Govt tight-lipped on food supply to scarcity areas

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - Though the government recently decided to withdraw over five dozen foreign grants assisted food depots from some of the country’s inaccessible hill districts, it has not yet been able to come up with a reliable option to relieve the people from the food-scarce places.

This conclusion was reached Monday after hearing the replies from the Secretaries at the Ministries of Finance, Supplies, Agriculture, and Local Development. The officials were summoned to furnish replies on what was the government doing to supply food stuff to millions of people living in the country’s remote areas by the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Following a cabinet meeting, the government on December 28 decided to withdraw a total of 68 food depots run by Nepal Food Corporation (NFC). Consequently, reports of food crisis began to pour in from the inaccessible districts, which are linked only by air routes.

According to the decision, food supplies will be stopped to the food depots based in such remote districts as Dolpa, Jumla, Mugu, Bajhang, Darchula, Solukhumbu, Manang, Bhojpur, Khotang, Sankhuwasabha.

As the Secretaries failed to furnish satisfactory replies, PAC today decided to summon Ministers for Supplies and Finance. The committee has also ruled that it was inappropriate on the part of the government to withdraw food depots from these food-scarce districts without offering reliable alternatives to ensure unabated food supplies.

PAC members today stressed that the government should not take such a decision to stop food supplies to the remote and inaccessible mountain districts on an ad hoc manner, and without conducting proper socio-economic and geographic studies.

Devkota  declared RPP (Chand) chief

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - In a dramatic twist, Rajeshwar Devkota, erstwhile leader of the RPP (Chand) which merged with the original Surya Bahadur Thapa-led RPP recently, announced today that he was assuming the position of chairman of the RPP (Chand).

In a press statement issued Monday, RPP (Chand) said, “a meeting yesterday unanimously nominated Rajeshwar Devkota as chairman of the party.”

Devkota’s gambit is curious since the leader of the erstwhile RPP (Chand), Lokendra Bahadur Chand, has himself gone to the Thapa-led RPP.

But legally, RPP (Chand), a national party, is still in existence despite the recent unification, and Devkota appears to have capitalized on the situation. He is among the few holdouts who refused to go over to the RPP.

Others in the Devkota-led RPP (Chand) are Ganesh Sherchan and Jagat Bahadur Gurung.

Norway to set up embassy 

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - After 27 years of diplomatic relations, Nepal is finally going to have a Norwegian Embassy here. The embassy is going to be formally inaugurated by Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek on Wednesday.

Vollebaek, who is second in charge after the Prime Minister, is arriving in Kathmandu on Tuesday after his four day visit to India. On Thursday, he will be leaving for Bhutan. He will be coming along with his 17-member group.

Norway is the third Scandinavian country to set up its Embassy in Kathmandu, the other two being Denmark and Finland. Earlier, the New Delhi-based Embassy used to look after the affairs in Nepal.

Nepal and Norway established diplomatic relations in 1973. Norway has been providing financial and technical support in hydropower and social sector through non-governmental organisations (NGOs). There are currently 13 Norwegian NGOs in Nepal.

Norway included Nepal in its priority list of aid recipient countries along with 11 other third world countries in 1996. “After 1996, the aid provided to Nepal has increased,” said Gyanraj Acharya, Joint Secretary at the Foreign Ministry.

According to Acharya, the Norwegian aid is concentrated in three main areas. “Under energy, they are investing in hydro-electricity and under social sectors on education and health,” he said. “Their third programme is to strengthen democracy,” he added.

Norway, which has harnessed over 90 percent of its hydropower potential, first started its aid to Nepal on power development. Even before the establishment of diplomatic relations, in the 60s, Norway assisted in the Tinau Khola project working alongside the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). It was Norway’s first grant assistance to Nepal.

Established by the private sector, it has now been nationalised under the Hydropower Policy. Norway has also provided financial and technical aid to Butwal Power Company’s Andhikhola (5.1 Megha Watt(MW)) and Jhimruk (12 MW).

In recent years Norwegian entrepreneurs have started investing in Nepal. Khimti Hydropower (60 MW) was the first one established through private investment where 85 percent of the shares are invested by Norwegians.

In Melamchi, Norway government has committed a grant of US dollars 24 million, provided that certain conditions are met.

RNAC body warns of stir

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - Employees of RNAC, the national flag-carrier, have threatened an intensified stir if the airline management fails to fulfil their various demands by January 14.

The threat was made in a memorandum submitted Monday to RNAC’s executive chairman Bharat Bahadur Karki by the RNAC Employees’ Association, a group that is aligned with the Nepali Congress.

Earlier, the communist-aligned RNAC Employees’ Union had also made similar threats.

The two bodies are demanding that the management fulfil demands such as timely promotions and increase in allowances as well as immediately starting the process to lease-purchase a wide-bodied jet.

The RNAC Employees Association said today that despite repeated assurances to fulfil the demands in the past, the management had not yet done so. “If they don’t do it now, then we have no choice but to begin the stir which could lock down the airline,” an official of the Association said.

RNAC has been hit by repeated labour trouble in the past, the most serious being a strike by its pilots which grounded the airline for days last year.

Transporters warn of stir

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 (PR)- Transport entrepreneurs here today warned to stop nation wide public transportation on January 15 if indiscriminately levied vehicle tax is not abolished by Jan. 4.

Addressing a press conference organised by the Federation of Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs (FNTE) here today, FNTE General Secretary Hom Nath Adhikari alleged that though the cabinet recently decided to abolish all types of indiscriminately levied vehicle taxes on highways and sub-highways but the municipalities were not complying with it.  

The government on Dec 30, 1999 amended the Local Self-governance Regulation-1999 which has banned all types of indiscriminately levied taxes on vehicles. Issuing a press release on the occasion, Adhikari also demanded the government to compensate all such taxes levied by various municipalities.

FNTE also urged that the government should allow the import of only Euro-1 standard vehicles and they should be duty free. They also demanded a common taxation for the petrol and diesel vehicles. “We strongly demand ban on the import of Standard-less vehicles due to commissions,” states the press release.

Earlier, FNTE also submitted lettr of demands to the Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai in this regard.

Terai in the throes of bitter winter

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - Winter weather patterns in various parts of the country observed fluctuation during the first week of January, said a Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) report today.

The weekly weather report, however, is silent on how the weather pattern will transform in the days ahead.

While plains of the Terai saw dropping temperature and a cold wave triggered by thick fogs that blanketed the region every day this week, temperatures in the hilly areas rose higher than average, according to the weather bulletin.

The report said, “Maximum temperature in the Terai, which normally stands between 22 to 24 degrees celsius during mid-winter, plummeted down to as low as 10 to 14 degree celsius this week. However, temperatures in the hills remained higher than average.”

In the hilly areas the mercury soared up two degrees celsius more than usual, shows a graphic map attached with the report. While temperatures in Terai areas plummeted down to as low as four degree celsius than normal.

Five people -- three in the central Terai district of Mahottari, and two in the far-eastern mountain district of Taplejung -- have already succumbed to this year’s winter, according to reports from our correspondents.

Adverse weather conditions in the Terai could improve by mid-January, weathermen at the met office said last week. Ruling out the chances of heavy rains and snowfalls in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley, they also forecasted that the mercury level in these areas may not plummet further this winter.

UML spearheads No Dowry campaign

-By a Post Reporter  

KATHMANDU, Jan 10- Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML)’s new Kathmandu district committee members, who are due to be elected following a district convention late this week, will not accept, or give, any dowry, the party’s Kathmandu district organization committee said here today.

“Kathmandu’s new district committee members will not accept, or give, any dowry whatsoever during their weddings,” the main opposition’s Kathmandu District Organization Committee Secretary, Rameshwor Phuyal told reporters Monday.

He added, “Our aim is to launch a no-dowry movement to discourage such social anomalies which are taking an epidemic proportion in the society. The purpose is to send a message to all parts of the country.”

Though Hindus all over the country have traditionally been accepting and giving dowries in wedding ceremonies, during recent times the custom is taking a form of social distortion especially in areas adjoining India’s Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.

Phuyal was addressing a press conference called here Monday to highlight the party’s second Kathmandu district convention scheduled for January 13 and 14. CPN-UML General Secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal is scheduled to open the convention at 11 am on Thursday, Jan 13.

He said that the convention will also endorse a series of reform programmes aimed at further consolidating the party’s organizational structure in Kathmandu in the new millennium. Among others, the party’s reform programmes include, one year long special Marxist study programme, One Locality One Organization programme, and cadres’ problem resolution programme. With five of the capital’s seven parliamentary seats occupied by CPN-UML candidates in May general elections, the capital city continues to remain a CPN-UML stronghold.

Areas around TIA most polluted

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - The Valley’s north east which houses Tribhuvan International Aiport (TIA) is the most polluted area in the capital and the level of air pollution there is already hovering on the danger mark, warns an air-quality survey.

Findings of the first phase of the survey conducted last monsoon in the capital and some parts of Patan by students of environmental science was made public yesterday.

The survey found that the concentration of nitrogen oxide was very high in Kathmandu’s ward nos 6, 7, 9, 34 and 35 which includes the TIA, Boudha, Chabahil and Jorpati. A follow-up survey will be conducted this February.

The results were made public by Japan Environment Academy and Leaders Nepal here yesterday. Students from St. Xavier’s Campus, Kathmandu and Tribhuvan University conducted the survey on a thumb size “passive diffusion sampler” designed by Dr. Kazuo Amaya of Japan. The tests were conducted at various traffic points for three straight days.

Forty to eighty milligram per meter cube of Nitrogen Oxide was found in those areas while upto 60 milligram per meter cube of the environmentally unfriendly gas in the air is considered normal by the World Health Organization. The survey was jointly coordinated by Komal Raj Aryal and Sumeet Pokhrel, who are both graduates of environmental science.

“Numerous carpet industries as well as the country’s only international airport located in the area are the main reasons why the quantity of nitrogen oxide has shot up there,” said Aryal. “Plus, the south-westerly breeze drives all the pollution from the Valley to the direction which results in dangerous gaseous content.”

According to Aryal, the survey was conducted during the monsoon when most of the gas was soluble in water. The second phase of their survey, beginning next month, is likely to show a higher content of nitrogen oxide.

Health experts say locals living in areas with heavy concentration of nitrogen oxide are prone to infection of respiratory tract as well as eye and skin irritations. Over-exposure to the gas also leads to cracking of the skin.

The results of the survey will be compared to the findings of 122 other countries to mark Earth Day on April 22. Similar tests are being conducted at Pokhara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj.

Citizens Report 1999 (CR99), a compilation of findings regarding air pollution in Kathmandu, Nepalgunj and Biratnagar last year, was also launched at the function. The report suggests to build separate lanes for slow moving vehicles in urban areas, devise emission certification for two wheelers and improve the quality of public transportation.

CR99 also demands to formulate a separate “Clean Air Act” apart from the existing Environment Protection Act to technically deal with all aspects of pollution as well as phase out very old vehicles from the urban street and devise an action plan to manage exhausted batteries of electric vehicles.

According to General Secretary of Leaders Nepal Amod Pokhrel, the level of suspended particles was found to be “high” at all levels (from ground level upto 50 feet from the ground) along the capital’s busy Putalisadak stretch.

The urge to migrate at all costs is indeed very costly

-By Sanjeev Ghimire 

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 - While swindling by some foreign employment agencies has emerged as one of the problems for youths seeking jobs abroad, the urge to migrate at all costs, often through personal efforts, is the root cause of irregularities in foreign employment, labour experts say.

The number of Nepali foreign employment seekers going abroad through registered foreign employment agencies in the fiscal year 1999 (2055-56) was 15,156, whereas it stood at just 6,500 a year ago. Similarly, 12, 641 people went abroad on personal basis in 1999.

According to Ministry of Labour, by the end of the fiscal year 2000, the figures, especially those going through personal sources, would exceed those going through recruiting agencies.  That could lead to more cases of duped workers.

Director General of the Department of Labour (DoL) Deep Basnyat says the number of migrant workers leaving through personal efforts are increasing, thus giving rise to more incidences of duping. “We have to urgently discourage it,” says Basnyat. “We are seeking legal assistance to tighten the legal loop holes which are prompting the problem.”

So far, after an amendment last year, Foreign Employment Act (1985) gave DoL authority to look into cases of foreign employment disputes. It has investigated dozens of such cases and has filed 37 suits so far.

DoL officials said that 31 of those cases concerned duped workers who used personal sources. The remaining six cases were those of institutional cheating. However, according to DoL, the agency settled most of such cases by providing appropriate compensation. Under Secretary at the Labour Ministry Narayan Adhikari holds that employment agencies play “middle-man” to promote personal recruitment which leads to foreign employment cheating.

According to Adhikari, by sending workers through personal means, the foreign employment agencies escape accountability to the government. The Foreign Employment Act has made the recruiting agencies accountable for all the workers recruited by them.

The Act requires recruiting agencies to deposit Rs. 5,00,000 in a government account before they can be issued recruiting licence. The deposited amount is for workers’ welfare. “There is no such provision for those going through personal sources,” says Adhikari.

Moreover, agencies have to pay Rs 700 as foreign employment tax per head it sends abroad. “By being middle man they evade tax, causing considerable losses to the national exchequer,” says Kumar Raj Joshi, an economist at the ministry. “Tax offices should know this as well.”

Moreover, there are no legal compulsions of life insurance, proper orientation and many other strong documentations for those who go by personal effort. “Many recruiting agencies are cashing on it,” says Joshi. “As a result of this laxity many people land up at wrong places especially due to poor orientations.”

Despite the risks, workers who personally seek foreign employment stil prefer this method.

Shak Bahadur Pariyar, 29, of Marpha Village Development Committee (VDC)-1 of Mustang district who is going to Dubai, U.A.E. as a garment worker on his own effort, holds that recruiting agencies take too long to send abroad. “We take loans from private lenders at extremely high interest, but the agencies sometimes take months to get our visa stamped,” says Pariyar. “Under such circumstances we are ruined.”

Generally, foreign employment seekers from economically deprived rural backgrounds take loans at a very high rates, as high as 36 percent. Moreover, they generally take the sum much before they go abroad. If employment agencies take too long to fly them abroad then most of their hard earned money is exhausted servicing the debt.

Another personal foreign employment seeker Top Nath Adhikari,21, of Kaski says that recruiting agencies are very expensive. “If we go through our own source we can save half the cost,” says Adhikari.

Interestingly, many such employment seekers maintain that personal sources are much more reliable than those of employment agencies. “We go there through our close friends and relatives who we can trust. There is no guarantee from agencies anyway,” said Adhikari.

Foreign employment agencies have something else to say.

PB Rai of Raj Overseas holds government responsible for the trend of personal recruitment. Firstly, he points out the extremely “protracted” government procedures. “Generally employers give between 30 and 45 days to finish the recruiting process. But our government takes some 15 days for just giving pre-recruitment permission, not to mention the final permission,” says Rai. “This compels recruiting agencies to use the personal mode, not just for procedural ease, but also not to lose their businesses.”

Rai also maintains that the government need for heavy documentation also prompts migrants to use a personal approach. “Many of the government’s documentation requirements are so heavy that smaller companies just cannot meet them. It foster individual advance.”

Employment entrepreneurs also point to the lack of diplomatic missions of Gulf countries in Kathmandu which leads to hassles and consumes much time and money of employment agencies.