His Majesty's Dashain message

KATHMANDU, Oct 10 (RSS) - His Majesty King Birendra has said that our tradition along with the culture and value system it has nurtured have contributed to the Nepalese identity.

In a message on the occasion of Bada Dashain 2057, His Majesty the King has said that remaining steadfast in our national unity, which has been consolidated by this culture and value system, all Nepalese must be able to observe their tradition and way of life peacefully in a secure environment.

This can be achieved if the problems facing us are dealt with a clear and long-term perspective based on our national interest, His Majesty observed.

His Majesty said "May Nava Durga Bhawani inspire all Nepalese, while preserving and promoting their culture, to enhance the prestige of the nation."

His Majesty said, "Our tradition along with the culture and value system has nurtured and contributed to the Nepalese identity. Remaining steadfast in our national unity, which has been consolidated by this culture and value system, all Nepalese must be able to observe their tradition and way of life peacefully in a secure environment. This can be achieved if the problems facing us are dealt with a clear and long term perspective based on our national interest."

Jet with 191 aboard escapes major mishap

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KATHMANDU, Oct 10 A Chinese airliner with 191 persons on board miraculously escaped mishap Tuesday when a large bird was sucked into its left engine during take off, forcing the pilots to abort the take-off and stop the jet on the runway.

The incident, the latest in a series of bird hits at Tribhuvan International Airport, raises more questions about flight safety at Nepal’s only international airport. It also underscores the Civil Aviation Authorities’ failure, despite continued near misses, to control the bird problem which someday could result in a fatal crash.

Tuesday’s incident occurred when the China South West Airlines (CSWA) jet was bound for Lhasa and was already nearing take off speed when it hit the bird on the TIA runway, eyewitnesses said. The pilots then slammed on the brakes and abandoned take off, forcing the Boeing B-757 jet to come to a screeching halt just a few metres from the southern end of the runway.

In the event, the large jet blew seven of its eight tyres on its main landing gears. Because the tyres were blown, the aircraft could not even be towed from the runway, causing the single runway at TIA to close for hours. The jet was finally towed away towards the apron at about 5 p.m. after technicians changed the blown tyres.

"The aircraft hit a bird and blew its tyres when the pilots attemped to stop it on the runway," said Duty Officer at TIA Deb Chandra Prasad Sah. A security guard at the southern end of the runway told The Kathmandu Post he heard a series of loud explosions as the jet neared the end of the runway. "It then came and stopped just a few metres from the runway’s end. There was smoke coming from the tyres" he said.

The runway which was blocked for six hours resulted in several international flights being diverted. Even small aircrafts on domestic routes had to suspend operations for a while. Those that were diverted included a Transavia flight from Amsterdam and a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. About an hour after the mishap, the runway was opened partially for STOL operations by domestic airliners which had to operate from half the 10,000 feet long runway.

An official of the European Commission mission in Kathmandu, who was at the airport to receive some passengers arriving on the Transavia flight, shook his head when asked how he felt about the safety record of TIA. "They can’t even control a bird problem," he said without wanting to be named. "It used to be smaller aircraft, now it is big jets getting hit. They should not put the garbage dump so close to the airport."

Tuesday’s near fatal bird strike is the latest in a series of such events that has dogged TIA this autumn season. A few days before the Dashain holidays, an RNAC B-757 damaged an engine in a similar situation, and a week before that, another CSWA jet leased by RNAC was also struck by a bird during take off. Both the hits resulted in millions of dollars of losses to the national carrier.

Bird activity at this time of the year is not unusual. TIA officials say that the changing season forces the earthworms to come out of the ground near the runway’s grassy patches, providing an easy meal for kites, eagles and other birds. Moreover, the continued dumping of Kathmandu’s garbage on the Bagmati river banks - which is just 500 metres from the airport - poses another serious flight safety hazard as it attracts larger birds, they say.

But despite the string of near misses these past few weeks, authorities have not been able to do much about the problems. Clearly, the airgun toting security men who have been a fixture at TIA in recent days to scare the birds away haven’t had much of an impact.

Meanwhile, just a day earlier on Monday, an Indian Airlines Airbus A-300 jet with 184 people on board experienced engine trouble while taking off from TIA. The pilot continued with the take-off and brought the aircraft down to land safely. Indian Airlines officials here said the engine "stalled" and the jet had to make an emergency landing. The airliner was headed to Calcutta.

Bhutan rejects verification formula

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KATHMANDU, Oct 10 - The hopes raised by the visit to Nepal earlier this year by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata has been dealt with a severe blow as Bhutan has rejected a compromise formula to begin repatriation of almost 100,000 Bhutanese refugees languishing in Nepal.

Amnesty International, the London-based rights watch-dog group, issued a statement from London on October 4 criticizing the Bhutanese leadership for rejecting the formula.

"The future of almost 100,000 refugees living in camps in eastern Nepal was dealt another blow after the Bhutanese government rejected a UN formula by which their eligibility for inclusion in a future voluntary repatriation program would be determined," Amnesty International said .

The compromise formula was floated by the UNHCR soon after Ogata’s visit to Nepal and Bhutan earlier this year. During nine rounds of ministerial level talks, Nepal and Bhutan had failed to break the deadlock over refugee verification, the main stumbling block for repatriation.

Nepal maintained that the verification should be done by heads of family and that the status of the head would automatically determine the status of the rest of the family. Bhutan has insisted that individuals over the age of 18 should be verified individually.

The UNHCR subsequently put forward a formula aimed at bridging both positions. The UNHCR compromise formula suggested that the unit of verification would be the nuclear family, including unmarried young people upto the age of 25, and elderly relatives. Nepal has accepted this formula.

The Bhutan government, however, turned it down recently. "The Bhutan government’s decision will delay a solution to the problem even further. It is imperative that both governments recommit themselves to finding a solution which will uphold the rights of the refugees, including their right to return to their own country," Amnesty International said.

Kerosene hoarding mars festive season

By Sanjeev Ghimire

KATHMANDU, Oct 10 - Just days after neighbouring India hiked prices of petroleum products, Nepalis, especially in the capital, got a taste of what it means to celebrate Dashain without kerosene.

Lower middle class people and poorer sections of society, who overwhelmingly use kerosene for cooking, were hit with the scarcity during the festival. Even cars and motorbikes ran dry because of less petrol at the pumps.

What caused the scarcity, which is continuing even today?

Needless to say, the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and petroleum dealers are pointing fingers at each other. They both charge that the "artificial shortage" was created by the other during the festivities in anticipation of price hikes following the price increases in India before the holidays.

An NOC team that monitors petroleum dealers to discourage hoarding maintains that though NOC was mostly closed during Dashain, it had made "normal distribution" of fuel to the dealers so that the people don’t have to face the scarcity.

"NOC has enough petrol, diesel and kerosene to supply the Valley for 35 days," member of the monitoring team Nanda Kishore Rauniyar told The Kathmandu Post Tuesday. "Dealers and consumers might have hoarded anticipating the price hike."

Asked what was the team doing during the height of scarcity in the middle of the festive season, Rauniyar said, "We urged the dealers to open their pumps but they said they were helpless as their workers were on the leave for Dashain."

Dealers meanwhile have their own story to tell. Sanjeev Amatya, general secretary of subsidized retail outlets, which is somewhat of an umbrella of kerosene dealers, accuses NOC of causing the artificial shortage.

"Actually the NOC is hoarding its stock so that it can sell at higher prices once the government hikes the price. But the consumers think we are hoarding the fuel for more profits," lamented Amatya.

NOC, however, refutes the allegation. "Possibility of price-hike has drastically increased the demand of petroleum products," said Rauniyar. "But that doesn’t mean that NOC should supply as much as the demand. If it keeps on meeting their ever growing demands it could foster hoarding tendency amongst the dealers and consumers."

Government owned army and police welfare petrol pumps and many other leading petrol pumps in the Valley, however, maintain that NOC is supplying much less petroleum products than the demand. Most of the pump runners claim that they were receiving only a third of their normal demand.

"NOC was closed during Dashain. It could be the main reason for much of the scarcity. We hope the normal supply would be restored soon as Dashain is over now," said in-charge of a police run petrol pump in the Valley. "People are also hoarding petrol and diesel anticipating the price-hike. This is also creating the shortage."

On Tuesday, NOC stated that it supplied 400,000 litres of kerosene, 170,000 litres of petrol and 216,000 litres of diesel today. "This is the normal distribution we make during this season," said Rauniyar, adding that more supply would be made once Amlekhgunj depot of NOC opens Wednesday. Amlekhgunj depot is one of the biggest reserve depot of NOC.

Meanwhile, it is the poor who continue to face hardships. "What ever may have been the reason, we the common people are the ultimate sufferers," says Radheshaym Sharma, a labourer who couldn’t find kerosene to cook even after a day long search today. "I will have to borrow some from my friends or sleep with an empty stomach."

40 feared dead in bus mishap

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DHANGADI, Oct 10 - Rescuers have retrieved ten bodies from the wreckage of the Sanphebagar bound passenger bus that plunged into the gushing Seti river in Silgadi municipality Saturday night. Nearly 40 people aboard the ill-fated bus are feared dead.

The bodies have been identified as Prem Damai, Lal Singh Luhar, Jagat Khatri, Dal Bahadur Bogati, Jay Singh Saud, of Achham district; Khadga Singh Kori and Anawar Oli of Baharaich, Babagunj (India), Lal Bahadur Karki, Kaushalya Damai and her eight-year-old son Nrip Damai, of Achham Lungra VDC.

The bus, which left here for Sanphebagar of Achham district Saturday afternoon, met with the accident at mid-night after it fell off a bridge over Seti river along the Syaule-Silgadi highway. The area lies 185 kilometres north of here.

No sooner had the bus plunged into the highwaters of the Seti river then a passenger, later identified as Khadga Singh Saud of Duni VDC, Achham, somehow climbed onto the hood of a bus and pulled seven other fellow passengers from the river, eyewitnesses said.

They were later rescued by Royal Nepal Army (RNA) and police personnel who threw ropes to pull them up, added Tara Nath Gautam, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Doti.

Exact number of passengers aboard the ill-fated bus could not be confirmed from local transport entrepreneurs association as the bus was operating on a "queue-free basis" during Dashain holidays. But survivors said there were over 40 passengers.

Most of them were returning their homes in the remote far-western hills to mark the Dashain festival.

According to the survivors, the driver, identified as Tek Bahadur, was driving under the influence of alcohol. "The mishap followed a brief debate between the passengers and the driver over whether or not to proceed forth in Silgadi municipality"--where the bus had stopped for the dinner, rescuers at the site said quoting survivors.

CDO Gautam, however, refused to make comments on the exact cause of an accident, saying that "nothing can be said before conducting post-mortem on the driver’s body". Army and police personnel, and local volunteers are toiling to recover rest of the bodies. Officials said the bus has been trapped between two huge boulders under the post-monsoon highwaters of the Seti river.

"We are trying our best with a bulldozer and a crane that we have at present," CDO Gautam said. "We have asked the ministry to provide us with additional heavy equipment to carry out rescue works."

Meanwhile, another report from Mahendranagar said, Lal Singh BK,48, of Lamki, Kailali, died instantly after he fell off the hood of a bus heading towards Dang Sunday afternoon. Police have taken the bus driver, Padam Bahadur Ghale, into custody. Another report from Hetauda said, a child died on the spot while 43 others were injured when a passenger bus heading towards Hetauda from Kathmandu via Narayanghat met with an accident in Sarashwati Khola near Basamadi Sunday afternoon. Two-and-half-year-old Prashanta Rimal who was on his way to his maternal uncle’s house together with his mother died, while the rest sustained minor injuries. So far they have returned home after receiving medical treatment in Hetauda hospital.

RNA deployed in Dailekh

KATHMANDU, Oct 10 (PR) - In order to control the suspected rise in Maoist activities in the mid western hilly district of Dailekh, some 50 Royal Nepal Army (RNA) personnel have been deployed from the army barrack at Nepalgunj, reliable sources said today.

However, the Defence Ministry is silent over the deployment of the army in Dailekh’s Dullu.

According to the source, the sudden deployment of RNA soldiers was made on request of the Dailekh District Administration Office. A smaller number of RNA soldiers have been stationed to guard telecommunication equipment and towers in Dailekh.

This is the first time that such a large number of army personnel have been deployed to assist the local adminstration in Dailekh, the source added.

Army camps had been established last year in Maoist affected districts of Rolpa and Rukum. Later this year, army camps were established in other Maoist affected districts of Jajarkot, Kalikot and Salyan.

When Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya assumed the Defence portfolio last week, he had said that the RNA will cooperate with the government in maintaining security in the country. Acharya was assigned as the Defence Minister after Govind Raj Joshi resigned blaming the army for not assisting the police in fighting the Maoists at Dunai, Dolpa where 14 policemen lost their lives.

Meanwhile, CPN (Maoist) activists earlier abducted three persons from Katti Village Development Committee (VDC) of Dailekh district yesterday morning, an eye-witness said.

A group of unarmed Maoists abducted them including Yam Bahadur Thapa around five in the morning. According to Rajendra Palikhe, Police Inspector at Dailekh District Police Office, the Maoists have freed Thapa. But, it is yet to be confirmed.

Likewise, an unidentified Maoist rebel was shot dead in exchange of fire with police in Sarkena VDC of Rukum district yesterday night, said Regional Police Office, Nepalgunj.

Another group of Maoist insurgents abducted Gorakh Bahadur Thapa, Chairman of Sukhanauli VDC of Jajarkot district Sunday night. According to police, they are searching for Thapa. Thapa was elected from CPN (UML).

Davorin makes history by sking down Everest

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Oct 10 On the steep verticle slopes of Mt. Everest many climbers have slipped and fallen to their deaths, but despite the risks one man has created history by sking non-stop down from the 8,848-meter summit to the base camp.

It took Davorin Karnicar, 38, of Jezersko, Slovenia, five hours to ski down from the summit to the base camp at 5,300 meters which he did without taking his skis off and taking only few breaks in camps between.

Such a feat has never been achieved before. A Japanese skier using parachutes to slow down the velocity had skied down to the base camp from the South Col few years back but that was the most that had been done on the world’s highest mountain.

Climber use ropes and specially designed equipment to hold on to the icy and snowy slopes while descending knowing that one wrong step could easily be their last one falling hundreds, if not thousands of feet below.

On Saturday, the veteran Slovak ski instructor began his journey at 8 a.m. local time from the summit he climbed with another fellow climber Franc Oderlap, 41, of Mezica, Slovenia, and Nepalese Sherpas Ang Dorjee and Pasang Tenzing Sherpa.

"It is something that was in my head for a long long time. I had it over in my thoughts so many times. Now it came true, it came true what I came here for. I’ve got no frostbite, I’m rather fine," Karnicar said in an interview posted on his website after the historic feat.

Karnicar had a camera attached on his helmet and the visual was later transmitted to the website using satellite phones from the mountain.

For the father of three, it was fulfilling a long time dream to which he aspired already in 1996 when a snowstorm thwarted his efforts. He ended up losing two fingers to frostbite then.

According to expedition organizers, Karnicar and Franc Oderlap began to ascend Everest on Wednesday early in the morning. They left base camp, climbed the notorious Icefall, and reached Camp II well before noon.

After a good night’s sleep, the Slovenian mountaineers on Thursday morning headed for Camp II, heavily loaded with gear. On Friday, they traversed below the Lhotse face over the Geneva Spur and the Yellow Band, the highest-lying tectonic joint in the world, and reached Camp IV at the South Col at an altitude of 8,000 meters just after noon.

At about 10:30 p.m. on Friday, They set out for the summit and stepped on the top of the world few hours later.

On top, the weather was wonderful, offering great views of Lhotse, Makalu and neighbouring peaks, the climbers said on their website. At the early hour of 7 a.m., it was extremely cold on the Earth’s tallest point. After one hour of preparations, photographing and warming-up, Davo skied down as the remaining summitters made their way down on foot.

For Karnica, the most difficult section of the ski descent was not the Hillary step but the steep section leading to the south peak, with a considerable threat of avalanches. At Camp IV, he put on a camera weighing three kgs and the audio and visual caputured were later trasmitted on their website.

Forceful fund raising for a van hit boy

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KAWASOTI (Nawalparasi), Oct 10 - Passengers were stranded on the busiest East-West highway for some 12 hours on Monday after the neighbours of an injured boy blocked the road and forcefully raised funds, according to police.

The locals of Pragatinagar Village Development Committee, lying 30 km west of Narayangadh, blocked the highway and started collecting donations after an unidentified van hit Surendra Devkota, 17, and ran away.

The injured boy was rushed to TU Teaching hospital, Kathmandu immediately after he was hit by an unidentified van.

The trax-van and its driver are yet to be nabbed, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kamal Bhandari said.

After the van escaped, locals started collecting funds from the owners of vehicles plying on the highway for the injured boy’s immediate treatment.

Eye-witness, however, said that the locals forcefully raised funds from vehicle owners in the name of providing financial support to the injured.

Despite the assurance of Rs 20,000 assistance to the injured from the district administration, locals realized funds from the vehicle owners, DSP Bhandari said.

A driver Purna Bahadur who was stranded at Pragatinagar for some six hours due to the blockade said locals forced all drivers to provide donation of Rs 300 from each vehicle.

He claimed that they had already collected donation from at least 200 vehicles by Monday afternoon.

Locals also claimed that chief district officer Bishnu Kusum had allowed them to collect donation from the vehicle owners.

Asked to provide the exact number of vehicles and the total sum they had collected, locals refused to give the actual amount of money raised so far, saying that they were too busy to talk to the press.

CDO Kusum could not be reached for comment on whether he had allowed the locals to raise funds by putting the vehicular movement standstill on the country’s backbone highway for the entire day.

DSP Bhandari simply said that "the drivers and conductors are giving donation to the locals on their own will."

Eye-witness, however, told The Kathmandu Post that local youths manhandled a taxi driver in front of the police personnel over his denial to provide them the sum they demanded.

"We will refund this donation to all concerned drivers if the absconded driver who hit the boy is nabbed," said a local Ram Bahadur Thapa. Thapa said roughly Rs 1,00,000 must have been collected from the owners of the vehicles till late Monday.

DSP Bhandari who was monitoring the situation at the site of accident said,"It is impossible to refund the collected sum to all the owners of vehicles."

Sherpa guide lost in Dhaulagiri avalanche

KATHMANDU, Oct 10 (PR) - A Nepali Sherpa guide working for a Japanese expedition to the 8,167 meters high Mt. Dhaulagiri was swept by an avalanche last week. His body has not been recovered yet.

Tsuldim Gylzen Sherpa, 35, of Namche, was swept by the avalanche at camp II pitched at 6,600 meters point, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

He was a guide of the Nagoya Alpine Club expedition led by Takao Suzuki of Anjo City attempting the climb from northeast ridge.

The expedition has decided to continue with the climb and are expected to make the summit bid on Oct 14 or 15.

In another accident on the mountains, a Slovak climber identified as Andrej Markovic, 24, of Lzubljana, died on Oct. 6 when he slipped and fell about 1000 meters from a height of 6,900 meters.

RNAC attempting to flout PAC directive

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KATHMANDU, Oct 10 - RNAC officials who are planning to lease a 12 years-old aircraft from Lauda Air of Austria are preparing to send more than one million US dollars as advance payment as soon as the nation’s commercial banks open after the Dashain holidays.

According to airline sources, the advance being sent is an open flouting of directives by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the constitutionally empowered anti-corruption body, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Both the bodies had issued directives in the aftermath of the infamous Chase Air scandal of 1998 when RNAC sent over a million dollars in advance to Chase Air, a fly-by-night company, which never sent the jet it promised. The scam cost RNAC hundreds of thousands of dollars. PAC and CIAA both probed the deal and directed RNAC never again to send any advance payment to lessors (companies which lease out aircraft) until the leased jet arrives at TIA.

In this case, however, the Lauda Air Boeing B-767-300-ER jet which RNAC is leasing, and which is more than 12 years old in contravention to the airline’s own specifications, is expected to arrive only on December 1. But the advance money is being sent on Friday when the Rastriya Banijya Bank opens for business after the holidays. A source said that the money is being sent without a bank guarantee, raising further questions.

The million dollars would have been sent on Oct 3 itself, just hours after a cabinet meeting that day. But as luck would have it, RNAC officials failed to send the money that day despite trying hard to do so.

Meanwhile, government sources say, the October 3 cabinet also refused to explicitly take part in the Lauda Air deal when the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture Tarini Dutta Chataut presented the leasing deal for cabinet approval.

Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya came down heavily "on attempts to make the cabinet a shield on the aircraft leasing deal," sources say. Chataut’s other proposal to win a cabinet approval for sending the million dollar advance was also stalled by Minister Acharya. The cabinet ultimately decided that "RNAC should be provided with foreign exchange when it needs it."

Population reduction, then Melamchi : PM

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BIRATNAGAR, Oct 10 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said that the much awaited Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project would be operational only after reducing the population of Kathmandu valley.

"I have decided to bring the multi million dollar project only after reducing the capital city’s population because the water from this project will be sufficient only for five years for the present population," PM Koirala said.

"Technicians from Norway and Asian Development Bank told me that unless the growing population and number of industries are checked, the water received from Melamchi project would be sufficient only for five years. Then I vowed to shift industries outside Kathmandu Valley before bringing in water," he said.

PM Koirala was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a community building of Kedarmal Devakidevi Todi Pratisthan, Biratnagar.

"I am thinking of shifting industries to Biratnagar, Birgunj and Bhairahawa by developing Dry Ports at those places," he added.

PM Koirala said that the technicians had assured him that the water from Melamchi project would be sufficient for 50 years if the industries were shifted elsewhere and the population was reduced. "They have also promised to help me in shifting the industries elsewhere," he said.