Emergency cabinet meeting held
Koirala makes another attempt to convince King

By Satish Jung Shahi & Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, April 11 Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today abruptly cancelled the Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party (PP) meeting and called an emergency cabinet meeting instead to discuss security related matters.

Soon after the cabinet meeting, Koirala along with three senior ministers went to the Royal Palace for an audience with His Majesty King Birendra to appeal to the monarch to allow the mobilization of the Royal Nepal army in Maoist-affected districts. Koirala was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, Defense Minister Mahesh Acharya and Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat.

Chief Secretary Tirtha Man Skhakya, and the Secretaries of Home, Finance and Defense Ministries were also present in the meeting.

It was not immediately known what the prime minister and ministers discussed with the monarch, but sources in government circles said that Koirala asked the King to mobilize the army soon lest the security situation run out of control. "The King is as concerned as everybody else about the situation of the country," said a senior government official. "We are hopeful that he will acquiesce to our requests soon. There is no other option."

The meeting between the monarch and the government leaders comes at a time of increased speculation of a growing rift between the cabinet and the Royal Palace over the use of the army.

According to a government source, the government has presented a proposal, Integrated Development and Security Plan, to the Palace to carry out an economic development program in Maoist affected areas. "Under this program, the army will play a supportive role...The move is not to directly deploy the army in Maoist affected areas but to deter the Maoist rebels," the source said.

While high level maneuverings continue, the opposition, meanwhile, is unclear whether the government should be allowed to use the army. Prominent opposition parties in Parliament have still not given a clear-cut view, but majority of them has focused on dialogue as the major necessity to resolve the problem.

All of them, however, have strongly criticized the government move to promulgate the Ordinance on Armed Police Force, saying, "we would not support the Ordinance under the present circumstances."

"The central committee of our party so far says that dialogue with the Maoists is the best solution. Representing the party, two of our lawmakers have already disagreed on the possible promulgation of the Ordinances along with CPN-UML and CPN-ML," said Pashupati Shumshere Rana, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) general secretary.

Hridayesh Tripati of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) said that his party so far has "no specific agenda" over the deployment of army as the government has not yet briefed them on the present security situation.

On the other hand, a press release issued by Nepal Communist Party (Masal) today states that "the belief that a constitutional monarchy has been established in the country has been proved hollow due to the recent events."

"As per the worldwide experience on constitutional monarchy, the right on the deployment of the army lies on the hands of the elected government...The actual power lies in the hands of whom the army lies in," it further states.

Dr Rawal assumes office

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KATHMANDU, April 11 (PR) - Dr Tilak Rawal assumed office as Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank today.

Dr Rawal, who was unceremoniously sacked by the government late August last year, was recently reinstated by the Supreme Court to the coveted post.

Divisional Bench comprising Justice Krishna Jung Rayamahaji and Justice Top Bahadur Singh had given the decision in favour of Dr Rawal on March 28.

Dr Rawal had filed a petition at the Supreme Court on September 6 last year demanding annulment of the government decision to replace him as the chief of the central bank by Dipendra Purush Dhakal, former Tourism Secretary.

Dr Rawal had filed the petition arguing that his ouster was a violation of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, 2012, which categorically stipulates the term of the Governor as five years.

BANKE, April 11 - Following the escalated Maoist attacks on a number of police posts last week, police personnel have begun to quit their jobs of giving protection to the people and their property by the dozens fearing the safety of their own lives.

Sources close to the Mid-Western Regional Police Office said at least 50 policemen of different ranks have resigned and sought immediate approval of their resignations after last week’s attacks.

The source also claimed that 15 policemen have also fled the Banke-based police training centre.

Maoist rebels killed more than 70 policemen in separate attacks on police posts at Rukum, Dailekh, Dolakha, Palpa and Rautahat districts last week.

Some of the policemen, who do not have connection to higher level officers, are reportedly irked with their repeated transfer to the Maoist insurgency hit districts.

And these are the ones who are preparing to quit their job of protecting the people and their property.

The source added that these people are quitting their jobs as a last resort so they will not have to face transfer to these vulnerable police posts, mainly in the hill and remote districts of the Mid-Western region effected by the five-year-old insurgency.

Meanwhile, a report from Jajarkot said that the striking police post at Sarkena of the Kholagaon VDC has been shifted to the Chaurjhahari-based area police post. All 38 policemen returned Tuesday to Chaurjhahari from Sarkena with arms and supplies fearing possible Maoist attacks. Policemen said that they had to shift to a more secure area police station due to frequent threats from the insurgents.

Likewise, the Mahat Gaon-based area police post located about 30 km away from the district headquarters has been removed for security reasons.

Our correspondent from Bhojpur said two police constables - Laxmi Dahal and Santosh Bantawa both from Jhapa district - escaped from their duty because of the pressures from their family members on Tuesday. Dahal and Bantawa had joined the police force five and ten years ago respectively.

Both of the policemen were posted at Yaku police post but were called back to the District Police Office on the suspicion that they might flee their jobs. Dahal was posted at the district jail from where he fled his duty.

A source at the DPO said 18 policemen have applied for early retirement due to the growing sense of insecurity in the police circle. Keeping in mind their fear, the DPO has ordered the policemen living outside the office to move inside the police premises.

A fugitive policeman can be imprisoned or terminated from his job as per the existing Police Act. Nor can he or she quit the police job before completing five years of service.

"How can a policeman continue this perilous job when his wife is begging to quit the job," a police officer remarked requesting anonymity.

More than 1,600 people, including the police personnel, Maoist rebels and civilians, have been killed since the Maoists waged an armed struggle in the name of "People’s War" in February 12, 1996.

RNAC heading towards bankruptcy

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KATHMANDU, April 11 – How long would it take the national flag carrier, Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) to go bankrupt? Pretty soon, judging by its present performance and ever-growing financial debt which has already compelled it to mortgage most of its assets, including one of the two B-757 jets.

This concern was raised by the members of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today while grilling the former and the present executive chairmen and members of the RNAC Board over the alleged irregularities in the RNAC-China South West Airlines jet lease deal.

With an overdraft already crossing Rs 1.25 billion, unpaid bank loans, default in payment of lease amount to CSWA (for four months) and Lauda Air (one month) and the problems of giving salary to RNAC staff, the corporation’s financial condition "is in mess, not to speak of the controversies it is mired in over lease deals", as a PAC member put it.

RNAC is negotiating with the banks to mortgage another jet to fulfil its payment obligations. Rajesh Raj Dali, Executive Chairman of RNAC told the reporters after the PAC meeting that the corporation hoped to fetch 25 million US dollars through the plane mortgage.

Earlier, while briefing the PAC members over the process of leasing aircraft that always drew controversy, Dali said that the management was making some changes in the RNAC financial regulations. He added that a draft document to this effect was ready.

PAC members raised several inconsistencies in the RNAC-CSWA deal. Board member representing Finance Ministry, Rameshwor Khanal, admitted that he knew that the aircraft lease amount was 2,800 US dollars per flight hour. RNAC, however, signed on the dotted lines at 3,100 US dollars per hour. Khanal said it was upto the Commission of Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to look into the alleged irregularities. CIAA has suspended its CSWA probe, to be taken up in future.

PAC asked RNAC Executive Chairman Dali to furnish a comparative chart of all the costs, hidden and apparent, of the CSWA and Lauda Air deals and all the letters of CSWA sent to RNAC. Ramesh Lekhak, member of the parliamentary committee, charged that the RNAC management had forged a letter from CSWA denouncing a fax letter that was published by a Kathmandu weekly.

Lekhak also asked former Executive Chairman B K Man Singh why RNAC failed to provide the letter to the weekly from CSWA denying any personal commission. CSWA had hoped that the weekly and other media would publish their letter.

The former Minister for Civil Aviation Bhim Rawal of CPN-UML who had cleared the necessary foreign exchange for the deal has been summoned by the PAC to appear before them tomorrow.

Report on Lumbini Int’l airport delayed

By Shree Ram Subedi

KATHMANDU, April 11-The fate of the proposed international airport Lumbini remains uncertain as the international company awarded to construct it has failed to submit a detailed feasibility study report and the detailed investment plan within the stipulated time.

The company was supposed to submit the plans on Wednesday, exactly nine months after the government and the Alpha Consultant, a French-Thai joint venture company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to construct Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) at Bhairahawa, under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

Yagya Prasad Gautam, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) and Chairman of Alpha Construction Company Mr. Andre Vessier, had signed the MoU on July 12, 2000.

The Bangkok-based company was scheduled to complete the feasibility study within April 11 and sign another agreement for the actual construction of the project.

The firm has also not presented the evidences of registration of its consortium including a Nepali counterpart within the specified timeframe stipulated in the MoU.

Though the French consulting firm has asked the government to extend the timeframe by six months just few days ago, the Ministry is yet to decide on whether to extend the time or not.

According to a highly placed source at MoCTCA, there is an apprehension regarding the actual implementation of the project by the firm.

Since the firm failed to show-up within the time frame, there is lack of seriousness on the part of the firm and there is no guarantee that the firm will present the required reports within the extended time too, an official said.

The MoU states that if the second agreement is not signed, the government will not be liable for the costs incurred during the feasibility study. Therefore, no more financial obligation remains with the government. Yet the officials at the ministry are worried that the shying away of the foreign investors could mean the reluctance to invest in Nepal. And, that could shatter the dream of local people as well as the opportunity for tourism development at the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

Though some civil aviation experts concerned about the close proximity of India and problems related to the necessary agreement with India for the construction of the airport, still many believe that it would emerge as an even more popular pilgrimage place for the Buddhists all over the world.

The French firm was to invest at least US$ 100 million in the development of the project. The project consists of upgrading the present Bhairahawa airport by making the runway suitable for wide-body jets.

Local well-wishers of Ganga, Jamuna happy with miraculous outcome

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, April 11 On a hot and humid afternoon of May 10 last year, Dr Divya Shree Malla, a senior obstetrician at the Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital, and her medical assistants were finding it difficult to operate on Sandhya Shrestha-K.C. Sandhya was pregnant with twins who would later make medical history.

After two hours of concerted team effort, Dr Mallas’ team—comprising Dr Radha Shah, Dr Dol Maya Thogra, one or two staff nurses and an anesthesiologist—became successful in the cesarean delivery of the twins, who were later christened Ganga and Jamuna after the holiest rivers in the sub-continent.

The clock had read 3:35 p.m. "We had earlier noticed some sort of problem with their heads (during ultrasonogram examinations), and we knew that they were twins," Dr Malla recalled Wednesday. "But we did not know that they were joined at the head, their brains encased in one skull. But after the operation, we were in doubt whether they would survive."

But now that the twins are separated after a marathon surgery that lasted for 97 hours in Singapore General Hospital this Tuesday, creating medical history in the process, the local doctors and nurses who helped during the delivery are all smiles. There is palpable euphoria and excitement amongst the medical and non-medical staff at the Maternity Hospital here, where the babies were born.

"I was jumping and shouting with excitement when I heard the news of their successful separation on TV yesterday," said a joyful Geeta Sharma, a mid-wife at the hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit. Added Dr Indira Poudel, one of the doctors at the Unit who attended to the twins for months, "We are missing them badly. (When Ganga and Jamuna were awaiting the `Operation Separation’) We talked about them almost everyday, and now we are talking about them every time."

After all, Indra Rajya Laxmi Maternity Hospital is the place where they took birth, had the privilege of special baby care for their first five months, and - albeit unknowingly - became successful in drawing the attention of the doctors and people from around the world.

Also, the 41-year-old maternity hospital is the place where the country’s famed neurosurgeon, Dr Upendra Devkota, came and saw them. Dr Devkota is the one who referred little Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha to the Singapore General Hospital soon after they saw the first light last May.

Needless to say, credit goes to Dr Devkota, credit goes to Dr Keith Goh and his medical team at the Singapore hospital. Credit also goes to the Singapore Airlines, which flew Ganga, Jamuna, their parents and grandfather and special credit should go to the kind donors of the east Asian city-state. And last but not the least, credit goes to Dr Malla and her team who foresaw the possibility of their surviving. The girls were flown to Singapore from the hospital on November 10.

"Soon after the babies’ birth, we cleaned, dried and wrapped them up, and shifted them to the special care unit," Dr Malla recalled. She also remembered vividly the phone call she immediately made to Dr Devkota apprising him of the rare neurological problem faced by the tiny twins. Later that evening, Dr Devkota together with other senior doctors arrived to take their first look at Ganga and Jamuna at the maternity hospital’s operation theatre.

"Upon seeing the babies, Dr Devkota thought for a moment or two, and then decided to refer them to doctors abroad...And all those efforts have culminated into this (successful separation)," Dr Malla said as her eyes shine with joy.

Recalled Sarashwati Padhye, Director of the hospital, who is equally happy over the twins’ good fortune, "Their (Ganga and Jamuna’s) case was extremely rare; we did not know what to do. We even didn’t have a cot to adjust the conjoined twins. We had to join two table together to make a bed for them."

The hospital did have a few cases of twins joined at the chest, but not twins joined at the head which is considered extremely rare - one is 2 million live births.

After the news of the Siamese twins’ birth were splashed across the local press, the hospital started receiving regular phone calls from bigwigs including MPs (Members of Parliament) of Salyan district, from where Ganga and Jamuna’s parents originally hail. "There was so much pressure. Every day we would receive calls requesting us to keep the twins in the hospital and protect them from local people crowding to have a glimpse," said Dr Padhye.

Now, with the separated twins receiving post-operative care in the Singapore hospital which doctors there say is crucial, the medical and non-medical staff at the maternity hospital say their hearts are going out to Ganga and Jamuna, and that they are praying for their fast recovery. "They have already been separated, now we want to see their home coming, smiling and babbling," said Meena Shrestha, another mid-wife at the hospital.

New bus terminal at Tinthana-Kalanki

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KATHMANDU, April 11 - A new bus terminal and freight complex at Tinthana-Kalanki, on the way to Tribhuwan Highway, with a capacity to park 600 buses and trucks at a time, is coming into operation from Sunday.

Dr Ramananda P Singh, the executive director of Kathmandu Parking Pvt Ltd said, "We are going into operation as the first phase of the construction is complete, as per the government's requirement".

The first phase of the project was completed after three years of its being awarded to a private company by the Ministry of Transport at an estimated cost of Rs 180 million.

He told reporters during a press meet that the parking complex, spreading over 84-ropani of land, would give the metropolis a permanent alternate to the haphazard parking practices that have congested the Ring Road since over a decade.

Singh added, "It will not only relieve the Ring Road and reduce air pollution in significant proportion but will also create employment opportunities to around 100 people by the end of the second phase of the complex.

Hundreds of buses and trucks are parked either at private territory or along the Ring Road round the clock. Some 3600 vehicles ply in and out of the Valley which is likely to be increased in the coming years.

Besides the bus park, the complex will have warehouse with considerable unloading capacity and other pertinent facilities like cafeterias, fuel station, maintenance workshop and entertainment facilities in future, the promoters said.

GAESO seminar highlights discrimination

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KATHMANDU, April 11 - The Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organization (GAESO) organized an international seminar at Geneva, Switzerland yesterday to highlight discrimination within the British Army to the international community, says a GAESO press release issued here today.

According to GAESO, which has been heading the battle for pension parity within the British Army, the seminar was attended by various international human rights activists and was held in the United Nations building. A seven-member team from the GAESO International Committee for Justice is presently in Geneva for the 57th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

The release states that various rights activists including Maggie Bowden of Liberation, L.H. Horace Perera of World Federation of United Nations Associations, Abdel Bagi of World Federation of Democratic Youth, and Krishna Patel of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom spoke at the seminar supporting the GAESO movement.

"The discrimination upon the Gurkha soldiers by the British government is shameful...The Gurkhas should be treated equally immediately on humanitarian grounds," the release quotes Helen Sayers, a British right activist as saying.

Various working papers on the possibilities of filing legal petitions against the British government for discrimination against the Gurkhas were also presented in the seminar, the release further states.

Threat to close down schools

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KATHMANDU, April 11- All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary) , which is closely affiliated to CPN (Maoist), today threatened to go for an indefinite close down of schools from 14th May if their demands are not met.

The press release says, if the government continues to ignore their demands - abolition of tuition fees upto secondary level, teaching of compulsory Sanskrit and national anthem, 50 per cent concession in public utility services, 50 per cent reduction in the fees in private boarding schools and turning them into state-run ones, among others - the violence could flare up and the government would be responsible for it.

They accused the government of being indifferent towards their demands. The release has also vehemently accused the government for the present state of political impasse.

Govt, UNDP sign accord

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KATHMANDU, April 11 - The government and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) today reached and agreement to carry out a three-year project entitled "Landscape Scale Conservation of Endangered Tiger and Rhinoceros Population in and around Royal Chitwan National Park".

According to a press release issued here today by the Finance Ministry, an agreement to this effect was signed at the Ministry by Joint Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire and Alessandra Tisot, Resident Representative of UNDP. UNDP and King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation will execute the program. A total of US$ 1.77 million has been allocated for the program.

Nation facing situation of emergency : PM

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KATHMANDU, April 11- Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said that there is a ‘situation of emergency’ in the country and it is imperative that a solution be sought quickly.

Prime Minister Koirala, presiding over the 13th Academic Assembly of Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST) at its Auditorium said that present political predicament is created by the national parties and held the opposition responsible for the present parliamentary impasse.

Citing the recent spate of killing by the Maoists, with a death toll of almost 80 persons within a week, he said that there is a grave problem of security in the country and there is a need to prove that multi-party democracy can contain national security.

"In the current situation, even though there is international support, we have not been able to capitalise the goodwill to our own advantage," said the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister also assured the support to the academicians present at the assembly. "The so-called Maoist insurgency is impeding the development in crucial sectors. Education sector has also been hit tremendously," said Koirala, referring to Maoists not letting schools to run properly. He also requested RONAST members to brush aside politics and to move forward to attain their set objectives.

On the occasion, Dr. Daya Nanda Bajracharya, Vice Chancellor of RONAST gave the information about the future programmes.

STN TV broadcast blocked

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KATHMANDU, April 11 - Just two days before Space Time Network Private Limited was to launch its satellite television channel, the Ministry of Information and Communications forbade the network from proceeding ahead with further activities until the technical examination and final inspection are over.

The Ministry has asked network to submit all evidences as per the National Broadcasting Act 1992 and the National Broadcasting Regulations 1995 and as specified by the terms and conditions in the license for technical examination.

According to the sources in the Ministry, since the network has not yet procured the instruments as per the international standard and the possibility of the frequency being affected by it, the Ministry called for stop to any progress on this front.