PAC to review financial laws

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KATHMANDU, Feb 14 - The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has begun to review the financial laws that conflict with the clauses in the Constitution and has formed a sub-committee to look into the matter.

Under the coordinatorship of Ramesh Lekhak, Birodh Khatiwada and Gokarna Bista as members, this sub-committee has been given the task of reporting back with all the conflicting laws within the next 10 days.

According to PAC, the Auditor General’s recent report has pointed out that there are many laws like the Fiscal Management Act of 2055 BS that conflict with the clauses of the Constitution that was drafted in 1990 after democracy was restored in the country.

And the Financial Management Regulations enforced last year also conflicts the Fiscal Management Act making it difficult for the financial procedure in the functioning of the government.

PAC today discussed the matter with the Attorney General

Badri Bahadur Karki, Secretaries at the Ministries of Law and Justice and Ministry of Finance, Financial Comptroller Bhanu Prasad Acharya and the Auditor General Bishnu Bahadur KC who gave their suggestions on the matter.

Besides PAC, the invitees also said that these conflicting laws need to be rectified with initiative from PAC and help from the Finance Committee and even the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Committees.

The annual report of the Auditor General says that since

the Fiscal Management Act was drafted at least eight years after the Constitution was drafted, it had made the financial procedure for the government offices difficult and at times even chaotic.

The Constitution says that the government or the Finance Ministry cannot control the spendings of the Constitituional bodies. However, the newer laws say that even the expenses of these bodies will be controlled by the ministry.

PAC is hoping to change these provisions that are directly conflict with the spirit of the Constitution.

Maoists claim control over remote hill VDCs

By Krishna Bhandari

CHITWAN, Feb 14 - The Maoists have claimed Sunday that their party had already established control over the nine north-eastern remote hill VDCs of the district.

The district-level Maoist leaders made this announcement at a function, organised at ward No-3 of the remote hill Kaule VDC, marking the 5th anniversary of the insurrection.

Addressing the function, the party’s Acting District Secretary, Comrade Prajwal, said that the party had converted the nine VDCs into a Maoist guerrilla area.

He claimed that his party enjoyed "widespread local support" as the government’s development endeavours and other activities were almost non-existent in the area.

The function was declared opened, followed by five rounds of fire into the air, in the presence of invited reporters.

Siddhi, Lothar, Korak, Chandi Bhanjyang, Kaule, Dahkhani, Darechowk, Kabilas and Shaktikhor are the hill VDCs claimed by the rebels as their guerilla-based area.

The area has remained a safe heaven for the insurgents since they launched the violent ‘People’s War’ five years ago. This is the first time that Maoists have publicly declared the area under their control.

A Maoist source said that they were going to carry out development works in the area via their own Joint People’s Committee, a parallel Maoist body of the District Development Committee.

At the function, Maoist Chief Military In-charge, Sangram Singh, shed light on the people-based armed organisation in the district.

Talking to selected reporters, Maoist leader Prajwal said that nobody would be allowed to carry out any development works in the area except by their Joint People’s Committee. He, however, claimed that his party would not interfere with people’s freedom of expression.

The VDCs are inhabited by the ethnic communities such as the Gurungs, the Magars and the Prajas.

Over-vigorous exercise of democratic freedom Hills & Plains

By Surendra Phuyal

Who says Nepal’s democratic polity is still in its infancy phase? In fact, democracy appears to have grown even more handsome or pretty than the young boys and girls celebrating Valentine’s Day on the Kathmandu streets Wednesday. With red roses, chocolate-covered candy hearts and Valentine’s cards in hands, it seemed as if they had forgotten the rest of the world, literally.

Well, that was the tale of those Kathmandu Romeos and Juliets or Muna-Madans, who were and will be walking down the streets of Durbar Marg, Thamel and New Road, clasping each other’s hands. But, as yet another Democracy Day (Falgun 7, February 18) draws nearer, it’s high time we started reviewing, albeit casually, Nepal’s nearly 11-year-old democracy.

If the freedom being enjoyed by the people is any thing to go by, we have already made, and are in the process of making, a giant leap. The just-concluded (last month’s) Pokhara convention of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) party demonstrated this by adopting the democratic tradition of electing Central Working Committee (CWC) members, among other things. Thanks to the reform, from now on, not all the apex body members will be hand-picked by the party president.

Though late, a noble trend has started. So noble and democratic is the step that other democratic and undemocratic parties and organizations alike have begun to follow suit. While left parties like the CPN-UML are already in the democratization process, it is to be hoped that parties like CPN-ML—and CPN(M)—will also embrace democratization as a major reform tool.

The opposition parties are not only exercising the freedoms at the grassroot level but also in the parliament, the country’s legislative body. They are so rigidly hounding the 70-plus prime minister to resign, as if resignation is the only solution to the innumerable challenges and problems bedevilling the country.

That democratization is an "in thing" in Nepal becomes clear also from the fact that the government stayed mum last month when thousands of anti-Hrithik demonstrators rampaged across the country. Leave alone the five-year-old Maoist insurgency that has claimed the lives of over 1,500 people. It is mainly because of democracy that the Maoists too appear to be vigorously exercising democratic freedoms.

They are snatching 3-0-3 rifles from the police and using the same in killing the latter, they are bombing suspension bridges and buildings. This week a socket bomb, reportedly left behind by the insurgents, killed two minors in Accham and injured several others. They also forced the people living in and around their base areas into celebrating Dashain by putting tika and jamaras on their anniversary day (Falgun 1 or February 12).

And, in the mid- and far-western Terai, the game of hide-and-seek between the local authorities and the former bonded labourers is continuing to gain momentum. Backed by a number of national and international NGOs, the ex-Kamaiyas who were declared free last year, are occupying un-designated land and forests, the police in turn are chasing them out from these places and even burning their huts, adding insult to their injuries.

In the streets of Kathmandu, even the dilapidated and smoke-belching buses and trucks have begun to rally through the thoroughfares, causing impenetrable traffic bottlenecks, and exacerbating the level of air and noise pollution. What is more annoying or surprising is the fact that these ready-to-scrap vehicles seem absolutely proud to carry a black flag on the front of their hoods. Isn’t this the height of liberty that an organization or an individual gets to exercise in a democracy?

This week the only metropolis of the country saw indefinite strikes staged by the transport entrepreneurs who are demanding reversal of a recent government decision, among other things. The agitation threat received mileage after the main opposition party suddenly jumped onto the scene and declared the government decision to ban vehicles over 20-years-old from the Kathmandu streets an impractical one.

Sounds ridiculous, but there is already a row over cooking-gas-run vehicles that are consuming the bulk of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) imported into the country to fulfil the country’s cooking gas demands. Thanks again to the far-sighted government decision that "unceremoniously ousted" the little diesel-run three wheelers popularly known as Vikram tempos.

Another row is brewing over a multi-storey building project, reportedly promoted by the Kathmandu Municipal Corporation (KMC). The problem is that the building is being raised on an archaeologically important spot, which ensures a perennial flow of water from the Sundhara waterspout. As long as the freedom is there, it seems the KMC will not care about archaeology, heritage, history and other such things.

To such an extent is democratic freedom being enjoyed that the municipal authorities don’t even need to take into account the fact that the multi-storey building is being erected on an archaeologically important site. And leave alone the harsh reality that Kathmandu is equally, if not more, vulnerable to quakes of the intensity that devastated the Indian state of Gujarat recently.

Examples are many and the list is longer than one expects. But the bottom line is: the city is expecting more examples of such hyper-democratic freedom exercises in the days, weeks and months to come, especially with the mercury gradually rising to welcome the hot and humid summer.

Jail Bahadur deprived of education opportunity

By Khagendra Bhandari

BHOJPUR, Feb 14 - Eventually, ‘Jail Bahadur’ was denied the opportunity to schooling and forced to remain within the four walls of the jail as a frustrated child. His dream of preparing for a bright future was shattered.

The responsibility of giving him permission to study was shifted between different government units, but none of them made the decision and he suffers as a result.

"The crime was committed by us, not by this poor fellow. He has been paying with his life itself, for sins committed by us," his mother, Chakra Kumari, said.

Chakra Kumari, who has been serving a murder sentence is very sad that her son, Jit Hang Rai nicknamed as ‘Jail Bahadur’ (because he was born in jail as a result of love between Chakra Kumari and another prisoner, Bharja Man Rai iniside jail) has not been given the opportunity to study.

Director General of the Department of Prison Management, Dharma Raj Dhungana, had given permission to send him to school after completing the legal formality. However, due to the negligence of Section Officer, Shambhu Ghimire, Proprietor of the Nepal Child Welfare Foundation in Siddharthanagar, Khem Thapa, who had come to take the child to his school left without the child after a wait of three or four days.

"Until now, the Department has never obstructed children of inmates from studying when we had expressed our willingness to teach them in the past, but I don’t know why this helpless child has been denied this opportunity," he told The Kathmandu Post.

After a long delay, the Department entrusted the District Administration with the task of making the necessary decision in this case taking into consideration various factors like security and the future of the child. The then Chief District Officer Deshi Ram Piya did not give his decision. He said, "The decision should have been made by the Department itself. How can I send a prisoner out of the prison even if the responsibiity to make the decision is vested on me ?"

The Department of Prison Management had itself made the decision regarding other children living in the jail in the past, Thapa said.

There was a dispute between the Chief of the jail, Basu Kumar Ghimire, and Section Officer of the Department, Shambhu Ghimire, last year over shifting the jail building and ‘Jail Bahadur’ was the victim of this dispute, according to jail sources.

Minister of State for Finance (then Minister of State for Land Reform and Management) Gopal Rai had, during his visit to Bhojpur jail last year, pledged that ‘Jail Bahadur’ would be taken to Kathmandu and enrolled in Galaxy School, but it is a mystery why he was not granted permission when an institution was ready to provide him education.

Air passengers stranded

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RUKUM, Feb 14 - Hundreds of passengers remain stranded five days after the national flag carrier - Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) - cancelled flights from Nepalgunj to Salle, a report said. Flights are the only means of transport connecting this remote hill district with the rest of the country.

Air passengers complain that RNAC is running flights along other lucrative routes, but ignoring the needs of local people here. Hiralal Khadka from Khlanga has been camping out at Salle airport for the past six days but there is no sign of the arrival of an RNAC aircraft.

Privately-run Yeti Airlines, was also not allowed to operate flights on the Nepalgunj-Salle route because RNAC filed a complaint against the airline at the District Administration Office. The reason for the complaint remains unclear. RNAC normally operates three weekly flights from Nepalgunj to Salle.

Driver killed in accident

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SYANGJA, Feb 14 - A truck belonging to the Sree Distillery fell about 400m from the Siddhartha highway on Tuesday at Putalibazaar Munility ward No 12 on Tuesday evening killing the driver.

The truck with plate no. Na.2 Kha 2955 was heading from Syangja bazaar to Butwal after unloading goods at a wholesaler’s place in Syangja when the accident occurred, according to the Syangja District Police Office.

The helper of the truck was found lying in a critical condition. He has been taken to Western Regional Hospital, Pokhara.

There were no other people other than the driver and the helper in the truck which is now lying damaged on the banks of the Andhikhola river.

Land for former Kamaiyas sought

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TULSIPUR, Dang, Feb 14 - After the ex-Kamaiya (bonded labourer) rehabilitation process was stalled, various organisations continue to pressurize the concerned government agencies for their early settlement.

A delegation from the district-level committee of the Village Development Committee Federation called on the District Land Reforms Officer and demanded that the ex-Kamaiyas should be provided with land for their rehabilitation.

Acting Land Reforms Officer, Bharat Kumar Adhikari, informed the delegation of various activities carried out by their office since the Kamaiya people were freed from the bonded labour.

Last week, two separate Parliamentary sub-committees also acquired details about the rehabilitation process going on in the district.

Although the Land Reforms Office had a plan to settle a total of 158 ex-Kamaiya families from across the district, only 35 families were recommended for rehabilitation due to the unavailability of adequate government land in time, the Land Reforms Office said.