Meet Adhikari, 65, first year Bachelor’s student

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU – Sada Raj Adhikari is of 65 years old, but that doesn’t stop him from attending the same college that his grandchild goes to.

He is old and still is a bundle of energy. Most of his life he has been fascinated by the English language, and so recently the grandfather to twelve enrolled as a Bachelor’s student in English Literature at Ratna Rajya Laxmi College.

When this reporter asked him the reason for joining up at such a late age, this is what Adhikari had to say: "I don’t mind learning along with students more than half of my age. My ultimate goal is to get a Ph D in English literature. I also want to translate the four Vedas into English."

Adhikari has also been a social worker and politician.

Adhikari is still not fluent in English, but thinks finally he will make it as a good translator. "There are lots of Nepali translations of the Western philosophy, so I have to translate the Eastern philosophy into English."

Adhikari began his student life late. At 32, he gave the SLC (School Leaving Certificate) exam, and at 39 he finished with his Intermediate. All along, he was sharing the classroom benches with students young enough to be his children. Now at 65, 26 years after the Intermediate degree, Adhikari is sharing benches with students young enough to be his grandchildren.

"I have always been studying with juniors," says Adhikari. "Though I started with my studies very late, I have always received encouragement from my friends some of whom have now retired from their government jobs."

The love for education is in Adhikari’s genes. He is the grandchild of Bala Guru Shadananda, the first man to open a private school in Nepal. The school at Dingla was called Sadananda Sanskrit Secondary School, which now goes under the name of Dingla Sanskrit Pathshala.

But Adhikari is not too pleased with the environment at his new college. "The classroom is so packed that some students even have to stand up throughout a period. It indeed is very hard to catch what the teacher is teaching," says Adhikari.

Adhikari finds himself weak in English vocabulary and grammar. He says while reading he can understand the meaning but he finds it difficult to explain in his own language. "It would be very easy for me if a tutor guides me in my studies," he says.

But his family has been supportive and not dismissive at all that he is pursuing studies at such a late age. His daughter-in-law, Nirmala Adhikari, is proud of him. She says, "My father has to complete an MA in English literature, then he will be an example of how age is no bar to become a student."

Adhikari lives with his two sons, Purna Chandra Adhikari, DSP, and Narayan Adhikari, businessman.

As we parted, these were his final words: "The only thing left for me is to do or die."

Advocates urged to work for justice

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 22- A one-day interaction programme on Law Practitioners: Challenges and Solutions was held in the Capital on Saturday on the occasion of the 8th Bar Day.

Inaugurating the function, Narendra Bikram Nemwang, Minister for Law and Justice pointed out the responsibilities and duties of the Judiciary system, saying that legal professionals play a vital role in providing justice to the public.

Speaking on the occasion, Supreme Court Justice Laxman Prasad Aryal underlined the need to make the images of advocates pure and free of scandal. "Against the general feeling of the public that law practitioners accept bribe or any other illegal gifts, the efforts should be concentrated on making the people feel that the advocates work only for justice," said Aryal.

In the programme organised by Bar units of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts, Subash Chandra Nembang, Chairman of Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament and Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, President of Nepal Bar Association also spoke, among others.

New house address system complete in central sector

Post Report

Kathmandu, Dec 22 - Kathmandu Metropolitan City has completed giving house numbers according to the metric system to the residents of the Central Sector recently.

"After completing the task in the central sector, we feel we have come to a conclusion that this system of giving address according to the metric system is successful in our context," said Dwarika Shrestha, an engineer at the Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme, Friday.

He said though the scheduled house-address task completed nearly a month ago, some houses were left because the technicians could not find the house owners at the time.

"We gave them December 20 as the last date to contact the KVMP to have it done now. After this, we will hand over the responsibility of completing the job to a team of the Urban Development Department of KMC," he said.

In the meantime, different teams are working separately in other sectors to carry on house numbers and prepare street names.

In the eastern sector, 90 percent of the house survey and naming of the street have been completed.

‘And pasting house-number plates will start after a month,’
he said.

The board has approved the street names of Ward Nos. 6, 10, 34 and 35. And street names from Ward Nos. 7 and 9 have been received.

‘We will work in Ward Nos. 10, 34 and 35 in the first phase and 6,7,8 and 9 in the second phase,’ Shrestha said.

Similarly, the officials at the KVMP said the survey is being done in the core city also but the surveyors have found some complictions while finding out street names. Only ward No. 12 has completed half of its task whereas ward Nos. 17, 25 and 28 are yet to collect street names.

In the northern sector, only ward No. 2 has submitted street names whereas ward Nos. 3,4,16 and 29 are yet to send the street names.

‘In the western sector, street segmentation work is going on for street naming,’ said Shrestha.

In the last one year or so, KMC has distributed house numbers to 8,010 houses and given names to 812 streets by the last week.

‘Many goods are not included in customs' price list’

Bhaskar Sharma

It is common knowledge that most Nepalis, especially the ones who live in towns bordering India, would prefer to cross over to the other side for shopping. And that holds true not just for the fast-moving consumer goods like soap, toothpaste, facial cream, and the like, but even the more expensive items like television, portable food processors and fridge. As such, under-invoicing at the customs points with a view to evading customs duty or to minimise the customs liability is a common practice. And people from almost all walks of life do that for sure. I had such an experience in Biratnagar recently.

The month of Mangshir is the month of lagan (auspicious for any important occasion, especially marriages). I took a week’s leave from my daily chores in the office in the first week of December to attend my cousin sister’s marriage and my cousin brother’s engagement in Biratnagar. And just like any other Nepali, my brother and me decided to purchase gifts for my sister from the neighbouring Jogbani, India. We went early that morning, which was the day before the marriage of my sister, and finally after a lot of haggling and searching, decided to buy a portable food processor (mixer and blender). The salesman assured us that crossing the gift over to Nepal would involve no problems. "Just tell the customs officers," he said, "it is only a gift." But things did not turn out that easy.

We had parked our car inside the Biratnagar ICD (Inland Container Depot) premises that lie between the Nepali and the Indian checkpoints. We put the gift in the back seat and started our way back to Biratnagar. Well, the customs officials stopped us.

We told the officials that it was a simple inexpensive gift, but they did not let us go. At first I felt irritated, for, I saw some people carrying other stuff through the checkpoint without being bothered. And I could tell by their smiles that they knew the officials on duty well enough. Despite feeling annoyed, I thought: "I should pay the duties at least." This struck me more forcefully because I have been reporting on economic issues for the past two years and a half. I knew that as drops of water form an ocean, the aggregate loss to the government coffer through customs evasion would similarly run into millions. So to clear my conscience I promptly went into the office with the packed gift to clear the duties.

The first question the officer asked was: "What is it?" I answered: "A gift for my sister. It is a portable food processor." The next question: "How much did it cost?" Then I got back to square one, ditching my conscience, and said, "NRs 1500." Actually, I had paid NRs 2400. The officer did not even bother to glance at the gift. He merely flipped through a book of price list and declared loudly: "That would cost Rs 8000." That was shocking. I insisted: "But I paid only Rs 1500 for that." Then he flipped through a few more pages, gave me a blank look, pointed his finger at a line, and said: "Ok then, then you pay the duties on Rs 850." That was even more surprising.

I could not hold back my curiosity and I asked the customs official as to why he is charging the customs duties, Value Added Tax (VAT) and some other extra duty on Rs 850, instead of Rs 1500. He gave me a simple reason. He showed me his huge price list momentarily and said: "The problem lies in here." However, he did not explain to me what the problem exactly was (Now I intend to find that out from the Customs Department in Kathmandu). But what I understood was that the long price list did not contain the price of the gift that I had purchased. And when I asked the official if that was so, he merely said: "There are so many goods whose price this book does not cover."

That was an interesting revelation, for, I had always in my stories pressed upon the need for an updated and a comprehensive price list to ensure effective revenue mobilisation for the resource-starved government. If this is
how work at the customs offices around the country is done, perhaps the government will never achieve its revenue targets. Under-invoicing of goods by people (unfortunately including myself), customs officials’ favours to people they know, and an inept price list, need to all change for the better.

One policeman killed, several Maoists detained

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 22 – Security personnels have intensified their efforts to quell the Maoists all over the kingdom. In a confrontation between police and Maoist a Police personnel was
died in Bardia and several Maoist cadres were detained all over the kingdom.

An unidentified gunman shot a police constable dead at the local Mainapokhari Chowk of Bardiya on Saturday morning, police at the Mainapokhari police post said.

Twenty-seven-year old constable Deep Naresh Chaudhari died on the spot, according to Police Inspector at the police post Tirtha Raj Sigdel. The culprit who is at large is believed to be a Maoist. The culprit who came to a local shop in guise of a buyer where the deceased was busy in gossip.

Our reporter from Dhanusa states that security forces deployed in district have arrested 12 Maoists and confiscated a large amount of arms and ammunition from Chisapani VDC.

At least ninety Maoists surrendered to the local administration office at Birgunj since the declaration of emergency on November 26, according to the local administration office.

According to police at Birgunj, the top Maoist leaders of the district have fled underground to India. According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Arjun Junga Shahi, the police has been failing to arrest top Maoist leaders because they have gone underground in India.

The office also has decided to detain seven people, who have been arrested on charge of being involved in terrorist activities in the district a few days ago. The people are reported to be top Maoist leaders of the district.

Six Maoists from Diding VDC of Sankhuwasava Saturday surrendered to the local administration office with weapons, said a report from Sankhuwasava quoting the Chief District Officer at the district.

Similarly, the local administration at Rautahat has decided to impose imprisonment to seven people who were arrested on charge of possessing weapons, according to a report received from Rautahat.

According to our reporter at Gulmi, Maoists on Friday night attacked district council member of CPN-UML and a member of the party.

District Council Member Kul Bahadur Gharti sustained serious injuries when a group of Maoists reported to be about 50 in number broke into his house and injured him seriously. On the same night the Maoists badly beat CPN-UML cadre Ram Bahadur Dega Magar. Magar is reported to have sustained injuries in right hand and ribs.

Both the injured have been flown to Kathmandu in a helicopter today for treatment.

According to para-military stationed at Jhulaghat boarder, they are asking every individual entering India via the boarder and have been noting down the names and addresses of those suspected and conveying the same to the Nepalese police.

The police officials at the boarder also informed that they have done their best to prevent any Maoists trying to enter into India .

Maoists on Thursday night damaged an empty police post at Patan Jagar of Baitadi, 40 kilometres away from the district headquarters. The Maoists also looted the government offices and individuals in the district on the same night.

According to security sources here, the Maoists beat former District Development Committee chairman Bishnu Datta Joshi and his brother and took away a fax machine and telephone set from the house of Joshi. The Maoists cut the electricity line and telephone line of the house before the attack.

The Maoists also looted equipment of Division of Road Department and papers from Agriculture Development Bank on the same night.

Likewise, the Maoists also looted drapers from the shop of Jaya Raj Joshi, a local draper.

Owners demolish own huts in Dang

Post Report

DANG, Dec 22- The owners themselves demolished today 65 houses and sheds constructed illegally along the highway fllowing a public notic issued by the Road Divison Office in mid-western Nepal.

Officiating Division Chief, Chet Narayan Yadav said that the private structures built within 25 metres from the centre of the highway would be demolished to reduce road accidents.

Yadav revealed that there were more than 100 temporary sheds built on both sides of the East-West highway from Dhankhola in the east to Shivakhola in the west. Police said that this is the most accident -prone area in Dang district.