Euro-cup frenzy catching up feverishly : Two children playing with a punctured football at the capital's Sinamagal on Sunday. The popularity of football is on the rise in the valley .

Rapti Barrage raises outcry Approach Int’l Court : experts

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Political leaders and water resource experts today said that Nepal should go to the International Court of Justice as India has not complied with international laws while constructing a barrage on Rapti river, south of Banke district.

"The barrage over Rapti has created adverse effects of flooding in the villages of Nepal, which straightaway violates international laws and practices," said Hiranya Lal Shrestha, leader of CPN-ML at a programme on the problems created by the dams along the border.

He was speaking at a weekly talk forum organised by National Concerns Society. "The Indian government should either furnish satisfactory explanations for the construction or Nepal should go to the International Court," he said.

Shrestha said that the barrage should either be "dismantled" or India should provide "reasonable compensation for all the damages caused", adding "the inundation of the villages is a man-made disaster made with the full knowledge of the consequences. It could have been stopped".

On June 17, Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committee (FAHRC) of the parliament had said India had violated international law while constructing the Laxmanpur barrage on the Rapti river. The report prepared by the committee states that the construction affects five VDCs -- Holiya, Bethhani, Gangapur, Fattepur, and Matehiya -- of Banke and that more than 15,000 locals in 33 villages could be affected during the current monsoon season.

UN General Assembly Resolution on World Charter of Nature, 1982, demands that States and other public authorities, international organisations, individuals, groups or corporations "should ensure that activities within their jurisdictions or control do not cause damage to the natural systems located within other States or in areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction."

Govinda Bahadur Shah, MP and member of the FAHRC who had visited the site said that India has violated the international law with the construction of the edifice within 300 meters of the border.

This contradicts the international guideline - which states that if the construction of any edifice within 8 kilometres of the border affects another country - the affected country (in this case Nepal) must have given a go ahead, and that has not happened.

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

Som Prasad Pandey, chairman of FAHRC said that India had been making all decisions over the construction of the barrage without consulting Nepal whereas "the direct effect of the construction has been on the villages of Nepal, not India." "There is no other way but to dismantle the construction if we are to save our villages. This, however, has never been discussed by the government. The stance taken by the government over the matter till now is not strong enough."

Water resource expert, Deepak Gyawali, stressed on the need to look at the long-term effects of the dams before deciding to go ahead with them. "The embankment technology itself is a wrong technology," said Gyawali. "It provides short term relief but creates a tremendous problem of water logging which throws the land out of production."

Gyawali said, "The problems that the Laxmanpur barrage would create in Nepal is just a continuation of miseries of embankment that India has been living with for the past 50 years."

Former Minister for Water Resources Pashupati SJB Rana was of the opinion that only dialogue could settle the issue.

Only yesterday, a meeting between Nepali and Indian irrigation officials had ended inconclusively after differences over a wide range of water-related issues along the Indo-Nepal border, including the controversial afflux bund constructed by India on Rapti river.

MPs raise concern over House Secretariat Bill

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Lawmakers today expressed concern for the government’s failure to bring the Bill that makes the Parliamentary Secretariat autonomous.

Taking special time from the Speaker, NP Saud, NC lawmaker, citing Article 66 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal 1990, said that successive governments have failed to fulfil the Constitutional obligation.

The Article states: "The establishment of a Secretariat for the purpose of conducting the business of Parliament and other matters related shall be determined by law."

Referring to earlier calls by the Speaker to bring the Bill, Saud asked, "Why is the Bill being delayed?" According to Saud, the Ministry for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has already sent the Bill to the Cabinet.

CWC directs govt to formulate policy before talks with Maoists

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - The Central Working Committee (CWC) of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) today concluded its meeting directing the government to draft a national security policy and strategy prior to initiating dialogue with the Maoists.

"It has become necessary for the government to draft effective national security policy and strategy to control the violence, terror and interference by external forces and defamation," the CWC concluded.

NC’s apex body pointed out that under this new policy necessary laws need to be drafted to bring coordination and cooperations between all the agencies responsible for security of the country.

More importantly, the CWC gave a go-ahead to the government to initiate dialogue with the Maoists. It has asked the government to begin looking for peaceful means for initiating dialogues with the Maoists and begin consultation with all other political parties which is "result-oriented and in an effective manner" on the issue.

The main focus of the meeting that lasted for fours days was the possible dialogue with the Maoists and to decide on a strategy to approach the rebels for dialogue.

During the marathon discussions, members had stressed the need to first review the activities of the Maoists in the past few months and the previous directive issued by the CWC and then draw up the strategy.

Members had been discussing the recent approach by the Maoists on talks with the government to resolve the problem that has claimed over 1,300 lives in the past four years.

A high level commission headed by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had received a letter with names of the people who would represent the rebel group for possible dialogue with the government on resolving the problem.

The prime minister has proposed to add Home Minister Govind Raj Joshi and Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola be added to the commission. Final announcement is yet to come.

According to NC Spokesman Narhari Acharya, the prime minister told the meeting that the government would be giving suggestions to the commission to begin initiating dialogue with the rebels.

The meeting also asked the government to bring up integrated programmes for the districts that had been hit by the insurgency and has been deprived of development and economical activities and the remote districts that lag behind economically, socially and on education.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel had also presented a report on the activities of the government since the change in leadership about three months ago when Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala took office.

On the party front, the CWC decided to honour the pledges made during the election last year in the election manifesto. The party had won a majority in the election bagging 113 of the 205 seats in the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament.

Some members also raised concern that the government was being too flexible towards the opposition and giving in too much to their demands.

The government on many occasions have conceded to the demands by the main opposition CPN-UML especially when the present session convened and got underway.

The ministers defended their stand by saying that they were not bowing down but that it was coincidence that the opposition demand and the views of the government were the same.

Large cache of arms confiscated

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Police confiscated a large number of weapons and documents from Maoists’ shelter in Bhalayakharka-5, Lamjung district.

According to a local resident of the village, none of the rebels were present at the house when the police raided the Maoist hide-out.

The police has confiscated bombs, army uniforms, bullets and huge amount of food stuff. The documents seized by the police consist of reports about the Maoists earlier attacks and future plan of actions.

‘Transitional govt can check ills’

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Parliamentarians and top Election Commission (EC) officials today said that only a transitional government overseeing elections can check prevailing crimes, rigging and irregularities in the general elections.

At an interaction programme on ‘Present Electoral Process: Prevailing Condition and Possibilities of Reform’ organized by Society for Constitutional and Parliamentarian Exercise (SCOPE) and supported by National Democratic Institute (NDI), Chief Election Commissioner Bishnu Pratap Shah said,"I do not say that there have been no reforms in the election process during the last ten years but I also admit that there are many distortions." He also pointed out poverty and illiteracy to be the main factors for such distortions.

"It has become difficult to punish those who violate the electoral code of conduct because of the individual candidates who distribute favours to the electorate clandistinly," said Shah.

Kapil Shrestha, newly appointed member of Human Rights Commission (HRC) suggested six fundamental principles for a fair election -zero error in preparing voter’s list; zero violence in election; zero rigging in electorial process; zero criminal record candidates, zero corruption record candidates and; zero absenteeism of all eligible voters. He added, "Under-representation of women and dalits is one distortion in the election process."

"To protect the right of almost 12 million voters, the right of 60 thousand govenment employees conducting elections has been violated," said Shrestha.

Krishna Prasad Sitaula, MP and coordinator of the sub-committee suggested amendment in laws and regulations concerning election and stressed the need of establishing EC units in all 75 districts.

Presenting a paper, Election Commissioner Professor Birendra Prasad Mishra said, "If the parliament tries to find solutions for the electoral distortions and irregularities itself, rather than seeking it from the civil society and intellectuals, it is like putting the cart before the horse."

Census to be gender conscious

KATHMANDU, June 25 (PR)- The upcoming National Census 2001 will try to include gender viewpoint as the contribution of women in the national economy had been overlooked in the past, an expert said here today.

"The data collected from the coming census would be more sex disaggregated and gender friendly and plans and policies based on this data would encourage gender equality and women empowerment," said Sangita Thapa, speaking at a programme to discuss about the social, economic and gender aspects of the population census organised by Population Association of Nepal (PAN).

Director of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Govinda Subedi said, "In the present budget Rs. 286.2 million has been set aside for the census, however, the figure will touch the Rs. 500 million mark by the time work is completed."

When asked about the inconsistencies and duplication in the census, Subedi said, "There will be no mistakes this time since the data will be collected according to the place where the people are currently residing irrespective of where their permanent house is."

He further said, "As in the 1991 Census, we will give priority to primary school teachers to be enumerators and provide a week’s training for them as well. We will also increase the number of supervisors and provide training for them."

Processing the data is expected to take about a year and half, of which a year will be to input the data collected.

In India, however, data processing was completed in a month. In the Census under category 1, which consists of general questionnaire, data will be collected from about four million households and under category 2, having specific questionnaire, from about 0.8 million households.

During the programme, it was highlighted that a lot of publicity and a good networking are vital to make the Census process a success.

The population census that takes place every 10 years will be taken in June 2001 and National Census Day will be celebrated on June 22, 2001. Population census first started in Nepal in 1911.

Relief for landslide victims

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Relief assistance of ten thousand rupees per deceased person was distributed today to the families of the victims of landslide in Besisahar, headquarters of Lamjung, according to District Administration Office.

Landslide had swept away the house of Jit Bahadur Duwadi Sarki at Sikra village of Jita VDC, in the south western part of Lamjung district on Friday night at 3:30 a.m. His wife and three daughters had died in the mishap.

Similarly, landslide swept away the house of Madhav Ojha at Dui Pipal village in Ramgha VDC, about seven kilometres south of Jita VDC killing his two-year-old daughter, Chief District Officer Govind Khanal told The Kathmandu Post.

He informed that he had sent a team consisting of police and doctors headed by an employee of the District Administration Office immediately after receiving the news to distribute Rs. 10,000 to family of each deceased and up to Rs. 3,000 for each house.

The flooded Risti river also damaged the houses of Sansare Bahadur Gurung and Ghumaune Sarki, a cloth shop and water tank of Kedar Soti in Tandrang Taksar VDC, according to DSP Ganesh Rai. Three people injured in the landslide of Jita VDC - Jit Bahadur Duwadi, his son Surya Duwadi and his daughter-in-law Pila Duwadi were airlifted to Pokhara for treatment on Saturday and their condition is reported to be normal.

CDO Khanal said as the area of the mishap is located at a distance of about 12-hour walk from the district headquarters and as telephone facility is not available there, it will take a couple of days to receive the exact report.

Hundreds of ropanis of land in Lamjung and Tanahun districts have been turned into barren land by the flooded Madi and Risti rivers which flow between the two districts, chairman of Tandrang Taksar VDC, Ramchandra Parajuli said.

Similarly, the flood has damaged the canal of Tamghata Irrigation Project and rendered irrigation facility impossible from this project, VDC Chairman Raj Kumar Shrestha said. Risti river has damaged two bridges near Soti Pasal.

Meanwhile reports from Damauli say, a team of police who returned from flood-ridden Kyamin VDC-6, Balichi, Tanahu district said that only five members of a single family were killed yesterday when flash floods swept away a local house.

According to District Police Office, 13-year-old Gyan Bahadur Lama was ciritically injured by the landslide.

Seventeen people died in Lamjung and Tanahu on Friday night from flood and landslide.

According to Chief District Officer Mod Raj Dotel, the relief fund-Rs 10,000 for each family of the deceased - provided by Natural Disaster Relief Committee had been dispatched to the site.

Tradition vs. Development ... Dadeldhura is yet to decide

By J Pandey

AMARGADHI, Dadeldhura, June 25 - In the last two years 20,000 people with complaints of scabies, 14,000 with diarrhoea and severe dehydration cases and 7,000 people suffering from parasitic worms have reached the district hospital in Amargadhi.

This is a grim picture of health situation in one of the remote districts of the country. What lies behind such a condition is conservative and superstitious thinking.

According to Dr Arun Datta Joshi of the district hospital, more than 67,000 people who came to the hospital in the last two years with various complaints were largely victims of unhygienic living conditions.

It is not that the people of this district are unaware of the importance of cleanliness and better hygiene. For them, however, abandoning their age-old habits of searching for a "corner behind the bushes" nearby is easier and acceptable than going to the newly-constructed toilet.

"The people here do not go to the toilet," says Manik Raj Bhatta, a resident of the district. "We even organised a competition where we awarded those building the best toilets. They did construct and were awarded as well, however, they do not use them."

While more than 85 percent of the families in this district do not have a toilet of their own, a small number of families have, however, managed to construct a garbage dumping site.

The practice of keeping menstruating women and those on labour in the cowsheds is still widely practised. They resort to dhami-jhankris (sermons) when the patients are in a critical situation even when a hospital lies nearby.

"Women deliver in unhygenic condition of the cowsheds," says Dr Joshi. "Some even apply cowdung immediately after the delivery which can be fatal at times." According to Joshi, the most prevalent 10 diseases that surface throughout the year are largely due to either conservative behaviour or superstition.

Primarily, it is children and women who fall victim to the orthodox thought and behaviour. According to a survey conducted by New Era, more than 22 percent of the children suffer from problems relating to stomach every two week. Out of this, only 24 percent reach the hospital for treatment and more than 66 percent do not seek any medical assistance.

A majority of the children suffering from diarrhoea are not given anything to drink or even eat. Studies reveal that 30 percent of the children suffering from dehydration are not given anything to eat or drink.

According to statistics provided by the hospital, 40 percent of the people suffer from various diseases due to unhygenic living conditions.

Last year, 28,000 children had succumbed to diarrhoea in the country. More than one thousand people had died from viral influenza in 1999.

UNICEF, District Public Health Office and Drinking Water Supply Department have been conducting programmes to raise awareness for the past five years. "We are facing problems in making people realise the importance of clean sanitary habits," says Mohan Chandra Bhatta, chief of the water supply department.

According to National Planning Commission, the government spent Rs 150 million in cleanliness projects.

Chief District Officer Dilli Siwakoti emphasised on the need for policies that address the traditional behaviour.