Nine killed, hundreds hurt in police-Maoist clash in Accham

-By a Post Reporter 

KATHMANDU, Jan 15 - Nine persons -- two Maoist guerrillas and seven locals -- were killed and hundreds of others injured yesterday when police tried to stop a cultural programme held in a school in Accham district.

According to sources, police took the dead bodies into their custody and cremated them themselves. A large number of villagers had turned up to watch the programme organised by the Maoist insurgents. Sources said the locals were killed when they tried to escape during police firing.

The deceased were Madan Kumar Chalauni, 16, student of Jalpadeni High School, Tek Bahadur Kami, 25, Dhagre Damai, 22, Ram Bahadur Chalauni, 27, Amar Singh Chalauni, 24, Jahar Singh Chalauni, 62 of Thaku VDC and an unidentified person of Damai community from Sera VDC. The two Maoists could not be identified. 

Of the injured, Nar Bahadur Chalauni, 21, Chadre Kami, 45 and Ram Singh Chalauni, 60 are in critical condition.

Sources say some 35 police entered Dhungala School in Thaku VDC ward 3, east of Accham, on Friday upon receiving information that the Maoists were holding a cultural programme and a closed session.

According to sources, the people were killed when police fired in retaliation after the insurgents pelted stones at them. However, locals claim the police first fired in retaliation but later killed selected people deliberately.

The police-Maoist clash that began at 6.30 p.m last night continued till 4 a.m today. Details of the clash is still not clear as the telecommunication service in Kamalbazaar near the site is out of order.

Bhupal Man Bista, secretary of MP Ram Bahadur Bista from Accham, said this is the first time a police-Maoist clash of such magnitude took place in the region. According to Bista this is also the first time so many persons have died in the Maoist related activity.

Police have seized three muskets and seven bags of hand bombs from the site.

Meanwhile, three policemen and two locals who were injured in the Maoist bomb attack in Liwang, Rolpa yesterday are in critical condition, according to the Bheri Zonal Hospital where the injured are undergoing treatment.

The insurgents had hurled a socket bomb at the police who were patrolling in ward-5 in Liwang. They were flown to the hospital in a helicopter today. According to the hospital, head constables Keshav Datta Pandey, Keshav Khatry and the 11 years old Khim Bahadur B.K are in serious condition.

Likewise, according to the Mid-Western Regional Police Office, Fam Bahadur Chalaune of Ramghat-5 in Surkhet was killed by the insurgents on Friday.

Chief District Officer of Surkhet Dhruba Prasad Sharma said three unidentified persons came to his shop at 6 p.m yesterday killed him with a musket. Sharma said the three are at large.

Civil servants seek security

KATHMANDU, Jan 15 (PR)- Nepal Government Employees’ Organization, Mid-Western Regional Coordination Committee has demanded that the government ensure security to the civil servants who work in the Maoist insurgency affected areas.

In a press release issued today, the organisation has said that the civil servants posted in those areas are facing double trouble. On one hand the insurgents extort money from them and on the other hand the government deputes them to these areas as a punishment.

“...The government has tried to thwart the civil servant’s right to form organisations with threats and is using posting in insurgents affected areas as a punishment,” states the press release. “Because of this, the experience of civil servants working in these areas is extremely painful.”

Condemning the killing of two civil servants -- Bishwoshanti Subedi and Bamdev Rizal -- by Maoist insurgents, the organisation has appealed to the government to provide proper compensation to the families of the two.

The two were killed on January 10 in Mijhiu VDC while on their way to Dang from Rolpa. Another person overseer Suresh Raj Satyal was seriously injured in the attack.

Maoist leader untraceable

KATHMANDU, Jan 15 (PR) - Dev Gurung, a national level Maoist leader who was released by police on January 6 after three and half years of imprisonment is suspected to have gone underground again.

Gurung, 40, by far the most senior Maoist leader to be arrested, was supposed to appear before the District Police Office (DPO), Gorkha and Gorkha District Court on January 13. But he failed to do so.

He is facing charges of Public Offence at the DPO and Crime against State at the Gorkha Court.

According to prevalent provision, Gurung can appear before the DPO within a week and before the Court within a month of the given date. Sources say, he was one of the senior intellectuals of the underground Nepal Communist Party (Maoist).

UML forms dist body

KATHMANDU, Jan 15 (PR)- The two-day Second District Conference of the main opposition CPN-UML which concluded here yesterday has formed its district committee for the next three years.

The closed session of the conference yesterday formed a 27-member Kathmandu District Committee and appointed Rameshwor Phuyal as its Secretary. The conference also formed a three-year seven member Advisory Committee. Both committees have one vacant seat each. Altogether 285 party members participated in the session.

Rameshwor Phuyal presented the political report, while Narayan Silwal and Om Thapaliya presented Organisational and Economic reports on the closed session. All the reports were passed after a group discussions.

The newly formed district committee decided to put pressure upon the government to take back its price hikes and also demanded ratification of bill of equal rights to property at the earliest. The conference also called on its District Committee members to compulsorily deny “dowry system.”

Earlier, on Jan 13, eight persons were felicitated for their long term contribution on the communist movement.

Two die in road mishap

DHANGADI, Jan 15 (PR)- Two persons died in two separate road accidents at Chaumala Village Development Committee here today, according to police.

Police here said Krishna Shrestha, 40, of Chaumala VDC-7 died on spot when a bus Na A Na 815 hit him near Gauri Ganga river at about 11:00 a.m. The bus was on its way to Biratnagar from Dhangadi.

Similarly, an Indian truck UP 318221 hit Saraswoti Damai,9, also of Chamaula VDC-7, near Rajipur crossroad of the same VDC at 1:45 p.m. Saraswoti also died on spot.  

According to the police, bus driver Chiranjeevi Basnet and the truck driver Ram Bilas are under police custody for necessary investigation.

Civic bosses pander to the wealthy blissfully ignorant of the needy

-By Gopal Devkota 

BIRGUNJ, Jan 15 - This dusty town on the Nepal-India border proudly proclaims itself as the “Gateway to Nepal”. And so it is, since most men and material travelling overland from abroad enter Nepal through its arched gate on the border.

Birgunj, by the way, is also the proud owner of another sobriquet: “sub-metropolis”, the second largest town after Kathmandu. Perhaps rightly so. It has the people, the economy and the amenities of modern life accessible to many of its residents.

But go off the beaten track, to obscure wards and lanes of this thriving commercial city and you will probably think you landed in the middle ages. Some of its 19 municipal wards don’t even have drinking water, electricity and telephone services. Many households, especially in the outskirts, also lack latrines.

All that, however, hasn’t stopped city fathers from proposing grandiose plans. To the “Gateway” and “sub-metropolis” adjective, they now have added others: the first Nepali city with a musical fountain, the only City after Kathmandu to build a public swimming pool.

In the last 15 years, the city has spent more than a billion rupees on “development” projects, but none have been grander than the musical fountain and swimming pool projects.

Constructing public lavatories, sewage and drinking water mains are way down the priority list. So is paying off more than Rs 30 million to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) which hasn’t been paid in years, and which recently threatened to cut off the city’s power supply.

“We never needed the swimming pool and the decorated pond,” laments Surendra Kurmi, a local resident who is also the district member of Nepal Sadbhavana Party. “It is a pathetic situation and the mayor has to take the blame for all this.”

According to publicly available records, the city spent Rs 45 million to decorate the Ghadiarwa Pokhara (pond) with a musical fountain connected to, as some locals say, “disco lights”. It is also spending another Rs 38 million to construct the swimming pool.

No public debate was ever held before the plans were pushed through. And perhaps none ever will be, at least in the immediate future, when still grander plans need public funds.

The problem with Birgunj, unlike other towns and villages, is not so much the lack of funds. That it has aplenty. A thriving local economy and industry sustains its 125 thousand citizens and 75 thousand migrant workers from India. And because most of the imported goods enter Nepal through its gates, Birgunj is also party to the stream of revenue it generates. It has a yearly budget of about Rs 160-170 million.

The lavish spending on such projects has led to overt resentment among some people and political leaders who say there are more beneficial projects awaiting funds than musical fountains and swimming pools.

“Birgunj Sub-Municipality’s budget exceeds the budget of the entire Parsa district by three times,” says Janardan Singh Chhettri, the Parsa District Development Committee (DDC) chairman. “But the city functions so poorly that more than 50 percent of it still look like villages. All you need to do is to see wards 1, 2, 3, 17, 18 and 19.”

Another leader, Ram Chandra Shah, who is the district secretary of the CPN (UML), decries the lack of proper vision on the part of the city’s mayor. “There is no need to build such grand projects when roads and electricity are still lacking in some of our wards, but the mayor went ahead anyway.”

Mayor Bimal Prasad Srivastav, meanwhile, is dismissive of all the allegations. “I didn’t know that there were some wards lacking drinking water facilities when we planned the swimming pool,” he says.

As to other allegations, they are all the work of vested interests. “I have brought much development to Birgunj,” says the Srivastav. “(My detractors) are all opposing just for the sake of opposing.”

It is true that Srivastav was on the watch when some major works were undertaken, like the completion of a much needed Rs 20 million worth central sewage line, and the purchase of land worth Rs 100 million to develop a new bus park. But he has also presided over such white elephants as the swimming pool construction and the musical fountain.

“Before the construction of the swimming pool, we took a Rs 10 million proposal to provide drinking water to three wards,” says Ram Narayan Kurmi, a resident of Birgunj-17 and secretary NC’s Parsa-1 constituency. “That he should spend Rs 40 million on a swimming pool is ridiculous.”

Of the past 15 years, Srivastav of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party has lorded over Birgunj as mayor for more than 10 years, the remaining five by former mayor Madhav Lal Shrestha of the Nepali Congress. The latter continued the projects initiated by the former.