Jaswant Singh arrives today

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 – Nepal is going to take up several contentious issues with India’s Foreign and Defence Minister Jaswant Singh who is arriving here on Friday on a "goodwill visit", according to Foreign Ministry officials.

However, there are indications that the visit would transcend the nature of goodwill visit, especially in the light of India’s suggestion of the review of the decade-old Trade Treaty just a few days before Singh’s visit. The statement was made public on Tuesday through the Indian Embassy here.

During the recent Commerce Secretary-level talks in the Capital, India expressed its concern over increasing exports of five of Nepali products – zinc oxide, acrylic yarn, copper wire, steel pipes and vanaspati ghee. India claimed that they have fallen under the "surge" net. However, Nepal denied this.

The Foreign Ministry officials admitted that besides the trade issue, the Marchawar bund, the Mahakali Treaty and facilitating easier access to Indian tourists traveling to Nepal by air would also be discussed with Singh.

PM freezes land sales ahead of radical reform measures
Announcement could be challenged in Court

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 – Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today brought a screeching halt to all
land sales in the country by announcing a freeze in land transactions until the government introduces new land reform laws.

Announcing the revolutionary measures in the House of Representatives today, which was aired live by state radio and television, the Prime Minister said the steps were being taken "to make land available to the land-less, the poor and the economically backward sections of the society."

This step would help in the creation of an equitable society by utilizing the labour, skill and capital of the landlords in productive field, the Prime Minister said, adding that the government would soon introduce new legislation in parliament which would scale down the ceiling on land holdings so that excess land could be distributed to the poor.

Soon after Deuba’s announcement, all land transactions throughout the country came to a halt today, and will continue to remain so until the promised legislation becomes law, which could take anywhere between a couple of months to a year.

The main opposition party, CPN-UML, was quick to welcome the annoucement. UML Spokesman, Pradeep Nepal said in a press release issued late Thursday, "We welcome the annoucement, but it will be of no use and will not give any output if the government fails to implement it."

The prevailing land ceiling in the Kingdom for agricultural and household purposes respectively are 50 ropanis and eight ropanis in Kathmandu Valley, 80 ropanis and 16 ropanis in the mountains and 25 bighas and 3 bighas in the Terai (the plains), according to the officials of the Ministry of Land Reforms.

This is not the first time that Deuba has taken bold land reform measures. While Prime Minister from 1995-97, Deuba had also abolished the dual ownership system of agricultural land, giving away half of such land to "mohis." Such mohis until then had rights to only one quarter of the land they tilled, while the rest belonged to the landowner causing problems in productivity in agriculture.

The Prime Minister’s new land reform initiative may have come about after much hard-thinking, but the rebel Maoists also have a role to play in it. According to reliable sources close to Deuba, the Maoist leadership was demanding that the prime minister institute radical land reform measures before expected negotiations as a show of his commitment to issues dear to the Maoists.

Reforming the nation’s land holding system has been a battle cry of all communist parties. These parties and critics have always charged that most of Nepal’s prime agricultural land has been held by a handful minority of large land-owning families who form a powerful bloc within the governing Nepali Congress and the opposition Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

The charges were partly proved true when Deuba’s abolition of the "dual ownership" system in the mid-1990s was challenged in the Supreme Court by groups aligned to the land-holding class in these parties. The Supreme Court however backed the reform measures.

Some analysts say, the Prime Minister’s latest initiative could also attract a similar challenge in the Supreme Court. The right to hold, buy and sell property, including land, is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, and any attempt to curtail that activity could be argued as unconstitutional, they point out.

"It (Deuba’s announcement), no doubt, is an infringement of the people’s right to hold property," says Surendra Bhandari, an advocate of the Supreme Court. "But since the constitution also inspires social reform, it also embodies that aspect. Both of these logic are equally forceful in Prime Minister Deuba’s announcement."

Land reform in Nepal was first introduced by King Mahendra in 2021 B.S., four years after he jailed the country’s first democratically elected Prime Minister B. P. Koirala, who had also promised radical reforms. Koirala could not bring his thoughts into practice due to the royal takeover in 2017 B.S.

Govt outlaws untouchability

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 - The government today outlawed the practice of untouchability in which people of the traditionally lower caste are often regarded as untouchables and discriminated against.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged that the government would present a new Bill in the parliament that would introduce laws that would completely "eradicate this trend."

"From this day the practice of untouchability would be considered as crime that will be severely punished," Prime Minister Deuba said in the House of Representatives outlining the new government’s policies.

Though discrimination on the basis of caste prohibited by the Constitution of Nepal that was enforced in 1990 and the Muluki Ain (Civil Code) of 1963, the caste system still exists in the society and the people of lower castes continue to be considered untouchable. The government also declared today that these so-called untouchables will be free to enter temples and any structures of religious significance without any restriction.

People like the Dalits, or the oppressed class, mostly in the rural areas, are prevented by the upper class people from entering temples, kitchens and many people still refuse to eat food touched by these people. The government also announced formation of a national commission to look after the welfare of the Dalits. "It is our historic duty to immediately end this unacceptable trend in reality that has been in our social system," Deuba said.

In another significant announcement, the Prime Minister also said the government was committed towards getting the Property Rights Bill through Parliament during the current session. The Bill brought to amend the Muluki Ain is currently under consideration of the parliamentary Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.

Deuba also announced that a National Women’s Commission would be formed that would ensure women’s rights, equality and end the evil practices in the society like dowry, domestic violences and these acts are punishable by the law.

System of reservations and protection for the women, Dalits, nationalities and the indigenous people is also being proposed for their uplift through education. And a special program that will be valid for the next 25 years will also be announced, the Prime Minister said.

On the corruption front, he said the government has decided to review all the laws related to make corruption a punishable crime. "To confiscate property earned through illegal modes like corruption, the government is committed to bring new laws and get the Anti-Corruption Bill currently being discussed in the House through," he said. He said the policies included the 14-point agenda presented by his predecessor Girija Prasad Koirala and the three points added by the main opposition CPN-UML gathered plus points during discussions with other political parties.

Case filed against two over witch hunt

By Kiran Bhandari & Rabindra Upreti

MAHOTTARI, August 16 - A case was filed against two people including Simardahi Village Development Committee (VDC) Chairman on charges manhandling a village woman and torturing hundreds of others at a village gathering called to identify "witches".

The case was filed against Simardahi VDC Chairman Nawal Kishor Sahani, his brother Shankar Sahani, who are charged of public offence. Chief District Officer Laxmi Prasad Bhattarai said the case was filed in the initiation of the District Administration Office "because none of the relatives of Marani Devi Shah, 55, turned up to file an complain seeking action against those involved."

If convicted, the two could face a punishment of four years imprisonment or a fine of Rs 10,000 or both. Prior to that Bhattarai led a team of government officials including police officers to the village, where they held a public gathering and took eyewitness account of those present at the Tuesday’s gathering. Almost all the women from the village had converged at the medieval-style public gathering.

Marani Devi was attacked by the supporters of VDC Chairman Sahani at the witch hunting gathering Tuesday afternoon. The gathering also saw mobs of villagers fighting among each other. When a group chased VDC Chairman Sahani and a Shaman hired from neighboring Bihar, India, another group broke into the house of Marani Devi and attacked her ruthlessly.

Marani Devi’s neighbors were charging her of spelling a black magic on 16-year-old Sanjay Shah, an epilepsy victim who died in the third week of June.

She has not dared to return to her village even after being discharged from the district hospital where she was rushed for medical treatment after Tuesday’s attack. She is apparently "frightened beyond comprehension and is suffering from body ache, sleeplessness and other psychological disorders," according to the attending health worker Prem Chandra Thakur. She is currently staying in her paternal house in Jaleshwor.

Left leaders meet Prachanda in Siliguri

By Lila Baral

BIRTAMOD, Jhapa, Aug 16– General secretaries of five communist parties, including leader of the main opposition CPN (UML), traveled to Siliguri, India’s West Bengal state Wednesday to held a secret meeting with Maoist leader Comrade Prachanda, according to communist sources in Jhapa district.

The other top communist leaders who reportedly met with Prachanda include Bamdev Gautam, General Secretary of the CPN-ML, Narayanman Bijukchhe of the Nepal Peasants and Workers’ Party, Mohan Bikram Singh of the CPN (Masal), Prakash of the Unity Centre and Lilamani Pokharel of the United People’s Front.

Sources close to the leaders claimed that the general secretaries held extensive discussions with Prachanda, particularly on the much-awaited peace talks with the government, and on forging a basic working understanding among all the leftist forces as called for by the rebel leader recently.

The leftist leaders’ stay in the Indian city was not even known to their Jhapa-based party district committees and to the government’s security bodies until after they returned.

Superintendent of Police (SP) in Jhapa Ganga Pandey, said that he had bid farewell to all the five leaders at the Bhadrapur airport where they took a Kathmandu-bound flight of Necon Air at around 12.30 p.m. on Thursday.

Typhoid claims 8 in eastern hills

KHANDBARI, Sankhuwasabha, Aug 16 (PR)- At least eight people have died due to the outbreak of gastro-enteritis and typhoid and hundreds of others have been affected by the diseases over the last two weeks, the District Public Health Office (DPHO) said Thursday.

It is also reported that people from the northern parts of the neighbouring Bhojpur district have also been affected by the disease that broke out in the communities due to the consumption of contaminated water and poor sanitation.

The DPHO officiating chief in Khandbari, the district headquarters, Laxmi Prasad Yadav, said that seven people succumbed to the communicable disease - gastro-enteritis - in the Pathibhara Village Development Committee alone last week. Another person from the Keurenipani VDC in Bhojpur died of typhoid on the way to a health post Wednesday.

DPHO chief said that the people succumbed to the curable diseases due to unavailability of adequate health workers and medicine in most of the health centres. He said that around 40 to 50 gastro and typhoid affected people visited various health centres for treatment, which is quite a large number to deal with by under-equipped local health centres.

Balkrishna Pokharel, a resident of Jyaunpokhari VDC in Bhojpur said that one or two persons from each of the houses had bed-ridden in his village due to typhoid over the last two weeks.

Considering the gravity of the epidemic, a civil society has been formed here to dispatch medicine and health workers in the affected parts. The society has also pressed the local administration for immediate measures to control the epidemic.

Govt reviews 5-day week, could make changes

By Tilak P. Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 - On this very day (Bhadra 1), exactly two years ago, the government decided to cut down working days in the Kathmandu Valley from six to five days a week in a bid to improve the efficiency of the country’s civil servants among others. After a two-year-long experiment, however, officials have realized that not all the government offices should remain closed for two consecutive days.

Highly placed sources at the Ministry of General Administration told The Kathmandu Post that preparations are underway to open those offices that are responsible for essential service delivery to the general public—such as the District Administration Offices, Nepal Electricity Authority, Nepal Water Supply Corporation, banks, and land revenue offices—on Sundays too. An announcement to this effect is expected very soon.

What this means is that the civil servants working in these offices, who are now used to have two full days of weekly-off, will have to drag themselves to their offices from Sunday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. like they would do prior to August, 1999. The Ministry has already forwarded a report to the Cabinet Secretariat, suggesting review in the two-year-old decision, according to the official.

"We sent the report to the Cabinet Secretariat about three weeks ago and now the ball is in their court," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added. According to the official, the Ministry has recommended immediate extension of working days to six from five in these government offices that are for "direct service delivery" to the general public.

But the forthcoming government move is in no way an indication that the government is in mood to open other government offices as well on Sunday. "But we have not made any such recommendations in the report that would extend working days to six in those offices—such as the ministries and planning and policy-making bodies—that do not fall under the category of essential service providers," he said.

The Ministry has not recommended reduction of working days in the government offices outside the Valley.

"If the number of working days is reduced in the districts, the local people —most of whom come from far away—will suffer," said the official. "This is the reason why we are against the reduction of number of working days outside the Valley."

The government reached the decision to cut down working days in line with recommendations made by an administrative reforms commission report commissioned in the second half of 1990s. "Even though it saved fuel and slashed other state expenditures, the system of five working days did not yield good results as expected for the consumers," the official added.

When contacted, an official at the Cabinet Secretariat said that the Cabinet is yet to discuss on it. "Since the Cabinet is busy working on other grave national problems (like Maoist problem), they don’t have enough time to discuss on it," the official said on customary condition of anonymity.

After mounting pressure from the public to increase the working days, the Cabinet, couples of months ago, had assigned the Ministry to carry out a study on the issue and present a report on it. The Bhattarai-led government had made the decision giving two consecutive days (Saturday and Sunday) as holidays in the Kathmandu Valley from August 17, 1999 (Bhadra 1, 2056 BS).

Achyut Dhungana, a resident of Gairidhara who came to the District Administration Office for official works, said, "It has been very difficult for us after the system of five working days were enforced. The works in the office get piled up and the service delivery gets delayed. So, the government should immediately stop giving holidays on Sundays."

Adds President of Nepal Consumers’ Forum, Harendra Bahadur Shrestha, "The government decision to cut down the working days has absolutely brought distortions among the government employees and is not in favour of the consumers too. Though the employees were supposed to work from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. after the deduction of the working days, they hardly turn up in the office even at 10:00 a.m., the usual starting time of the old system, adds Shrestha.

NSP threatens agitation

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 – The Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) is organising a series of protest programmes in various parts of the Terai from next week on the issue of citizenship and other issues related to the people of the Terai, said its party president today.

The NSP President Gajendra Narayan Singh today talking to The Kathmandu Post said that his party is organizing a series of programmes in the Terai to pressure the government to solve the problem of citizenship. "We will also gherao the Singha Durbar on November 6, pressing forth the problems of the Terai people".

He was giving details about the party’s two-day National Working Committee meeting that concluded today.

Singh pointed out that the problem of citizenship cannot be solved without the amendment of the Constitution. He said that people should be provided citizenship certificates if they can furnish their birth evidence in Nepal. "Introducing such clauses in the Constitution whereby one can have citizenship certificate on the basis on birth will only solve the issue of citizenship," said Singh.

Singh added that his party is sending a five-member team to study the effect of the construction of the Rassiyal-Khurd-Lautan embankment in the Indian side of the Marchawar region near Lumbini. "The team will submit its report within 10 days." But Singh said that unlike other political parties his is not going to politicize the issue but rather move towards solving the problem if there exists any.

Speaking further Singh said that Nepal should have a federal form of government for which there is the necessity of constitutional amendment. "Five provinces should be established under the Federal system where provinces will have to be divided on cultural and geographical basis," said Singh. "These provinces should be given maximum autonomy," he added. Singh stressed that this way would only help solve the problem of the people of the Terai.

Speaking about his party’s fourth general convention that is going to be held after six months time, Singh said that he would not stand for presidentship. The NSP leader added that he would remain neutral, favouring none for the post.

There are nearly four million people in Terai facing the problem of citizenship in which more than 50 per cent of them are minors, said Singh. "The problem of Citizenship should be solved through all party consensus," he added.

Singh pointed out the citizenship problem could also be solved if the citizenship certificates are issued in accordance with the voters list of the People’s Referendum of 2036 BS (Nepali Calendar).

SC invalidates legal status of NCEA

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 - A full bench of Supreme Court today has concurred an 18-month old opinion of one of the justices of a division bench of the same court invalidating the legal status of Nepal Civil Employees’ Association (NCEA), an association closer to Nepali Congress.

Commenting on the order advocate Hari Upreti who had pleaded on behalf of the writ petitioner said " It is a landmark decision and it is an interpretation of the fundamental rights to some extent." While asked sources close to the defeated party said " It is a decision in multiparty system but based on partyless custom." The source said the order is based on the Act which was made in Panchayat regime.

A full bench of the court today comprising justices Arbindra Nath Acharya ,Top Bahadur Singh and Bhairab Prasad Lamsal held that the rights and privileges of civil servants are regulated and controlled by Nepal Civil Employees’ Act and Regulation. Civil servants may not have rights at par with citizens.

The order was passed on the basis of National Directives Act, 2018 which provides for only one organization of civil servants.

NCEA was registered on first week of November 1990 on condition to be recognized by Council of Ministers. Subsequently, NCEO had filed a writ petition which was quashed by the Supreme Court with the contention that the writ did not deemed to be issued since NCEA was left to be recognized by the Council of Ministers.

The present writ petition was filed five years ago by erstwhile General Secretary of Nepal Civil Employees’ Organization (NCEO) Bishwo Nath Pyakurel praying the legal status of NCEA be declared null and void.

Small lefts for panel umbrella

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 16 - Representatives of smaller Left parties today agreed that there needs to be a panel that would bring all these parties under an umbrella.

At the same time they said that all these groups with different ideologies, principles and policies would not be able to be united into one party.

These remarks follows the proposal by the main opposition CPN-UML which wrote to all the Leftist groups, including the splinter CPN-ML, seeking unity in the Communist groups in the nation.

"This is the fifth stage in the Communist revolution in Nepal where there is polarization among the Leftist groups," said Chandra Prakash Mainali of the CPN-ML.

Mainali added that this appeal for unity in the Left is not against or fear of the Maoists, which is an extremist Left group, but would rather help in the talks between them and the government.

Analysts had said that the sudden flexibility shown by CPN-UML and its attitude even accepting splinter group CPN-ML that it never regarded as a party comes at a time when the Maoists are being seen as the real Communist force that could take away support from other Leftist parties.

Siddhilal Singh of the CPN-ML who is in charge of the unification talks with the parent group said the talks with CPN-UML would be followed by talks with other parties too.

"If there is similarities and agreement in the party’s policies and principles then there is nothing wrong with the unification between these parties," Singh said.

CPN-UML’s central member Bharat Mohan Adhikari said unity in the Left was a necessity to save the nation from the current situation.

Parshuram Chaudhary of Nepal Communist Party (Marxism) said before such an agreement is reached there needs to be lot of homework and table work.

Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha of National Movement Central said bringing all these groups unified under one party was an impossible task.