Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala scans through a book published for the first time in Nepal with the International system of Book Numbering (ISBN) at a function in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Patriarchy : Root of gender inequality

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 26 - Deputy Speaker Chitralekha Yadav today said the patriarchal system was the root cause of gender inequality.

"If a husband has an illicit relation with another woman, he may still remain a respected person in his society," said Yadav. "But if his own wife has relation with another man, she is going to be stigmatised and expelled from her home and society. This is the fact of our society"

She expressed the aforementioned view during a book release function of the book titled "Yon and Anubhuti" (Sex and Experiences) written by Sita Pandey.

Deputy Speaker also lauded the "honesty" and "courage" of the writer and termed the book as "revolutionary."

Pandey said she was inspired by gender inequality. "What I experienced, I wrote but with full honesty," she said. "I shall write more on the issue as so much is still to be said."

Veteran litterateur Tulsi Divas praised Pandey for her "guts" to write on such a sensitive issue like "sex." "We may or may not agree with her ideas but we should all laud her presentation. She has boldly depicted her inner feelings so skilfully and honestly."

Professor Durga Bhandari said, "Her thoughts are so ahead of time that our orthodox society may not even digest some of her ideologies. Moreover, there are so many informative and novel ideologies in her book besides sex."

Pirated album sellers released

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 26 - All of the six people arrested yesterday during a surprise raid that disclosed a huge quantity of pirated Nepali music cassettes, were released today.

"The arrested were only sellers who had bought the tapes from somewhere else. We have released all of them after they committed to assist in further investigations," said Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Devendra Subedi.

The six arrested agreed to cooperate with the police and provided a written statement promising never to perform the illegal act again, authorities said.

Around 700 pirated Nepali music cassettes were confiscated in a surprise raid yesterday at the capital’s Bhrikuti Mandap and Gongabu Bus Park areas.

Notorious dacoit held after many years

By a Post Reporter

BIRATNAGAR, Jan 26 - A criminal who committed dozens of crimes including murder, theft and dacoity in both Nepal and India has been arrested here.

According to Police Inspector of the Area Police Office Hari Krishna Khand, the accused Kallu Miya had been searched for a long time, but only now arrested at the Nepal-India border area. He also committed major thefts and dacoity in different cities of India including Purnea and Katihar.

It was confirmed that Miya committed two murders in Nepal and two murders in India and it is expected that other crimes committed by him be disclosed following the investigation.

During the course of interrogation, he admitted that he had killed Jalim Miya, a Nepali citizen in Arariya of India disposing of his body in the Nepalese territory. Miya explained that the murder was done to avenge Jalim who had informed the police that Kallu was bringing millions of rupees worth of goods to Biratnagar after robbing an Indian businessman.

Police said Miya, a Nepali citizen, had maintained close relationships with major smugglers and murderers operating around the Nepal-India border.

The arrest of Kallu Miya, who was warranted in both Nepal and India, was one of the major agenda items in Nepal-India border meetings held in Arariya and Biratnagar. Police are now preparing to file a case against him with the court.

3 die in separate mishaps

By a Post Reporter

BIRGUNJ, Jan 26 - Three Indian nationals died here in two separate accidents within the last two days.

Sixty-year-old Pradaman Jha of Betiah in India died last night after he was hit by a rickshaw. Jha had settled here.

In another incident on Jan 22, Mahamad Sahani, 22, of Champaran Thana at Aadapur and Sahida Khatun, 55, of Champaraj at Ram Gadawa, both from eastern India, died on the spot when a bus hit them on Baipas Road here.

The bus with registration number BA. A. Kha 8439 later rammed into the boundary wall of District Post Office at Parsa while on its way for investigation at the District Police Office.

Nine children die of pneumonia

By a Post Reporter

MORANG, Jan 26 - Nine children have already died of pneumonia in the Morang district since the onset of the current winter season, according to Koshi Zonal Hospital, Biratnagar.

A total of two thousand 257 people of 65 VDCs and Biratnagar Sub-Metropolitan city were treated for pneumonia in the month of Poush (December-January) while the number of children affected by the disease in the previous month was two thousand 94, according to Chief of the Public Health Office Ramesh Adhikari.

Children afflicted with pneumonia are currently flooding different hospitals, health posts and sub-health posts, as the number of pneumonia patients has increased in relation to dipping temperatures.

According to Adhikari, the exact data of the children who have died of pneumonia is not yet known.

Man hangs to death

By a Post Reporter

MALANGWA, Jan 26 - A resident of Netragunj VDC ward No 5 in Sarlahi district, Punya Bahadur Yonjan, has committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope on Sunday, according to Sarlahi District Police Office.

Yonjan returned home inebriated on that day and attacked his wife Til Maya with a sharp weapon. When his wife fell unconscious, he thought she was dead and committed suicide, Police Inspector Yuva Raj Pandey, the investigation officer, told The Kathmandu Post.

His wife Til Maya is reported to be in a critical condition.

Maoist workers injure NC activist

By a Post Reporter

DAMAULI, Jan 26 - A group of workers belonging to the CPN (Maoist) attacked Nepali Congress worker Maha Prasad Poudel on Tuesday night injuring him.

Resident of Risti VDC ward No 1, Poudel was eating his evening meal at about 7 p.m. in his home when the Maoists pulled him out of the house and proceeded to assault him with stones.

Poudel, who came to Damauli for treatment, told The Kathmandu Post Wednesday, the Maoist workers had attacked him under the suspicion that he had worked as an informer.

Poudel sustained serious injuries on his head and nose as well as bruises on other parts of his body.

There were also some girls among the Maoist workers equipped with weapons, according to local people. They shouted "Long live Maoists" and retreated into the forest after the attack.

A plight of displaced fishermen

By Ram Prasad Dahal

MIRMI, Syangja, Jan 26 - Not so long ago, Khadga Bahadur Thapa, a local fisherman, was used to netting big fish alongside the rumbling Kaligandaki river that flows down this district. However, since the construction work of Kali Gandaki-A began, he is worried.

Thapa till then had somehow managed to make ends meet through fishing and farming on three ropanies of land he owned. He also had a small house in what is now a part of the 144 megawatt, Rs 25 billion, Kali Gandaki A hydel project site.

But today, Thapa, his family and 13 other neighbouring families, have been forced to live in small sheds within the premises of Bhagawati High School in Sri Krishna Gandaki Village Development Committee (VDC).

They have become the casualties of Nepal’s biggest hydel project constructed so far. Their homes and livelihood, which mostly comprised of fishing and farming, threatened by the very project that, ironically, is being built to kick-start Nepal’s economy.

"My land is gone," Thapa says, shivering on a recent cold morning with nothing but a short and a torn shirt to cover his sinewy body. "So are the ponds and pools alongside the river banks where we used to fish. I can hardly make ends meet in such a situation."

Thapa’s is a tale that is repeated everywhere big projects are constructed. In the struggle to develop the country, families, often poor and helpless, are uprooted and left to fend for themselves in the name of "national need."

While policymakers have yet to find out a way to minimize the impact on local families that bear the brunt of such projects, the tragedy has been compounded further.

Local fishermen say, project officials promised them jobs and compensation for the land they took. Three years down the road, nearly 60 percent of the construction is complete. But the promise is still a promise.

"The project acquired our lands after assuring us of appropriate compensation and jobs. But nothing has happened so far," Thapa says.

The plight of the displaced fishermen has not gone unnoticed.

Chief of the project Keshar Bahadur Chand admits that the fishermen are the most affected lot.

But it is not that the project has failed to compensate the local fishermen, says Chand. He said that the project translocated the affected families to a place called Adhimuhan after providing compensations for their houses.

They were given house rent for two months while the fishermen built their houses. But soon after, they were shifted again to the school premises by Impregilo Spa, the contractor for Kaligandaki-A.

And such is their fate that they may need to pack their belongings and shift elsewhere once again. The school authorities claim that the land is theirs. But they don’t have the land deeds to back that claim.

It seems no one is there to help the fishermen during this latest crisis. The VDC vice-chairman Devendra Prakash Bhattarai, who says he has received plenty of complaints from the school about the fishermen living on their premises, says, "They (the fishermen) are the responsibility of the government. They have to be handed over to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) soon. And NEA has to think about them."

NEA is the government utility which is in charge of the project.

Meanwhile, project chief Chand says that the project has thought about re-settling the fishermen again. "We have contemplated it, but so far we haven’t worked it out," he said adding that there is no need to hurry up yet.

Chand pointed out further that the project is not unconcerned though. He claimed that the project had already started literacy classes for adults, and sanctioned micro-credits for five of the displaced families for pig farming.

The project also plans to set up a few fish hatcheries for the fishermen after a few months, as well as build a primary school for the fishermen’s children, Chand claimed.

Morang jail in state of neglect

MORANG, Jan 26 (PR) - Four children have been kept in the female section of Morang jail in violation of the provision of law that children shall not be sentenced for any crime.

Jailor Chiranjibi Prasad Adhikari says the children are living with their mothers and the sentence of their mothers would not be affected by the children sharing their jail term. There are 30 women and four children in the female section of the jail which is in a dilapidated condition and appears ready to collapse at any time and turn the prison into a graveyard. There is so little space in their rooms that the inmates have to sleep by turn. The jailor admits that the prisoners have uncertain futures and they may run away to save themselves.

Repeated requests and dozens of visits by distinguished people such as the Prime Minister, Home Minister, police officials and human rights activists have so far proven futile to reform the jail’s condition.

The male section of the jail is also overcrowded resulting in different diseases among the inmates. The section can accommodate only 250 people, but 430 people have been crammed in.

A recent health check-up of all the inmates, performed by The Forum for Human Rights and Environment (FOHREN), found that each of the inmates was suffering from some form of disease, according to convenor Khila Nath Niroula.

He added that the prison inmates were suffering from skin diseases, tuberculosis, Asthma, chest diseases and communicable diseases.