Mayor’s dreams: Coming and going

By Razen Manandhar

Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Keshav Sthapit has lost all the probabilities to contest the next local election: during his victory declaration some three years ago, he vowed that he would not stand for the next election unless he would be able to dip into the Bishnumati river by then. The election is knocking on the door and the river is just what it was then or even worse.

Selling dreams is an easy business in this metropolis. This fate-stricken city is the ambition of the whole over two million population. They have reasons to aim at hitting the capital - we can find reasons why they are attracted to settle here if we go just a few hours drive from here. Be it a coolie from far-west or a carpet-beggar politician from the east, all dream of building a house in Kathmandu, no matter what.

This is exactly the secret of successful sales of unlimited dreams. The residents are optimists that something would really happen that might bring comfort to their life. They have right to wish too.

They listen to the stimulating speech of the mayor and other municipality officers, who have new stories each time to tell and entertain the citizens. The stories work as incentives to the residents to wait for few more years in hope of the changes.

In a coloured brochure of City Development Strategy, the mayor states that most of what they have done in the past three years has been to raise the confidence of the people as well as to raise KMC’s credibility and capability as a local government. "The residents have seen what we are capable of delivering but also realise that there is a lot more to be done," he adds.

You can make a list of hundreds of plans the mayor and his company recites by heart now and then. KMC’s will is limited to winning the heart of private parties at the cost of the local’s interest. The result should be as we see today.

Here is an example. Today the mayor demands around 300 ropanis of land in the capital to establish a composting plant. But for him, the bank of the holy river Bagmati is the only solution for the hundreds of tonnes of solid waste the citizens produce. This is such a plan which is criticised by his own experts but who cares?

The list could go infinite. Repair and Maintenance Centre of Vehicles, Bhugol Park, Ichangu Water Supply Scheme for Swayambhu Area, Ring Road Trolly Bus Service, Sundhara Restaurant-Garden, Evening Market, Underground Car Park and Shopping Stalls, Culture Centre, Multi-storey Commercial Complex at Ratna Park, Slaughter House, Gongabu Bus Terminal and Overhead Bridges are some of the popular slogans KMC has today to collect aids and grants from donors, and people know they are either running in snail’s pace or taking the rabbit’s nap.

It is not that KMC is totally sleeping. We can see small and big projects running here and there, mostly by the help of the locals or foreign donor agencies. But in comparison to the scale of tooting of the horn, the "developments" are nominal. The more a dog barks, the less people pay attention to it. Let there be some real development than flashy brochures in KMC’s briefcase.

Loadshedding hits industries

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CHITWAN, April 26 - The 6-hour loadshedding of electricity by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) every day at different times of the day has brought the limited cottage and small industries of Chitwan on the verge of bankruptcy.

Such industries include hatchery, poultry feed, timber and steel furniture, metal, plastic, concrete crusher, hotel industries, printing press, stationeries, textile and ready-made garments, rice mills, oil mills, flattened-rice mills, bread, biscuit and noodles industries, dairy, ice-cream etc. These industries are incurring losses running into hundreds of thousands of rupees every day and the time had come for industrialists all over the country to launch an agitation against this decision of the NEA.

This was stated at a press conference organised at Narayangadh by Chitwan Cottage and Small Industry Association.

Chairman of the Association Gunakar Kharel said that the NEA had undermined their request to enforce loadshedding regularly at a fixed time rather than enforcing it at different times of the day. The decision of the NEA has almost forced the owners of the nearly 100,000 cottage and small industries all over the country to close down, he added.

Kharel said if the loadshedding would continue in the manner currently determined by the NEA, most of the industries would be closed and almost 1.3 million people currently employed by these industries would lose their job.

NTUC to celebrate May Day

KATHMANDU,April 26 (PR) - Nepal Trade Union Congress( NTUC)is going to celebrate May 1 as the 112th International Labour Day by organising different programmes, according to a press release received here. A joint meeting of district presidents of NTUC decided to mark the May Day by organising a rally in the capital to be followed by a mass meet at Bhrikutimandap. The programme is to be addressed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.,the founder chairman of Nepal Trade Union Congress.

It has also decided to instruct the district level committees to observe the occasion by conducting similar programmes.

Nepal press photo anniversary marked

KATHMANDU, April 26 (PR) - The Gorkhapatra Chapter of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists today organized an interaction programme to mark the 74th anniversary of the first news photo published in Nepal.

The first press photo was published in the Gorkhapatra daily in Baisakh 13, 1984 BS. The picture illustrated a Nepali woman from Birgunj spinning cotton.

Speaking on the occasion, senior journalist, Kanak Mani Dixit, highlighted on the immense potentials of investigative photo journalism, and called on photo journalists to be energetic and courageous.

Senior photo journalist,Gopal Chitrakar, emphasised on the need to appoint photo editors in the dailies.

The photo journalists called on media persons to abide by the code of conduct in the publication of press photos during the interaction programme.

Women-built road benefits over fifty families

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KHAJURA, Banke, April 26- More than 50 families have directly been benifitted by a 230 meter road built recently at the initiative of women- Samjhana Tole Development Association in Bageshwori VDC-2, Banke.

Surprisingly, only women were involved in the hard work of constructing the road which includes gravelling and other miscellaneous work. This indicated that women are capable of undertaking the tasks that are traditionally in the men’s domain.

Ward Chairman, Ramchandra Bogati says, "It’s indeed marvelous that our women pulled up their own resourcers and energy to construct the road."

Goma Karki, for instance, had to ramble herself along the dirty waters of summer, splashing and rippling her kids while taking them to school. "Not any more," she says proudly. "We’ve finally built the road and now the children walk to school on their own."

The dream of constructing the road was realised at the initiative of the Association which collected a sum of Rs 38, 225 through constructive activities like playing Bhaili and even by contributing out of their petty savings. Many of the local women, on their part,volunteered to contribute women with their days worth of income which amounted to Rs 145 thousand in the actual construction phase.

"We were always planning to prove our mettle, and the road provided an opportunity for us to set an example," president of the Association, Kamala Pande, says. "But this is only a beginning, we’ll be doing much more in the future."

Call to keep Pashupati area clean

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KATHMANDU, April 26 - Dr Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, the chairman of Rajsabha Standing Committee today distributed certificates to volunteer organizations that helped Pashupati Area Development Fund (PADF) during its 15th anniversary.

"A group of mischievous people are working hard in this country to make it secular. We have to be aware of it and do our best to protest them because eventually they will some day break the country into pieces," said Upper House Member Swami Prapannacharya.

He said nobody today shows their concern over Hinduism and all are motivated by the Wetern culture and "dollar" they earn.

He criticized the politicians saying they have become party-oriented and family-oriented. He urged the people, "It has become late, let’s do something. The house is burning."

Narottam Baidya, ward No 8 chairman and member of Central Management Committee, said , the Pashupati area must be free of of liquor and meat. "The government has not given priority to conserve and develop the temple area of the holiest God of Hinduism," he said.

‘Most food aid programmes miss targets’

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KATHMANDU, April 26 - Although South Asia is nearly self-sufficient in food, 294 million people are hungry in the region, more than any other part of the world. Each year 1.8 billion US dollars is spent on food aid programmes, yet most food assistance programmes miss their targets.

In order to eradicate hunger and rethink strategies, the World Food Programme, an UN organization fighting hunger after a study calling for greater priority to be given to food security in a sustainable way released a book titled Enabling Development: Food Assistance in South Asia, here the other day. Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel released the book amid a function.

The book is based on inputs from eminent authors from all SAARC countries and is the result of an extensive team effort that involved national experts, researchers and advisers from all WFP country Offices in the region.

Locals unite to preserve natural heritage

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DEUKHURI, Lamahi, April 26 - Local people have launched a massive clean-up campaign of preserving natural ponds and lakes in the locality, a report here said.

More than 200 people from seven villages have provided their voluntary service over a week for the protection of Jakhera Tal (lake) that occupies more than 12 bighas of land.

A local, Shanti Chaudhary, from Musundi VDC said that the campaign of preserving the lake became possible after a 29-member action committee was formed led by local social worker Prem Bahadur Dangi.

Locals said they became aware of the importance of the natural heritage of their locality following its coverage in the national media about three years ago.

The Dang festival that was organised on the occasion of Nepal Visit Year 1998 had decided to include the lake as one of the major tourist destinations in the district.

Chief of the District Soil Conservation Office, Shymlal Sapkota, said that his office had allocated Rs 250,000 out of which Rs 80,000 had already been spent for its conservation activities.

It is also expected that more than 500 bighas of land located close to the lake can be irrigated during the dry season once the protection work on the lake comes to an end.

Likewise, the Tribhuvan municipality in Dang is also working together with locals for the protection of Bahra Kune lake at the municipality and Tapta Kunda lake at Sapta Bariya.

Employee deprived of medical aid

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JAJARKOT, April 26 - An employee who was wounded in an ambush laid by the Maoists as he was going to the election centre two years ago to hold the general election is still deprived of medical facilities.

He has not been cured of his wound until now.

Secretary in Pokhara VDC, Hari Jung Shah was assigned by the Election Commission to an election centre located at the remote Sisne Bhattechaur VDC, about 70 miles far from the district headquarters.

Four employees had been wounded in the ambush and all of them were flown to Nepalgunj by helicopter and admitted to the Regional Birendra Police Hospital. The flesh of Shah’s right thigh was all smashed and he could not recover until now.

He has spent about Rs 100,000 from his provident fund for his treatment and another Rs 100,000 by selling his land for frequently travelling to and from Nepalgunj.

Secretaries from the 43 VDCs had provided their one day’s salary to help Hari Jung Shah and Rukum DDC had provided financial assistance of Rs 10,000 for his treatment.

New cave discovered in Darchula

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Darchula, April 26- Ancient images and idols have been discovered in a strange cave at Thaktoli of Shankerpur VDC-7, while digging the area for building a road connecting the district headquarters.

The 1.5 km long cave has been found to contain stone carvings on its walls in addition to numerous stone images of Hindu images like Shiva, Ganesh, Bhagawati as well as those of cows, elephants, tigers and birds.

As soon as word spread of the discovery of the strange cave, hundreds of local people, many of them devotees, are thronging to the site. Scenes of believers carrying out religious ceremonies like pujas to pay respect to the discovered deities inside the cave are in practice lately in the locality. It all started when the local priests decided to let entry into the cave after due religious ceremonies.

The stone carvings include various postures of Lord Shiva’s cosmic dance as well as scenes of the Mahadev engaged in love with Parvati.

Though opinions on the age of the ancient carvings and images is yet to come, local scholars believe that they must have been created at least a couple of thousand years ago.

Sadly, some of the images have been damaged due to the blasts that went into the discovery of the cave.

Unlike many other caves, the newly discovered one is all bright and spacious till the end of the 1.5 km distance, then dissolves into darkness. According to witnesses, the cave consists of man-made steps to ease entry into the cave.

At the rear of the cave, there is a spacious floor where stands an image of a hermit lost in meditation and above hangs a big image of a cow.

The rear of the cave is at the side of the old temple of the famous deity, Malikarjun. Legend has it that the newly found cave used to be the path by means of which Ranishikhar, wife of Malikarjun, travelled to see her beloved.

Meanwhile, the local residents have already begun work to build a temple at the site and have also drawn the attention of the Department of Archaeology to assess its worth.

Constable abducted

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JAJARKOT, April 26 - A constable who has been assigned to the Area Police Office, Chaurjahari of Rukum district was abducted by Maoist insurgents on Tuesday as he had come to Jajarkot on a holiday.

The constable, Tank Bahadur Gharti Magar, resident of Lahan VDC-6, was going home on a two-week holiday after he was charged of impregnating a married woman at Chaurjahari and an investigation was underway. He had joined the Armed Riot Control Police two years ago.

He was abducted when he arrived near a suspension bridge at Rukum Chisapani Dadagaon.

His wife, Khamba Devi Gharti told The Kathmandu Post that the Maoist insurgents had been warning him frequently not to go to the police training saying that he should either take the rifle of the Maoists if he wanted to hold the rifle or he could stay at home as a disabled man. She said he had to join the police service due to unemployment.

Meanwhile, Maoist insurgents burnt a temporary police post located at Matela village of Jagatipur-1, the entrance to the headquarters of Jajarkot district on Wednesday night.

According to police sources, 52 police personnel remain in duty there for the whole day and they return to the District Police Office or to the Area Police Office in Chaurjahari at night. They used to guard the bridge at the entrance to Jajarkot and leave the police post at night.

The fire gutted five quintals of rice, three solar panels, three 24-volt batteries, police uniforms, boots and other materials.

The police post was established at a rented house which belonged to a primary school teacher, Khim Bahadur Gharti.

According to Police Inspector Basant Rana who inspected the area, Maoist workers destroyed all the documents of Jagatipur VDC office which were kept in the guesthouse constructed by the DDC after the Maoists had destroyed the VDC building.