Koirala camp leading in NC elections

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 25 - The preliminary results of the Nepali Congress’s local level elections, that elects representatives for the 10th General Convention, indicates that the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s faction is on the lead.

Of the election concluded in eight districts, Koirala supporters have claimed major victory in six districts, whilst Sher Bahadur Deuba’s faction has claimed victory in two districts. Koirala faction has won majority of the general convention representative seats in Kathmandu, Morang, Dhanusa, Kaski and Rupandehi districts. The Deuba camp has won Dang and Banke, the home district of NC’s General Secretary and Koirala’s close aide Sushil Koirala.

According to the party statute, a total of 1,435 representatives, including the observers, elected from among the active members at the local level will elect the country’s largest party’s president and the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) members in the general convention scheduled for January in Pokhara.

Out of the total 49 representatives who will participate in the general convention from Kathmandu, Koirala camp has successfully elected at least 39 of the representatives. The capital city was believed to be a stronghold of Deuba camp.

PM Koirala was elected unanimously as general convention representative from his home constituency in Morang, yesterday.

A report from Dhanusha, from where former PM Deuba declared his candidacy and began his election campaign says that two-thirds of the elected representatives are from the Koirala faction. Out of the 35 general convention representatives from Dhanusha, Koirala faction has bagged 26 seats.

According to the Dhanusha election results, Minister for Health Ram Baran Yadav, Members of Parliament, Smriti Narayan Chaudhary and Ananda Prasad Dhungana have been elected. Similarly, NC CWC member, Leela Koirala has also been elected.

Similarly, seven representatives, including former minister Bimalendra Nidhi from the Constituency No-4 and two persons, including former MP Shiva Dhari Yadav, were elected as the representatives. Nidhi and the group is believed to be from Deuba camp.

A report from Kalaiya, Bara district says, the Koirala faction has won the majority of the convention representative seats here.

Likewise, a report from Pokhara confirmed that Koirala camp has won overwhelmingly in Kaski district, sweeping away more than 15 seats out of the total 21 representative seats.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Taranath Ranabhat, MPs Prakash Bahadur Gurung and Mahadev Gurung were elected representatives from the Constituency No-1, 2 and 3 respectively of the Kaski district. The National Assembly member and the chairman of Kaski district, Shukraraj Sharma has also won the berth for the general convention.

In Rupandehi, home district of Ram Krishna Tamrakar, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies and a close associate of PM Koirala, the Koirala faction has routed the rival faction stealing all 28 representatives seats. The election in the Constituency No 4 has been postponed following a controversy.

RNAC set to halt Janakpur flights

By Balaram Baniya & Shyam Sundar Shashi

JANAKPUR, Nov 25 - At a time the local tourism entrepreneurs are requesting the government to develop Janakpur airport as an en route stopover for airplanes bound to Varanasi and Patna (India), the national flag carrier Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) is all set to close its branch office here.

Owing to, what officials say, lack of aircraft, RNAC stopped flying to this historic Terai town one and half year ago. And, now it is all set to close its branch office too. "We are just waiting for a directive from our head office," RNAC’s station manager for Janakpur, Ram Ratna Rawal told The Kathmandu Post.

The Janakpur airport was constructed with the assistance from Indian government 24 years ago, and the national flag carrier operated its flights for 21-and-half years from here. Necon Air, a private airlines, too, was flying its Avro to and from Kathmandu until last month. But the airlines suddenly suspended its flights after one of its Avros met with a minor accident at Kathmandu airport.

Recently, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had issued a letter to local tourism entrepreneurs and sought suggestions pertaining to tourism promotion in the historic town. In response, said hotelier Bijay Jhunjhunwala, they have demanded that the government develop Janakpur airport as an en route stopover for airplanes bound for Biratnagar in Nepal and Indian cities, Patna and Varanasi.

Tourism entrepreneurs here say, there is a vast potential for pilgrimage as well as non-pilgrimage tourism growth in Janakpur - the birth place of Hindu goddess Janaki (Sita), wife of the mythological King Rama of Ayodhya. Janakpur is famed for its centuries-old temples of Janaki, Rama, and Janak (Janaki’s father).

Said Raghunath Prasad Shah, General Secretary of Janakpur Chamber of Commerce: "Janakpur Dham is famous amongst Indian tourists. Thousands of them come here every year for pilgrimage. But our state-owned airlines is turning a blind eye to such a profitable sector. You can go and enquire, there is a demand for at least one flight (to and from Kathmandu) a day."

Not only the Indian tourists and pilgrims, Janakpur was slowly gaining popularity amongst third country tourists as well. For instance, 25 per cent of the passengers travelling the Necon Air flights were third country tourists - a major source of earning for Janakpur’s hoteliers.

But now that the Necon Air too has cancelled its flights Janakpur’s hotel industry has been severely hit, lamented Shah.

And, the cancellation of flights has not only served to cripple Janakpur’s budding tourism industry, equally affected are the businessmen from Janakpur and its neighbouring towns such as Jaleshwor, Malangawa and Rajbiraj.

But whether or not the government, or the RNAC, works towards resuming its flights to this central Terai town, which lies about 300 kilometres south-east of the capital, Necon Air is preparing to resume its stalled flights soon.

A Necon Air official here said that the private airliner will resume its flights beginning December 1. Necon Air will fly its Avro for four days a week in the first month, and from the second month onwards it will operate regular daily flights to and from Kathmandu, according to him.

New Indian States create demand for more states

By Our Correspondent

NEW DELHI, India, Nov 25 - The recent creation of three new states within the Union of India has hardly brought to an end the demand for more and smaller states in this vast nation. The Union government is under pressure to create at least 15 new states carved out of the existing political map of the country.

With the bifurcation of Three biggest states -Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar last week, the number of states in India has gone up to 28. The new states added to the list are mineral rich Chhatisgarh carved out of Madhya Pradesh, timber rich Uttaranchal carved out of Uttar Pradesh and mineral and coal rich Jharkhand carved out of Bihar.

The Union Home Ministry has made it clear that it is not going to consider demands for new states, but with growing aspiration for ‘governable’ states, the list may not stop at 28. The ruling National Democratic Alliance, a conglomeration of 24 national and regional parties, has already come under flak for lack of clarity regarding the parameters it applied for creation of new states.

The agitation for creation of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh by the natives, mostly tribal, mainly on the ground of ‘exploitation by outsiders’ is almost 50-year-old where as the demand for creation of a hill-state consisting of eight UP hill districts is about 20-year-old.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government which rules India has taken the stance that the formation of smaller states- all of them only about 50,000 square kilometres in area - is for more efficient administration and development of the area. But serious doubts are being expressed if that will actually take place.

All new states have poor infrastructure including for housing the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of state government. Moreover, the parent states are not too happy with the centre for having lost their bargaining clout over forest and mineral resources. The pre-bifurcation Bihar, Madhya pradesh as well as Uttar Pradesh had been demanding that the states concerned be given a proportionate income of the revenue earned by the centre from such resources.

The BJP has already lost the support of Jharkhand Party which was in the forefront of the demand for statehood in the new state as it insisted that only the BJP person should head the first Jharkhand government. Babulal Marandi, a Union Minister was drafted to head the new government and there are fears regarding the fate of non-tribals and outside business houses as the Jharkhand movement was initially conceived against their exploitation. Chhatisgarh which has a Congress government in place has its problems similar to Jharkhand .

In the case of Uttaranchal, the situation is more complex. While carving out the new state from Uttar Pradesh, the government might have said that it is being done for the hill people. But by the look of things, it doesn’t appear to be ‘by the people.’ The choice of Nityananda Swami, an outsider as the Chief Minister of Uttaranchal and housing of the state capital in Dehradun instead of in the uphill areas have been resented by the local people. More than establishing a functioning state, the BJP government at the centre got into a balancing act in case of Uttaranchal.

According to BJP sources, Swami who hails from the plains, was chosen as the Chief Minister instead of a local Hill person as the population density in the plains is higher and that’s what matters during the election.

In yet another example of its balancing act, the centre has appointed S S Barnala, a Sikh as the governor of the new state as the Sikhs with sizeable hold in big farms and industries in the state were opposed to their areas included in the new state. By appointing Barnala as the governor, the centre has only tried to assure them that they are also participants in Uttaranchal’s administration. All the new governments-BJP in Uttaranchal and Jharkhand and Congress in Chhatisgarh -do not appear very stable because of the under current of division in the respective ruling parties.

Yet, the most crucial point that the central government is yet to address is: Having conceded demands for three states, can it say no to other 15? And what are the basis of formation of these states? The question is sure to be raised in the ongoing session of parliament. A powerful organisation backing the BJP at the centre has already demanded that the volatile state of Jammu and Kashmir should be split into three autonomous regions, mainly on the basis of religion.

In the mid-1950s Indian states had been reorganized on linguistic basis. Backwardness has been cited for the present decision. But the number of backward areas aspiring to be states is growing, and some of them have even threatened to launch agitation. Another fear being expressed is: Can the religion be the issue of formation of new states or autonomous regions tomorrow? There have been warnings against this.

In Kashmir, Muslims have majority in Srinagar, Hindus in Jammu and Buddhists in Ladhak region. Maharashtra’s Bidharva region, Assam’s Bodo, Bihar’s Mithilanchal, are among the few other areas demanding separate state status.

No need to amend Constitution: Speaker

Post Report

POKHARA, Nov 25 - Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat today said the call for amendments to the Constitution is not proper at a time when all its provisions are yet to be implemented.

"The door to constitutional amendments is always open but since all the provisions are left to be put into practice, why talk about amendments?" said the Speaker. "No other country possesses such a fine Constitution. So, the call for changes is nothing but an example of bad workman blaming his tools."

Ranabhat added that all the ills like distortions, corruption and violence cannot be blamed on the statute.

He said in a country beset with problems of poverty and illiteracy, killing one’s own brethren will only make the challenges more difficult. The Speaker added that the ruling party (Nepali Congress) had to stop the tendency of saying that other parties were uncooperative while it was facing infighting.

"It is in these circumstances that press should remind everyone of their responsibility," said Ranabhat.

He was speaking at a ceremony organized to present Gajendra Memorial Creative Media Award, 2000 on Saturday to Kantipur Publications journalist Gangadhar Parajuli. The ceremony was organised by Federation of Nepalese Journalist, Kaski chapter. The award carries a purse of Rs 15,000 and a letter of appreciation.

Whom to blame for Valley’s growing traffic?

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Nov 25 - Even as the government and the general public continue to blame the traffic police for failing to manage the capital’s growing traffic, the Valley Traffic Police Office (VTPO) says the problem is due to lack of coordination among the concerned authorities which is hindering their task.

The concerned authorities in this case are: VTPO, which is responsible for managing the city’s traffic; Department of Transport Management (DTM) which is supposed to manage and monitor the means and types of transportation or vehicles; and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), the local authority.

Officials at DTM and KMC have their own versions of the stories to narrate. VTPO officials say their task of managing the traffic has been hampered because the DTM allows all kind of vehicles to operate in Bagmati zone, under which the Kathmandu Valley falls.

Experts, however, say Kathmandu Valley cannot withstand the pressure of the increasing number of vehicles. According to them, almost 60 per cent of all the vehicles registered in the country are plying in the Valley, creating several vehicular traffic bottlenecks.

Among them, almost 40 per cent are motorcycles plying the Valley’s total road length of 1,162 kilometres. And, during last year, the number of vehicles increased by about 40 per cent.

Senior Superintendent of Police and the In-charge of VTPO, Kumar Koirala, accuses the DTM and KMC of not cooperating with the traffic police in managing the city’s traffic.

"The department (DTM) enjoys the right to register vehicles, but it does not consult us while doing so," says Koirala. "They register all vehicles seeking registration. But it is the traffic police who has to bear the brunt of congestions and the traffic jam."

Asked to comment, Krishna Murari Sharma, Director General at the DTM, says that no such complain has officially come to the department. "Every one can seek registration of his/her vehicle according to law, and we cannot deny them," he said. "It is beyond our jurisdiction to refuge registration."

SSP Koirala charges that the KMC is not properly managing the roads, parking zones and bus parks. "KMC does not control the street vendors who are increasingly creating traffic chaos," Koirala says. "Though it raises levy from the parked vehicles, it does not properly manage the parking zones, which are located along the busy streets."

He also said that more than 20 per cent of traffic-rule violations during the last year were related to parking.

KMC has leased out almost 40 parking zones in Kathmandu to Green Channel, a private organization, for three years against a rent levy of Rs 375,000 per month. Traffic police say excessive and improper parking in these zones has contributed to the bottlenecks in Ratnapark, Nayabazar, Thamel, Putalisadak, Kamaladi and Lampati areas, especially during rush hours.

KMC officials refuge to buy the traffic police’s allegations, and claim that the street vendors have been kept under control these days. They also say that they are ever ready to coordinate with both the police and DTM.

"Since parking zones are for the people’s access, it can not be located away from the roads itself," says Hari Prasad Rimal, Executive Officer at the KMC.

A task force formed under the chairmanship of Sharma has suggested the government not to permit heavy vehicles to ply inside the Ring Road. Traffic police thinks that it will somehow ease after the government comply with their suggestions.

They are also positive towards the recent decision of the Ministry of Population and Environment to ban all 20-year-old vehicles from the Valley by mid-November next year.

‘Govt not serious in solving Maoist problem’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 25 - The government is dallying in sincerely seeking peaceful resolution of Maoist problem because it wants to snatch a huge sum from the state coffers for its officials in the name of containing the insurgency, alleged opposition leaders here today.

Speaking at an interaction programme organized by Deshbhakta Prajatantrik Manch, a newly formed forum led by CP Mainali, leaders also indicated that a "third force" could also be pressing the government to linger the Maoist problem for its own interest.

"The government could be under imperialistic pressure to provoke China with the Maoist issue. Plus, such forces are in need of grounds to export their arms," said Yubaraj Gyawali, the main opposition leader in the Upper House of Parliament.

"Or else, the political dialogue should have moved ahead at a time when the Maoists have declared their willingness for talks," he added. Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha, coordinator of Rastriya Janandolan Coordination Committee, also indicated that a "third force" could be active to disturb immediate dialogue between the government and Maoists.

"The government is not immediately going ahead with the talks either due to the large money allocated for resolving the issue or they’ve killed the rebels who were taken as prisoners," Shrestha said.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on November 16 retreated from its earlier stance that there was "almost no possibility" of dialogue with the government, setting fresh conditions for its resumption.

Maoists said that their party is ready for dialogue if the government makes public the whereabouts of Central Committee members Dandapani Neupane, Matrika Yadav, Central Committee Advisor Ishwori Prasad Dahal among others, initiates action for their unconditional release and stops state terrorism.

Shrestha, who is considered close to the insurgents, also said that the call for talks by the Maoists, this time, has no political motive. Speaking at the programme, Kamal Thapa, spokesperson of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), urged for consensus between all political parties for peaceful resolution of Maoist issues.

"The result of the recent happenings have showed that NC cannot resolve the Maoist issues alone...and still, the government has not formally called all parties for talks," he said.

Mukesh Kumar wins Surya Nepal Masters

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 25 - Mukesh Kumar won his second title in as many weeks on the Wills Sport Indian Golf Tour when he captured the 12-lakh Surya Nepal Masters after his second successive round of six-under 66 on the final day at the par-72 Gokarna Forest Golf Resort today.

In a story almost similar to last week’s ONGC-Noida Golf Club Open, Vijay Kumar missed out on the title as he finished second after a final round of one-over 73. Vijay’s four-day aggregate was nine-under 279. Shiv Prakash shot a two-under 70 to take the third place at five-under 283, while two Nepali pros- Deepak Thapa Magar and Deepak Acharya -- were among those tied for the fourth place at two-under 28. The other players in fourth place were Rookie pro Rahul Ganapathy, who shot a six-under 66 today, and Uttam Singh Mundy.

Mukesh earned Rs 194,400 for his victory, while Vijay had to be satisfied with a cheque of Rs 134,400. Shiv Prakash got Rs 75,600. Ganapathy, Mundy, Deepak Thapa and Deepak Acharya were richer by Rs 47,700 each.

"I am so happy that I feel as if I am on the moon. I had called up my wife Manisha last night and she told me not to come back home if I falled to win the title. I am delighted I lived up to her expectations," said a beaming Mukesh Kumar after the victory.

Starting two strokes behind Vijay, Mukesh began with a tap-in birdie on the first hole after his 9-iron shot left him with a putt of less than one feet. In fact, the outcome of the tournament was decided on the opening hole itself when Vijay’s awesome drive went straight into the jungle on the left side across the fourth fairway and he had to settle for a triple bogey after taking penalty drops twice.

Mukesh was on fire as his short-iron shots peppered the flags with almost radar-like accuracy. On the par-5 third, he went into the right greenside bunker with his second shot but made his up-and-down for a birdie. On the fourth, he chipped to one feet and went three-under for the day. On the sixth, he hit the sandwedge second shot to less than a feet again for another birdie. On the par-4 ninth, he took the tiger line over the trees and drove the green but was left with a eagle putt of over 150 feet. A brilliant first putt left him three feet short and he duly made another birdie to go five-under at the turn.

To Vijay’s credit, it must be said that the ‘Lion of Lucknow’ did not give up without a fight. After the disaster on the first hole, he made a 20-footer birdie putt on the second, and then added birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth to make the turn at one-under and just two strokes off Mukesh.

On the back nine, Mukesh made a bogey on the 10th and the lead was cut to one stroke. But on the 14th hole, Vijay made a bogey and followed it up with a double bogey on the 15th after hitting the right drain on both occasions. Mukesh too made a bogey on the 15th, but the fate of the tournament was sealed by that time.

"The turning point was the bogey by Vijay on the 14th, I knew I will win the tournament after that," said Mukesh. "The triple bogey on the first was unlucky but I still had 17 holes to play. But the bogey on 14th broke my heart," said Vijay agreeing to the winner.

Rahul Ganapathy, the current leader in the race for the Rookie of the Year, played a brilliant round of six-under 66. The Mysore based pro, who won the All-Indian Amateurs title last year made one bogey- on his penultimate hole -- and had one eagle and five birdies during his round.

SCORES (after 72 holes): 274-- Mukesh Kumar (69,73,66,66); 279--Vijay Kumar (72,66,68,73); 283--Shiv Prakash (72,70,71,70); 286--Rahul Ganapathy (71,75,4,66); 286-Uttam Singh Mundy (69,67,79,71); 286-Deepak Thapa Magar (74,69,71,72); 286-Deepak Acharya (70,70,72,74); 288-Rohtas Singh (76,72,70,70); 289- Pappan (71,72,72,74); 292-Zai Kipgen (71,78,70,73);288-Sanjay Kumar(70,78,70,70); 92-Amish Jaitha (74,74,70,74); 293-Vinod Kumar (78,74,70,71); 295-Ranjit Singh (74,76,76,69); 295-Shamim Khan(71,79,76,69); 295-Ajay Gupta (74,74,70,77); 297-Babu Ahmed (67,77,80,73); Amateurs 298-Rahil Gangjee (84,69,69,76); 317-Bijesh Shahi (80,77,76,84); 320-CB Bhandari (80,81,76,83)