On what terms ?

The resumption of Indian Airlines (IA) operations to Nepal five months after its flight was hijacked to Afghanistan is to be welcomed as a step ahead in the normalization of relations between Nepal and India.

But on what terms? This is a question Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola has not been able to answer to our satisfaction. In other words, it is difficult to give him the benefit of doubt because his denial that the government had made "special concessions" to India is not that assuring. If indeed such concessions were not required, why did it take so long for IA flights to resume operations in the first place? And secondly, while reports of parleys between Nepalese, Indian government and IA officials had made it clear that resumption of IA flights was deadlocked over the issue of allowing Indian security officials to operate at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), what actually was agreed upon that led to this apparent change of heart on the part of the Indian government remains very much shrouded in mystery.

If what transpired at New Delhi with regard to IA flight resumption had been more overboard, things would have definitely seemed less dubious.

Apart from the fact that Bastola hardly got into the specifics regarding whether Indian Airlines or Indian government security personnel would be at TIA, and if so, whether their presence would be restricted to the ladder point or beyond, it is also suspected that the government gave in to the pressure exerted by the hotel, travel and tourism industry. No doubt, there was plenty of pressure from this sector on the government to get IA to resume operations. Their position was however ambiguous in the sense that it was not clear whether they had the best interests of the country in mind. To elaborate further, it appears that this community, with its business interests foremost in mind, may have overlooked the more important implications of accepting India’s conditions. It is therefore to be hoped that the government has not been ill advised and that there are no imposing strings attached to the resumption of IA flights.

Minister Bastola did mention that security at TIA is being improved to meet the requirements
of International Civil Aviation Authority. This is to be welcomed with the hope that it will take care of India’s security concerns vis a vis TIA. But he should have been more transparent with regard to the security conditions being fulfilled. It must also be borne in mind that there must be nothing that compromises the country’s sovereignty. As it is, the IA flight embargo has not been fair on Nepal. For it has not only hurt Nepal but also given it a negative image. Apart from this such actions are not taken by countries except in very hostile situations. It is now to be hoped that the Nepalese government has not agreed to anything that will add salt to the wound. There is a lesson for India here also. For one, its response to the hijack was wrong. Next, it was not an act of good neighbourliness.

India should recognise this and refrain from over-reacting and taking extreme measures against smaller neighbours and imposing impossible conditions on them. It is to be hoped that the talks between Nepal and India with regard to the resumption of IA flights have taken these things into account.

Meat quality : A long ignored issue

By Prajwal Raj Regmi

Kalanki is the main trading centre that caters meat of buffaloes and goats for most of the people of Kathmandu valley. Of course there are other centres too which collect animals and distribute according to the need of the valley. But none knows how hygienic the meat is. A large number of animals are brought by individual traders from different parts of the country, mostly form terai and also from India. A few goats are brought from nearby districts. Pigs and poultry are taken directly to the slaughtering centres from the farms. While transporting by trucks and buses, inhumane practice of loading and unloading sometimes results death of weak, diseased and old animals. But the livestock traders sell the dead animals to nearby butchers at a reduced price rather than discard dead animals or take them to veterinary hospitals for the diagnosis. Sometimes, the death of the animal may have caused due to a contagious and/or zoonotic diseases (an animal disease that is naturally transmissible to human beings). If so, there is a chance of transmission of the disease to other healthy animals, butchers and consumers. In addition, the sanitary condition of the buffalo and goat trading centres is not hygenic. These centres are not frequently cleaned of the discharge and excreta of animals. As most of the animals are affected with heavy parasitic infestation and some suffer from infectious diseases, this predisposes the animals and human beings for disease and also pollutes the surrounding environment.

In total, 500 buffaloes, 2000 goats, 50,000 poultry and 200 pigs are being slaughtered daily for meat in Kathmandu valley. In past, almost all large animals were slaughtered in open places like river banks, courtyard of houses or at road sides, commonly on the banks of Vishnumati and Bagmati rivers located at Hyumat, Kankeswary, Bhimsensthan, Damaitol, Chhetrapati, Ganeshsthan, etc. Nowadays most of the butchers slaughter the meat animals in their own courtyard or separate walled slaughtering place. According to the National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre, Tahachal, total number of slaughtering centres in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur Municipalities are 314, 81 and 35 respectively. These centres are commonly polluted with dirt, contaminated blood and intestinal contents. The waste material is disposed into the municipality waste tank, street and river. In Bhaktapur, 58.8 percent of the total slaughterhouse waste is disposed on street. The carcass of the slaughtered animal is washed in tap water, tubewell water and also in the river water. This condition has aided the pollution of the Bagmati and Vishnumati rivers and is one of the major contributors to the environmental pollution in the Kathmandu valley.

Recently National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre, Tahachal, Kathmandu conducted a study on the environmental sanitary condition of slaughtering centres and meat vendors of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. The finding was that about 43.3 percent slaughtering places had very poor environmental condition, whereas 46.8 percent were average and only 9.9 percent good. Regarding environmental sanitary condition of meat vendors, about 36.0 percent were very poor, 51.4 percent average and 12.6 percent good. Because of the bacterial contamination, meat produced under such situation deteriorates quickly and leads to food poisoning.

Butchers do not practise "before-slaughter and after-slaughter inspection/examination of the animal by a meat inspector. About 96 percent of butchers are ignorant about meat borne diseases. This has eased the way for pathogen of zoonotic diseases from animals to human beings. The most important zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from contaminated meat are anthrax, tape worm disease, echinococcosis, rabies, viral influenza, abortion, persistent fever, toxoplasmosis etc. Anthrax causes sudden death. Echinococcosis produces cysts in the visceral organs and brain.

In addition to the improper hygiene and environmentally bad condition of meat trade, an aspect always in shade is the effect of drug residue in meat on human health. Of lately, the Livestock Service Office, Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), United Mission to Nepal (UMN) are producing large numbers of partially trained Village-level Animal Health Workers (VAHW). The VAHW are the sole veterinary practitioners in rural Nepal. There is a trend of using large numbers of drugs simultaneously without knowing the detailed way the drug works. Meat withdrawal period of the drugs like antibiotics, hormones, corticosteroids etc. are being ignored. For example, nobody is conscious of the fact that animal should not be slaughtered for meat purpose for 15 days after sulfonamide therapy. Due to this situation, large quantities of residual drugs are being accumulated in the bodies of consumers after consumption of the meat of affected animals. A significant proportion of the human population (i.e., approximately 10 percent) show allergic reaction to penicillin. For allergy to take place there should be initial exposure of the same agent. In this case, the source of the initial exposure may have been a form of therapy or consumption of meat or milk having residual penicillin. It is well known that most feed and feedstuffs consumed by animals contains minute quantities of pesticide residue of one kind or another. Drugs used for controlling external parasites in animals also produce residual effects. For example, chickens may accumulate hexachlorobenzene in body fat over 30 times the dietary level. Similarly organophosphate compounds and other hydrocarbon compounds may concentrate in animal body fat, liver and kidney. The effect of drug residue from meat of the animal in human being is many fold like nausea, inappetance, vomition, gastrointestinal disturbance, mental disorder and poisoning. Antibiotic residue helps in developing the disease causing organisms resistant to antibiotics, which could possibly results in sickness not responding to antibiotic therapy. Similarly hormonal residue in the meat products are carcinogenic and may interfere those people, especially women who are using contraceptive pills.

Though Animal Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act 1999 has been prepared and gazetted to improve meat quality for the betterment of public health, this Act has not been enforced yet. Recently Kathmandu Metropolitan City has announced it will build a slaughterhouse for 100 buffalo bull per day capacity. If a slaughterhouse is to be built it must be humane, hygienic and able to provide safe meat for consumers. Dr D D Joshi, director of National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre is of the opinion that for long term solution to the problem, awareness should be raised among butchers, consumers and other related people on wider basis along with construction of slaughterhouse for improving public health and combating environmental pollution. Concerned authority should promptly move towards managing the meat industry of Kathmandu valley in better way for improving health of Kathmanduites as well as protecting the environment from degradation.

Back to Mangalman

 By Puran P Bista

There are some who believe that after the increase in salary of civil servants, corruption will end. They also believe rather fondly that TU teachers will also stop trying to make ends meet by working at other places.

My feeling is, even if the salary, perks and what have you had gone up by 200 percent, the amount wouldn't be a good enough deterrent to keep government employees from the temptations of making a kill when the opportunity comes their way. Not when they know their political bosses do not follow what they expect their subordinates to do ?

Again, old habits die hard. Very few would disagree that ghoos has already become a norm. In fact, a non-ghoosia bureaucrat is generally considered a weirdo not only by his colleagues but also by his family members and friends. Yes, many an incorruptible official has been martyred in his despondent honesty. Conventional wisdom in officialdom is, "in govt offices, do as the officials do". Or better still, "follow the leader", which obviously means, build mansions, buy 4-wheel drives and accumulate as much as you can.

If on the other hand, you choose to retain that rare, precious and endangered morality and become the black sheep of the bureaucratic family, then that’s your look out. But, even by a long shot, I’d bet my last rupee that while it is much easier for the sheep to turn into maneaters, it is next to impossible for the maneaters to turn into submissive herbivores. That is certainly against the law of nature.

The same thing also applies to teachers. But before talking about them at any length, let me make the point with an example. When TU Teaching Hospital was first established, doctors there were paid amounts that would be considered fabulous even in terms of the present rise in salary. This was done to prevent them from working at their private clinics. We all know what happened. The doctors moonlighted. Some of them were expelled from TUTH. Some of them left TUTH jobs. Some of them managed to have their cake and eat it too. TUTH authorities finally gave up. And now, to use the Nepali phrase, it's back to Mangalmaan.

The same thing can be expected to happen with TU teachers. Although those dedicated teachers—there are so few that they can be counted on the fingers—must be very happy, others can be expected to do what they’ve been doing for the same reasons wherein ethics takes the backseat.

Apart from this, it is a universal truth that human beings are never content with what they have. More satisfaction of desires beget even more desires. Even if all wants were to be satisfied, there would still be the desire to save something on the side for may be old age or to meet the educational needs of their children, the cost of which, by the way, as has been indicate, can be expected to soar further like nobody’s business. Moreover, savings is not something Nepalis can boast about. So when there is the possibility of adding on to the wonderful rise in salary the fruits of extra work will enable them to put a little in the sides for a rainy day, they would be fools to play the honest employee.

Apart from this, the rise, though long awaited, has given rise to apprehension that in the not so distant future, market prices will also go up. This fear is not so unfounded for it is based on past experience. So, why should doctors give up the roaring clinic business, or politicians and bureaucrats forego opportunities of under the table income that comes their way or teachers ignore some honest job on the side?

There is the economy, the parallel economy and the underground economy. This is a reality and as long as this holds, everybody will be willing to do all they can to maximize income. After all, that is also a part of economic liberalisation. Teachers and doctors and politicians are also a part of the market. And when demand is there, constraining the available supply side goes against the principles of free market to which the govt is avowedly committed.

The politics of knowledge
Higher education : Public discussion needed

By Pratyoush Onta

It is hard to remember a time when anyone was saying anything good about public higher education in Nepal. Most current reports about Tribhuvan University or the other three more recently established public universities present a depressing composite of systemic inefficiency and lack. While there have been intermittent discussions regarding this state of affairs, an extensive public debate toward rectifying this national disgrace is non-existent.

The scenario: At the moment there are four universities in the public sector and one in the private in Nepal. The oldest among them, Tribhuvan University (TU), established in 1959, caters to over 150,000 students in about 200 of its own and affiliated colleges. Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU), established in 1986 to pander to the ego of the ruling Hindu politico-intellectual elite, has about 1000 students. The other two public-sector universities, Purbanchal University (est. 1994) and the recently established Pokhara University have started to operate administratively but do not yet have much of an infrastructure to run full-fledged classes. The only private sector initiative in this front, Kathmandu University (KU) was established in 1991 and enrolls about a thousand students in a limited number of technical and management disciplines.

In terms of enrollment, TU accounts for more than 90 percent of the students in higher education in Nepal. Amidst a high degree of political interference from bodies of students, teachers and administrators affiliated to the different political parties and positions, and a university management whose ability has been long outmatched by the size of the student body and the spatial distribution of its campuses, TU is described by many outside observers as "terminally ill". Many look back to the New Education System Plan (NESP, started in 1971) as being responsible for the current mess in TU. Under NESP, all the colleges in the country (including those opened through community or private initiatives) were nationalized and brought within the gamut of TU in 1974. Except for the program called National Development Service -- a 10-month service stint for Masters’ Level students in rural Nepal -- all the other experiments in higher education done under NESP including the nationalization of all colleges were declared a failure. To address this failure, the entry of private sector colleges and universities were encouraged in the 1980s. However, except for KU and a few other initiatives in technical education, solid institutions that teach the social sciences and the humanities have not yet been opened.

In this context I note some points that could be the themes of initial debates on this subject.

1. Where has the process of phasing out the intermediate level from our universities reached? In 1993, the government introduced the 10+2 system as higher secondary education and announced that this set-up would gradually replace the erstwhile intermediate level education from the university structure. Private sector involvement in the establishment of higher secondary schools was encouraged. Now there are about 500 such schools. Only a few of such schools are located in rural areas. Private higher secondary schools are quite expensive and thus much concern is being expressed about their costs being well beyond the reach of many parents whose children have struggled to pass the SLC. In addition, the plan of gradually phasing out the intermediate level from the university has run into problems arising from financial and management lapses on the part of the government. It is also said that resistance from student and teacher unions who risk losing a part of their clout if the intermediate level is fully removed out of the university system is an additional cause of the delay.

2. Why can’t the downsizing of TU really happen? The National Education Commission (NEC) Report of 1992 recommended that TU’s campuses be reorganized under a system of regional universities and autonomous technical institutes. This has not happened. In fact the NEC Report of 1998 explicitly stated that there was no clear thinking regarding the development of regional universities. Purbanchal and Pokhara universities have been opened but colleges and faculty under TU were not re-assigned to them as their ‘seed’ infrastructure. Instead these ostensibly regional universities have given affiliations to colleges located outside the region they were meant to serve. In other words, they are all set to repeat the farce that we have seen under TU. Lawmakers must also wake up to this fact as TU’s disbanding cannot be done just through an executive order since separate Acts govern it and the newer universities.

3. Why should we have a separate university for Sanskrit studies? The current per student expenditure in MSU is several times the corresponding figure in TU. This fact and moreover, the existence of a separate Sanskrit university, fully supported by the state, cannot be justified given our economic context. We do need centres or departments for Sanskrit studies but such entities can be easily located within other universities.

4. Finally and more fundamentally than the points mentioned above, how public or private our institutions of higher education must be for them to perform well? Is higher education is a fundamental right of the citizens? One school of thought argues that it is so and hence it must be guaranteed by the state. Thus access to a university that is heavily subsidized by the state, as is the case now, must continue for anyone who seeks higher education. Student unions have often highlighted this position. The other school of thought argues that higher education is not a fundamental right and no solvent system can provide admissions to all students who seek higher education under state subsidy. If public sector universities are ill and private sector initiatives such as KU are showing relatively better results, isn’t it time to say that we need to bring in some of the measures adopted by the latter to promote educational quality and efficiency in the former institutions. Granted that even the most private of universities in countries like the US recover their operating costs from a portfolio consisting of student fees, state research grants and investment income from their endowments, what should be the operating modality of private universities in our country?