist rebels dropped weapons into some parts of the district in the second week of December.

"We investigated the matter, but found that no arms had been dropped," Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in the Mid-Western Regional Police Office, Amar Singh Shah, said. He added that it would be premature to speak before the investigation was over.

Some security officials urged the government to launch a massive operation if the arms had really been dropped in the area by the rebels. One of the Chief District Officers who was present at the press conference commented that "the government should promptly refute such rumours".

Meanwhile, a fresh report from the Maoist-hit Rukum district said that an unidentified Maoist has been killed in a one hour long gun-battle with police in a Ghughule jungle in the Nuwakot Village Development Committee-7 Monday.

DIG Shah said that the rebel was shot dead after a group of armed rebels fired at policemen on regular patrol. No policemen were hurt during the exchange of fire.

Police have confiscated two home-made guns, a socket bomb and some Maoist literature from the clash site.

A total of 749 Maoist rebels, 172 policemen and 159 ordinary people have been killed in the mid-western region alone since rebels waged their People’s War five years ago.

Another report from Phidim in Taplejung district said that Maoists padlocked the office of the Lumphabung VDC after inaugurating the ninth village council meeting of the VDC on December 12.

VDC secretary Gam Bahadur Thapa said that a Maoist notice pasted on a notice board warned of severe consequences for anyone who attempted to break the lock.

The notice also demanded the refunding of the public fund that was misused two year ago and the completion of unfinished projects in the VDC.

Acting VDC chairman, Ashraj Lawati, arrived at the district headquarters to inform the district administration about the incident. VDC chairman Bhimraj Angdambe committed suicide two years ago, after he was unable to repay misused funds.

Similarly, private schools in Birgunj have decided to hold classes every day, even on Fridays, to recover from the loss of teaching hours after Maoist-affiliated students forced all schools to shut down for a week.

District Chairman of the Private and Boarding School Organisation (PABSON), Arjun Shumsher JBR, said that the decision was reached unanimously. Schools in Birgunj used to open for half a day on Fridays.

SAC summons PM Koirala, ministers for briefing

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18- The parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) in a meeting today asked the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and the Home Minister to brief the committee about the present situation of security in the country.

According to SAC Chairman Hom Nath Dahal, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel and Defence Minister Mahesh Acharya have been asked to be present at SAC on Thursday afternoon. The committee also decided to review the report prepared by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on the Maoist issue and recommendations towards resolution to end the nearly five years of insurgency.

They would also seek the position of the government on the recommendations made and begin discussions with all the political parties on the recommendation made by the Deuba committee for early resolution of the problem that has claimed nearly 1,500 lives since the rebels waged a guerrilla war from hills of central and midwestern parts of the country in 1996.

Kadirgamar believes SAARC moving ahead

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar today left for New Delhi en route to Colombo with the belief that the SAARC process is moving ahead .

Kadirgamar had left Colombo last week for New Delhi and Kathmandu in his bid to revive the stalled South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) – which comprises Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -summit-level meeting.

The summit scheduled to be held in November last year in Kathmandu could not be held due to India’s refusal to share the platform with Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf at the apex meeting. Sri Lanka is the current chair of this sub-regional grouping and Nepal is the next head.

On Monday, the visiting minister held discussions with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala regarding "SAARC and some general matters".

When asked about the prospects of direct flights between Kathmandu and Colombo, Kadirgamar told reporters today that although the governments wanted the connection to exist, the decision had to be taken by the concerned airlines. He added that the government could not interfere in the matter.

Meanwhile, a high-level source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the

new cycle to revive the SAARC process had begun. He added that technical committee meetings would pave the way for a Standing Committee meeting, comprising of foreign secretaries of the SAARC nations. "Even after the completion of this cycle, if the Standing Committee meeting is not held, then we need to doubt the future of SAARC itself," he said.

Hospitals reject talks of using ‘low-quality’ blood bags

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Despite claims by NRCS (Nepal Red Cross Society) that the major hospitals in the valley use Indian blood bags, pathologists at Bir hospital and Patan hospital say that they have been procuring the JMS, a Japanese blood bag, for the last four years. NRCS operates the blood bank.

Ram Babu Shrestha, laboratory Incharge at Patan hospital says,"there is not much difference between the two bags, but the blood can be stored for a longer period of time in the Japanese bag, which we use."

Blood Donor’s Association (BDA), the NGO through which the blood donors donate blood to the Blood Bank maintain that there have been cases of pain, blisters and patches after using the Indian blood bag. Sharad Kasa, chairman of the BDA, last week said that patients have been complaining of pain, itches, patches and blisters after using the Indian blood bag. Kasa even claimed that the Indian blood bags do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

BDA maintains that the bags manufactured by the Indian company are faulty and harmful whereas NRCS argues that using an expensive blood bag when a cheaper can be as reliable is irrational.

"When same good quality bags can be exclusively bought for a cheaper rate (Rs 38) from a neighboring country like India, I don’t see any reason why we should buy it from Singapore based, Japanese company which costs Rs 107," said Dr Ratna Kishore Rokka, director of NCRS Blood Bank.

Pathologists at Bir hospital say that they have long since used the Japanese bag though they are more expensive."We felt that the needle in the bags we use (JMS) has finer needle which makes it less painful", said a pathologist at the hospital.

NRCS (Nepal Red Cross Society) and BDA (Blood Donors’ Association) are at loggerheads since three months over the purchase of blood bags from an Indian Company J Mitra & Co. NRCS has been buying the bags from the Indian company since the last two years, while BDA wants NRCS to give up and purchase similar bags from the Japanese Company JMS.

NC rebels plan action against opponents

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - The dissident group in the ruling Nepali Congress is going to raise several issues to put their opponents in a fix in the suddenly-called Central Working Committee meeting of the party here Tuesday.

The dissidents are expected to raise the controversial active membership renewal issue, alleged irregularities in the district level elections of the party, the proposal to amend the Constitution and the failure of the Girija Prasad Koirala-led government.

The anti-Koirala camp held two meetings today at the residence of former Prime Ministers and their leaders - at Sher Bahadur Deuba’s in the morning and at Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s in the evening - and discussed their plan of action to be executed at the CWC tomorrow.

According to a CWC member, the dissidents are going to point out the non-compliance of the CWC decision of October 22 on active membership and the resultant "malpractices" in the party’s local body elections. "If the previous decision of the CWC remained unimplemented, what is the guarantee that any decision taken tomorrow will be put into practice?" asked the member. "We will stress on the non-compliance of that previous decision."

In the last CWC meeting, the party had decided to hold elections in the district convention only after resolving the active membership row. P L Singh, a member who had asked for the CWC meet to probe the alleged irregularities in renewal of active membership, has decided to skip Tuesday’s meet.

The veteran NC leader Bhattarai is expected to repeat his demand of asking the Prime Minister and party president Koirala to relinquish one of the posts. Other issues likely to be raised are violation of Public Accounts Committee directive on Lauda Air jet, deteriorating law and order and rampant corruption across the country.

However, NC general secretary Sushil Koirala said that the CWC meet has no formal agenda. He added the members will discuss raising awareness against Maoist violence and activating the party’s sister organizations for the purpose.

According to the party central office, the meet will give the final touches to the draft of the party’s constitution.

Barhabise-Kodari road under PAC scrutiny

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - The Swiss-funded Barhabise-Kodari Road Repair and Maintenance Project came under review today at the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The Rs. 60 million project had received 15 applications from various construction companies. However, only three have managed to cross the first preliminary review while the remaining were rejected in the first round of evaluation.

Ten of these applicants have been rejected for failing to meet the number two criteria in the pre-qualification round which required them to present "complete" tax clearance of their companies by Oct 23, the last date to apply to contest for the project.

PAC members today questioned officials of the Ministry of Works and Physical Planning (MWPP) and Department of Roads on allegations that the criteria could have been "deliberately" placed to give advantage to the contractors of their choice and throw away competition.

"This is the first time that a government job has required such a criteria ... we can’t rule out the possibility that this had been placed to give unfair advantage to the couple of contractors who were named in the post-qualification notice," said Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani.

Most of the PAC members agreed that the requirement to submit tax clearance was a positive step that the government should make mandatory in all tenders it calls.

However, they also said there needs to be uniformity in all the tender calls made by the government and should not be a single exceptional case.

Lohani said it was unfair that these 10 contractors of the A category were rejected merely on the basis of the tax criteria without even reviewing the entire technical proposal and without even opening the financial proposals.

"It takes months for an A class contractor to get tax clearance and the time set (Oct 23) would not have been enough and there needs to be a uniform criteria on all government contracts," said another member N P Saud.

Of the five remaining applicants, two of them were rejected on the grounds of failing to meet the personnel capability category where the technicians did not have the required years of experience.

The Barhabise-Kodari Road Repair and Maintenance Project is the third phase of projects to repair the Kodari Highway that links Kathmandu with Tibet. The first phase covered the portion up to Dhulikhel and the second part covered the mid section.

The contract was to black top the road and construct drainage on some sections of the highway with other repair works.

Secretary at the MWPP Hiranyalal Regmi and Director General of the Roads Department Ananda Prasad Khanal answered to queries put forth by the PAC members.

PAC has asked the Department to submit tax clearance details of all the 15 applicants and the reason for their rejection.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today informed PAC that he would not be able to make to the meeting on Wednesday as asked by the committee but would be there the next day.

According to PAC Chairman Subash Nemwang, Koirala will be present to answer on the government’s role and its accountability to the parliament and its committees on Thursday.

Koirala was invited by PAC after the state-flag carrier Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation leased a jet liner from Lauda Air despite strong objections from PAC.

Poor governance fuelling insurgency: Report

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Poor co-ordination and management by the government without due respect to equity and local wisdom are not only indicators of poor governance but also factors that have given rise to the Maoist movement, according to a report.

The report was presented at the National Consultative Workshop for preparing National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSD), organised by the National Planning Commission (NPC) and IUCN Country Office, Nepal at Lalitpur today.

According to Hari Shankar Tripathi, member of the NPC, today’s workshop was aimed at helping to prepare a long-term integrated strategy for NSSD. He also stated that the NPC in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been implementing the Sustainable Community Development Programme (SCDP) also called "Nepal Capacity 21" in six poverty-stricken districts Humla, Surkhet, Kailai, Dang, Myagdi and Okhaldhunga.

"The government, in partnership with UNDP is also implementing the Participatory District Development Programme (PDDP) in 30 districts and Local Governance Programme (LGP) in another 30 districts of the Kingdom," he added.

However, this programme has not been fully successful. Dr Bhesh Dhamala, Assistant Resident Representative, UNDP said that practising NSSD is not yielding results in Nepal." He added that although there were improvements in the literacy, environmental and social development ratio in the districts where the programme is active, Nepal has lost 10 per cent of its forest; there has been an increase in indoor pollution; siltation still remained a big problem, and poverty was growing.

Harihar Tripathi, communication and monitoring specialist for SCDP commented that in 1992 more than 170 countries had committed to the Sustainable Development programme at a seminar held in Rio, Brazil and among them Nepal was a member. " The NSSD programme concentrates on social, economic and environmental developments simultaneously with all the parties working together," he said. "We are involving local politicians in the projects, but the unstable governments in the past caused problems in our work," he added.

During the workshop, presentations on Status Review of the several SCDP programme were made by the involved Task Force Members. " By our experience we have learnt that before starting a development program there should be institutional sustainability, financial sustainability and capacity building and these are the points we will discuss in the workshop. We will come up with ideas on how to go about future SCDP programs", said Hom B Gurung, National Program Manager of SCDP.

Lack of foresight to blame for problem in employment field

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Although thousands of Nepali youths go abroad yearly in search of employment, not much has been done at the policy making level in order to make the foreign employment process easier.

This was the main concern at the interaction programme "Foreign Employment- Problems and Solutions " organised by the Nepal Foreign Employment Entrepreneurs’ Association, an umbrella body of foreign employment agencies, to mark the first International Migration Day.

Tanka Karki, a CWC member of CPN-ML, said that lack of foresight while making the policy has created all the problems. He also said that the Nepali youth were not aware of the work opportunities existing in the country. "The youth seek lesser jobs abroad without even trying to see the existing potential for employment opportunity within the country".

Former minister for Law and Justice, Prem Bahadur Singh of CPN-UML heavily criticised the government for failing to make proper regulations on foreign employment. He also accused the government of letting foreign labour force into the country unchecked while the local youth were without employment.

Pashupati Shumsher J B Rana, General Secretary of the RPP said that the present Nepali Congress government had failed in all aspects so it was futile to say that it had failed in one issue. He stressed on training the labour force who go abroad so that they could earn more and help the national economy.

Ram Sharan Mahat of the ruling Nepali Congress informed that 43 per cent of the total labour force in the country was unemployed, therefore, it was necessary for the local youths to seek employment abroad. " The government has been working on making policies to train the labour force of the country. Efforts are on to open a Saudi Arabian consulate office so that it will be much easier for the youths to get visa to the country where the largest number of Nepalis are working," he added.

‘Parliament unable to solve national problems’

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POKHARA, Dec 18 - Close on the heels of Speaker of the House of Representatives blaming the ruling and opposition parties failing to fulfil their responsibility in strengthening parliamentary system, an ex-Speaker reiterated the charges Monday.

Former Speaker Daman Nath Dhungana said that while the ruling Nepali Congress had failed to resolve Maoist insurgency, the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) was conspiring to grab power even before the polls in the pretext of constitutional amendments.

On Sunday, Taranath Ranabhat, the Speaker, said that the political parties had shirked their responsibility towards the nation.

However, Dhungana today faced criticism over his paper on strengthening the parliamentary system. He presented the paper on strengthening the parliamentary system at a two-day Western Zone seminar organised here by the Ministry of Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. The participants took exception to the former Speaker’s remark that the present system or parliament was not able to solve the problems in the country. The participants were lawmakers from both the Houses of the Parliament, Ministry officials and presidents of the 16 district development committees, mayors and chairmen of district development committees of the Zone.

Meanwhile, some participants also criticised the huge expenditure incurred for a dinner Sunday night where foreign liquor was served. They pointed out that it was ironical that the ministry responsible to uphold law and ensure justice had violated a Cabinet directive that bans serving liquor at government-organised programmes. According to an estimate Rs 500,000 was spent on daily allowance and transportation costs for the participants, and an additional Rs 100,000 for food at an expensive restaurant and still more expenditure on wine.

Issue IDs after finalization of voters’ list: Apex Court

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - The Supreme Court today gave its verdict that the "voters’ identity card" should be issued only after the finalisation of the voters’ list and not prior to that.

The verdict was passed by the division bench comprising justices Krishna Jung Rayamajhi and Gyaindra Bahadur Shrestha in response to a writ petition filed six months earlier at the court.

The petition filed then had stated that the task of snapping photo for the voters’ identity card in Jhapa constituency 1, 3 and 6 was against the law since the task should have been carried only after the finalisation of the voters’ list and not on the basis of the list prepared three years ago.

"The Voters’ Act requires that every year the collection of the nepali voters list should start from Baisakh (Nepali Calender) and end by Shrawan, and the list should be send to the Election Commission (EC) by Bhadra 15. EC can direct and make changes, if any required," stated the writ, adding, " however, without such formality the task of snapping photo was done on the basis of the list of 2054 (BS)."

The writ had also argued that such an act of EC will give a continuity to Non-Nepalese, if any, who had been included in the voters list in 2054 (BS) to cast their vote in the coming election.

"There were chances of electing Non-Nepalese, if any, as well if they were included in the voters’ list of 2054 (BS)," the writ stated, arguing, "such names could be removed after reviewing, however, no such chances were given."

Report on racial discrimination to be presented

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KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - A civil society plans to present a separate report on the situation of racial discrimination in Nepal in the coming World Conference on Racial Discrimination.

This is the first time that a civil society is also taking part in the conference along with the government side where both the sides will present separate reports.

The conference is taking place in South Africa from 31 August to 7 September next year.

Talking to the reporters, coordinator of World Conference on Racial Discrimination National Report Preparation Committee-Nepal (WCRDNRPC), Dr Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan said the committee is preparing a separate report to submit to the Asia Regional Preparatory Meeting, taking place in Teheran in February 2001.

"The report government sent last time on racial discrimination was packet of falsehood, we request the world not to believe in it," he said.

United Nations issued declaration against racial discrimination in 1963, which Nepal adopted in 1971. Each state should send national report on the condition of racial discrimination in every two years. The activists against the racial discrimination here in Nepal claim that Nepal’s last report was misleading. The committee has prepared a concept paper which aims at presenting the real report to the world, organising awareness programmes and pressure-oriented programmes.

According to a press release, distributed by member secretary of the committee, Padma Lal Bishwokarma, it will make two groups for the report: One will be ethnic communities like the oppressed, the indigenous and nationalities, the Muslims, and issue-based communities like Madhesi, lingual, religious, Ex-Gurkha and Kamaiya communities.

The committee will also organise five regional seminars on January 27, January 29, February 24, March 24, and April 14 in Far Western , Mid-Western, Western, Eastern, and Central regions respectively. It will culminate in one national workshop that will be held in Kathmandu on May 31, 2000.

President of International Centre for Law in Development (USA), Dr Clarence J Dias said there could be different forms of racial discrimination in various countries but all are victims of this evil. He added that modern notion of globalisation has fuelled this tendency to discriminate those who are economically feeble.

Member of WCRDNRPC, Mall K Sundar said that in the last report, the government bluntly stated that there is not discrimination at constitutional and practical level.

"The report is being presented on non-government level to present the reality to the world."

Security beefed up in Biratnagar

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BIRATNAGAR, Dec 18 - The local administration has recently beefed up police patrols to curb the growing incidents of robbery in this border city.

Morang District Committee Chairman of the ruling Nepali Congress, Ashok Koirala, and main opposition in the Parliament, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)--CPN-UML, had earlier handed over separate memorandums to the Prime Minister and Chief District Officer demanding a security increase in the city.

Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Krishna Bahadur Thapa, said that armed police have been mobilised throughout the night in the robbery-infested areas. SP Thapa said that there had been no crimes since November 25.

A total of 250 suspected people have so far been arrested in connection with robberies that occurred in various parts of the city at different times.

The Citizen Security Committees formed in almost all the municipality wards are not as active as they had been, police claimed.

Chief District Officer, Binod Gyawali, said that the city’s security would be much more effective if people and police worked together.

SP Thapa suspects that most of the criminals came from Jhapa, Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha and Sarlahi and claimed that the police had already identified the gangs.

Highlighting the security arrangement, SP Thapa said that the entire sub-metropolis has been divided into four zones where armed-police led each team by a police officer patrol throughout the night.

Local party committees of both the ruling and opposition have turned the robberies into a political issue, keeping in mind the coming elections.

Show cause notice to Govt bodies

KATHMANDU, Dec 18 (PR)- The Supreme Court today issued a show cause notice to a number of parties, including Cabinet Secretariat, in response to a writ petition filed Friday, demanding the cancellation of pension of those high ranking government officials enjoying the facility of both pension and salary.

The order was passed by the single bench of Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya, who giving special priority to the case, referred the case be looked by a special bench comprising of five justices.

The petition had named the Cabinet Secretariat, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Election Commission, Public Service Commission, among others as respondents.

The writ petition filed by Bharat Mani Jangam had stated that, in principle, when a retired government official drawing pension is re-instated to any State posts, then the person should relinquish the pension as long as he remains in service.

"It is clear that a person can not enjoy both the facility of pension and pay from the state coffer, but the existing law is silent about it," the writ stated. The filed writ petition argued that the reinstated officials couldn’t enjoy both the pension and pay in the absence of such a law.