‘Bhattarai will remain in office for full term’

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 20 - Two cabinet ministers today said Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai would remain in his office for a full five-year term, adding they would leave no stone unturned to protect his premiership.

Speaking at a face-to-face programme organised by the Reporters’ Club here Thursday, Minister for Sports, Culture and Youth Sarat Singh Bhandari and State Minister for Information and Communication Govinda Bahadur Shah said Premier Bhattarai would remain in his office for a full five-year term.

The ministers, who are widely perceived as close aides of Prime Minister Bhattarai, remarked this after reporters asked whether Bhattarai would remain prime minister for a full five-year term. Bhattarai, who was elected in May general elections, was sworn in as the premier in May.

Eight months down the line, however, his career has turned out to be both controversial and chaotic with his own Nepali Congress MPs expressing dissatisfaction over the mess within the cabinet. They say, Bhattarai has continued to accommodate “tainted faces”. They also dismissed suggestions that the cabinet is being expanded with former Speaker of the House of Representatives and NC CWC member Ram Chandra Poudel chosen Deputy Prime Minister.

“We don’t know what’s really happening, all we know is what all of you know,” said Minister for Industries Om Kar Prasad Shrestha. “It’s his (PM’s) prerogative to make changes in the government,” Minister Bhandari adds.

Dwelling on the nearly four year-old Maoist insurgency, State Minister for Information and Communication Shah said, “the government is all set to address the drawn out insurgency once and for all.”

“Wait and see what will happen to   Maoist insurgency,” he asserted. “Very soon we are going to kick start our relief programmes aimed at the grassroots of Maoist-affected areas. And after that this insurgency will cool down.”

More than 1,000 people have fallen prey to the ‘People’s War’ waged by the underground Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Maoist in February 1996. The insurgency fever has gripped more than a dozen remote hill districts, mostly in mid-western hills.

Asked whether  assistant ministers are made puppets by  senior ministers, Assistant Local Development Minister Aphtab Alam said that he was pretty satisfied with his position and the responsibilities shouldered upon him. He instead warned the ministers to keep away from the conspiracies   most likely to be fabricated by bureaucrats. “If ministers do not remain alert, chances are high that they will land up in bureaucrats’ fish hooks,” Shah adds.

Land  for party office donated

-By a Post Reporter

BIRGUNJ, Jan 20 - The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) central committee member and president of RPP Parsa District Executive Committee Rajiv Parajuli has donated land worth 550 thousand rupees for his party to construct a district office building in Parsa.

The development was stated in a press communique issued by the party on Sunday.

The press communique explains that a committee has been set up under the convenorship of Shyam Sundar Shah to construct the party’s office building.

CPN (UML) has also constructed an office building in Parsa but the oldest party functioning in the district, Nepali Congress, has not made any attempt so far to build its office building.

Law and order situation discussed

-By a Post Reporter

BIRATNAGAR, Jan 20 -  The Eastern Regional Conference attended by Chief District Officers of the region, police chiefs of districts, zones and region and officers of the National Investigation Department has concluded.

A communique issued at the end of the 3-day conference says the conference attended by 56 officials took stock of issues including the existing law and order situation, present development efforts, status in social and political spheres, the administrative and organisational situation, existing acts, laws, policies and implementation aspects of the order and direction of the current Home Administration.

According to a senior police officer, attention was focused particularly on Maoist insurgency. 

Reports were presented and discussions held on the growing problem of insecurity and worsening situation of law and order in the districts. Police, administration and the National Investigation Department were criticised.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony Minister for Home, and Information and Communications Purna Bahadur Khadka expressed the government’s commitment to eliminate corruption, the commission system, and mafia and red-tapism adding that more resources would be provided to the District Administration, police and National Investigation Department to strengthen these efforts.

He also stated that the authority to resolve the Maoist problem was entrusted to the Home Administration, particularly to the police.

Home Secretary Padma Prasad Pokhrel said people’s faith in the Home Administration would increase only if it was clean and transparent.

The Inspector General of Police Achyut Krishna Kharel said the government has been making the police organisation financially sound and urged the police units to play an active role in controlling criminal activities and maintaining law and order.

Chief of the National Investigation Department Haribabu Chaudhari said ideas expressed at the conference would help make the department effective and active.

Child marriage rampant among indigenous groups

-By a Post Reporter

MORANG, Jan 20 -  Upendra Mandal of Morang Naya Bazaar married off his daughter, Amita Mandal, at the age of 14 years.   He says it would have been too difficult to find her a husband after she had grown up. If the daughters remain unmarried, their parents are despised in their community and they do not like to be despised.

Narayan Das of Biratnagar Jahada, who married off his 13-year-old daughter recently, says he has earned punya (fruit of religious deeds) and lent continuity to their social tradition.

According to the Muliki Ain (Civic Codes), girls must attain the age of 16 years to get married with the permission of the parents and 18 years to get married without their permission. Similarly, boys must attain the age of 18 years to get married with the permission of the parents and 21 years to get married without their permission. If violated, the law requires that the offenders be punished. Despite this legal provision, the custom of child marriage is widespread in the indigenous communities of Morang district.

A resident of Naya Bazaar, Raina Das says she was married at the age of 12. As it is the practice to cover the face of the bride with a veil, she  has not seen the face of her husband,till date, who currently lives in India. It is the practice in their community that married couples should live separately for some time after marriage.

Among the indigenous tribes, the older the daughter, the more difficult it becomes to have her married in the later part      of her life because of dowry system.

Despite numerous incidents of child marriage, complaints are not filed with the police or  courts. “Not a single case of child marriage has been filed with the Morang District Court over the past 2 or 3 years,” advocate Hem Raj Pant said.

Vice-Chancellor of Purvanchal Viswovidyalaya Dhrubnarayan Lal said more than 60 percent of child marriages take place among indigenous communities due to the lack of consciousness and prevailing tradition.

According to a gynaecologist of Koshi Zonal Hospital, women from indigenous groups are often found very weak contributing to the growth of child mortality in their communities.