Students of the CPN-UML affiliated to ANNFSU burning a tyre in front of Amrit Science College at Thamel, Kathmandu. The students were protesting the petroleum price-hike on Monday.

His Majesty inaugurates Khimti-I

By Surendra Phuyal

KIRNETAR, Dolakha, Nov 27 - His Majesty King Birendra formally inaugurated the Khimti-I hydro-electricity project, Nepal’s first private sector power project, here on Monday amidst the chanting of holy text from the Veda.

Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya was also present at the function, which was attended by an overwhelming number of government officials, diplomats, donors and energy-hungry locals of this backwater district in the central hills.

Developed by Himal Power Limited (HPL), a Norwegian undertaking, the run-of-river hydro-electric power generation plant has an installed generating capacity of 60 MW and an annual production estimated at 350 million kilowatt-hours (units) of electricity.

Addressing the inaugural function, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel announced that the government will soon introduce an investment-friendly water resources policy, and called on private investors to harness the country’s vast hydro-power potential which could later be sold out at an affordable price.

The DPM’s comments comes at a time when serious concerns are being raised on the per unit price of electricity generated from Khimti-I project. The per unit price of Khimti-I is among the costliest in the region, thanks largely to inflation, leakage, and difficulty of constructing projects in the fragile Himalayan environment.

Speaking at the function, Norwegian Deputy Minister for International Development, Sigrun Mondegral expressed happiness over the successful completion of the project - "first of its kind ever supported by the Norwegian government," he said, adding, "the project represents something new: that Nepal is slowly graduating from donor dependency."

The US $ 140 million HPL project is financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Eksportfinans a.s., the Norwegian Agency for Development) and the Nordic Development Fund. The construction works of the project, which is also Nepal’s first project based on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) structure, began seven years ago after Butwal Power Company completed feasibility study.

Presenting his welcome speech, HPL Chairman Sverre Nygaard expressed happiness that the project helped Nepal get rid of the problem of load-shedding and said that the project will contribute to sustainable economic growth of Nepal.

HPL General Manager Harold O Skar also presented souvenirs - a statue of water goddess and the national dress of Norway - to Their Majesties. The royal couple also observed the project’s control room, model display room and the underground power house.

Addressing the function, District Development Committee (DDC) Chairman of Dolakha, Lal Bahadur K.C. said that the project is a big achievement for Dolakhalis, but expressed deep concern that the very locals have been deprived of the hydro-electric power.

"That this project contributed to bring an end to load-shedding problem is indeed remarkable, and hence this project remains as a landmark in the history of Nepal," K.C said. "But the locals have been deprived of the opportunity to consume the electricity generated from their very own surrounding. The locals’ demand is that first priority to consume power be granted to them."

Although HPL is said to be working on to electrify the villages of Dolakha and Ramechhap districts that are located in and around the project site, locals complain that neither the government nor HPL has looked into their key demand - electricity supply to their houses.

HPL also operates a 500-KW mini-hydro plant, the Jhankre plant, whereby 300 houses have been electrified. But locals here are demanding that all the 43 villages - 21 of Dolakha and 22 of Ramechhap, through which the 33 KV transmission line of the project passes - be electrified.

Economy projected to grow at 6 pc in 2000/01

By Prem Khanal

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Amid political uncertainty there is good news that the Nepalese economy is all set to bounce - for a straight second year - at an impressive growth rate of six per cent, bolstered mainly by the continued robust growth in the agricultural sector.

The first quarter preliminary projections for the current fiscal year’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) estimates the economy to grow at 5.9 per cent. The agricultural sector, which contributes around 40 per cent of the GDP and offers employment to over 80 per cent of the national work force, is likely to grow at 4.3 per cent, providing a strong anchor to economic boom. Similarly, non-agriculture sector is also projected to expand at a rate of 6.9 to 7 per cent.

The CBS projections also expect the per capita income of Nepali people to grow significantly following the robust GDP growth. It is billed to jump from current US$ 244 to US$ 258. With the rise in income, Nepali people are expected to save and invest more. The saving and invest rates is expected to grow to 15.9 and 25.6 per cent respectively.

Last year, GDP, the measure of county’s total production in money terms, grew by 6.3 per cent, while the non-agriculture and agriculture sector both grew by 4.9 and over 7 per cent.

If achieved, the annual growth rate would meet the targets set by the ninth five year plan ending 2002, but will be still short of budgetary targets that expected the economy to grow at 7 per cent.

CBS estimates show that, among the nine major components of the GDP; manufacturing, trade, financial and construction, power, transport sector will grow by 7.5, 5, 4.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 per cent respectively.

The expected healthy growth in the agricultural sector is mainly attributed to favourable monsoon. Among the major winter crops, paddy is expected to grow by 5.5 per cent, while the growth forecast for millet and maize is 5 per cent.

Similarly, propped up by soaring pashmina production, manufacturing sector is projected to grow by 7.5 per cent. Other major contributors are biscuits, noodles, sugar and processed tea. Similarly, construction sector growth is mainly supported by iron rods, corrugated sheet which are billed to grow at 9 and 24 per cent respectively. Besides, cement and bricks production is likely to go up by 2.5 per cent.

Likewise, the growth rate for trade and transport is 5 per cent. Export and import - the two components of external trade - are projected to grow by 16 and 20 per cents. On the other hand, the transport and communication sector is forecasted to grow by 5 per cent.

Similarly, finance and real-estate sector’s growth is expected to be around 4.5 per cent. The low growth rate of finance sector is due to the continued excess liquidity condition of the banking sector and poor performances of real-estate.

One of the prominent features of the current growth rate is that it is not leaving behind the social sector too. Fueled by the bountiful growth in the pay scale of civil servants and subsequent rise in the salaries of private sector employees; community and social sector is expected to cross a majestic 14 per cent mark.

The expected growth rate for the current year would be different from the last year’s growth rates in the sense that it is being accompanied by slightly higher inflation- general price rise, to use a common terminology. The inflation for the current fiscal year is estimated at 5 per cent, which was around 3 per cent last year. Experts are particularly hopeful about the sustainability of the GDP growth rates, reinforced by macro-economic stability and moderate inflation.

Though the actual performance of winter crops will largely determine the actual growth rates, continuation of favourable monsoon could take the growth rates at par to the last year’s level, says experts. They also say variations in the winter crops will be nominal since the season is less precarious in terms of monsoon.

Peace... or more war, all hinges on rebel leadership

By Ameet Dhakal

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Last week came and went with one ringing question: Will the Maoists sit for dialogue with a genuine intent to resolve the five-year old insurgency? And yet the answer remains as elusive as ever.

Two important considerations on the part of the Maoists will decide the prospect for such a dialogue. First is their own appraisal of their experiment with insurgency which has been ravaging parts of Nepal over the last five years. And second, is the state of their organizational expansion.

As things stand now, the next logical step for the insurgency is to escalate into a full-fledged guerilla-warfare, unless peace prevails through dialogue.

The socio-political and international context ("Capitalistic world system," in Maoist lingo) remains as unfavourable as it was five years ago for the Maoists to capture Singhadurbar through an arms-rebellion. Do the Maoists still believe that they could do so? Or, have they realized why similar insurgencies in Peru, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Turkey and elsewhere have failed?

Analysts often erroneously point to the "Dunai incident" as a reflection of the Maoists’ growing strength. To the contrary, it hints more towards their weaknesses.

Firstly, it was their most consolidated attempt to capture a district headquarters to embarrass the Kathmandu establishment, and they failed. Secondly, around 1000 Maoists were involved in attacking the district administrations in Dunai, and they exhausted one complete night defeating some 50 policemen. Thirdly, the arms they mustered in Dunai were primitive, such as World War I vintage 303 rifles, hand-made grenades and socket bombs.

Moreover, it is definitely an embarrassing situation for the Maoists themselves that they have not been able to capture and keep in hold of even a remote police station over the last five years. If the Maoists have now realized that the gap between capturing a geographically isolated Dunai and Singhadurbar is astronomical, it seems likely that they will retreat from their chosen path of violence and sit for dialogue. But have they made such a calculation?

As some analysts put it, if the Maoist movement has just completed its first phase (the stage of strategic defense of the revolution, as the Maoists define it) and is on the threshold of its second phase (the stage of power balance), the insurgency is likely to move forward, at least for some years. The real offensive action then, could most likely come in the third phase (the stage of counter attack).

But there is little indication that the Maoists are strictly following this step-by-step escalation of a proletariat revolution as preached by their late guru Mao Tse Tung. Otherwise, the frequency of offenses launched so far would not have been so high.

The second factor that may persuade the Maoists towards dialogue is their assessment of the party’s organizational expansion mainly in the western hilly region and the nation-wide publicity they have earned over the last five years.

The first local-level elections held in April 1994 marked a turning point in the history of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). The United People’s Front (UPF), the political plank used by the Maoists and other communist parties were routed by the ruling Nepali Congress in that election. The UPF, which had won 9 seats in the House of Representatives during the first general elections, failed to capture a single District Development Committee.

That underscored to the Maoists the woeful state of their organization. They were not only short of the necessary power to make their presence felt, but were also lacking in publicity of their ideology which advocated defeating the "capitalists" under the parliamentary system.

Analysts now think, it was that realization which took them down the path of violence in early 1996.

The ground, however, could have changed significantly by now. Despite atrocities, Maoists seem to have exploited a number of government weaknesses to win sympathy of the rural peasantry.

Their campaign against caste discrimination, their uprising against local level "exploiters" and corrupt local officials - although via uncivilized means - have struck a chord with the villagers.

Above all, they have tried hard to convince a large number of local people that the centre is responsible for their plight. All this could have earned them sizeable support among the masses who are frustrated with mainstream political forces.

Maoists can use the negotiating table to further win the sympathy of the common people. Imagine how embarrassed the Kathmandu establishment would be if the Maoists used the table to demand a thorough investigation of the property of all the people who assumed public posts in the post-1990 period?

But all that depends upon whether the Maoists are ready to participate in the political mainstream, in so doing, accepting the monarchy, multi-party democracy and the present world system — all of which they resolved to tear apart when they chose the path of insurgency five years ago.

10th Nepal-Bhutan talks in December

Post Report

BHADRAPUR, Nov 27 - Minster for Foreign Affairs, Chakra Prasad Bastola, said here today that the 10th round of talks between Nepal and Bhutan on the long-drawn-out Bhutanese refugee problem would start in the third week of December.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post at Satighatta in Jhapa, Minister Bastola said the talks would take place "based on the letter dispatched by the Druk government to Nepal."

Bastola said that the forth-coming talks with his Bhutanese counterpart would focus on the verification modalities of the Bhutanese refugees. The ninth round of talks held in Thimpu in May this year brought no substantive result on how to proceed on refugee verification process.

The Bhutanese refugee verification process could not move ahead due to Bhutan’s stance that all refugees above 25 years of age be counted individually while the Nepali authorities insisted that only the family head should be counted as a basis for verification for the repatriation of the refugees who have been languishing in seven UNHCR monitored refugee camps in eastern Nepal over the last ten years. The Bhutanese side expressed its willingness for the tenth round of talks with the Nepalis after a meeting of a group of donor countries to Bhutan last month warned that they may suspend their cooperation if Bhutan refrains from resolving the refugee issue.

In response to a query, Bastola expressed doubts over the fruitful outcome of the forthcoming tenth round of dialogue with his Bhutanese counterpart. However, he said that dialogue is the only means to a successful conclusion of the problem.

When asked about the new entry points to be opened between Nepal and Tibet, the autonomous region of China, Minister Bastola said that both the countries have, in principle, agreed to open four additional entry points between Nepal and Tibet. He said that new routes to Tibet would be opened after completing necessary formalities. He also said that Nepal has proposed the Olangchungola route in Taplejung in the east as one of the four new routes to be opened between Nepal and Tibet.

Teachers halt all protests, interim

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Four teachers’ organisations, on Monday, made an interim decision to halt protest programmes and cease street demonstrations until December 17 to avoid adverse impacts on studies.

The decision was made by almost 200 public school headmasters of Kathmandu District, who had gathered here to review their past protest programmes and to decide on future action.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post Ishwori Prasad Sapkota, Headmaster of Padma Kanya Ma Vi said, "Yes, we have halted all protest programmes until December 17."

He confirmed that the next teachers’ meeting scheduled for December 17 would decide on the future course of action.

Sapkota, who is also president of the Nepal Teachers’ Organisation (NTO), Kathmandu, however, said that the teachers would not stop putting pressure on the government. "We will continue dialogues to press ahead," he said.

Today’s meeting, which was attended by the teachers of NTO, Nepal National Teachers’ Association (NNTA), Nepal Revolutionary Teachers’ Organisation and Nepal National Teachers’ Council from Kathmandu District, also agreed to focus on various teachers’ issues at the national level.

Condemning the government’s indifference towards resolving teachers’ problems and frequent "manhandling" of teachers by pro-Maoist revolutionary students, the teachers had shut down all public schools for four consecutive days in the Kathmandu Valley until last Friday. All the schools were re-opened today.

The major demands of the teachers include ensuring free secondary-level education, providing necessary physical facilities in schools, providing quotas for assistants and permanent status to temporary teachers.

The teachers also denied that their protest programme was directed against revolutionary students "as often cited by the media." Ram Sharan Ghimire, Kathmandu District President of NNTA, said, "It is mostly about solving our problems."

After many words, locals build own bridge over Mechi

By Chintamani Dahal

The temporary bamboo bridge built over the Mechi River by Bhadrapur Social Service Trust.

BHADRAPUR, Nov 27 - It was time again, like it has been for the last half a century, to bring some delight into the lives of many here in this eastern district of Jhapa.

Like everybody here, Sahanaj Rahaman, a housewife, too seems really excited. Apart from obtaining easy access to India for her shopping, Sahanaj will no more have to take off her shoes while crossing the Mechi river now. She can just walk across to India via a newly constructed temporary bridge.

However, as everyone knows, the euphoria is temporary like the bridge the locals have built with bamboo, wood and tin. The bridge will last only until the first rain starts pouring in with the onset of next monsoon.

On the other hand, what is more interesting here is the fact that the issue of building a permanent bridge has always remained in government papers for the last 50 years. And, the bamboo bridge that the locals build every year come as a mockery to the yearly promises, often made by the visiting Prime Ministers.

The actual construction of the bridge has never been initiated except on paper since 1950, when the initial preparations was first carried out. Ever since, with the rise and fall of various governments, the bridge too has shared its part in the country’s rough-shod history.

In 1963, an amount of about Rs. 2.2 million was even collected for the bridge, but it was scrupulously transferred to Mechi Hilly Region Development Project - to the disappointment of the locals. After a continuous effort made by various agencies, Nepal Bank Ltd agreed to extend a loan of Rs. 30 million in 1985.

The people then were happy that the bridge plan would finally come true. Even the costs were estimated and billed at Rs. 60 million. But, it remained a pipe dream, as the Bank backtracked its decision to provide the loan.

Just like the plan of building other three bridges across the Mechi river in Jhapa, plans for building this bridge too remained lost in dusting files, never ever to see the light.

Meanwhile, many here opine that building of a permanent bridge across Mechi will help Bhadrapur in its various development activities.

"The bridge will not only provide easy access and alternative route for vehicles but it will also help to boost business and to develop Bhadrapur," says Chandiraj Dhakal, an industrialist. "We are all ready to provide the necessary support but the government has to start building the bridge."

Business is expected to boom with the construction of the bridge as it links Bhadrapur and the district headquarters town of Chandragarhi with major Indian towns like Galgalia, Thakurganj, Kisanganj and even Calcutta. The nearest Indian railhead is just three kilometres away.

The bridge, if constructed, will also act as a future door-opener for the construction of the Hulaki Marga - a road that runs parallel to Mahendra Highway and connects Biratnagar directly to Bhadrapur. The bridge would also provide an alternative to often busy Mechi bridge in Kakarvitta, the eastern gateway to Nepal.

Parshuram Aryal, president of Chamber of Commerce, Jhapa even suggests that the government allow a private party to build the bridge, if it is suffering a financial crunch.

"The private party can then realise its expenses by charging toll tax," Aryal says. Aryal is also the president of Bhadrapur Social Service Trust (BSST), which has coordinated in collecting donations for building the temporary bridge.

Finally,the locals are again hopeful that the permanent bridge over Mechi will be a reality after the Chinese Envoy for Nepal Zeng Seung inspected the bridge site, last Sunday.

Whatever may be the future, the present temporary bridge across the Mechi was built at the cost of some Rs. 165 thousand collected from the locals by the BSST. Jeet Bahadur Puri, lawmaker from the Upper House of Parliament, donated Rs. 50,000 from the Lawmaker’s Fund.

The temporary bridge is 8 feet wide and 355 feet in length. Maruti van and light jeeps can even cross over the bridge.

According to Aryal, each vehicle crossing the bridge will be charged Rs. 15. The money raised from the toll will then be used for building a concrete cremation ground on the banks of Mechi river.

‘Weeklies facing threat from dailies’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Leader of the opposition parties and General Secretary of the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal today said that journalists should move ahead with a mission to work for the interest of the people and the nation.

Addressing a function to mark the sixth anniversary of Budhabar weekly, Nepal said, unless journalists were sincere to work and fight for the right of the people there was no point in staying with this profession.

The Budhabar weekly, which is closely associated with the main opposition party, began publication six-years ago. Since then it has been published every Wednesday.

"Journalists should just not be working for the publication but for the interest of the society and the nation and to make positive changes in them," Nepal said.

He said that weekly newspapers have had a big role in bringing changes in the society, becoming the medium for the transition.

It was the tabloid-sized weekly papers that were the source of information during the Panchayati period when publishing articles, and news against the partyless system was banned and punishable by closure of the newspapers and detention of the reporters.

The only broadsheet newspaper belonged to the government that had news praising the system. The movement of 1990 besides restoring multiparty democracy also established freedom of press and expression.

However, the dawn of democracy brought a surge of daily newspapers that became a big competition for the weekly papers and sometimes the reason for their closure.

"The weekly newspapers are facing the challenge from the development of daily newspapers but I still believe that they will continue to make the contribution they have been making for years," said Nepali Congress spokesman Narhari Acharya.

Chairman of the Editor’s Society and senior journalist Govind Biyogi said that though these weekly are facing many problems they have been fighting for their survival.

Where children come to school with their spouses

By Shankar Kharel

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - It has been almost four decades since the government declared child-marriage illegal and activated the Muluki Ain which outlawed the practice.

The law, however, remains challenged even today by the Balami community living only seven kilometers from the capital.

The parents of children nearing ten years of age rush to search a match for their child in Kagati Gaun, a village of over 5000 people at Okharpauwa VDC of Nuwakot district adjoining Kathmandu. Child-marriage is the norm in the village.

Forget about abolishing the practice, the community has already started collecting applications for a "group marriage" to take place on the auspicious day of Shri Panchami, when Saraswati - the goddess of knowledge is worshipped. Some communities take this day as an auspicious day for marriage as well.

"The group marriage can be participated in by more than 35 children," says the chief of the Balami community. The people in this village of over 600 families do not look for an auspicious day to marry. If they cannot wait for the group-marriage on Shri Panchami, they marry off their children any day, says Bal Bahadur Balami a local.

"I was surprised to see the practice initially," says Bishnu Prasad Dhakal, principal of the local Shree Bhawani Primary School who has been teaching there for the last 23 years. "It does not surprise me anymore when kids aged eight or ten years come with their spouse."

Sunita Balami, eight, a student of standard one comes to the school with her husband Narayan Balami a student of standard four. They were married five months back.

Around 600 students enrol each year at the Shree Bhawani Primary School, the only school of the village. However, when it comes to actually sitting for exam only around 200 turn up. "They don’t feel the need to study since they get married at such an early age," says Dhakal.

Pointing towards Sahili Balami, 18, and a mother of three, Dhakal says, "I taught her at class one when she got married and then never came to school again."

Dhakal remembers the marriages he witnessed a decade ago. "I saw mothers coming to breastfeed their daughters who were already married off and were staying at their husband’s," says Dhakal.

Devendra Aryal, who is conducting a research on the community since the past three years blames the government and non-government organisations for not being able to raise awareness.

According to Aryal who is about to publish a book based on his research of the community, if a girl runs away with any other guy after marriage the second husband will have to pay Rs 20,000 to the first husband.

"The community does not want to abandon its traditional practices and adopt something new," says Okharpauwa VDC chairman Jeet Bahadur Khalang. "Any awareness raising programmes would have very insignificant effect in the community," he says.

Last year only the locals had broken the video cameras taken by a television crew to record the group marriage during Shree Panchami. "They broke the cameras thinking that it would invade their traditions and nobody else has come after that," says Khalang.

According to researcher Aryal, a family spends around Rs 10,000 in a marriage and sometimes give pieces of land as dowry. The wedding parties are also growing to be a lot more expensive.

There are only around seven persons in the village who have passed the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination and only a dozen go to the Okharpauwa High School.

The younger generation seems to have realised that child-marriage is not good but have resisted from protesting due to fears of being chided by the community.

"We know that child-marriage is not right but the whole village would be against us if we protest the practice," says a modern looking young Balami who is amongst the few who have passed SLC. "So we prefer to keep quiet even when we know it is wrong."

People must fight against corruption: Ex-CBI boss

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Joginder Singh, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), India, said here on Monday that investigation agencies must be manned by competent and honest people if high-level corruption is to be kept in check.

Director Singh said that people need to be vigilant in the fight against rampant corruption which is plaguing the Indian sub-continent. "People need to realise any money given and taken as bribe is in reality paid by themselves," said Singh. He was in Nepal to attend a seminar on vigilance and security.

Singh, during whose stewardship at India’s premier investigating agency, witnessed many scams hogging the media limelight , was fielding questions from mediamen at the launching ceremony of his book Inside CBI, which the publisher claimed was the seventh best-seller in India. The book deals with Bihar fodder scam, among others, in India.

The former director denied his own alleged role in protecting the then chief minister of Bihar Laloo Prasad Yadav, at the behest of Indian Prime Minister H D Devegowda, in the multi-million dollar fodder scam, that has rocked India since its disclosure in 1997.

Speaking about the controversy surrounding Nepal Gameplan report aired by an Indian weekly in July this year, he "rubbished" the whole document. "Since the media is free in India, it sometimes runs after rumours too." He denied the Indian government had anything to do with it, saying India would never do anything to either "malign or harm Nepal". "It was the Indian media that maligned its own country by reporting a non-existent plague epidemic in Surat (Gujarat)."

On the alleged but yet unproven presence of Pakistan’s ISI in Nepal, Singh said that there is a "perception" that ISI has a base in Nepal. When reminded that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had asked for proof of their presence, the top ex-cop said that it was not always possible to provide tangible proof.

Police, students clash over subsidized kerosene

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - Dozens of students were injured today when the police charged them in front of Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus and Nepal Law Campus, while holding the banned torch rally. Estimated hundred student were taking part in the rally.

"The police attacked us from all sides when we had gone around the campus area. The hand scuffle and pelting of stone lasted for around two hours," said Basanta Basnet, the president of Free Students’ Union, Nepal Law Campus.

Basnet claimed that the police even damaged four motorcycles parked in the campus premises and also broke campus windows.

The police fired a dozen tear gas shells and then they lathi-charged to disperse the students participating the protest. It was a pre-scheduled programme of All Nepal National Free Student’s Union (ANNFSU), demanding distribution of subsidized rate kerosene coupons to students at a quota rate of 15 litres per month, states the Kathmandu District Administration Office.

The injured students were named as Himal Sharma, Surendra Manandhar, Thakur Gaire, Shiva Dangi, Padam Lal Shrestha and many others. Among them, Sharma is learnt to be in a serious condition and is being treated at the local Miteri Hospital, Bagbazar.

The students of Amrit Science College staged torch procession inside the campus in the afternoon and burnt tyres on the main road. The police force, however, did not react, student leaders said.

The students of Kirtipur Multiple Campus, Tri-Chandra Campus, Patan Multiple Campus, Mahendra Ratna Campus, Saraswati Campus, Koteshwor Multiple Campus, Gramin Adharsha Campus, Kathmandu Campus also held similar protests.

Earlier on 21 November, the student groups had handed over memorandum on the issue to the vice-chancellors of Tribhuvan University and Mahendra Sanskrit University.

Similar torch rallies were also reported from other parts of the country today. ANNFSU Central Office secretary Bhairav Rawal informed that minor brawl took place at Tansen Campus of Palpa. It protest was peaceful and normal at Janakpur, Biratnagar and Dhankuta. In Dhankuta, ANNFSU had already had talks with the Chief District Officer over the kerosene coupon issue.

Despite all the riots which rocked the capital, the police feigned ignorance of any such incident. Constable Prem of Valley Police Office said,"There was only a simple meeting held. We have no such information of unruliness."