Landslide kills 14 6 from the same family

By a Post Reporter

DAMAULI, June 24 - Landslides killed 14 people today in Tanahun and Lamjung districts, including six persons of a single family while they were asleep, according to police.

Police said they have not been able to start relief works in Barlachi, Tanahun, five kilometre from the district headquarters, due to overpowering floods and landslides.

Most deaths have taken place in Camin VDC in Tanahun, where eight people were killed in the worst incident of natural disaster experienced by the western hill district for decades.

Juthi Maya Lama, 35, her husband, their two daughters (seven-year and one and a half year old), and son (three-year old) were among the six buried in the rubble, according to police.

Another couple, whose house was also buried by landslides, were identified as 58-year old Kul Bahadur BK and Gadi Maya BK.

Meanwhile, in Mirlunj VDC, Tanahun, three people of a single family were killed by landslides this morning. They have been identified as Purna Bahadur Gurung and his two children.

In Risti VDC of Tanahun, two deaths were reported due to landslides in separate incidents. The dead have been identified as Khemraj Mishra, 60 and a two-year-old.

Likewise, a two-year-old girl was killed in Ramgha VDC of Lamjung district when landslides buried the house of Mahendra Ojha.

According to the Deputy Superintendent of Police Keshab Adhikary, floods swept away the bridge over the Chundi river and flooded hundreds of ropanies of land. This is said to be the worst incident and the biggest damage in the district over the last few decades.

5 die in accident

By a Post Reporter

BIRATNAGAR, June 24 - Five people died on the spot and 25 others sustained serious injuries yesterday when a bus carrying a marriage party hit live electricity cable some 30 km north of the bride’s home in Narapatgunj, India, police said.

Among the dead were people from the groom’s side Ramananda Raya,45, from Devgunj VDC, Vima Yadav, 35, Ram Lakhan Yadav, 40, Pankaj Thakur, 15, all of them from Sunsari District. The bride’s brother, whose name could not be identified, also died in the incident, according to Border Police Office, Rani.

Some of the people were travelling on the roof of the bus and they died because they hit live electric wire, police said.

The groom’s party, altogether 60 in number, was returning from the bride’s home in India where they had gone the previous day for the marriage of Manoj Yadav, a lad from Amahibelwa VDC ward no 5, Sunsari district. The bride and the groom also received severe injuries who are presently undergoing treatment in a hospital at Farbisgunj, India.

Twenty-five people who sustained serious injuries are undergoing treatment in Farbisgunj. Indian police handed over the dead bodies of the four Nepali nationals to the border police at Biratnagar this morning at around 2 a.m. which were later handed over to the families of the deceased.

Nepal-India meet ends in deadlock, Difference over Afflux Bund in Rapti

By a Post Reporter

MAHENDRANAGAR, June 24 - A meeting between Nepali and Indian irrigation officials ended inconclusively today after differences cropped up over a wide range of water-related issues along the Indo-Nepal border, including the controversial afflux bund constructed by India on Rapti river, sources close to the Nepali officials said.

"The meeting ended inconclusively," an technical official with Mahakali Irrigation Project said. "The two teams discussed problems faced by people from both sides, but failed to come up with solutions."

Another Nepali official blamed Indian officials for the inconclusive nature of the meeting. The Indian officials could not be reached for comment. The officials are due to meet again in July.

While M.U Ghani, Director of Indian Central Water Commission led the two-member Indian team, Amodananda Mishra, Deputy Director of Department of Irrigation headed the four-member Nepali team. Other members were, Keshav Dhoj Adhikary, Binod Jha and Arun Shrivastav of Mahakali Irrigation Project.

According to the source, Nepali officials had raised the issue of the afflux bund constructed by India in its territory south of Banke district which is inundating thousands of hectares of land in the Nepali side.

But the Indian officials likened the inundation with similar inundation caused in Kanchanpur’s Chandani-Dhodhara area west of Manakali river, the western boundary demarcating the two countries, by an embankment constructed by Nepal in the Nepali side.

Indian officials asserted that the embankment had posed problems in India’s Sanedi dam and Sarada Sagar area.

The officials had gone on an inspection tour to the affected villages of Banke, Nepal, prior to the meeting.

The construction of the Laxmanpur dam in Rapti river, which began in 1983 and was completed in 1998, was undertaken by India in its territory without forseeing the effect it would have on the Nepali side of the river in Banke district.

On return to the capital after an inspection tour to the affected area, a parliamentary team had said in its report last week that India violated international law by not consulting Nepal before constructing the dam.

According to the report, the construction has inundated a lot of villages and that more than 15,000 locals in 33 villages could be potentially affected during the current monsoon season.

The Nepali officials also discussed with the Indian officials about a proposal to construct an embankment in the left-hand-side (Nepali side) to protect parts of Mahendranagar municipality from erosion and river-cutting emanating from a current of Mahakali river. But the Indian officials brushed off the proposal saying that it was not in the agenda.

Experts call for greater CIAA autonomy

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 24 - Legal experts today pointed out that the offices of the Prime Minister and Attorney General’s office should not be given the final say over matters concerning the government cases if the action of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is to be made effective.

Senior Advocate Ganesh Raj Sharma said, "The CIAA can be made effective if the right to make the final decision is not given to the Attorney General. Prime Minister is going around making ridiculous claims that he would curb corruption whereas he does not possess any right to penalise the corrupt."

Presenting a paper on Development and Obstacles of Constitutional Process at a two-day seminar on Decade of Democracy: Development, Delay and Distortions organized by Centre for Studies on Democracy and Good Governance (CSDG), Sharma further said that though the Constitution does not have any defects, its exercise has not been satisfactory.

Former Attorney General Krishna Prasad Ghimire said that the CIAA should be given more authority "by removing the provisions in the Act that hinder its decision-making power."

Suresh Acharya, president of Federation of Nepalese Journalist accused the government of trying to limit the powers of the media. "The government does not allow the FM stations to broadcast news whereas it allows BBC news to be broadcasted by the FM stations."

"The Bill on the Right to Information that the government is planning to bring in this session of the parliament is dangerous as it gives the government direct control over media," Acharya said.

Minors to be banned from buying alcohol

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 24 - A Bill that places a ban on selling alcohol to the under-age youths will be tabled in the on-going session of the parliament, Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi said today.

"This bill, if passed by the parliament would prohibit under-age people from buying alcohol," said Joshi at an interaction programme on Drug Abuse and its Control organised by Brahmakumari Rajyog Service Centre. He, however, failed to elaborate on the age category of the "under-age".

Alcohol, be it in bottle or plastic pouch is easily available throughout the country.

Earlier, Choplal Bhusal, chief of Drug Abuse Abolition Project said that the widespread use of narcotics cannot be brought under control as long as alcoholic beverages can be bought easily at "any retail shop".

According to Bhusal, there are more than 50,000 illegal drug abusers in Nepal. "Out of this, around 50 percent of Intra-venous Drug Users (IDU) are HIV positive."

Holy cow... what an obstacle!

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, June 24 - Cows milling over heaps of garbage is a common sight in Kathmandu, capital of the world’s only Hindu kingdom.

But the residents of Katmandu were still shocked at the sight of a dead cow lying beside a pile of garbage in the heart of the city which was prominently featured by a national daily last week.

Speculations on the circumstances leading to the cow’s death started right away - with the photo-caption: An old cow, lying dead near the busy Thapathali intersection, may have succumbed to food poisoning.

It was a sorry sight. An orphaned calf was seen wailing by the side for many days. Officials at Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s (KMC) Environment Section were compelled to remove the body later after the media outcry (see in the main photo). On Wednesday, the municipal officials performed last rites on her according to traditional Hindu rituals.

Believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Laxmi, cows are still worshipped by Hindus all over the world. In Nepal, anyone who kills a cow faces the same penalty (12 years imprisonment) as one committing homicide.

The Thapathali episode is now buried well into the earth, but the perils of stray cows - or calves, bulls or oxen - in the streets of Katmandu continue.

Some 500 of them continue to jostle for their right to move freely with the city’s 100,000-odd traffic, according to officials at KMC.

They literally survive on the food stuff - and other dirts that make up garbage - thrown away by the city’s over 1.5 million residents.

As cows continue to fall prey to the city’s new ways, a few questions haunt everyone: Shouldn’t the authorities - both local and central - do something to stop them from dying a "dog’s death"? Aren’t the guardians of these animals who unscrupulously drive the sacred animals away onto the streets liable to punishment? Don’t the authorities have responsibility to provide shelter to the cattle?

Here’s what a hapless traffic policeman has to say. "As we don’t have a specific law or a rule to prosecute the cowkeepers who drive old or sick cows to streets, we can’t do anything," says DSP Pawan Kharel at Valley Traffic Police Office.

He blames the stray animals for causing traffic congestions and even fatal accidents in the Valley during the nights when the traffic picks up speed. "The problem can’t and won’t be solved unless and until laws or rules are introduced to penalize all those who drive the animals away," he says.

Not that the country never had any good samaritans who would look after stray cows and milk them. A shed was constructed in Pashupati Gaushala way back in 1941, during the reign of Rana Prime Minister Juddha Shamsher.

It is still there. A committee comprising the city’s Marwaris are looking after a total of 235 cows - 55 are currently in the lactating stage - although the shed has a capacity to accommodate some 200 cows.

"We are now looking for a space to construct a bigger cowshed," says Pawan Mittal, General Secretary of the Pashupati Gaushala Dharmashala committee. "But the authorities, including Pashupati Area Development Trust, don’t heed us."

The cowshed used to entertain stray cows up until 1990. "In the meantime the shed was fully occupied and we couldn’t take in more cows," says Chandeshor Shah, Gaushala’s veterinary doctor.

Shah suggests the authorities can even make profit from the stray animals if they are kept in huge sheds and managed properly. "We are milking over 250 litres of milk from these cows," Shah says. "We also sell tonnes and tonnes of manure...This way, they can earn their living on their own."

KMC’s Security Department has been entrusted with the responsibility to, among others, make the city free of stray- cows and dogs. Once in a blue moon they even impound the four-footed national animals off the streets. But DSP Bishnu Singh Basnet, the department chief, says "lack of manpower and resources have foiled our bid to remove the stray animals."

NC MPs call to shun vested interest

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 24 - Lawmakers of the ruling Nepali Congress today urged the political parties to rise above their vested interest and seek national consensus to solve the problem of Maoist insurgency.

"The four years of insurgency has affected the whole country not merely those aligned with political parties. We have Kashi Poudel and Tirtha Gautam here in the parliament itself who have been victims of the insurgency," said Mohan Bahadur Basnet, NC MP today at the Lower House, taking special time from the speaker.

The two MPs -- Kashi Poudel and Tirtha Gautam were given tickets by the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML respectively following the deaths of their husbands by Maoist insurgents prior to general election last May.

While Kashi’s husband Govinda Poudel, an NC leader from Bardiya, was killed by insurgents much before, she was given the ticket for general election last year. Yadu Gautam, Tirtha’s husband had been given a ticket by CPN-UML from Rukum.

Basnet blamed the police officials for their chase for power. "Police IGPs are struggling to become DG, AIGPs racing for IGP, lawmakers of the ruling party are running to catch a cabinet portfolio and ministers racing to be the Prime Minister," said Basnet. "Even the main opposition, instead of raising burning issues like that of Maoist insurgency, is engrossed in claiming its shares in things as trivial as Women Empowerment Programme."

Unconfirmed reports say successive police chiefs had tried to appoint themselves as DG placing their retirement on hold.

"It is high time that we kept these insignificant matters aside and try to resolve the problems caused by Maoist insurgency," Basnet added.

MP Sarbadhan Rai demanded better security in Khotang in the wake of the first police-Maoist clash in Aishelukharka police post. Rishikesh Gautam, another NC MP asked the Home Ministry to give attention to the increasing cases of looting and murders in the name of ‘People’s War’.

CPN-UML lawmaker Chandra Bahadur Shahi said that the police were looting businessmen in Karnali by calling themselves "Maoists" and urged the government to take actions against the police personnel.

Tara Devi honoured

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 24 - Veteran singer Tara Devi, widely acclaimed for her melodious voice, was felicitated at a function here today.

Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba felicitated the singer by wrapping her with a shawl at the function organized by Himali Cultural Group.

"Her mellifluous voice and soul-touching songs will always remain in the hearts of Nepalis," Deuba said lauding the "shining star’s" voice. "She is the treasure of Nepal."

Tara, the prolific singer, started singing at the age of eight and has rendered more than 7,000 songs. She has been decorated by a number of awards: Chhinnalata, Jagadamba, Maina and a host of others.

At this stage, however, she is coping with a series of personal tragedies: the untimely death of her husband, her only son, and her ailing health.

The Himali Cultural Group also organized a "Musical Nite" late today. Besides other artistes, the Nite featured Ashok Rai, 30, a former musical teacher trained in classical music.

"It is good to draw inspiration from Western music. Instead of getting carried away, a Nepali artiste’s creation should be coated with Nepali fragrance and feelings," Rai said at the programme.

Noted singers such as Kunti Moktan, Lochan Bhattarai, Tirtha Kumari and Uday Shotang also performed during the show. Besides, foot tapping romantic Tamang Selo dances, marked by agile yet swift steps and other folk dances added colour to the musical Nite.