Cable stealing in India hampers power supply

Post Report

MAHOTTARI, April 3 - Stealing of cables used in transmission lines in India has been affecting power supply from India to Nepal for a long time.

Forty-five villages in Mahottari have been electrified. Out of them all except six villages depend on India for their power supply. The same is almost true about Dhanusha, the adjoining district.

According to Nepal Electricity Authority Jaleswor branch, cables have been stolen at different places of India for seven times between 43 poles from December to March.

An informed source said the cables were being stolen at the instigation of the factories because good utensils could be produced from the aluminium obtained from the cables.

The highest number of thefts occurred at Bathanaha of India where thieves stole the cables five times followed by Sursand where the theft occurred twice.

Employees of the local NEA office said the local Indian security officials were indifferent about the incidents of theft. The thieves stole cables twice in front of the Bathanaha police Office, but the thieves escaped safely, Bibhuti Nath Mishra, chief engineer of the office said.

According to the agreement between Nepal and India, India is responsible for the protection of cables inside India, but as the Indian authorities are indifferent to resolve the issue, Nepalese technicians are sent to repair the transmission line.

A separate kind of cables which are not useful to produce aluminium goods are being used these days to prevent cable stealing, Mishra added.

Distribution of citizenship certificates high in Parsa

By Gopal Devkota

BIRGUNJ, April 3 - The allegation that citizenship certificate is always a tough thing to get for people from the terai belt has been proved baseless by the significant number of citizenship distributed in Parsa district so far.

The allegation has largely been made by Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP), which often claims that Nepalese people residing in the terai region and seeking citizenship certificate are harassed and terai residents are considered to be the second class citizens.

Out of the total 250,212 eligible population 212,856 or 85 per cent have received citizenship certificates in this district, which is considered to be a ‘Madhesi’ district, according to Parsa District Administration Office.

Of the total citizenship certificates distributed so far, 185,040 have received certificate by descent, 24,143 received naturalised citizenship through matrimonial relationship (Indian women after marrying Nepalese citizens) and 3,675 received citizenship as their birth-right.

The last type of citizenship is not currently in vogue, but this provision is going to be introduced again through a clause in the Citizenship Bill which is already endorsed by the Parliament and was submitted to His Majesty the King for his approval. But the King has sought the opinion of the Supreme Court for the approval of the Bill.

The clause, has, therefore met with controversy throughout the country. Legal practitioners say that if the Bill is approved, hundreds of Indian nationals are likely to obtain Nepali citizenship. They also say that it will have an adverse impact on various aspects on the genuine Nepalese citizens of terai including their prospect in the job market and bring a flood of non-Nepali citizens to the country.

The fact that 85 per cent people of the district have received citizenship certificate is not an ordinary achievement. Even people in many hilly districts have not obtained citizenship certificate in such a high percentage, Chief District Officer of Parsa Dolakh Bahadur Gurung says.

He goes on to ask the Sadbhawana party people to come to the office and see the realities instead of making the baseless allegation that "Madhesi people are harassed and it is difficult to get citizenship certificate for them". They should show evidence, he adds.

Gurung adds that the office gives citizenship certificates to the genuine citizens in three days. In case of suspicion, such people are interrogated but the people in general have never been tormented, he says denying the accusations that the people from terai belt are harrassed.

Administrative Officer Kali Prasad Parajuli says that not a single person has so far come to complain that he had not received citizenship certificate.

According to another Administrative Officer Suresh Adhikari, some people run away from office in the pretext of going to toilet when they are told that they would receive certificate after finding out more information about them.

"If they were genuine, why should they have to run away from office?" he asks. The Sadbhawana party should see the dealings of this office instead of making allegation, he adds.

"In fact, it is not difficult to get citizenship certificate. On the contrary, there is an apprehension that Indian nationals may obtain citizenship if the process is more simplified", former national Chairman of Amnesty International and advocate Binod Nepal says. He adds that double citizenship has invited many unpleasant situations in different parts of the globe. Every country must be sensitive and vigilant in important issues, such as citizenship, he says.

Remote village gets electrified on local initiative

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YUKIMBA, Taplejung, April 3- The village of Yukimba has finally got flooded with electricity. Thanks to the peltic set technology that was introduced here recently.

"We had no option but to remain in darkness even during the day," says VDC Chairman, Mangal Singh Kedem. The area is enveloped in a thick haze of mist during most of the day.

"Goverment engineered electricity would only be an eternal dream for us," says proprietor of Sherpa Hotel, Sundar Sherpa. "Therefore, we’ve taken the initiative to electrify the village on our own by installing a peltic set at a local river."

A surprising characteristic in this remote village is that almost all houses are electrified with either the solar power or the peltic set technology, with the houses using kerosene oil being few in number.

The villagers' dream was realised when the 225 families in the ward numbers 4, 6, 7 and 8 of Yukimba contributed a total of Rs 40 thousand to buy the set. The rest of the Rs 375 thousand was financed jointly by the VDC and the District Agriculture Office.

The 4-kilowatt peltic set has brought about drastic changes in the village. For one, some of the locals have now even installed TV sets in their homes. Next, the school-going children have now begun studying till late in the evening, and this effect is expected to have positive consequences, though modest, in the educational performance of the students.

The locals also plan to install another peltic set at the Salin river next year.

Former Maoist punished for swindling money

DAILEKH, April 3 (PR) - A former Maoist was punished by his own erstwhile comrades for swindling off the money of a fellow worker while returning back home from the Indian city of Ahmedabad, Wednesday last week. The Maoist rebels have called the punishment as ''People’s persecution".

Ex-Maoist Upendra Thapa hailing from Rawatkot-6 was sentenced by the underground Maoists for shaking down Indian Rs 24,000 that belonged to his co-worker in Gujarat, Dhan Bahadur Sharki, resident of Raniban VDC.

While walking together from Chuprabazar the last bus-station in their journey from India, Thapa left behind his partner on some pretext and extorted the money from Sharki’s porter, who was walking a few miles ahead.

But the loot couldn’t be held for long as Sharki informed the Maoists immediately, who reached Thapa shortly thereafter and recovered the money, much of which was sent by the youths working in Gujarat to their respective families in Dailekh.

Experts discuss criminal justice

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KATHMANDU, April 3 - Various experts on Tuesday gathered here to discuss inter-regional practice of criminal justice system and its pertinent problems. Lawyers, police representatives, professors as well as social activists from Nepal and United Kingdom gathered to develop a framework of recommendations for improving the effectiveness of criminal justice system in Nepal via the identification and prioritisation of problems and by sharing the UK experiences. At a ‘Criminal Justice Seminar’ organised by The British Council, participants from both Nepal and UK shared their experiences about custody management and the role of lawyers in dispensing criminal justice.

Exchanging the experiences member of the Queen's Council and Chairman elect of Bar Association of England & Wales, Bruce Hovlder, a part time judge, said that a women police officer in UK discharges her duty as efficiently as a male police officer. Oscar Del Fabbro, a Barrister from UK presented a paper on "Brief History of the Prosecution Service". The paper deals about the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). CPS is the government department which prosecutes people in England and Wales who have been charged by the police with a criminal offence.

Responding to the UK experiences, Joint Attorney Nanda Bahadur Subedi briefed about the procedure of public prosecution in Nepal. Also speaking in the occasion, Superintendent of Police Chuda Bahadur Shrestha said that police personnel were slowly changing their mindset towards research oriented approach in criminal investigations.

Students of western Nepal eye Nainital

By Chitranga Thapa

MAHENDRANAGAR, April 3 – Holiday season is not yet on in the cool Uttaranchal state and yet Nainital is already flooded with holiday-makers. Not just Nainital, almost all the towns in this hilly state are teeming with faces nowadays. And the faces, interestingly, are Nepalis.

Well, Nepalis are not there on holidays but for appearing in exams conducted by the Kumaon University. Almost all hotels and lodges at Darchula, Pithoragarh, Haldwani Khati, and other places declared as test centers by the University .

For Nepali students from the Far-West region of Nepal the Nainital-based Kumaon University has become the first choice to pursue higher education. These students can afford to study as private students at the University without having to leave home. The curriculum is simpler than that of the Tribhuwan University, and on top of that, expenses are minimal.

Says Dr Devi Prasad Ojha, educational expert, "There is no point in studying in Kathmandu when a equally good education is available for a low price in the nearby Indian town itself."

And probably for this reason, the students encompassed by the Kumaon University include government employees, teachers and retired civil servants, in addition to the young and fresh school students.

It’s not that there is no college in the Nepali territory. Almost all the districts in this region have colleges, and the local college at Mahendranagar offers even Master’s classes in Mathematics. But, the appeal of the ‘easy’ university across the border is irresistible.

"Many of the regular students studying at the colleges in Nepal don’t let go the opportunity of appearing in the KU exams as private students," says Dr Ojha.

One BA student at Siddhanath Multiple Campus, Mahendranagar, agrees. "The KU exams start across the Mahakali and our classes here begin to go empty - just 22 out of the 92 students in the BA level were not lured by the temptation this year."

Dr Ojha elaborates, "The students here can conveniently return home the same day after taking the exams at Khatima, across the border. Study materials and books are easily available at every nook and corner, and one can effortlessly get through the tests by solving three out of the five quite predictable questions."

And there is the linguistic and cultural affinity of the people here with those across the political line to act as a powerful stimulus. Parents send their children to the nearby towns of Nainital, Pithorgarh and other towns if they wish to send them to India.

The question of fake certificates doesn’t arise at KU. "The academic certificates awarded by many Indian Universities are looked at with suspicion and distrust in Nepal for fear of their authenticity," Dr Ojha observes. "However, a KU certificate is generally genuine and authentic."

Many of the students don’t have an inkling of the type of syllabus they are supposed to study at the KU prior to their exams. The students rent rooms in the Indian towns where the tests are to be held normally two weeks before the exams and then begin to thumb the cheap guess papers day and night.

Some of the busier ones find adequate time to prepare for the exams in general as the next test date usually falls two weeks later. Schools teachers return back to their blackboards and government employees to their desks during the intervening period.