Arun III investors arriving very soon

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, July 8 -  Representatives of Eurorient Investment Group USA are arriving in the capital ‘very soon’ to apply for power development licence for 402MW Arun III.

"Managing Director of Eurorient Investment Group Ron Nenchimia arrives here within two weeks," Binaya Amatya, Eurorient’s agent for Nepal, told The Kathmandu Post today. "While in Kathmandu, he will apply for development licence, work towards setting up the group’s Nepal office and sort out Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with India."

Eurorient is required to pay a sum of Rs 42 million - at the rate of Rs 100 per Kilo Watt - to obtain the power development licence of Arun III, according to the Electricity Regulation.

Following a cabinet decision, the government on June 28 decided to allow the American group (of companies) to develop Arun III project which lies in the eastern hill district of Sankhuwasava.

The proposals of ASTQ Holdings Corporation, Canada, and Sushashan Power Company, were rejected.

The government also plans to allow the same company to develop 335 MW Upper Arun and 308 MW Lower Arun if Eurorient works satisfactorily in Arun III, government sources say.

Department of Electricity Development is said to be in the process of inviting Eurorient officials through a letter that it plans to send some time next week. The company is required to submit an application within a month after receiving the letter, according to the Regulation.

Amatya said Eurorient’s Ron Nenchimia, besides preparing a detailed schedule to develop the power project, will also visit India and meet the Central Indian authorities there to sort out PPA. "India has verbally agreed to sign the Arun III PPA with us," he added.

Detailed design works and feasibility studies of the run-of-river hydel project, which will be one of Nepal’s biggest hydel projects, had been completed in 1993. So much so that the project’s tender processes were already underway. But the then-government was forced to abort it after the World Bank, which had supported it for 10 years, pulled out in 1995.

Then the project’s cost had been put at US $1 billion. The price, however, has not yet been reviewed.

The Department’s Director General Bishnu Bahadur Thapa said he is "quite optimistic" about Arun III "this time because of the Americans’ keen interest". "We can be sure after they pay the royalty amount (required to get the licence)," he said. "If they don’t, another process will begin next month."

Euroreint’s Agent for Nepal, Amatya said the company’s top executive Nenchimia has already conveyed the group’s keen interest to develop Arun III in an interview to BBC Friday.

He informed that Eurorient Banking Group is coming together with two other multinational companies - ABB and Privam company, "USA’s pioneer" power developers. He added that the companies have already developed bigger hydel projects in the US, Europe, China and India.

"The Arun III project will be completed on time, provided the roadmap is clear: that both the government and locals support speedy construction," Amatya said.

As for the road to link the remote hydel construction site, he said, "the company has already allocated budget for that. Survey works will begin shortly after we get the licence. If all goes well the road construction will begin after Dashain-Tihar."

A 130-km road needs to be constructed to link the Arun III site with Tehrathum’s Basantapur or with Sunsari’s Chatara. The survey will finalize the "shortest and best" link.

When the issue of whether or not to develop the Arun III was in the spotlight in the early 1990s, hydro power experts and environmentalists were up in arm against the project.

Hydropower expert Bikash Pandey of Winrock International was one of those who had opposed the project. He appears to be satisfied this time.

"We only opposed the project’s high price back then," he recalled. "We were against the huge amount of loan that Nepal was going to receive from World Bank. It could have been a risky venture."

Another expert Dr Binayak Bhadra, who lobbied in favour of Arun III, says, "the project is a very good one and that the private sector’s involvement is indeed very much encouraging."

"Arun III is a very attractive project in terms of both investment and geological setting," said Dr Bhadra. "The run-of-river project can supply 402 MW of electricity all year round."

NSP concerned over mandatory travel documents

KATHMANDU, July 8 (PR)- Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) has expressed concern over the agreement which makes it mandatory for Nepalis and Indians to carry "travel documents" while flying to each other’s territory.

The agreement, reached yesterday by Home Secretaries of Nepal and India, requires any person travelling by air to carry either passport, voter’s ID, or citizenship certificate.

In a press release issued today, NSP has said that the decision is not practical. "Given the fact that all Nepalis have not been able to acquire either the citizenship or a Election Commission identification card, how could the Nepalese government arrive at such a decision? Our party is aghast."

NSP warns the decision could have far-reaching implications.

The new system of "travel documents" will be implemented from October 1, said the visiting, Indian Home Secretary Kamal Pandey yesterday. The arrangement will not affect those crossing the over two dozen border points by land.

"The open border between Nepal and India is not the only thing that has created problems," says NSP. "The problems have been created largely due to unethical and irresponsible actions of the administration."

Govt blamed for insurgency

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 8 - Former lawmaker Padma Ratna Tuladhar has accused the government of "doing little to create minimum atmosphere" for talks with Maoists.

Tuladhar, a prominent rights activist, is among the one who has been asked by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to help the government bring the Maoists to the negotiating table.

Chairman of Human Rights Protection Centre Tuladhar today said the Maoists are still "interested" in talks. "But since the government has not provided the minimum atmosphere, the talks can’t take place," he told a seminar organized by Nepal Citizen’s Forum. Tuladhar has time and again lambasted the attitude of successive governments towards the Maoists.

"We often hear of news of talks but commitment and sincerity lack on both parties," said the chairperson of CPN-ML, Sahana Pradhan. "It has now become a cat-and-mouse game."

She, however, insisted that the talks were the only solution to the four-years-old crisis. "If the Koreans can seek solution to their five-decade-old confrontation through talks, Maoist problem cannot be beyond solution."

Chairman of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Narayanman Bijukchhe has asked the government to look into the genesis of the Maoist movement before seeking its solution. Advocating fundamental difference between "Maoism" and "terrorism", he said the present stalemate has resulted from the government’s tendency to bulldoze through any differences. "We are very much with the Maoists, at least in principle, as far as their movement goes," he added.

Political analyst Anand Aditya and advocate Yubraj Sangraula presented working papers on the Maoist movement.

Aditya in his paper, People’s War in the Nepalese Hills, argues that in the early days, "the Prime Minister of the day saw it as a terrorist problem of criminal character and the Home Minister said it would need only a few days to control."

Sher Bahadur Deuba, who now heads the high-level Consensus Seeking Commission on the Maoist Problem, was the Prime Minister

when the Maoist announced their People’s War in early 1996.

The People’s War, Aditya said, has refused to fizzle out. Heavy toll on human lives and losses of property point at the urgency of the problem at hand.

Explaining the People’s War, he said, "the high visibility of the movement can be explained in terms of its underground organization, with a specific future plan, which has mounted attacks upon the state machinery and has been able to carve a certain niche in the political space of the land."

According to Sangraula in his paper Insurgency and Application of International Law, the contest of Maoist People’s War, both Maoists and the government have committed several crimes against humanity.

Both the government and Maoists may continue their fight for power but the civilian rights should be honoured, he stressed.

Democracy has been a disappointment, says Dhirendra Shah

KATHMANDU, June 8 (PR)- Ten years of democracy has been a disappointment due to the lack of proper surveillance and transparency, said former Prince Dhirendra Shah today. He, however, warned not to be dismissive of parlimentary democracy.

"Ten years of democracy has fuelled disillusionment...Price of democracy is surveillance and transparency...There hasn’t been proper surveillance and transparency," he told The Kathmandu Post.

He questioned the rationale behind the democratic movement of 1990, adding the country had won democracy way back in 1951.

Shah was the chief guest at a felicitation-cum-talk program organized here Saturday by Patriotic Youth Front. He stayed for over two hours in the program and talked with all those who wanted to meet him.

"There is no political code of conduct at the moment and anyone can do whatever he chooses," he said. "This is anarchy." When asked to comment on stray allegations that he was supporting the Maoists, Shah said, "I don’t feel the need to comment since I am not in anyway involved."

Did he foresee any role for himself to work for the common man in Nepal?

"I will act according to circumstances. Should there be a need, I will be active for the sake of the people and the nation," he said.

Shah refused to accept that King Mahendra’s decision in 1959 to suspend a democratically elected government and introduce the Panchayat was a wrong decision. "Father then took the step to stop the suffering of the people. It was the need of the hour. So we cannot call that situation dangerous."

Marijuana, behind police transfers

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 8 -Believe it or not, marijuana can be a key factor behind the transfers of police officials.

Superintendent of Police Man Bahadur Rawal from the District Police Office, Parsa got transferred in just two months of his arrival in the district which is notoriously famous for marijuana business. What could be the reason behind his early transfer ? Locals used to wonder. "I don’t know why I am being transferred," he told reporters just before he left the DPO. "I feel humiliated."

Finally an insider today unveiled the mystery: "SP Rawal had been allegedly selling marijuana to the smugglers himself," a highly placed police official told The Kathmandu Post, adding that Senior Superintendent of Police Dilip Shrestha has been deployed to the district to seriously probe the case.

SSP Shrestha has already arrived at the DPO in the district headquarters Birgunj and formed a probe committee initiating his investigations. He has held extensive discussion with SP Shyam Krishna Karmacharya and DSP Him Gurung. SP Rawal was convicted by the probe committee for selling 16 sacks of marijuana stored at Birta Post in Birgunj and other posts around the district.

According to the source, besides SP Rawal, the probe committee has also summoned DSP Bhaktinath Majhi, one police inspector and 14 other police personnel to the Police Headquarters, Kathmandu for necessary investigations in connection with the marijuana smuggling. The deal leaked to the Police Headquarters after misunderstanding evolved between SP Rawal and DSP Majhi regarding the deal, said the source. SP Rawal has, however, been transferred to DPO Kaski, while DSP Majhi has been shifted to DPO Surkhet.

When our staff reporter queried about the marijuana deal, both SP Karmacharya and DSP Gurung declined to make comments.

Meanwhile, serious interventions by the Police Headquarters and strict actions by the DPO Birgunj has discouraged marijuana business substantially. Sub-inspector Sagar Rana was suspended early this week in connection with marijuana smuggling.

Parsa tops the country in marijuana production. Police had destroyed 542 bigahas of marijuana cultivation in the fiscal year 2055/56 and 543 bigahas in the last fiscal year, this clearly hints the extent of the marijuana deal in the district.

WWF, Soaltee raise funds

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 8 - World Wide Fund for nature (WWF)-Nepal program and Soaltee Crowne Plaza Kathmandu on Friday announced the launch of a joint initiative to help conserve Nepal’s endangered wildlife.

The campaign - Sleep well, you have just saved a life, formally started July 1 and will continue till the end of November, Soaltee Hotel and WWF officials told a press conference held here Friday.

According to them, each guest staying in the hotel will be asked to provide US Dollar one in donation.

Travellers to Kathmandu can help stop the disappearance of some of the earth’s most endangered wildlife species by allowing for the addition of the local currency equivalent of one US Dollar to their hotel bill.

"The campaign has already started since July 1 and none of our guests has denied to pay," the hotel’s General Manager Ribhu Chatterjee said.

The innovative campaign is a part of Brass Hotels and Resorts and WWF’s joint initiative launched throughout the Asia Pacific region. A total of 33 hotels in 10 countries will be holding a five-month in-hotel fund raising promotion and awareness campaign to support endangered wildlife conservation programmes, according to a press release issued at the conference.

Brass Hotels and Resorts is the managing company of Soaltee Crowne Plaza.

WWF-Nepal’s Country Director to Nepal, Dr Chandra Prakash Gurung said the donations collected from the hotel - estimated at 1,400 to 1,500 US Dollars - would be spent in strengthing and expanding anti-poaching units in Chitwan and other national parks, which are home to such endangered species as Royal Bengal tigers and one-horned rhinos.

WWF has helped Nepal set up anti-poaching units in and around the Chitwan and Bardia parks which tip-off authorities of suspected poachers and poaching activities.

"Transparency will be maintained and I assure you that the amount will be spent in environment and nature conservation activities," Dr Gurung added.

Chatterjee said, "Soaltee Crowne Plaza is the founding member of the environment comes of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and as a leader in conservation awareness in Nepal, we are committed to protect the natural environment..."

Some of the world’s most unique and threatened wildlife are found in Nepal, including the Asiatic elephant, snow leopard, musk deer, wild water buffalo and so on.

WWF has been working in Nepal since decades to reduce threats to the endangered species through projects which include conserving the animal habitats, involving communities in wildlife and habitat management, among others.