People missing in landslide still untraced

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MORANG, Aug 11 - After 48 hours of their rigorous search operations, police suspect that all the 17 people buried under Thursday’s landslide triggered by heavy cloudbursts in Prapcha village of Okhaldhunga district could have died.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hanuman Shah at the District Police Office in Okhaldhunga, the police rescue team failed to trace the missing people out of the debris.

Police could recover the bodies of only three people and rescue three others alive from the debris on Friday. DSP Shah said that the 40-member police rescue team and the locals recovered only the mangled hands of two people from the landslide area. All of the people, who were buried under the landslide, were returning their homes after shopping at a weekly market at Rampurtar of Baruneshwor VDC-3 on that fatal evening.

Locals said that the fragile mountain slid after an irrigation channel dug from Gaonkhola to Shrichaur VDC caved in due to the torrential monsoon rains. Shah suspected that all the missing people could have been washed away into the flooded Mangal River. "There is little hope of their survival," he said. After the rescue team lost all the hopes of recovering the missing people from the landslide site, policemen from Udaypur, Sunsari and Saptari districts have been mobilised to search them out along the snow-fed Sunkosi River in which the Mangal River joins about a few km downstream of the landslide site. (See People page 8)

After making an on-the-site inspection on Friday, Chief District Officer Shiv Prasad Nepal estimated that the landslide damaged property worth more than Rs 5 million along with a drinking water facility. Nepal said that the people of the VDCs were suffering from acute water crisis.

He said that he had already handed over Rs 10,000 to each of the bereaved families as immediate relief from the District Natural Calamity Relief Fund.

He added that Red Cross Society and other donor agencies had been approached to provide other relief material to the victims.

Meanwhile, in a press statement issued today, the Solidarity Society of Okhaldhungeli, Kathmandu (SOSOK) expressed its deep sorrow over the tragic demise of the people in the natural disaster.

The society has also appealed individuals and organisations to provide their generous supports in cash or kind to the landslide victims. Any interested individual or organisation can donate their assistance at the society’s office in the Capital or at the contact telephone numbers such as 491956, 480071 or 495880, the SOSOK said in its public appeal.

CPN-ML to decide on UML’s unification proposal today

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KATHMANDU, Aug 11 – Communist Party of Nepal Marxist Leninist (CPN-ML) will discuss over the proposal of left unification endorsed by last week’s Central Committee meeting of the main opposition CPN-UML at Sunday’s meeting, party sources said.

During Saturday’s meeting ML General Secretary, Bam Dev Gautam presented his political report. CPN-ML’s politburo members are due to discuss over Gautam’s 4-page report and present their views at Sunday’s meeting. Prior to that, the meeting unanimously decided to endorse all the decisions made by the party’s politburo after the party’s 7th Central Committee meeting.

"We will discuss over the UML proposal of left unification tomorrow," CPN-ML leader CP Mainali told The Kathmandu Post after the meeting. "Unification depends on ideology; and when a party that believes in ‘people’s multi-party democracy’ invites another party with similar ideology for unification then possibilities of unification cannot be ruled out."

He added, "But we are not going to go for unification putting our old values at stake. Whether or not our party will unite with UML will be decided in tomorrow’s meeting on the basis of the discussions that will take place." CPN-ML is the breakaway faction of CPN-UML, the second largest political force in the country.

CPN-ML’s central meeting started Saturday, and came a day or two after CPN-UML’s Central Committee meeting concluded endorsing, among other things, a proposal for unification of all the left forces. The party’s General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, according to some reports, also sent a letter to his ex-comarade-in-arms Bam Dev Gautam and proposed re-unification of the parties.

HM visits Krishna Mandir

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LALITPUR, Aug 11 - Thousands of Hindus today thronged the nearest Krishna temples to pay homage to Lord Krishna, the Hindu god of love and wisdom.

His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev visited the Krishna temple at Patan Saturday evening. It was the king’s first public visit after being throned on July 4, following the massacre of the Royal families.

From early morning, the devotees stood up in queue to offer sweets to Krishna that lasted till the midnight. Mostly unmarried women devotees visit the Krishna temples with a pious wish to have ideal husbands like Lord Krishna.

This is a day for the women to keep fasting. They eat only fruits and keep themselves busy singing the songs of Krishna and his heroic deeds as well as his romance with his beloved Radha.

Among all, the Krishna Temple of Hanumandhoka Durbar Square, of Patan Durbar Square and of Phasikhyaa Bhaktapur drew thousands of devotees around the temple.

"Being nearby the temple of Lord Krishna gives us a spiritual pleasure that is beyond explanation," said a middle aged woman at Krishna Mandir of Lalitpur.

She added that time might change the world but the people’s devotion to the Krishna Bhagban and his greatness would never end.

The devotees gather around the temple in mass and they start singing songs with the beat of Nepali drum, called Madal.

Krishna, the master of miracles and also a saviour of the human kind, is a central character of the Herculean epic Mahabharata. The epic describes him as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and he possesses all the heavenly bodies, time and all the Hindu deities in his body.

He is characterized as a son of Basudev and Devaki who took birth at night in a prison. Devaki’s brother Kansha had in his mind that the eighth son would be a killer and terminator of his endless cruelty. So Kansha kept the couple into the prison and killed every child Devaki bore. But he could not do so to the seventh and eighth sons.

Krishna grew up in the grazing land of Gokul where he developed a spiritual love with a local lass Radha. The affair between Krishna and Radha is remembered as a fine love-story, a story of sacrifice.

Central Development Region most populous: Census 2001

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KATHMANDU, Aug 11 - The preliminary results of the Census 2001 made public by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) revealed Central Development Region as the most populous region with population of over 34 per cent of the total 23.21 million.

According the preliminary results, the population of the Central Development Region was recorded at over 8 million. Eventhough, overall picture portrays the higher female population in the country, male population in the Central Development Region stands alone as a winner.

Likewise, the Eastern Development Region follows Central Development Region with population over 23 per cent, in which is followed by Western Development Region, Mid-Western and Far-Western Region with 20.20 per cent, 12.60 per cent and 8.60 per cent respectively.

"This is probably due to the lesser employment opportunity in other regions. Since sizable chunk of urban areas lie in Central Region, there is high tendency of people migrating in this region," said Dr. S.M.N. Subhani, deputy director of CBS.

He further added, "Male tend to migrate more from other regions relatively to female looking for jobs . This might be the reason for the high male population in the Central Region." CBS said that it will take at least four months to make public the final results. It said that detailed information will be made available after the final results is made public. Final results will be made public after the data compiled across the country will be analyzed.

Population density as revealed by the preliminary results is 157.73.Terai once again retained the ‘title’ of densely populated ecological region with whopping 47.50 per cent of the total population followed by hilly region with 45.10 and mountain with 7.30 per cent.

The Census which was called as the most scientific Census ever owing to the inclusion of the fresh questions related with different aspects of the society had basically two phases. The first phase dealt with the family listings while second phase focused on head count. Altogether, 26000 employees including supervisors and enumerators were deputed to collect data for both the phases.

The deadline of the Census got postponed due to the tragedy that struck the Royal Palace almost two months ago. CBS had earlier said, the Royal massacre compelled it to postpone the deadline since nation plunged into days of state mourning.

Beside the Royal tragedy, Maoist rebels have also been one of the hindering factors for the delay.

CBS said that rebels in eight districts, Salyan and Kalikot in particular, hindered the Census process from being exercised. Much of these districts lie in the Mid-Western Region. Reportedly, rebels have grip over the substantial chunk of the Mid-Western Region.

Census figures throw up errors

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, Aug 11 - Even after the preliminary results of the Census 2001 have been made public, allegations of wrong data abound.

The latest claim of misrepresentation of data comes from the villagers of Satungal, the ancient settlement about 12 km west of the Capital. And the "culprit," according to them, is the headmaster of a local school.

The locals allege that the enumerator, Ram Sharan Karki, recorded the religion of all the residents of the Newar village as Hindus and mother tongue as Nepali at random.

Karki has been working as the headmaster of Sri Nandi Ganesh High School for the last nine years and was also a supervisor during the 1991 Census.

Executive Member of Women Environment Preservation Committee (WEPCO), Yamuna Shrestha, a resident of Satungal, accused the enumerator of coding the mother tongue of all the people as Nepali and religion as Hindu. "If this is the situation in the Capital, what would it be in remote villages?", she questioned.

Though what the enumerators write in their collection-book is not disclosed, it remained no more secret in the densely populated village the data the headmaster was taking away three weeks ago was "far away from the truth".

Karki was made to revise the data four times. In his first report, he made some basic technical mistakes so he was asked to repeat the data collection.

In the second time, he indicated all the hundred over families of Shrestha, Maharjan, as well as temporary residents like Magar, Rai, Lama, Tamang, Chaudhari, Syangtan, Mahato and others as Hindus and their mother tongue as Nepali, the locals alleged.

In the third round, he corrected the religion and mother languages of the Newars, but left the data of other ethnic groups as belonging to Hindu religion and speaking Nepali as mother tongue.

The area supervisor Yogendra Rajkarnikar, pacified the agitated villagers by rejecting the data and ordered Karki to "revise" it.

At Karki’s fourth attempt, the locals followed him to each doorstep to see what he actually wrote in the data collection book.

"We followed the headmaster all day and found he was trying to misguide the citizens even in our presence" said a local youth Nhuchhe Bahadur Maharjan. The fourth data is now on the supervisor’s table and waiting for the sanction.

Rajkarnikar said, "What he did is that particular village can not be called merely a mistake," he said, but he refused to give the details of what kind of report Karki had presented previously, saying that " It is illegal."

However, the headmaster Karki defended himself saying that there were only "a few mistakes" on his report but the officers at Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) forced him to re-collect the data from all 240 families repeatedly.

"I bet, such mistakes can be found in all the 114 enumerators of the Kathmandu Kha district, but only I was victimised," Karki claimed.

He has not yet received his allowance though he has already submitted the fourth report on July 22 . Deputy Director-General of Central Bureau of Statistics(CBS) Radhakrishna GC said that "a teacher collected wrong information in Satungal and the process is on to correct it".

Sociologist, Dr Krishna Bhattachan said what happened in Satungal was just an example of the "concerted attempt" to produce fake statistics of Nepal, misusing the ten-year event of Census.

"That was not at all a mistake. Even in my home the enumerator tried to miscode the data of our family. When my family members objected, it was corrected using white fluids," he said.

CBS has already published its preliminary reports of the census that was held deputing over 25000 enumerators nationwide.

Encephalitis claims 11 in Dang, Kanchanpur

DANG, Aug 11 (PR)- Eleven more people have so far died of encephalitis epidemic in the plain districts of Dang and Kanchanpur in the mid-western and far-western region over the last weekend, according to the hospitals from the respective districts.

A report from Dang said that eight of the dozens of people admitted at the Mahendra Hospital in Ghorahi died of the disease while undergoing treatment this week, said hospital superintendent, Dr. Shravan Kumar Chaudhary. He said that three people succumbed to the disease within two days.

He suspected that some of the encephalitis infected people who were rushed to Nepalgunj and Butwal hospitals were also reported to have died of the disease.

"More encephalitis infected people are pouring in the 25-bedded hospital," Dr. Chaudhary said, adding that the hospital could supply medicine to the patients only for a couple of days.

He said that the hospital required about Rs 60,000 to cope with the disease that normally appeared during the rainy season. Now 15 encephalitis infected people are receiving treatment at the hospital.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Kanchanpur district said that three of the total 20 people admitted at the Mahendranagar based hospital succumbed to the disease this week. Eight people are still receiving treatment at Mahakali Zonal Hospital, medical superintendent Dr. Dil Bahadur KC told The Kathmandu Post.

Dr. KC added that the hospital had an adequate stock of medicine to treat about 50 encephalitis patients. A large number of people from Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts suffer from the Japanese Encephalitis that was first detected in Rupandehi in 1968.

Ignorant pedestrians as much a problem as chaotic traffic

By Seema A. Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Aug 11 - Kathmandu Metropolitan City…The ‘world heritage city’ has "as many
temples as there are houses". And with the pace of modernization and urban development fast picking up, now there are as many wide roads as there are expensive utility vehicles.

But no matter how educated, sophisticated and cosmopolitan the people or, to be precise, the pedestrians walking down the streets appear, they continue to ignore and even breach the basic rules - the traffic safety rules, say traffic police. And the concerned authorities’—such as the traffic police, Department of Roads etc - failure to check violations of traffic rules and regulations has exacerbated the problem.

In a city where more than 60 per cent of the country’s over 250,000 registered vehicles are concentrated—to cater to the transportation needs of 1.6 million of the country’s 23.2 million population—the problem becomes more severe when road users lack, or ignore, traffic safety rules and regulations.

While conceding that most of the drivers own driving licenses and thus should be aware of basic traffic rules and regulations, traffic police officials manning the busy thoroughfares and junctions of the Capital say that most of the pedestrians are uneducated when it comes to road safety rules. And even if they are they are ignoring and even violating them "just like the cows and bulls that forage the streets" meant for vehicles.

"Be it a village folk who has come to the city for the first time or be it a city-bred gentlemen with a smart tie, both are unaware of the rules or they seem to ignore them," says a traffic police official at the Valley Traffic Police Office. "What has left us handicapped is that there are no strict laws to penalize and discourage such offenders."

And pedestrians walking down the streets of Kathmandu do not only ignore the Zebra-Crossings but also ignore the presence of overhead crossings that dominate the downtown Kathmandu landscape. They prefer taking the shortcut. "Some half-a-dozen overhead passes already exist there, but few bother to climb up their stairs and cross the streets civilly," adds another traffic official, preferring to remain unnamed.

Before passing the buck to the other concerned authority—such as the Department of Roads—the officials say there are other reasons that have hindered the implementation of traffic rules: lack of adequate traffic policemen to man the streets and "lack of sophisticated equipment and other necessary resources".

And it’s not that the city does not come equipped with traffic lights, overhead crossings and the black-and-white Zebra Crossings. The city does have computerized, automatic traffic lights at the Thapathali junction and automatic lights in almost every junction.

"But if there is no traffic police standing nearby to alert and warn drivers, many drivers just ignore them, after which we have to rush there to either deal with traffic accidents or chronic jams," said the official.

When asked if it was traffic police weaknesses, Sub-Inspector Bal Krishna Pokhrel, at the VPTO, passed on the buck to the Department of Roads, saying that "the Department is equally responsible for maintaining the roads, installing traffic lights, deciding the proper spots for Zebra-Cross and ensuring traffic safety."

But the Department has its own constraints. "We are thinking of putting the rubberized road paint on the Zebra Crossings," says Sunil Poudel, Traffic Engineer at the Department, "but painting of a single Zebra-Crossing with such paints cost thousands of rupees - something which we have not been able to do due to financial constraints."

Traffic officials have identified the Sahid Gate, Tinkune-Baneshwor and Koteshwor streets as the frequent accident-prone areas. But they privately concede that they have not been able to do anything, and point out the need to construct more overhead crossings.

Lack of resources and infrastructures aside, traffic police say that the "outdated Traffic Act-2031 B.S. (1974/1975), needs to be replaced by a new law to discourage such blatant violations of road rules."

And while the need for better, wider—and more—roads is a different story altogether, Engineer Poudel, meanwhile, says that the Department is contemplating replacing the three decades old traffic lights at Koteshower, Tinkune, Naya Baneshwor, Maitighar, Kalimati, Singadurbar and other junctions.

Police intervention ends tempo owners’ scuffle

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BIRGUNJ, Aug 11 - A massive police intervention ended Saturday a scuffle here between the owners of Vikram Tempo and Safa Tempo who were bickering against each other for supremacy for the last two days.

A total of 12 Vikram Tempos (diesel-run three-wheelers) and three Safa Tempos (solar power run three-wheelers) were vandalized on Friday in a clash between Safa Tempo and Vikram Tempo owners.

However, the massive police intervention on time has avoided further loss and fighting on a larger scale.

On Saturday, an estimated 300 Vikram Tempos were lined up at the Ghantaghar, Birgunj to pay their Friday’s scores. They had planned to take revenge on the Safa Tempo owners who meted out larger blows on Friday. While on the other hand, the owners of Safa Tempos also were seen gathering their men to face their counterpart- bravados.

Minutes before the fighting broke, the police arrived at the site to thwart the fight that felt imminent, reports from the district said.

The hostility ended when Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Arjun Jung Shahi, himself dashed forward into the crowd and informed both the sides that a meeting would be held on Sunday to settle their problems.

The owners of Vikram Tempos and Safa Tempos both agreed to remain mum until Sunday and gave up their fight. "The delegates comprising both the fronts will arrive here from Kathmandu for negotiations on Sunday," Shahi told The Kathmandu Post.

Meanwhile, owners of Vikram tempo turned further furious after the police released Madan Kishore Kanda, the main person accused of Friday’s vandalization of Vikram Tempo.

The owners of Vikram Tempo claimed that the police should compensate the losses incurred by 12 tempos vandalized on Friday. However, the police sources said they released Kanda on ground of humanity but not on economic consideration.

The Friday’s clashes were initiated first by Safa Tempo owners and was lead by Sales manager of Kathmandu Tuk Tuk, Madan Kanda.

The Vikram Tempo owners have been clamoring that no Safa tempos be allowed to ply on the markets in Terai after their more polluting and noisy Vikram Tempos were expelled from the Capital, whereas the Safa Tempos owners demand that they too be given equal rights to run them.

Birgunj has currently a total of 300 Vikram Tempos and 9 Safa tempos. The meeting scheduled on Sunday is expected to make a breakthrough in the potentially explosive tussle between them.

Indian Embassy official denies inundation reports

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KATHMANDU, Aug 11 - The Indian authorities today denied that the construction of the Rassiyal-Khurda-Lautan embankment would affect the Lumbini region and other places in the Nepalese territory.

Speaking at a programme here in the capital Nagma Mallick, an official here at the Indian Embassy, claimed that there are "in-built regulators as high as six meters that allow the easy passage of water into the Indian side."

However, Nepalese technicians had pointed out that the regulator prevented the natural flow of water on the Indian side affecting the Nepalese territory. The technicians have also been pointing out that the construction of the embankment just 200 meters away from the Nepal-India border would also affect the Lumbini region, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

Mallick added that the construction of the embankment has been stopped as requested by the Nepalese government. She also said that there is no record of the extent of damage caused by the Danda in the Indian territory. "Why is there a protest of such embankment which tries to manage that damage?"

Mallick said that the embankment constructed near the border region of Marchawar is a local problem in the region which should not be made international issue. She said that it was a conspiracy to try to make the "embankment" national and an international issue.

On the occasion, Chairman of the National People’s Front (NPF) Chitra Bahadur KC said that the construction of the embankment was one example of the Indian hegemonistic attitude towards Nepal. KC also pointed out that 18 VDCs would be affected from the embankment.

However, First Secretary at the Indian Embassy here Manoj Bharati reiterated that the embankment would not affect the Nepalese villages. "How can we say that those regions would be affected when there is no such statistics available?" He even blamed the media here for exaggerating the news regarding the problems caused by the embankment. Such act would only encourage bitter relations between the two neighbouring countries, said Bharati.

Earlier Arjun Prasad Shrestha, Executive Director of Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) had stressed the need for two countries to work together for flood management as the regions were flood-prone areas.

The construction of the bund initiated six months ago has been stopped for now with completion of the two kilometers of earthen structure.

Review of Supreme Court’s role emphasized

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KATHMANDU, Aug 11 - Prominent officials of the judiciary and lawyers today discussed the role of the Supreme Court, legal profession and legal education regarding their advancement in the days to come.

Speaking at a programme organised by Nepal Bar Council on the occasion of 7th Bar Council Day, Secretary of the Judicial Council Kashi Raj Dahal said the role of Supreme Court should be reviewed.

Besides functioning as a court of interpretation, Dahal pointed out that the apex court also acts as a court of adjudication. He stressed that the SC should only be left as a court of interpretation. Dahal disclosed that the backlog of cases in the courts is over 61,000.

At the same programme Justice of the Supreme Court Krishna Jung Rayamajhi handed over awards to the those who have written and published books on law during the last year and the best students of BL and LL.B who have scored best in the Bar Council examination.

Justice Rayamajhi said practising law is a challenging task as new thoughts are emerging everyday in the process of development and even rights to development is included within human rights.

Dr Annanda Mohan Bhattarai, judge at the Kathmandu district court, received the award of best author for his book titled "Displacement and Rehabilitation in Nepal - Law, policy and practice".

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Bhattarai said his book represents a new genre in the field of the literature of law and justice. He stressed on the need that the assumption "Law is a neutral discourse" should be corrected.

Chairman of Nepal Bar Association Sindhunath Pyakurel stressed on the enforcement of the code of conduct of the lawyers. He also urged competency of subject matter and for language to meet the new global challenges.

Speaking from the chair Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki said the council is effectively discharging its duty regarding discipline, examination and training.

An annual progress report of the Council was also presented at the programme.