No interruption, please

By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, April 11 - Just like Rome was not built in a day, democracy is not going to flourish in Kathmandu, Taplejung or Mahendranagar in a decade. It is easy to forget this age-old dictum when taking stock of the tumultuous years of democracy in Nepal. And it is not difficult to see why.

This week, as the nation marked the 11th anniversary of the people’s movement to restore democracy, the atmosphere has been heavily loaded with gloom and skepticism. Newspaper space has been devoted exclusively to the Maoist-related violence in rural districts. The country is beset with serious problems: killings, kidnapping, corruption in high places, rising ethnic tensions, widening gulf between rich and poor.

Most of the blame for this mess has been put squarely on the shoulders of political parties and their leaders, with some justification.

These are the same parties which went from being people’s parties to personal autocracies, from being all-inclusive to exclusive. Their leaders and lawmakers have resorted to everything to advance personal causes - from kidnapping MPs to granting themselves customs waivers on flashy luxury vehicles.

But does democracy have anything to do with this as some of our intellectuals have lamented in recent days? Do we need a total overhaul of the political system as has been vociferously argued for?

Yes, it is a fact that things could have been much better with the right persons and the right policies. That we don’t have both is no reason to fault the path towards a pluralistic free society that Nepal embarked on in April 1990. It is not the failing of the democratic system, but of people and institutions that are most to blame.

Indeed, if anything, Nepal at this juncture needs more democracy, not less. The country needs more openness, more transparency, more accountability, more debate and discussion (minus the violence). The answer is not: "OK, we tried this new experiment, and it has been a mess. Now back to Mangalman." But rather: "It’s been a mess, alright. But we can make it work."

To blame democracy itself is to miss the point. To single out politicians who have unquestionably been corrupt and short-sighted may be justified to a large extent, but it still does not lay the blame where it is deserved. And that is ourselves, us, the electorate.

Why do we tolerate such leaders and politicians? When is enough really enough? What does it take to make a Nepali angry enough to demand change? Nothing has changed anywhere without popular pressure. Herein lies our true failing.

No country in the world ever built a stable people-oriented democracy in 11 years. The United States couldn’t do it. Neither could France and England. The Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi experience closer to home suggests the same. They have all traveled along the same road, gone through the same "churning out process", so to speak, at different points in their history.

These nations even passed through messy politics and violent transitions, yellow journalism to massive corruption before popular anger forced changes which in the long run institutionalized the gains of democracy. What are the chances of the Nepali experience being any different?

Look back in our history. Democracy is an alien idea. Throughout Nepal’s long existence as a nation, the people have had very little say in state affairs, used to being governed as they were by the various factions within the ruling elite. That continued until 1950 when the first real political spring came and lasted for a decade, only to be thwarted by a royal coup in 1960. The Panchayat, which that coup ushered in, was overthrown in 1990 in favour of today’s democracy.

Just think for a moment. Had the Panchayat years not intervened in 1960, had the rulers allowed the churning out process to continue unfettered, then could it have thrown up a stable mature democracy by now? In a sense, what Nepal is experiencing today is the continuation of that churning out process which was interrupted in 1960 for three decades. No more interruption now, please.

Squatters vandalise corporation office

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BIRTAMOD, Jhapa, April 11 - Hundreds of angry squatters, who had occupied unused land owned by the Nepal Tea Development Corporation at Wardasi of the Charpane and Dangi VDCs, vandalised the corporation’s office and warehouse after police demolished their sheds on Tuesday, according to a report received here.

About 30 squatter families had been occupying a total of unused 190 bighas of land of the corporation since 1990. Police force was used to remove the illegal occupants when other people also entered the corporation’s land and started building sheds.

According to Chairman of the Charpane VDC, Prem Prakash Sitaula, a total of 240 bighas of land was kept aside for tea plantation some 10 years ago. But people began encroaching the unused land after the corporation could not expedite tea plantation on more than 50 bighas of land.

The squatters claimed that they were forced to encroach the government land after the government failed to provide them employment in the tea garden.

Earlier, the then Bhupal Kirati commission on squatters had provided them about ten katthas of land to each family and had also promised employment in the garden, Chairman Sitaula added.

Amidst the squatter problem still unresolved, the government has already handed over the tea garden to a private management - Shanghai Group, which is pressing the government for providing all 240 bighas of land to it as agreed upon.

Lekhnath Dangal, officer of the Group’s Birtamod-based office, said his office had informed the Finance Minster that the Group would not be able to manage the garden if the government did not sort out the long-drawn out problem by second week of April.

Dangal said police must have removed the squatters from the area due to the Group’s pressure to the government. He also claimed that the squatters destroyed property worth Rs 400,000. The Birtamod-based area police station conceded that the action was taken as ordered by the government.

Two people die in separate incidents

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ILAM, April 11 - A 13-year-old girl from Madhya Bazaar in Ilam Municipality is reported to have sprinkled kerosene over her body and committed suicide by burning herself.

The cause of the suicide by Merina Chipalu, a class seven student of Green Valley Academy, a private school, was not immediately known.

According to school and family sources, Merina and her friend Sirjana Sapkota, both boarders, escaped from the hostel at night, two days before the incident. The school found them the next morning and handed them over to their guardians. The next morning Merina who had no parents and who was taken care of by her uncle, burnt herself in the toilet. Her entire body was badly burnt and she died soon after she was rushed to the hospital.

Similarly, Hem Bahadur Rai, 35, of Kelubung VDC-4 died after drowning in the Mai Khola on Tuesday.

Local people of the VDC had gone to the rivulet to offer puja to Goddess Mai. After the puja was over, they took meal and Rai had entered the rivulet to have a respite from the heat. Locals said they were not aware until long after that he was swept away by the rivulet.

Lightning kills girl

PHUNGLING, Taplejung, April 11 (PR) - A 13-year old girl was killed instantly and five others injured seriously when lightning struck them in Phawa Khola VDC on Tuesday evening. At least a total of eight houses were also destroyed by thunderstorm at the same VDC, located about eight hours trek from the district headquarters, police here said.

The girl killed by the lightning has been identified as Bimala Sembu. Ward member of the VDC-4, Bhim Bahadur Ijam said others who sustained injuries are undergoing treatment at local health centre and their condition is critical. Property worth Rs 300,000 has been damaged because of the rain with thunderstorm.

Meanwhile, a report from Makar VDC-4 in Nawalparasi stated that eight houses at Mochagola tole were burned to ashes yesterday night.

Police said property equivalent to Rs 1,80,000 has been destroyed on the fire which was put out by fire fighters from Butwal, Bhairahawa and Parasi. Locals suspected the fire broke out from hut made of straw where someone abandoned a burning cigarette carelessly.

Gita, a widow in state of distress

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SINDHULI, April 11- Following the killing of her husband, Gopiman Khadka, last Friday, in the Maoist attack at the Noumule police post in Dailekh, the 25-year old Gita Khadka now faces a hard choice: either a downright suicide or a long life of depravity and social ostracism.

Neither does she have a child to live for. Nor does she feel any relevance of her widowed life anymore. ‘What will I do next? Who will I turn to for help?’ These are the only questions that reverberate in her mind nowadays.

The whole family at his home in Kamalamai-4 are mourning the untimely, cruel and inhuman killing of the honest policeman, who had survived the Maoist ambush at Sindhupalchowk two years ago by a narrow margin along with DSP Poshendra Dhwoj Khand.

The 68-year old father of the late Khadka is equally grief-stricken. He doesn’t speak to anyone and simply stares upward the whole day, and says sometimes, "How I wish they (Maoists) had shot me too!"

His mother, on the other hand, has not stopped crying and wailing since she heard the news, and looks utterly dejected and depressed. Her dreams have been shattered.

Says Purna Kadka, elder brother of the deceased, "He was always posted in Maoist-hit areas since he joined the police force in 1996," adding, "and couldn’t be posted at Nepalgunj though being transfered there two months ago from Dailekh, since the constable to replace him refused to leave the comfort and security of the city."

"We are poor people, with no connections and little access over the decision makers. Probably, people like us are supposed to be sacrificed for the vested insterest of those above us."

Bhagwan Mahabir remembered

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KATHMANDU, April 11 - To mark the 2600th birth anniversary of Bhagwan Mahabir, all Jain devotees from Nepal and various parts of India gathered here with a view to spreading the message of non-violence at a function organised by National Organising Committee of the Jain religion.

On the occasion, Chief Guest, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, said, "God means the truth and this fact should always dwell in the mind of all human beings, then only the world will be a better place to live in."

He said human conscience is a part of God and unless everyone has it, peace cannot prevail in the world.

Hulas Chandra Golchha, the Acting Chairman of National Organising Committee of Jain religion, says, "Violence in the name of religion has become the order of the day. This should be replaced by peace. So we must sacrifice our earnings and not be lured by money only.

The Jain Women’s Group sang devotional songs to mark the occasion.

Maoists loot cash

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PHIDIM, April 11 -Six masked men looted Rs 125,000 from a jeep with plate No. Me. 1 Cha 109 as the jeep arrived at Deurali of Nagi VDC-7 from Kabeli on Tuesday morning.

The Kabeli to Phidim bound jeep belongs to Subhadra Traders in Birtamod. The masked men pointed a pistol in the chest of the representative of the Subhadra Traders, Karna Kumar Chhetri, snatched the money bag and escaped from there.

According to the Marketing Officer of Nepal Tobacco Company, Narendra K.C. ,who was also travelling by the jeep, those who looted the money were Maoist insurgents.

Police reached the site immediately after they were notified of the incident in writing.

Similarly, a group of Maoist workers punished five people who were misbehaving under the spell of alcohol at Kabeli Bazaar and warned them not to drink alcohol again. They have intensified action against people in Amarpur, Nagi and Nawamidanda.

Irregularities alleged at timber auction

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CHITWAN, April 11- The public treasury is likely to lose millions of rupees due to corruption at Nepal Timber Corporation, which is going to auction more than one hundred and one thousand cubic feet of timber in Chitwan by ensuring that the family-members of some of the employees themselves alone bid their tenders for purchasing the sal timber.

The Corporation has already decided to auction the 939 cubic feet of timber to Nirmala Kumari Devi, wife of its employee, Ramprit Thakur, by charging only marginally more than the minimum Rs one hundred and seventeen thousand rupees.

Similarly, 3783 cubic feet of timber has been alloted to Prabha Subedi, daughter of Indra Vilas Subedi, chief of the Production Unit at Bharatpur, at Rs 627 thousand. This is only marginally higher than the specified minimum of Rs 622 thousand.

Only Nirmala Kumari Devi and Prabha Subedi had tendered their bids for the auction, whereas the final decision to sell the timber was made by the General Manager of Nepal Timber Corporation, Ganesh Upadhyay, who is believed to be an accomplice in the gross irrregularities on the sale of timber in Chitwan.

It may be reminded that Kantipur, sister publication of The Kathmandu Post, had carried the report of Upadhyay’s shady dealings in which almost 25 million of rupees were lost to the treasury when he approved a secret sale of the sal trees uprooted during last January’s storms in Biratnagar.

Fire destroys 27 houses and sheds in Parsa

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BIRGUNJ, April 11 - This year’s biggest incident of fire occurred in Parsa district on Tuesday reducing 27 houses and huts to ashes in a single day.

According to Fire Brigade in-charge, Dhan Bahadur Thapa, three people were injured and nine goats were killed in the incident. Property damage from the fire has been estimated to be around 7 to 7.5 million rupees. He said he had not seen 27 houses gutted by fire on the same day.

The fire brigade had been to Raxaul in India on the same day and had just returned after helping to extinguish fire which destroyed 10 houses.

Immediately after the fire brigade arrived here, three houses in Birgunj-16 and one house in Birgunj - 17 caught fire. The fire brigade reached the sites without delay and the fire was controlled before it could destroy other houses.

Police Inspector Bindeswor Shrestha said that nearly Rs 500,000 worth of property was reduced to ashes when fire gutted the three houses in Birgunj -16.

As the fire fighters were busy extinguishing fire in Birgunj -16, the fire brigade received information of another fire incident at 4:15 p.m. The two fire engines immediately left for Sibarba VDC-4 from there. By the time the fire brigade arrived at Sibarba village, 24 houses including sheds were gutted by fire in a period of 45 minutes. The fire brigade prevented the fire from spreading to other houses.

Among the injured people, Shiva Raut Kurmi has been seriously injured while two others fainted for some time. All three have been admitted to the hospital for treatment. Nine goats perished in the fire after they could not escape from the gate. The cause of the fire is yet to be identified.

Those whose houses have been destroyed by the fire are Padam Saha Kanu, Bhikh Saha Kanu, Nagina Saha Kanu, Bal Krishna Pundit, Dhani Lal Pundit, Kanchan Pundit, Dashain Pundit, Bharat Pundit, Badri Pundit, Shuva Lal Pundit, Bikram Pundit, Sukhadi Pundit,

Ambika Saha Kanu, Jamuna Raut Kurmi, Siyasan Raut Kurmi, Thag Raut Kurmi, Jokhan Saha Kanu, Devi Saha Kanu, Ram Balak Saha Kanu, Hemchal Pundit, Chhadu Pundit, Sarba Jit Pundit, Ram Prsad Teli and Manuj Saha Kanu.

As the roads in the village and also towns are narrow, it is difficult to bring the wide-bodied fire fighting engines. Therefore, there is need to import two small-sized fire engines from Germany to reach different houses located in narrow roads, In-charge of the fire brigade Dhan Bahadur Thapa said.

Thapa also added that they were finding it difficult to cope with the high demand of fire fighting operation in this season because of the vacancy of two drivers and nine firemen.

There are three fire engines and 25 firemen in Birgunj these days. Employees of the fire brigade say that it has been difficult for them to reach many incident sites because people have encroached on the public land and made the roads narrower after the prices of housing plots continued to soar.

Students contact teachers to get through SLC

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DARCHULA, April 10- With only a week remaining for the start of the nationwide SLC exams, the prospective matriculates here are making hectic parleys with their teachers to get through the ‘iron bar’.

Not to clear doubts regarding the course material though. In fact, students are making a bee-line to school teachers, along with their parents, to strike a ‘contract’, promising to pay a certain rate of sum to ensure that their papers are either written by the teachers themselves outside the exam hall and later handed over to the examinees before the final bell rings, or at least, provided adequate chits of answers at the hall itself.

Sad it is to hear that the teachers who have taught the same children for years don’t find it improper in the least to accept a sum ranging from 4 to 10 thousand rupees as gurudakshina in exchange for the guarantee to pass the exams.

Two years ago, Lalit Singh Bishta paid four thousand rupees to one Sir Joshi at Gokuleshwor secondary school for the gurantee. As expected, the four-time failure got second division marks and passed the exams.

Bishta’s case isn’t an isolated one, however. There are numerous such bribery instances, particularly at the centres of Shankarpur, Huti, Latinath and Gokuleshwor in Darchula and Shrikot, Hat, Tallo Sorad and Patan of Baitadi. Hundreds of students who have not been lucky at other places flock to these centres for a final attempt, and few of them are disappointed when the results are published.

Many students study till Class 9 at schools convenient to them, but thereafter get admitted at schools having a proven record of irregularities during the SLC exams. This is seen clearly in the case of Shankarpur secondary school, where there were 113 students studying at Class 10 even though only 87 had passed the Class 9 exams. The rest came from other schools.

"This year, however, we have taken significant steps to curb any irregularities during the SLC exams," says District Education Officer, Bhim Bahadur Saud. "For instance, no student can now hop to another school after Class 9 as we have made it mandatory to sit for the SLC exams from the school from where he/she filled the registration forms at Class 9."

Programme Co-ordinator at the District Education Office, Durga Datta Bishta, believes that the parents themselves must appreciate the importance of discouraging examination malpractice. "Anyway, it’s silly of any parent to imagine that an SLC certificate earned through improper means is of any value in today’s competitive environment."

Meanwhile, the students feel that only drastic changes in the education system can address the problem of examination irregularities. Says Dhananjaya Joshi, who has already paid Rs 8 thousand to a teacher to pass the coming exams, "Neither is the whole acdemic course taught at school, nor do we have ample opportunities for extra-tuition classes.

Moreover, we have to do the household chores too. In such a context, do we have any other alternative than to strike a contract with our teachers?"

Cassette released

KATHMANDU, April 11 (PR) - Kewalpur Ko Andrabhudi, an audio collection of songs and poems on the farmers of Kewalpur, Dhading, was released at a function here today.

The songs and poems were composed and sung by 74-year-old poet Devi Prasad Poudel, which are related to his own life.

According to Gopal Guragain, the producer of the cassette, "This cassette is the blend of Newari music and local folk songs. The cassette was released by a young girl Joshila Devkota, a student of journalism. The reason for making her the chief guest, according to the poet is to inspire the young generation to be more interested in Nepali literature and music.

Expressing gratitude to Guragain for doing everything possible to get the cassette released, the poet said, "Despite writing poems and songs for long I was not felicitated in a public programme like this. This is the first time that I have been publicly honoured."

Agreement signed

KATHMANDU, April 11 (PR)- Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST) and the Kathmandu University, yesterday signed an agreement, in which both the parties will exchange co-operation in the field of science and technology.

The agreement was signed between Vice-Chancellor of RONAST, Dr Prof Dayanand Bajracharya and Vice-Chancellor of KU, Dr Prof. Suresh Raj Sharma.

According to the agreement, both organisations will deploy and exchange manpower, skills and physical infrastructure for the educational and research activities in the field of science and technology.

Likewise, for the Masters and PHD courses in Science and Technology conducted in KU, the RONAST academicians and senior scientists will be involved.