Untreated effluent being discharged into Phewa lake, one of the most beautiful lakes of Pokhara city, threating its aquatic life.

Deuba camp declines Cabinet posts

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 – Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s bid to reshuffle the cabinet to reconcile the inner party differences received a shock today after Deuba camp refused to join the cabinet.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Chiranjivi Wagle, former minister and influential leader of the camp said " We are not participating in the government to protest Koirala’s failure in keeping his promises made in the past... and to protest the irregularities surrounding the election of the general convention representatives."

He also said that it was morally uncomfortable for the camp to join the government unless the Lauda Air controversy was resolved.

The minority camp had earlier filed a no trust proposal against Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala in the NC Parliamentary Party protesting against government’s alleged involvement in the Lauda Air scam among others.

Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, the state-owned national flag carrier, had leased a jetliner from Australian Company violating the Parliamentary Account Committee’s ruling.

The minority camp has claimed that at least 30 lawmakers from the camp have said that they do not want to join the government under Koirala’s leadership. At least 43 out of 113 NC lawmakers in the lower house of parliament support Deuba as the NC parliamentary leader.

Prime Minister Koirala, who was expected to reshuffle his cabinet today, had asked the Deuba camp to furnish the list of the lawmakers to be inducted into the cabinet by 1 p.m. today. The camp furnished no such list. Instead, they said that they would not join the government.

But the camp has said that they would not go against anyone from the camp, who wishes to join the government on individual basis.

Though reshuffle of the government was one of the major demands of the rebel camp led by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, the camp seems to have changed its strategy. Insiders, however, say that the camp is unlikely to join hands with the opposition parties in the parliament to pull down the 11-month old Koirala government.

Nonetheless it will be an embarrassing situation for Koirala since the opposition parties are likely to demand Koirala’s resignation collectively in the upcoming parliamentary session slated to begin on February 8. The parliamentary party meeting of the main opposition, Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), held Tuesday decided to demand Koirala’s resignation in the upcoming parliamentary session. Rastriya Prajatantra Party, the third largest party in the House of Representative, the lower house of parliament, has also publicly said that it favours Prime Ministers ouster.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister and President of the ruling Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala has nominated former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Bahudev Risal to the post of the party’s Central Working Committee member.

PM opens World Buddhist meet

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LUMBINI, Feb 1- The second World Buddhist Conference got underway here today. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, inaugurated the conference participated by representatives from l4 countries.

The conference with theme "Lumbini in the New Millennium: Youth and Community" mainly aims to mobilise participation of youths in the overall development of Lumbini. The conference also plans among others to discuss co-operation for the completion of the Lumbini master plan, furnish information about the present state of renovation at the Mayadevi temple and discuss with the representatives of the conference about building an International Buddhist University.

The inauguration program included different Buddhist religious performances, a peace march and Panchaseel prayer. The participants also went around the Mayadevi Temple prior to the inauguration of the conference.

A message from the King wishing the conference a success was read out during the inauguration program.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, addressing the conference said that the development process of the Lumbini region would not progress unless a program directly benefiting the places surrounding Lumbini was not introduced.

Koirala announced a "special development package" for the areas surrounding Lumbini. He said the National Planning Commission has been directed to work out project(s) for the development of the areas.

The Prime Minister also announced that initial agreement has already been executed with a "foreign nation" on building an international airport at Lumbini. He also said that the construction of second International Airport here will help develop Lumbini as well as promote the tourism sector.

Koirala also pointed out that the Lumbini master plan is proceeding at a very slow pace and urged various countries to divide the master plan into sections and work on its proper implementation.

Telephone calls likely to cost more

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Feb 1 - The Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the state-owned monopoly telecommunications service, is likely to raise telephone tariff "any time soon."

Raghubar Lal Shrestha, General Manager at NTC said, "We have submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Information and Communications and the tariffs may be raised any time soon".

Shrestha informed that NTC has proposed four alternatives regarding the local tariff rebalancing. Either of the alternatives could be endorsed but the rental rate will certainly rise.

However, he declined to specify the range of hike saying, "it would be premature, as there are alternatives to be considered."

Justifying the rationale behind the proposed hike, he said, "We are forced to rebalance tariffs as the return from the basic telephone service is very low compared to the investment made in it."

"The sharp decline in the income from international calls, which accounts 60 per cent of the total income of NTC has also forced us to take this unpopular decision", he said.

He also revealed that The World Bank had suggested 10 years ago to fixing the minimum local rate at Rs 343 per month. The minimum per month rate at present stands at Rs 181.

GM Shrestha admitted that the NTC is mulling over offering different packages to cell phone customers after solving the billing problem of cellular mobile phone. But denied tariff reduction in near future. "We will reduce the tariff of cell phone calls only when we have 15,000 to 20,000 customers", said GM Shrestha.

NTC plans to distribute 10,000 new mobile phone connections within the next three or four months. It has distributed 10,400 mobile phone connections so far.

Meanwhile, the NTC management has said that it has been working hard to solve the billing problem of cellular mobile phones. The billing problem has stalled the distribution of bill and mobile phones since last couple of weeks.

Madan Kaji Shakya, Director at the New Services Directorate, NTC Pulchowk, said, "We are trying our best to solve the billing problem working night and day. Technicians from SEMA Company have been working on it and there has been some improvement".

Customers’ bills will be generated and distributed immediately after the system is restored, he said. He also emphasized that calls are being recorded and that the problem is only with the billing system. He also said that NTC will resume cell phone distribution after they increase the traffic channels in the New Road area and base stations in Kathmandu within a couple of months.

There are 17 base stations in Kathmandu and 21 traffic channels in the New Road area. They plan to increase the number of base stations to 24 and traffic channels to 56.

Shrestha APF chief

KATHMANDU, Feb 1 (PR) – The Cabinet on Thursday decided to appoint Additional Inspector General of Police Krishna Mohan Shrestha as the chief of the newly-formed Armed Police Force (APF), a para-military unit formed mainly to contain the Maoists insurgency.

APF was formed on January 22 through Royal Ordinance. DIGP Shrestha will be given an official letter on Friday. Another DIGP, Ram Kaji Bantawa was also a contender for the post.

For the time being, APF will use National Police Training Academy at Maharajgunj in Kathmandu as its headquarters. To begin with some 3,500 police officers and constables equipped with modern weapons will be inducted in APF.

‘Positive steps towards treaty review’

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 - On his return in the capital today after holding talks in New Delhi, India on reviewing the more than five decade old Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty, Foreign Secretary Narayan Shumsher Thapa today claimed that a "positive step" has begun on the matter.

"India is now open-minded and supportive towards the idea of reviewing the 1950 Treaty as agreed earlier between the Prime Ministers of the two countries," Thapa told reporters after arriving at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

"There are few things raised by each other that needs to be consulted with the political leadership of respective countries," Thapa added. However, he did not disclose the specific of the points that were raised by both the countries.

Thapa also said that India agreed on holding regular to and fro secretary-level consultations between the two countries, without any time bound formalities. "It is very vital and necessary," Thapa said.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries met for the first time since last July, when Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala visited India. It was then decided that the foreign secretaries would meet within the next six months.

According to Secretary Thapa, his Indian counterparts did not have any information when Nepal raised its concerns over Indian Defence Minister’s remarks to deploy army along the Nepal-India border. But they have agreed to inform Nepal when they do so, he said.

On facilitating trade and transit, India has also said that they will complete work "as soon as possible" on providing railway facility to Inland Container Depot in Birgunj, Thapa said.

Thapa also said that the two countries have agreed to carry out the agreements made during PM Koirala’s visit to India over the controversial Kalapani issue.

In a joint statement issued after Koirala’s visit, Nepal and India had directed the Joint Technical-Level Boundary Committee to expeditiously complete its examination, including on the Kalapani area. The Committee is to complete its fieldwork by 2001-2002, and the final strip maps are to be prepared by 2003.

MoF coaxes NEA to review PPA

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 – The Ministry of Finance is working hard to persuade the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to agree to a new Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) with Butwal Power Company (BPC).

The NEA board meeting scheduled for next week is likely to take a crucial decision on the issue. Though NEA is reluctant to sign a new PPA, the ministry "is determined to see it happen" before the deadline for filing tender for BPC’s privatization expires, said a highly placed government official.

The ministry has already extended the tender deadline, for a frustrating fourth time, to February 14. The earlier 3rd deadline expired yesterday.

The ministry is working frantically to see its second attempt to privatize the first-ever power plant succeed. It’s first endeavor to privatize the 30-megawatt BPC ended in controversy last March after the Independent Power Corporation (IPC)/PLC, one of the two contesting parties, withdrew from the race accusing the government of illegally favouring its rival.

However, it is not only the unit price of power that NEA buys from BPC the state-owned monopoly will have to decide upon in its next board meeting. The ministry is also trying to cajole the Ministry of Water Resources to direct NEA to agree to buy power from BPC on "take or pay" basis. Under the current PPA, NEA can accept or reject to buy power from BPC. However, under the "take or pay" principle NEA will be obliged to buy all the power that BPC produces.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Bishnu Bam Malla, Executive Director of NEA, conceded that the Ministry of Finance has requested NEA in writing to sign new a PPA with BPC. However, he denied that the forthcoming board meeting would take a decision on this issue.

He also refused to comment on whether NEA would agree to increase the per unit price of power offered to BPC and accept to buy power on a "take or pay" principle. However, he said since BPC and NEA are both still government undertaking, NEA would cooperate with the government in implementing its decision.

Insiders say it will be difficult for NEA to decide either way. NEA is soon to become power surplus in near future and it will not be in its interest to accept the "take or pay" principle. Further, it also wants to stick to the present Rs 2.95 per unit price of power offered to BPC or increase it nominally, if at all. But the Finance Ministry is pointing to over Rs 4.5 per unit price that NEA is currently paying to private power developers in the Khimti and Bhotekoshi power projects.

The Finance Ministry wants the per unit price of power to go up and the "take or pay" principle to be endorsed so that prospective bidders for BPC privatization would quote higher prices. Last time when BPC’s privatization attempt failed, bidders had offered as high as Rs 830 million for a 75 per cent share in BPC. Officials are expecting at least three major bidders this time. This privatization offer is the largest and most lucrative of its kind to date. The Independent Power Corporation/PLC, the British/American power developer, Interkraft, the Norwegian power company and Pacific Hydro, the Australian power developer are likely to compete to win BPC. Choudhary Group, Jyoti Group and ICTC groups are the local partners of the British/American, Norwegian and Australian power developers.

Meanwhile, DFID, the British international development agency, which had earlier threatened to withdraw from privatization project, has agreed to extend its support until the end of April. A team from the DFID headquarters will visit Kathmandu before the end of March to review the whole privatization process. "Its future support will depend upon the review," said the official. DFID is likely to renew its privatization project for a longer term, possibly for over five years, he said.

RPP demands extension of election court tenure

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KATHMANDU, Feb 1 - The delegation team of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) today met the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and demanded for the extension of the time for the functioning of the special election court.

The delegation team led by RPP President Surya Bahadur Thapa handed over a letter to the Prime Minister stating that the government should extend the date for the special election court to look after all the filed cases.

The special election court was formed after the last general election held nearly two years ago to look after cases relating to election discrepancies. The court was initially established in different districts for a period of one year.

However the court’s functioning in many districts were extended twice, for a period of three months each, as the cases were still pending.

But the government has not extended the time for quite some time now leaving many cases pending in these courts.

The Supreme Court, about two months ago, did not issue an interim order in response to a writ petition seeking the cancellation of the special election court.

"The Prime Minister himself should take an initiative to extend the duration of the special court," states the letter handed to the Prime Minister.

‘Govt holding talks with Maoists internally’

KATHMANDU, Feb 1 (PR)– The government has been holding secret talks with the underground Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) through its "internal channels" and the work is progressing on this front, said the ruling party spokesperson Narhari Acharya on Thursday.

"Both the NC and the government are open for talks with the rebels," said Acharya of the Nepali Congress. However, he said that since the opinion of political parties and intellectuals on Maoists varied from time to time, it had come in the way of the government to hold talks with the rebels.

Acharya also staunchly defended the government’s move of using security forces against the rebels. "If the Maoists can kill and maim people, the government has no option but to reply in kind."

However, the leader of the opposition and General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) Madhav Kumar Nepal reiterated that the government should treat the Maoist problem as a political one and desist from using force. Nepal also accused the government of not being interested in holding talks with Maoist rebels. "Vested interests in the government and the ruling party do not want to resolve the problem, which has become a means to earn huge amount of money," said Nepal.

The opposition leader said that the situation in the nation has deteriorated so much that another revolution, like the People’s Movement of 1990, might be necessary to protect the achievements of the 90’s movement.

The two leaders were speaking at the concluding day of two-day national workshop on Thursday "Peace and Governance – a cry for peace" organised by South Asia Partnership-Nepal. Altogether four papers – on human rights, socio-cultural, political and media perspectives - were presented and a comprehensive discussion was held on each of them by the experts from the concerned fields.

Other speakers at the programme also stressed on talks to resolve the Maoist problem. Some of them termed both the government and the rebels violent.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Kathmandu Post, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN-UML, said that the opposition parties would present their memorandum asking for the Prime Minister’s resignation before the 19th session of parliament commences next Thursday. Khanal said that his party has also held discussions with the group of Four Left parties today on the issue. The party General Secretary Nepal said discussions were also held with Rastriya Prajatantra Party.