Mahat refutes Indian claim

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, March 6 - Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat today denied reports that Nepal had given a go ahead to place Indian security personnel at Kathmandu’s International Airport (TIA) following the hijacking of an Indian Airlines passenger jet.

"There is no truth in the news report. Nepal has not agreed to such an arrangement," Minister Mahat said in the House of Representatives today.

"Nepal is totally responsible for the security arrangement at TIA and Nepal is committed to providing security at the airport," Minister Mahat said.

On Saturday, AFP news reports from New Delhi had claimed that Nepal had addressed to security lapses at its international airport and had agreed in principle to allow Indian security to operate.

It had reported that Indian Airlines flights to Nepal frozen after the hijacking in December last year could be resumed only after India would finalise security arrangements at the Kathmandu Airport.

Before Mahat addressed the House, opposition members demanded the government make clear its stand on the news report.

"This is a very serious issue and it is irresponsible of our government to delay reacting on the claim," Subash Nebwang of the main opposition CPN-UML said.

Jagatnath Khatiwada, also of CPN-UML, Hari Acharya of the National People’s Front and Lilamani Pokhrel of the United People’s Front too criticized the government for not reacting to the news report.

The report had quoted Indian Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chaman Lal Gupta as saying that India wanted their own security personnel to be stationed at that airport for security checks and some compromise was being agreed on that matter and talks were at a advanced stage.

Since the Indian Airlines jet with 179 people was hijacked on Christmas eve last year minutes after taking off from TIA, Indian Airlines has suspended all its flights to Nepal.

Meanwhile, amid the absence of Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, lawmakers today began regular business of this winter session of parliament.

Speaker Ranabhat flew to Australia on Sunday that drew criticism from the members. "It was irresponsible of the Speaker to leave on a foreign trip when the winter session had just convened," Nepal Workers and Peasant’s Party Chairman Narayan Man Bijucche said.

Maoists set afire ADB and police post in Baglung

By a Post Reporter

POKHARA, March 6 - Maoist insurgents burnt to ashes the branch office of the Agriculture Development Bank and police post in Hatiya, Baglung, a two-day walk from the district headquarters, Baglung bazaar, yesterday.

According to the Chief District Officer (CDO) Ratna Raj Pandey, some 30-35 Maoists entered the bank Sunday evening and burnt all the papers and documents. They, however, took away the land ownership certificates.

CDO Pandey in a telephone conversation told The Kathmandu Post that despite repeated demands from the administration to shift the bank to a safer area, the bank authorities had not paid any attention. He said the area had been identified as "sensitive".

"There was nothing the ten employees of the bank could do but watch them burn the papers," said an eyewitness. Even the villagers who peeped to see what was happening had to close their windows after warnings from the Maoists, a police who was present at the time of the incident told The Kathmandu Post through telephone.

Pandey said the Maoists rebels headed to the police post situated in the middle of the village and set ablaze the furnitures after burning the papers in the bank office. "There were no policemen at the post when the Maoists reached. All 10 policemen of the post were shifted to the nearby police post at Bihun VDC only a few moments earlier," he said.

Baglung is a district bordering Maoist hot-beds -- Rukum, Rolpa and Pyuthan. It is believed that Maoists have been using Baglung as a hideout.

No citizenship for orphans

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, March 6 - Children brought up in rehabilitation centres have been deprived of rights the Constitution provides them due to various social and legal obstructions, officials of various NGOs said here today.

Hari Dahal, representative from St. Xavier’s Social Service Centre said that some of the youths in the centre are facing problems receiving a citizenship certificate due to the strict condition which makes it compulsory for a person seeking citizenship to disclose his father’s name.

Dahal said this at the two-day workshop Children Rehabilitation: Present Situation, Challenges and Future Programmes that kicked-off here today.

"Four of our students (orphans) who received adequate training in management after completing their School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination are jobless because they do not have a citizenship certificate," said Dahal. "They have been deprived of the rights that the Constitution gives."

Dahal pointed out that complications arose when the orphans failed to provide their father’s name while applying for the citizenship.

Similarly, 10 SLC graduates from Nepal Children’s Organization (NCO), who have received technical training are also facing the problem of unemployment, according to Rajeshwor Niroula, representative of the NCO. "The government should take action in rehabilitating and giving employment to these children."

State Minister for Women and Social Welfare Kamala Pant said the NGOs should be aware of officials who abuse and exploit children. "I am confident that this workshop will bring out solutions to curb these problems," she said.

Pant also said that NGOs working in the area should not rely too much on donations and foreign aid. "They should rather focus on trying to make their own strategies effective."

Representatives from 30 different NGOs participated in the workshop organized by the NCO and the Nepal Girls Care Centre.

30 teams to vie for the Himalayas

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, March 6 - Thirty expedition teams from 11 countries will take a shot at the Himalayas during the spring climbing seasons which started on March 1 and runs through May 31. Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has permitted a dozen teams to climb the 8,848-meter Mt Everest.

Likewise, four teams will climb 6,812-meter Mt Amadablam, two teams to 7,161-meter Mt Pumori, and one team each to 7,129-meter Mt Baruntse, 7,319-meter Mt Chamlang, 7,111-meter Mt Ganesh 2, 7,710-meter Mt Kumbhakarna, 8,463-meter Mt Makalu and 7,134-meter Mt Tilicho.

Of the 14 teams permitted to climb Everest, five teams are American, three Spanish, two British, and one each from Canada, Denmark, India and Nepal.

Two teams--one each from Denmark and Spain--have been permitted to climb Everest via the South-East Ridge route and the rest from the South-east Route.

Last spring, 35 teams were permitted to take a shot at 15 mountains in the Himalayas. Twenty-five of the teams tasted success.

In the last season, the government collected US $ 515,715 in mountaineering royalty, according to the Ministry.

Police lathi-charge teachers, dozens nabbed

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, March 6 - Police today resorted to lathi-charge and took into custody over five dozen agitated teachers during a sit-in at the Ministry for Education, according to Nepal National Teachers Association (NNTA).

Police officials have refused to make any comments.

NNTA had planned to hold a sit-in from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to coerce the government to fulfil its long standing demand.

According to President of NNTA, Madav Prasad Adhikari, police injured a dozen teachers and took around 60 of them in custody.

All taken into custody were later released.

Their 11-point demand includes reinstating the teachers sacked for political biasness, inclusion of the suspended years during the Panchayat regime as service years and, resolving the problems faced by teachers.

Teachers affiliated to NNTA have been demanding the government to meet their 11-point demand which has been pending since the last eight months.

"We have been compelled to resort to stronger protest programmes as the government is not interested to reach a solution at all. All the teachers are agitated," said President of NTA Keshav Prasad Bhattarai. NTA, a pro-congress organisation had been conducting separate protest programmes. On February 16, NTA had organised a sit-in at the Ministry of Education.

According to the teachers, their further protest programmes include a sit-in at all the District Education Offices across the country on March 10, and burning effigy of Minister for Education at all the districts on March 24.

Women are silent victims of outmoded beliefs

By Harihar Singh Rathore

JAJARKOT, March 6 - Hari Prasad Sharma married a second time after his wife gave birth to the eighth daughter against his wish for a son. Now he has a dozen daughters and a couple of sons.

This is not a single case. Many women have to silently bear this agony. Their husbands marry twice and thrice for various reasons. Sometimes they marry citing no male child, at times they blame the astrologers who they say have told them to marry to avoid badluck.

This is the state of many women from Jajarkot, a remote district in Midwest Nepal. While women in urban areas and throughout the world attend seminars and give big lectures on equality, women in this part are suffering discrimination silently.

While polygamy is a customary right in this part, women are not even prepared to protest against such discrimination. Moreover, the wealthier take pride in polygamy and make it an integral part of their living. You name it - men have all the excuses in the world for that.

"There are five wives in my destiny but I have achieved only four of them," says a middle-aged man from Khalanga Village Development Committee-3, repenting for not having the fifth one till date. He was citing what the astrologer told him after going through his birth chart.

Though the Muluki Ain (Country Code) has banned polygamy and stipulated punishments for the offenders, women don’t confront to law as they heavily depend on their husbands for their survival. The Muluki Ain has provisions of one to two thousands rupees as fine to both the husband and wife and/or one to two months of imprisonment to both the offenders.

"Polygamy can’t be banished till the women are literate and independent of their husbands," says Krishna Bikram Shah, Chairperson of the District Court Bar Unit, Jajarkot.

Only three polygamy cases have been lodged at the District Court since its establishment thirty-three years ago -on average a case every 11 years. "Women seem used to polygamy," says Khadga Prasad Shakya, a lekhandas, a person who stays outside the court and drafts legal documents for the writ petitioners in exchange of money.

Likewise, 56,404 women who comprise about 50 percent of the total district population don’t even fill half the 270 seats reserved for them as ward members. "When shall they become the ward chairperson or the vice-chairperson?" wonders Bimala Shah, a woman ward member from RPP at Khalanga VDC-2.

Literacy rate of the district is 32.73 percent while the female literacy rate stands at mere nine percent. Furthermore, there are only three female graduates from the districts.

"No matter how high the social status, women’s participation in development activities are below the most marginalised man," says Sita Bhandari, District Chairperson of the Nepal Bidhyot Parishad, an elites’ assembly.

Women are engaged in the traditional agricultural activities for about 18 hours a day which deprives them of the opportunity to concentrate in educational, political and other employment generating pursuits.

Irregularities alleged in Pokhara project

By a Post Reporter

POKHARA, March 6 - Ward chairmen here claim irregularities worth hundreds of thousands of rupees has taken place in the second phase of the Tourism Infrastructure Development Project.

The 40-kilometres sewerage construction project in the city area was being undertaken in seven different phases. Chairmen of wards 4 and 8 Krishna Parajuli and Birendra Narayan Bijukchhe issued a press release today accusing the former Mayor Bhola Thapa and Deputy Mayor Capt Man Bahadur Gurung of taking hefty kick-backs from the commission of the project.

The two ward chairmen have accused the Mayor and his deputy of taking Rs 5,40,000 in commission while appointing the consultant for the project and around Rs 2.5 million while selecting the contractor.

"A ward chairman said he had got Rs 160,000 as commission and said he would return it with bank interest if we (the ward chairmen) could find out the commission others had received," states the press release. "But even after am investigation commission was formed under pressure from a few ward chairmen nothing has been made public as yet."

Captain Gurung told The Kathmandu Post that ward chairman Bhimsen Thapa had confessed that he had received around Rs 100,000 from among the Rs 5,40,000 commission received by the Sub Metropolis for hiring consultants and Rs 2.5 million commission for appointing contractors.

According to Gurung, ward chairman Thapa is willing to return the commission money if others also do the same.

Mayor Thapa had promised to use the money for purchasing a vehicle to ferry dead bodies to the crematorium and an ambulance during the election campaign.

When asked what happened to his promise, Mayor Thapa refused to comment. "We have formed an Investigation Commission under the convenorship of the Deputy Mayor to look into the matter," he said. "We will proceed on the basis of the report submitted by the Commission."

The Deputy Mayor, however, said the Commission had become defunct after the third meeting since the fourth meeting could not take place. "Since I’m involved in various committees I don’t have free time. Besides, it’s very difficult for everyone to return the money they’ve already spent," said Gurung. "So we’ve decided to be alert in future and forget what happened in the past."

When asked why he couldn’t disclose the facts as convenor of the Commission, he said "the chairmen of ward 4 and ward 8 know everything" and asked to contact them.

The press release issued by the two ward chairmen states that the board had decided to ask for a motorcycle and a car while appointing the contractor for the third, fourth and fifth phase.

"But the fact that the Mayors and Deputy Mayors have carried the work on their own without informing the ward chairmen on the developments proves there’s some financial irregularities going on," states the press release issued by Bijukchhe and Parajuli.

Altough the Mayor refused to comment on the commission of Rs 5,40,000 he said the Submetropolis has not received any commission from the contractor. "But we may receive around Rs 1.2 to 3 million commission in future from the bonus."

Mayor Thapa said he intends to construct an overhead bridge in Mahendrapul from the money.