Protests against land reforms delay budget debate

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Aug 27 - With no truce in sight between the government and a section of the opposition, the continued disruption of the House of Representatives is threatening to further push back the already delayed debate on the fiscal budget.

Nearly a dozen lawmakers from the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) once again shouted anti-government slogans in the House Monday forcing Speaker Taranath Ranabhat to adjourn the House.

These lawmakers protesting the government’s proposed land reforms, including setting ceiling on land ownership and freeze on all land transactions, have continued their protest despite continued pleas by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Speaker Ranabhat to cease their protest and throw their support behind the government’s policy.

Besides disrupting regular scheduled businesses like presentation and discussion of Bills and government proposals, the protests are threatening to delay the passage of the fiscal budget.

The debate on the fiscal budget, being conducted on the basis of each of ministries and budget allocated to them through the Appropriation Bill, was stalled just when it reached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives.

"The continued protests have created a situation of uncertainty in the Parliament and the country," said Tek Bahadur Chokhyal, Chief Whip of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC).

"These parties are only trying to gain political mileage from these protests and the tendency to disrupt Parliament for every and any issue could start a negative trend," he said adding that the government was prepared to shrink the discussion if needed to get it through on time.

Though the government and the administration have been able to function for the time being through the passage of the Accounts Bill that enables the government to borrow and spend, it would need to get the Appropriation Bill through the Parliament during the present session, also known as the Budget Session. And get a royal assent to be able fully allocate the budget as specified in the Budget estimates.

Right now the government and planners have not been able to get new projects rolling and expand the old ones without the release on the fiscal budget. Usually, such projects are implemented and process initiated only after the Finance Ministry releases the fiscal budget.

The Accounts Bill allows the government to spend only about Rs. 28.5 billion maximum. This would be less than a third of the Rs. 99.79 billion budget estimate presented by the government. There is less than two months left before the Dasain festival begins on October 17. The Session is prorogued weeks before that giving the lawmakers ample time to head back to their constituencies for the festivities.

This delay in allocation of the budget is also totally against the agreement between the government and the opposition parties reached last year when deadlock between the two sides was broken after a series of agreements. These agreements included passing of the budget before the fiscal year begins around July 16.

But most importantly, the two sides agreed that the budget would be discussed at the parliamentary Finance Committee that has representation from most parties before it is brought to the House and changes made if needed.

Last year, the budget session had convened nearly a month and half earlier than in the past. The reason, according to the government, was to present and endorse the budget estimates for the fiscal year without the traditional delay in allocation of funds.

This year, the protests by the two opposition parties is leading the House to a point of uncertainty with both sides unable to iron out the differences.

A meeting between representatives of RPP and the NC team led by Ram Chandra Poudel today yield no agreement. Poudel asked for suggestions to be included in the proposed Bill to implement land reforms and the RPP side told them they were not ready with their suggestions.

Prime Minister Deuba has called RPP and NSP leaders for talks to resolve the deadlock on Tuesday. The House is slated to resume on Wednesday afternoon.

"We don’t know how long our protest will be. It will all depend on the government," said RPP’s Pashupati Sumshere Rana.

Landslide claims 8 family members in Parbat

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PARBAT, Aug 27 – At least eight members of a single family were killed and five others injured in a landslide triggered by incessant rainfall here Sunday night.

All eight dead were sleeping in a house of Tilke Sarki when at around 12:30 p.m. debris of landslide from Juteko hillock some 200 meters away from the house at Arjeba-7, Archvas was covered completely. The house owner Tilke Sarki and his two sons managed to escape unhurt.

No more information on the dead was available till Monday evening but according to a neighbour the dead include a daughter of Sarki and her baby girl who had come to visit them from their home at Mudikuwa VDC.

Along with the house of Sarki the landslide destroyed his cowshed killing two buffaloes and also destroyed another cowshed of his neighbour Kome Sarki killing a cow and a buffalo.

A police rescue team under the command of a police inspector was despatched immediately as the information reached the police from the district headquarters says Sitaram Pokhrel, Chief District Officer of Baglung. "The village lies some 45 kms from Baglung headquarters. Since the rescue team has not yet reached the place, no more information could be known of the event," Pokhrel said.

Personality clash hindering UML-ML unity

By Utpal Raj Misra

KATHMANDU, Aug 27 – The unification dialogue between the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and other Left parties has hogged the headlines for the last one month. But no concrete result is in sight till now.

Various Leftist groups have held rounds of talks aimed at foreign a united left front, but they are yet to reach to any agreement.

The major issue of unification between UML and the CPN (ML) has gained momentum in the last couple of weeks, but going by the comments made by their leaders, something may have gone wrong in their reunification attempt.

People closely watching the development say that things did not go right during the second round of talks, held in ML Central Office on Friday, as they failed to fix the date for another dialogue.

Now it has been clear that both the parties have put forward several conditions as basic criteria, acceptance of which would only take the unification process forward. ML has clearly stated that the two parties should be merged on the basis of equality and that the UML should admit that "Mahakali treaty was a mistake."

Sources say that ML categorically specified that the documents of both the parties be congealed while merging the parties. "A unity declaration manifesto should be created by the joint document drafting committee to meet this purpose," a source said. For this, all central organs of both the parties have to be dissolved and a new executive committee be formed with equal number of members from each party."

But these conditions put forward by the ML have turned out to be a major setback to the unity talks between these parties. A strong section of the UML is already against the ML’s conditions, thus are against the whole process of merging the ML into the UML.

This section is vehemently against the merger, as they fear that big names from the splinter group will over shadow them within the party. Moreover, UML has already made it clear that it is not going to change even a single comma from the resolution endorsed in its 6th general convention.

The ML separated itself from the UML after grave differences arose between some party leaders on the Mahakali treaty signed with India some four years ago. But more than this, some party sources claimed that "it was a sheer personality clash between some leaders that resulted in the split and the same reason seems to be the wedge, ruining the unity process."

"A lion is always a lion even if it’s locked up in a cage," said a prominent member of the CPN-ML, adding "If novices of UML leadership think that the "great" leaders of ML will agree to be in positions below them, then they are day-dreaming."

At the same time, an UML source says that the ML leaders have demanded for higher ranks in the party as the condition for a merger. "They want at least four members in the standing and 11 of them in the central committee, apart from the big names getting their coveted positions," he said. "This is not acceptable to the UML."

Despite high hopes, the possibilities of a merger between these two parties seem bleak in the near future.

But at the same time, all the Leftists have realised that they need to join hands to fight the "extreme forces" or face danger of loosing existing popularity, with the underground Maoists being the major threat.

It is more than certain that both parties will continue with their unification efforts and sooner or later will decide on working unity or, to the maximum, create a united front to become formidable players in Nepal’s political scenario.

Fear of ceiling on property leads to high gold demand

By Prem Khanal

KATHMANDU, Aug 27 - Widespread media reports on the demand of ceiling on personal wealth have affected the country’s growing gold market as well.

People have started to withdraw their savings from different financial institutions and now begun to invest on gold. This has already led to the dramatic surge in gold demand in the market.

According to the leading gold traders, the overall domestic demand of gold has doubled in the last ten days and is likely to soar in the days to come, if the government fails to win confidence of the people.

"The average daily demand of gold in the domestic market has crossed 60 kg from 30 kg," said Tej Ratna Shakya, President of Nepal Gold Silver Traders’ Association (NGSTA).

He also informed that along with the rise in demand, the price has also soared by Rs 240 in recent days, despite a decline in the international market.

The domestic price of gold, which maintains a very sensitive relation with the international price, started rising on the third week of August, mainly due to the corresponding rise in the international market. The international price, which was US $ 265 per troy ounce on August 1 soared to US $ 280 on August 19.

However, unlike in the past, the domestic price continued to rise even after the international price started to decline after August 20 and touched Rs 7,200 per 10 gram Monday, one of the highest domestic price recorded in recent days.

Concerned traders say that the unnatural withdrawal of deposits from the financial institutions, prompted by the reports of possible imposition of ceiling on property, has triggered the demand for gold.

More than 500 million rupees have already been withdrawn from various financial institutions in the last ten days, but this is yet to be confirmed from the concerned authority.

"As there is no proper place to invest in, the cash withdrawn from financial institutions has been invested in buying gold," Shakya said. "This is the main reason behind this double-fold increase in the demand for raw gold."

Shuva Ratna Shakya, a gold wholesaler, also said that the demand for gold has skyrocketed in recent days. "Before the spread of news on the ceiling on property, consumers used to buy just 30-40 grams but now, people are buying at least 1 kg at a time," he said.

Another important factor for the price rise is gold supply constraint. As per the provision enforced in 2000, only the central bank is authorized to import and distribute gold.

However, since the price fixed by the bank is expensive than the price of the general market, consumers hardly go there to purchase raw gold and it can barely contribute to ease the supply constraint. The difference in the price fixed by the central bank and in the local market is as high as Rs 150 per 10 gram.

The only other remaining source of gold is the import of up to 10 kgs of gold by those staying in foreign countries for six months or more. "Since the inflow of such gold is limited, the market has not been able to meet the soaring demand," said the NGSTA President Shakya.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance (MoF)has denied reports that the land reforms announcement has resulted in excessive withdrawals from banks, in a press release issued here today.

"Statements available from the commercial banks do not prove that deposits have been withdrawn excessively," the release said. "In addition, the government has no plans to control foreign exchange rates or to put a ceiling on bank deposits or wealth."

Sources at the banks in the Capital, however, informed that depositors were apprehensive over the rumours relating to ceiling on wealth and deposits. "Inquiries kept flowing in the whole day," they said.

They claimed that even today the withdrawals exceeded the normal withdrawals. The government almost ten days back had frozen all land transactions until further notice.

Govt-ANWA truce forces models to sashay down the street

By Tashi Dolma Thinley

KATHMANDU, Aug 27 – The Nepalese models, who till now been walking on the ramp, might
soon gear up to walk out on the streets of Kathmandu for their professional rights.

Models are in deep soup at present. They are still whispering their problem with each other. And if the concerned sector does not take any action immediately, they will have to start talking loud.

The latest agreement between the government and Maoist-aligned All Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA) – Revolutionary has decided to ban fashion shows which has worried all the people involved in the fashion trade.

Jayan Subba of "The Ramp" is one of them who is really disappointed with the government decision. "While ban on nudity and vulgarism is acceptable to one and all, ban on one’s career like modeling just does not seem negotiable," says Subba, who is also a fashion journalist.

"If the ban is not withdrawn and no step is taken soon, all of us involved in modelling are ready to march on the streets in protest," said Subba.

ANWA’s demand comes at a time when Nepalese girls are coming out of the rigid social barriers and climbing the stairs of professionalism. Today, there are hundreds of girls in the modelling, hundreds more studying fashion designing, beautician courses and many of them are waiting to get modeling assignments.

Girendra Man Rajbanshi, managing director of Hidden Treasure, an event management company which organizes events like "Miss Nepal" among others, says, "Modeling is not only a profession but also an art and nobody has the right to poke their nose in others’ profession." Rajbanshi says that ANWA have to change their attitude and learn to acquaint themselves with time.

Beauty pageants and fashion shows, of late, has been the most attractive and lucrative business, catching attention from all sections of the society in Nepal. More and more people are getting into the fashion business and more and more designers are coming up, resulting in a great demand of models. But ANWA’s demand to ban fashion shows is targeted to women in the modelling.

Though the models are the only people coming in the limelight, many tend to forget that the models are the result of teamwork of designers, cameramen, choreographers, beauticians and many others. When the making of a model includes people from all kinds of profession, one fails to understand why the female models are victimised by their own counterparts.

Prashant Tamrakar, a famous model turned choreographer, says, "It all lies in the eye of the beholder, because even when it is a fashion show, people don’t go to check out the designer clothes, but to watch the models."

Today, Nepalese models earn as much as Rs 3000 per show and around Rs 10,000 for an ad film which is actually more than the male models. This makes them financially independent and socially secured. However, it is still a sour truth that most of the models are still untrained.

Prabhat Rimal of Vogue Advertising and Event Management says the ban is definitely unfair and meaningless. "The main thing we need to do is to develop professional models and then draw a line between professional modelling and exploitation of models," he adds.

One thing is clear that fashion shows should not be banned but the concerned sector should take appropriate measures to control the sector from going out of hand and maintain the respectability of the profession.

Lawmaker, among others, files ‘fake cases’ in Dang

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DANG, Aug 27 – Thousands of people in the Terai region, who normally rush to the land revenue office to buy and sell land everyday, are now busy filing cases against their own family members to save their land.

People began to file "fake cases" against their own parents seeking property rights as the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba announced on August 16 to freeze land sales and transfer of ownership.

Even political leaders and renowned personalities in the districts have resorted to this idea of filing these "fake cases."

One such example is in Dang itself where a host of local political leaders have filed "fake cases" in the court seeking property rights to save their land.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Gehendra Giri, Dang District Development Committee Chairman Tirtha Raj Sharma Chaitu, Chairman of Tribhuvan Municipality Development Committee Yagya Bahadur Budhathoki and central member of Nepal Women’s Association Anita Devkota are among the prominent people who have filed artificial complaints against their own family members, seeking property right.

Likewise, the wife and son of Dhundiraj Lamichhane, CPN UML leader and mayor of Tulsipur Municipality, have also filed a similar case in the court, demanding property from Lamichhane.

Other prominent persons to follow the same line are former minister and central committee member of the CPN-ML Mahesh Chaudhary and the party’s district committee secretary Bamdev Sharma.

A justice at the Appellate Court in Dipayal, Doti, Yam Narayan Dhital, a permanent resident of Duruwa VDC in Dang, has also registered an artificial case in the District Court against his brother Surendra demanding his share on the parental property.

The Dang district court judge Birendra Kumar Bataju even went to his home in Pokhara to settle the property right case, where his sons have filed a complaint against him.

People here are reaching mutual understanding among themselves to file cases for property rights at the District Court against their own family members.

People are taking this step, as the new law, which will be introduced in about a month, will not affect them even if it imposes the ceiling on land holding. Legal experts say the decisions taken in court, prior to the introduction of the new law, will be recognised as the existing law does not have any provision of annulment of such decisions taken in advance.

Record keeper Dinbandhu Baral said that more than 200 property rights-related cases have been registered at the district court since the land-ceiling announcement was made.

Out of the 200 complaints, 58 cases have already been settled by mutual understanding. This means, even the government-introduced new law will not restrict these people from holding more land than the imposed ceiling.

67 govt teachers tender collective resignation

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BHARATPUR, Chitwan, Aug 27 - The headmasters from 67 public schools of this district today tendered a collective resignation before the District Education Office (DEO) accusing the latter of not taking any steps regarding the threats of the Maoist aligned All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) - Revolutionary.

A meeting of the headmasters from all 75 schools that held here on Friday decided to submit their resignations collectively to the DEO over the nonchalant attitude of the office regarding the union’s pressures and other demands related with education.

District Chairman of the Nepal Teachers’ Association, Hariraj Poudel, said that all the headmasters affiliated with other teachers organisations also handed eight-point demands over to DEO chief Harishchanda Yadav.

Provision of office employees, sport teacher and supply of adequate number of teachers at a par with the number of students in all levels - primary, lower secondary and secondary - and improvement of physical facilities of the schools are the major demands submitted to the DEO chief.

Earlier, the teachers had warned the DEO against the mounting pressures of the students’ union, which was pressing them for the waiver of admission fee at the government run schools.

Teachers say that they cannot run daily administration of their schools without collecting a certain amount of fees from students, which the Maoist aligned students’ union does not allow them to do so.

DEO Chief Yadav admitted to the collective resignation of the teachers but added that it was only the Education Ministry that could take any decision regarding their resignation and demands. He said that the collective resignation was tendered to him in a bid to make the public school more effective.

Complete ban on liquor sales averted for now

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KATHMANDU, Aug 27 - With agreements reached between the government and All Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA) Revolutionary the sister organization of the underground CPN-Maoists, the complete ban on the sale of liquor has been avoided for now.

The government and ANWA(R) had finally arrived at an agreement last Saturday after six rounds of dialogue. The government team led by Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka and ANWA (R ) team led by its President Rekha Sharma had reached an agreement regarding liquor regulation and various other agenda. ANWA (R ) have said that their organization would be forced to proceed forward with various movements if the government fails to implement the agreements by the end of this month.

"We are working out to implement the agreed agenda," said Gopendra Bahadur Pandey, Spokesperson at the Home Ministry talking to The Kathmandu Post.

With the agreement reached between the two parties, the sale of liquor has been restricted only to license holders. "Only four liquor shops will be allowed to operate in each ward of Metropolis, three shops in each ward of Sub-Metropolis, one shop in each ward of the Municipality and two shops in each Village Development Committees (VDCs)," stated the agreement.

The agreement has also stated that no new industries would be provided license to produce liquor while the running liquor industries are required to transform themselves slowly into other industries.

However, there are also a set of other issues where agreement could not be reached between the two parties. There were set of 10 agenda where such agreements could not be reached.

No agreement could be reached regarding the annulment of the Public Security Regulations 2001 and the annulment of 1950 treaty with India and scientific demarcation of the boundary between the two countries.

ANWA (R ) had also demanded ban on beauty pageant, ban on import of foreign alcohol, and allocation of 40 percent seat for employing women in various government position and 40 percent seat reservation for women in various locally elected units.

The agreement reached between two also includes ban on liquor advertisement in Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines and public places.

There is also ban on gambling, and the alcohol consumption has been limited to people above 24 years of age while people below 21 will be restricted from selling alcohol with the agreement. "No liquor shops could be opened in such areas where the public are against such shops," stated the agreement.

As per the agreement the license holders would be allowed to sell alcohol only between 2 pm to 6 pm while its sale would be prohibited for four days a month – first two days and last two Saturdays of very Nepali calender months.

Other agreements, reached include not allowing cabin in restaurants, setting up womens’ colleges from the revenue collected from liquor industries, prohibiting drivers of the public transport to consume alcohol while driving, put a ban on the prostitution, ban on pornographic materials, ban on indecent uniform for the lady employees of restaurants.

Experts rap SAARC’s ineffectiveness

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KATHMANDU, Aug 27 – South Asian countries have failed to maintain the spirit of inception of the regional bloc in practice as the ties between its members are very fragile, foreign affairs experts said here Monday.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) has not progressed at all and the issues of the region have remained as they were before its establishment, they said during the Nepalese alumni meet of the Regional Center for Strategic Studies ( RCSS). RCSS is a Colombo-based research center looking after the issues of security, cooperative security and non-traditional threats to security in South Asian nations.

"SAARC, as an institution, has become almost defunct," said Professor Lokraj Baral, former Nepalese ambassador to India. "SAARC has not progressed at all as the number of Summits are decreasing and the issues of the region are yet to be addressed properly."

Foreign affairs expert Mohan Lohani said that SAARC has failed to make a visible impact on the people of the grassroots level, pointing out lack of implementation of commitments and declarations made in the last 10 Summits. He also underlined the need for serious commitment from all the member countries to consolidate the regional bloc. Professor Dhurba Kumar suggested an amendment in the SAARC Chapter, making it suitable for Nepalese economy while another expert Krishna Khanal was more pessimistic in saying that no substantial progress will come forward in the near future.

Pratyosh Onta of Martin Chautari said that people-to- people contact policy of SAARC Chapter was limited only to written words. He also underlined a need to encourage SAARC studies in the universities of the region.

Nischal Nath Pandey of the Institute of Foreign Affairs said that SAARC has become "no more than a summit-centric organization, habitually agreeing to disagree".

However, Ram Babu Dhakal, a senior officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the SAARC process succeeded to develop "a clear regional identity". He also presented a paper on "SARRC: Aftermath of Agra Summit."

Case against PSR-2001 to be presented before special bench

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KATHMANDU, Aug 27 - The Supreme Court today ordered to present with "preference right" the case relaing to the Public Security Regulations (PSR), 2001 before a special bench on October 4.

The order was passed by a special bench comprising Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyay, Justices Laxman Prasad Aryal, Kedar Nath Upadhyay, Krishna Jung Rayamajhi and Govinda Bahadur Shrestha.

Seperate seven writ petitions were filed at the Supreme Court two months ago by lawyers, student leader and organizations like Nepal Janjati Maha Sangh, Kirat Yakthung Chumlung, among others, demanding annulment of some of the Sub-rules of the Regulations, which they claim are against the constitution and Public Security Act itself.

Delivering the order Chief Justice Upadhyay said as all respondents have filed written statements, the interim order was not to be issued.

The Public Security Regulations was formulated on May 21 and published in the Nepal Gazette on June 18, and the government officials claim that it is in accordance with the clause 14 of the Public Security Act- 2046.

On June 25, the Court had issued a show cause notice. The writ petitions had stated His Majesty’s Government, Council of Minister, Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and others as respondents.

Manakamana Darshan deplores VDC action

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KATHMANDU, Aug 27 – Manakamana Darshan Pvt Ltd (MD), Nepal’s only cable car company, today condemned the activities of local Manakamana Village Development Committee, Gorkha, for demanding illegal donations, misbehaving and damaging the property of the company.

The Rs 500-million-company, that links Cheres of Chitwan district with the widely worshiped Hindu temple of Manakamana of Gorkha district, stopped its service Sunday following the attack in the office by a group led by the local Village Development Committee Chairman, Ram Kumar Joshi.

Talking to the reporters Monday, Chairman of MD, Laxman Babu Shrestha, said the locals of the Manakamana VDC harassed the company since the establishment of car service and the latest result of it was that the company ultimately decided to close the service at the cost of daily loss Rs 150,000.

He said, "We stopped operation of the cable car as the VDC chairman and his men attacked the office, insulted the staff and raised hurdles in the station, because we refused to fulfil his illegal and unreasonable demands on Friday's meeting."

He charged the VDC Chairman that he and his followers, mainly from around 40 houses around the temple, were worse than the Maoist insurgents for extorting money with rude behaviour.

Managing Director of MD Rajesh Babu Shrestha said the company paid the chairman of Manakamana VDC Rs 500,000 annually in addition to the local taxes.

He also said that the VDC Chairman wanted to hold the right to provide facility cards to the villagers on using the cable cars, which he extensively misused. The locals were provided with facility cards that will allow them buy tickets at 80 per cent discount.

MD Shrestha, who was born in Gorkha, said it has become too difficult to operate service-oriented industries in the village for the villagers were not satisfied even when he planned to develop Manakamana village as a model and independent village. A master-plan was developed by planners from Holland that would promote chicken farming, goat farming, flower farming and souvenir industries in the remote hill.

The same company had plan to develop similar cable car service in another hilly shrine of west Nepal but this incident has discouraged to ahead with the plan. "Now I can’t even imagine of investing money in villages of Nepal," he said.