HDI dismal

By a Post Reporter

LALITPUR, June 29 - If the splendour of the capital and shopping spree amongst Kathmanduites give you the impression that Nepal is heading towards economic prosperity, then that’s an illusion.

Nepal’s Human Development Index (HDI) shows a dismal picture. Nepal is among the only eight countries of the world where more than half of the population lives under appalling conditions due to extreme poverty. Nepal’s Human Poverty Index is 51.3 percent at par with countries like Mozambique, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, according to Human Development Report released today.

While last year Nepal made a leap of eight positions in the HDI ranking, credited largely to the "revised methodology to compute the index and use of improved statistics," this year there is no such jump to boast about.

Nepal still holds the 144th position under "Low Human Development" category out of 174 countries listed in the report. The HDI value shows a negligible change -- 0.474 this year from 0.463 last year.

The trend of rich-getting-richer and poor-getting-poorer has not stopped as almost all the countries listed in the report identify with it. While the richest 20 percent of the population earns 44.8 percent in Nepal, the poorest 20 percent earns 7.6 percent of the income, states the report.

And not surprisingly, being a man is still much better than being a woman. This is even more important in a country like Nepal which stands out as "the only country" in the world where female life expectancy is lower than that of males.

Adult literacy has reached to 39.2 percent from the 38 percent last year and school enrolment ratio has touched 61 percent, which stood at 59 percent last year.

According to the report, Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is US $ 1,157, which is the eleventh from the bottom. Ten countries - all of them African - have GDP per capita lower than that of Nepal.

The report with "Human Rights and Human Development" as the theme this year, gives an overview of human rights situation in the world.

It emphasises on the need to integrate human rights into national constitutions and strong judiciary, adding that the enforcement would give people the legal ammunition needed to take action when their rights are violated. "Increased litigation for human rights can create problems if there are too few courts or if judges, lawyers and magistrates are poorly paid," says the report.

"Though there have been some path-breaking initiatives like the formulation of National Plan of Action on CEDAW, discriminatory laws still exist," said Saraswati Menon of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) during the launching of the report.

"Every country has some distance to travel in creating a fully inclusive democracy and Nepal is no exception."

Among other South Asian countries, war-stricken Sri Lanka tops the index at 84th position. Following it are -- Maldives at 89th, India at 128th, Pakistan at 135th and Bhutan at 142nd.

Bangladesh is the only South Asian country which comes after Nepal in the index at 146th position.

Canada tops the Human Development Index (HDI) for the seventh consecutive year.

UML, RPP argue over Nuwakot-1

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 29 - Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani and Rajendra Prakash Lohani, two close contenders of the Nuwakot-1 constituency, today made conflicting claims about their status as member of parliament two days after the Special Election Court Lalitpur declared Dr Lohani elected with a margin of only one vote.

Both the Lohanis had their lawyers at hand to support their argument.

While Dr Lohani and his lawyer Sushil Pant asserted that the court verdict has established the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) strongman as the MP designate, Rajendra Prakash Lohani of CPN-UML and his lawyers--Hari Krishna Karki and Tika Ram Bhattarai--claimed Lohani as the MP.

"I am an MP designate now," Dr Lohani said, echoing the remarks his lawyer Pant made earlier -- that Dr Lohani stands an MP designate until he is formally sworn in, while replying a question as to who actually is the current Nuwakot-1 MP in the House of Representatives.

CPN-UML’s Lohani also claimed that he remains an MP, reiterating that "the Court has not maintained transparency in the whole legal process" leading to the landmark verdict, first such in the ten-year-old history of parliamentary democracy in Nepal.

"It was me who garnered more votes in the recount, I am a witness to that, but someone else turned out to be a winner," a disturbed Lohani added.

In an unprecedented verdict, the single bench of Justice Pramod Bijayi on Tuesday declared Dr Lohani elected from the constituency garnering 11,484 votes and removing UML’s Lohani from the parliament.

However, it was Rajendra Prakash Lohani who was leading with 15 votes when he bagged 11,786 votes in the parliamentary elections held in May last year. Dr Lohani had garnered 11,771 votes. Subsequently, a shocked Dr Lohani who enjoyed at least four consecutive election victories from Nuwakot since the early 1980s, filed a petition seeking recount of the ballots.

Lohani’s lawyer Bhattarai today flayed the verdict describing it as "lacking transparency and against the established principles of the Supreme Court", and added, "Dr Lohani cannot go to the parliament unless and until the Supreme Court--where UML is contemplating re-petitioning--declares so."

Lawyers at the Reporters’ Club face-to-face programme, however, said UML’s Lohani remains a parliamentarian until the Special Election Court informs both the Parliament and Parliament Secretariat about the verdict within 15 days.

CPN-UML, on the other hand, has said that it will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court, claiming that there were irregularities in the recounting process.

Election Crime and Penalty Act 2047 (1991) allows contestants to file such a petition within 35 days of the verdict.

Dr Lohani and his lawyer today came down heavily on the UML activists who resorted to vandalism shortly after the verdict was announced at the Lalitpur Court late Tuesday. Unconfirmed reports said the enraged mob of UML activists even hurled stones at the residence of Justice Bijayi and Dr Lohani late that night.

"This is a matter of great concern that activists of such a responsible political party resorted to vandalism and vulgar sloganeering at the court and even at my resident at mid-night," Dr Lohani said, calling upon all the "so-called responsible political parties" to uphold the judiciary.

Asked if RPP would honour the Supreme Court verdict, if any, in the future, Lohani assured that "RPP will honour such verdicts...and there will be no vandalism."

Talking to The Kathmandu Post shortly after the verdict, Justice Bijayi had said that all the ballots that the Court took into "notice" had been declared invalid. "Every thing will be clear after our official written verdict comes out two days later," he had said when asked to elaborate.

The written verdict, however, has not been brought out as yet.

The court had taken 298 ballots cast in favour of Rajendra Prakash Lohani and 290 ballots cast in favour of Dr Lohani into account.

Police posts to be revived Home Minister lashes NRD

POKHARA, June 29 (PR) - Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi today said that the government was planning to reinstall police posts at the insurgency hot beds to make the government’s presence felt to the people.

The government must make its presence felt in all the corners of the country to discourage upheavals, said Minister Joshi, for that effective coordination and result-orientedness of all the units of the Home Ministry is a prerequisite.

"Even the government offices and banks must be reinstated (at the insurgency-hit districts) for the effective presence of the state," said Joshi inaugurating a two-day regional meet of Chief District Officers, Police officers and National Research Officers here today.

Minister Joshi, however, said that it was high time the local people, political parties and the state powers be properly mobilised to combat Maoist insurgency and other social crimes.

Stressing on the comprehensive role of the units of the Ministry, Joshi said, "they must place corruption control on the top of their agenda."

The Home Minister also came down heavily over the National Research Department (NRD) affiliated with his own ministry.

"NRD has failed to inform and assist the government on the most pressing issues like terrorist activities, corruption and the mafia activities," said Minister Joshi. "NRD has even failed to set its priorities."

NRD officials are confined to clerical works, alleged the Minster. "NRD is merely wasting ink and papers informing the Ministry about formal programmes. Even newspapers furnish such information. NRD officials should at least accomplish one concrete job a year," said Minister Joshi.

Targeting the arm-chair NRD officials, Minister Joshi said, "If they can’t work in the villages, they should work in the district headquarters, if they can’t work there, they should at least work at the District Administration Office."

Criticising the inefficiency of the Department, Joshi said: "I am troubled by the inefficiency of the Department, which, on one hand, seek more resources while on the other fails to deliver.

Foreign Aid Policy to be made public

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 29 - Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya today informed the parliament that the much talked about Foreign Aid Policy would soon be made public.

"The policy is nearing completion," said Minister Acharya. "As soon as we incorporate the reactions from the donors and other concerned agencies with it, it would be made public." He had committed the policy in the budget for the fiscal year 2057/58.

The policy was formulated after extensive discussions with various parties, he said, adding that it aims at choosing the projects which are in the interest of the country. "Donors too have taken it positively," he added.

Minister Acharya also stressed the need to bring the foreign aid under the sphere of central audit system. "It is necessary that foreign aid be audited by the Office of the Auditor General," he said. "We need to talk with donors in this regard and we are doing so."

He was replying to a question raised by CPN-UML lawmaker Gokarna Raj Bista regarding audit mechanism for foreign aided projects. "Objective and technical assistance and the projects directly funded by the foreign donors are audited by the donor agencies themselves," Acharya said. "It should be brought into the central audit net. Some more laws are required for this and the government is taking the initiative."

Adversities in internal business, lack of administrative capacities and unregulated border business were some of the factors hampering estimated revenue collections, said Acharya. He was referring to a query of CPN-UML lawmaker Birodh Khatiwada regarding the failure of the government to accumulate estimated revenue.

Raising the issue of the problems faced by many projects due to the delayed disbursement of the budget, Acharya said that the budget itself would be tabled earlier than the present practice. He, however, said the delay in the budget disbursement was also due to heavy reliance on foreign aid. A lengthy procedure must be followed for the same.

Active membership row heats up in NC

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 29 - The argument over renewal and distribution of active membership at the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting today remained unresolved.

The CWC meeting which had been going on for the past ten days is yet to meet to discuss the matter. The meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar today was heated up when a few of its members demanded that the on-going renewal and distribution of the active membership be investigated.

The members were discussing the report on National Convention and Organisation prepared by the party General Secretary Sushil Koirala. CWC has been discussing the report since Wednesday and the meeting has been called again for tomorrow.

According to a CWC member, former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba sought clarifications from Koirala on the decision to dissolve the party’s sister organisation, the Nepal Women’s Association. Deuba also demanded that the procedure to renew and distribute the active membership be altered.

Currently, NC has 130,000 active members who will choose the leaders for the party.

According to the source, invitee members and former ministers Chiranjibi Wagle and Purna Bahadur Khadka said that the national convention should be postponed considering the gravity of the People’s War and the NC cadres’ inability to renew their memberships in the insurgency-hit districts. The national convention of the party is scheduled for second week of November. Narahari Acharya, the party spokesperson said that the party constitution should be amended to bar the party president from appointing majority of its members. "The party central working committee should have 75 per cent elected members," said Acharya. The 31-member CWC at present has only five elected members and all the rest are nominated by the party president.

Kala-azar hits Sarlahi 1 dead, over 85 affected

By a Post Reporter

MALANGAWA, Sarlahi, June 29 - One person has died of Kala-azar in this district while more than 85 have been infected and many have fled the district due to lack of ample medical assistance since the outbreak of the disease few days ago.

Since all the fourteen beds in the district hospital has been occupied by Kala-azar patients,including five children, no room is left for others who come to the hospital in ever growing number, the Superintendent of the hospital Shailesh Kumar Jha told The Kathmandu Post.

Eighty-five cases of Kala-azar have been traced in seven VDCs -- Haripur, Laxmipur, Gamhari, Sangrampur, Narayanpur, Haripurva and Nokelwa - till date, said Senior Health officer Raj Kishore Singh but the actual figure must be much higher as many have fled the district.

The Public Health Section of the district doesn’t maintain the record of those who leave the district for treatment. The Section, however, has been using germicides at the seven VDCs to control the epidemic.

‘Nepal can’t sell power at Bhutan’s rate’

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 29 - Nepal will not be able to export electricity to India at the same price as what Bhutan is supplying now, said a Nepalese observation team from Mustang district that recently conducted a tour of the Druk kingdom.

According to the 13-member observation team, Bhutan is supplying electricity to India at a very cheap price while its investment in this sector is extremely low compared to Nepal.

"We cannot export hydropower at any cost to India at the rate provided by Bhutan...Nepal’s generation cost is extremely expensive," said Bijay Man Sherchan, an engineer and a member of the team, at a press conference organized by Mustang District Development Committee (MDDC) today.

According to Sherchan, Bhutan generates one KW electricity at an investment of 700 US dollars whereas Nepal produces the same unit at an investment of 2000 US dollars.

"Bhutan is selling the electricity at 88 paisa per unit, but Nepal cannot do so," he added. "Even Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) purchases electricity from a small hydro-power project at the rate of Rs 3.40 per unit."

Currently, Bhutan is producing 354 megawatt of electricity while its internal consumption is only 60 megawatt. The rest is all exported to India.

"Bhutan has already reached an agreement to produce 15,000 MW of electricity with India. India will only buy the electricity from Nepal if Bhutan fails to fulfil its demands," Sherchan emphasized. "Nepal will now remain India’s second choice."

He further added that India provides 40 percent grant and 60 percent loan for electricity production in Bhutan. India will eventually exempt the loan, he said.

NEA is charging about Rs 4.50 per unit to its consumers whereas urban Bhutanese are paying 60 paisa per unit and the households in rural areas are paying 80 paisa.

Later, when asked about the reason for choosing Bhutan as a role model, MDDC Chairman Nirmal Kumar Gauchan attributed that Mustang shared a similar topographical, geological, religious and cultural features with Bhutan.

The team of experts further stresses the need for environment- friendly roads, labour-intensive technology , mechanization in agriculture and local autonomy for development.

Nepal will not pull out of Sydney Olympics

By Suman Malla

KATHMANDU, June 29 - The Member-Secretary of the National Sports Council (NSC), Binod Shankar Palikhe, has dismissed claims that Nepal will pull out of Sydney Olympics which gets under way on September 15.

"There is no way we could skip such a big event like the Olympics," says Palikhe. "Players are undergoing regular training. However, with our limited resources it will be far from a high-profile affair."

Palikhe’s comments come at a time when coaches and athletes have publicly voiced their concerns after the new budget unveiled last month failed to set aside any resources to meet Olympic commitment.

Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya, much to the dismay of sports enthusiast, sharply reduced the sports budget, earmarking just over Rs 100 million for the fiscal year 2057/58.

"We have bigger challenges ahead of us after our overwhelming presence in the 8th SAF Games," says a highly placed source with the Department of Training at NSC.

"It is high time that we considered beyond conventional school of thought that gives less importance to winning," the source further adds."While our neighbours adopt more pragmatic programmes, we are yet to benefit from IOC’s Solidarity Programme, which is meant to raise the sports sector in under-developed countries.

In a bid to facilitate Olympic participation, Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee (SOGOC) is meeting the travelling and accommodation costs for official contingents of the participating countries.

Olympic Solidarity, created by International Olympic Committee in 1961 at its 58th session, maintains some twelve programmes, eight of which are intended for all the NOCs and four for the most disadvantaged NOCs.

According to the IOC information, the aid and development budget approved by the Olympic Solidarity Commission for the 1997/2000 four-year plan amounts to US$ 121.9 million.

While Palikhe says he does not hold any information on this regard, the President of Nepal Olympic Committee, Rukma Shamsher Rana, admits of receiving such assistance from IOC but declares that Nepal’s share of such funds is too limited.

"We get US$ 5,000 for the conduction of national solidarity course and US$ 15,000 for the regional solidarity course," Rana said. "We have so far organised 2-3 national and one regional solidarity courses. A regional course has been planned for swimming later this year."

Talks are on for the allocation of separate budget for the participation at Sydney Olympics, he says, the amount we are asking now is much less than what we had for Atlanta four years back.

Nepal, which received recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 1963 made its maiden appearance a year later in Tokyo Olympics. Apart from the Mexico City Games in 1968, it has been a regular participant of every other Olympiad.

Nepal is reported to send six athletes to Sydney this September with two each in athletics and swimming while it is trying for four more wild cards for taekwondo, weightlifting, boxing and shooting.

The confirmation of wild cards, according to Rana, will be made by the end of first week of July.

Some 10,300 athletes from over 200 countries are expected in the 27th edition of the Olympiad, which starts from September 15 and closes on October 1 this year. The players will vie for top honours in the Games’ 36 competitive events.

Locals miffed at KG-A

By a Post Reporter

SYANGJA, June 29 - The concerned authorities are not sensitive towards solving the problems arising out of the construction of the 144 megawatt Kaligandaki ‘A’ hydro-electricity project, said a local Village Development Committee official here today.

The construction of the mega project is going on at the Shri Krishna Gandaki VDC.

"The project officials have not shown willingness to honour their pledge to help the local people affected by the construction," the VDC Vice-chairman Ved Prakash Bhattarai told The Kathmandu Post.

He said the assurances given to the people affected by the project were providing employment, drinking water, construction of connecting roads, renovation of local schools, making available telephone facility and financial support.

However, the project officials said the local people have not completed the work according to the conditions agreed upon at the time of the implementation of the project. According to them, the frequent sit-ins and road blocks have had adverse effect on the progress of the work.

The officials also said there is no adequate security at the construction site. At present, ‘C’ category security is provided for the project.

The officials have pointed out that vandalisation of residential and administrative buildings of the contractor Impregilo SPA on August 24 last year.

Even the communication facilities are not adequate, said the officials.

The Butwal-Pokhara Siddhartha Highway is in a very bad condition in the Butwal-Galyang stretch. "We have already communicated with the concerned authorities for road repair," Joint Project Chief, Dr Jivendra Jha told The Kathmandu Post, when he was asked to comment on the fears that the completion of the project would be delayed due to it.

Rebel killed in encounter

By a Post Reporter

POKHARA, June 29 - A Maoist rebel was killed in an encounter with police in Lamjung district today.

Chief District Officer Govind Khanal told The Kathmandu Post that the clash took place at 8 am at Dundekhola in Valaykharka VDC-1.

He also said police have recovered a powerful hand grenade, some explosives, pamphlets, a diary and some documents from the spot.

Some seven to eight rebels had set up an ambush at the spot for a posse of 12-13 policemen led by Inspector Indra Lama. In the retaliatory firing by the police, the rebel was killed while the other Maoists fled.

Although the fallen rebel is suspected to be a regional commander of the Maoists, the police have not yet identified him.

Impounded tempos sent to Department of Metrology

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, June 29 - The Valley Traffic Police Office (VTPO) has handed 21 three-wheeler tempos found operating with doctored meters over to the Department of Metrology.

Inspector Jagadish Pokharel at VTPO said the traffic police sent the vehicles to the department, but did not confirm what action was taken against them.

The vehicles were impounded Wednesday morning by a team of traffic police headed by SI Sita Ram Hachhethu at Kalimati Police Post. The police had conducted on-the-spot meter checking on the tempos for about an hour Wednesday.

According to Hachhethu, the tempos were charging up to nine rupees, as against the fixed six rupees per kilometre, for a kilometre ride with un-suspecting passengers. Some of them had even put up stickers announcing "special discount fare" apparently to lure passengers, he said.

An official at the department, meanwhile, said that the vehicles were released later today after fining them up to Rs 500. Laws require the operators of such vehicles with doctored meters to pay a fine of up to Rs 500.

Department officials, however, say this has hardly discouraged the operators or drivers from tampering on their vehicles’ meters.

People commuting on tempos and taxis say the problem of tampering on meters exists in both kinds of vehicles. Though the government has fixed per kilometre fare for taxis at Rs 10, traffic police say they too have been found charging up to Rs 15.

Decision leads to division in NSP

By a Post Reporter

BIRGUNJ, June 29 - Government’s decision to terminate the development budget allotted to Birgunj Sub-metropolitan city due to rampant economic irregularities in the municipal office has resulted in a sharp division within Nepal Sadbhavana Party.

While the only elected representative of the party in the municipal office Bir Lal Shah has welcomed the decision as the right move, the Central committee member and legal advisor to the sub-metro Laxman Lal Karna has openly campaigned against the decision.

The part, however, hasn’t taken initiative to resolve the difference between the party members.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bimal Shrivastav has been lobbying in the capital against the decision. He met the Minister for Local Development and the Prime Minister but to no avail.

Karna, however, has filed a case in the Supreme Court against the decision. The hearing is slated for July 3.