Stop land tampering

Land is a highly sensitive matter in a country where it is often the only asset that people have, and accounts for the bulk of the employment if not of the GDP. Against this background, any misdeed relating to land breeds serious misgiving in the public mind. Reports recently of cases of land tampering on a serious scale in Nawalparasi district have been no different. According to these reports some locals led by a former DDC member have been attempting to grab about over l00 bigha of land in two separate plots in Dumkibas VDC. Another group in Benimanipur VDC including VDC officials have sold about 10 bigha in the name of aiding a high school while some other individuals in Chisapani VDC have started encroaching on a 19 bigha plot alongside the east-west highway. Reports of similar land grab attempts have surfaced recently within the capital city also. The underlying fault is two-fold.

First there is corruption and collusion at the local level. There is easy money to be made when land is at stake, and everyone is in on it, local officials, the amin, the middlemen, the land revenue clerk. It’s part of the pervasive culture of corruption and impunity that has gripped our society in these democratic times. To some extent it has helped spawn that culture through example. The other side of the problem is a lacuna in the law itself. The law is usually clear enough when it comes to private ownership of land, and it is fairly impartial in land related disputes between individuals except in so far as this impartiality is subverted by the minions of the law and pettifoggers who want to profit from such disputes. But there is less clarity in the law as between the state and the land. And this is something that the government itself has helped perpetuate wittingly or unwittingly.

Under the law it was originally the state which was the ultimate owner of all land in the country. But this notion has been superseded by usage and custom, the shifting needs of society and the shift in the political centre of gravity. It is usage that gives individuals ownership claim to land and this has been sanctioned by the law and reinforced by constitutional provisions on the right to property. But unclaimed land, fallow land, vacant lots that remain unregistered and land that comes into being when a river changes course are still in a twilight zone. Who owns such land? The central government or the local bodies like municipalities and VDCs? And who is going to take action when such is land is encroached upon, settled by squatters or misappropriated? The scale of the problem indicates that there definitely is a lack of clarity here. The government has not helped matters by parcelling out prime real estate to public corporations and for other purposes without stopping to think whether the local authorities and the locals too for that matter should not have a say. When the public corporations are privatized, as the government vows they will be, the land thus parcelled out will end up in private hands also.

Environment : Is it a dirty business ?

By Ramesh C Arya

In December 1998, the Ministry of Population and Environment announced a ban on the movement of diesel run three wheelers. The decision was successfully carried out. The ministry has now announced a ban on older vehicles. Resentment and recent protests over the issue point at the possibility that the ban may not go as smoothly as the first one. If so, the handling of the whole affair needs serious reconsideration. Sometimes one even wonders if environment is not, by itself, a dirty business!

The first ban first. There was enough homework and public support behind the ban. Though the polluting Vikrams are the object of strong dislike, the ministry launched its vehicular testing programme with cool-headed calculation. It inaugurated the test programme with the testing of the vehicle used by the Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba. The entire testing was conducted in an open and transparent environment. Nearly all the newspapers covered the event with prominent headlines. This was firstly because it was impartial, and secondly, none other than the vehicles used by the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court failed the emission test. The public supported the gesture of the ministry. And when the Vikrams did not improve, despite repeated tests, their ouster was a forgone conclusion. The ministry had also announced its immediate and long-term plan of gradually phasing out other polluting vehicles. The dirtier vehicles, including the Vikrams, were already denied entry to prominent places in the city.

Lastly, when the ban was announced, nobody protested except for the few Vikram operators. They moved out of the valley and started operating in smaller cities and adjoining villages. Some people resented the rationale of transporting them to other urban areas of lesser magnitude. It was like treating the people of such areas as second class citizens and as if they were more tolerant to pollution.

Different municipalities set different limits to the absorptive capacity of their townships. It was more of a political decision. Pokhara was an exception. Rather, one should say, it stuck to its old decision. No compromise over the Vikrams! Very few people know that the then Ministry of Works and Transport had, at one time, "permitted" the running of Vikrams in that valley. But the decision could not be implemented. The people of Pokhara drove them out. The government could not protect the "license-holders" who were permitted to run these vehicles.

Over the years, multi-layered clouds of smoke have accumulated around the transparency once upon a time maintained by the ministry. The first of this was a "sudden" invitation for running 500 petrol powered three-wheelers. This important invitation was placed in a corner of the special issue of the Gorkhapatra brought out to mark His Majesty’s Birthday. This issue is mostly flooded with advertisements. The timing was interpreted as an attempt to avoid public attention. Before the Vikram phase out was implemented, the government predicted a shortage of public transport vehicles and the applicants were to be treated on a first-come-first-served basis. It is learnt that one business house applied for running 500 tempos!

There was strong protest against the decision. The Prime Minister later admitted that he was not informed about the decision and suspended it. The existing petrol three-wheelers were fitted with two-stroke engines and the government relaxed emission standards for them. Though four-stroke engines are better in terms of emission and performance, the invitation just mentioned three-wheelers.

The government announced a special reduced duty for the import of vehicles to replace the Vikrams. This duty was supposed to be 25 percent, which was later reduced to 10 percent and further down still to 5 percent. But as the operators pressed for even more concessions, the import duty for petrol/LPG engine vehicles was finally reduced to the barest minimum of just one percent. The government had never been that flexible in the past.

The special relaxed duty was applicable even to vehicles which were fitted with diesel engines but which would later run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). In the meantime, sample tests proved that in 90 percent of the cases the emission level of LPG vehicles that were promoted as clean was as much as nine times higher than the standard for petrol vehicles. Obviously, there was negligence in allowing the import of LPG vehicles.

Till then, LPG was used basically as domestic kitchen fuel. Vehicles on the road should not have used it. A non-smelling LPG should have been used for transport. No attempt was made to import such fuel. Consumers suffered from the shortage of LPG gas as it was put to extensive used for a commercial purpose.

The Ministry also came up with a National Vehicles Emission Standard, the Euro I standard in its barest form. Considering that almost all vehicle manufacturers in India, Japan and Europe had been meeting the stricter Euro II standard, almost all qualified persons had their doubts about the intention behind introducing a more relaxed standard. Even for Euro I, there is a compulsory requirement of a Compliance of Production (COP) certificate. And while even the committee of experts constituted by the government recommended adherence to it, the Prime Minister, during his official visit to India signed an agreement that relaxed the import conditions for vehicles, thereby superseding the opinion of Nepalese experts.

Kathmanduites protested the tolerance of political masters which permitted the Vikrams to continue operating in the capital for a couple of years until the announcement of their departure was finally decided. Though late, the decision was hailed by several sections of society.

During the Vikram phase out process, all kinds of (unhealthy?) exercises were carried out. Kathmandu housewives are still in need of a regular availability of LPG. The Vikrams are gone and they have been replaced by microbuses. The configuration and seating arrangement in the substitute makes them as congested as the Vikrams. It has only one advantage. It runs on four wheels. Vikram had just three!

The capital has not recovered properly from the shock expulsion of the 650 vehicles. What might happen if more than 6,500 vehicles are asked to go? Most of them would be minibuses and buses, which, on an average, carry 25 and 50 passengers respectively.

The enthusiastic Ministry of Population and Environment has made one more ambitious announcement: bidding farewell to all vehicles older than 20 years. The vehicles affected may number about 6,000. The commuters affected might be at least 40 times more. And the government has not declared its phased strategy of replacement following the second announcement. So many permutations and combinations were practised in the case of the 650 Vikrams. The size of the game has now blown up 10 times.

Romeos !!

By Pragya Karki

You all may wonder why only Romeo and where in the world Juliet went? But I am not talking about topmost playwright William Shakespeare’s great romantic play Romeo and Juliet. Here I am talking about Roadside Romeos found in every nook and corner of almost all alleys in Kathmandu.

As we (feminine gender) know, we encounter uncountable Roadside Romeos in our day-to-day life. A single day without their comments (next to impossible) may mean the eighth wonder. We should prepare ourselves to hear cheap comments, pieces of Hindi Filmy songs and dialogues whenever and wherever we see a bunch of rowdy guys. Let me describe them for you: guys in torn and tattered jeans hanging from their waists (looks like it may fall down any time); vests with rock stars cut-off heads (sounds harsh), cigarette in between their nicotine-stained fingers and of course malicious smile on their faces. One may experience a very tough time if she is alone and have to pass through them. Her greatest desire at that particular moment would be to become invisible so as to pass by unnoticed.

We put on our best dress, a perfect smile on our face and in the best of moods to go out. We walk out from our house in glee with a light heart, only to last for a while. To our dismay everything disappears. Why? All because we see those Roadside Romeos staring at us ready to spurt out their nasty remarks. "My God!! What the hell are they doing here?" We curse them but in our minds (girls are too naive to speak aloud their thoughts) just to avoid sparking a tensile reaction. What other option is there but just to ignore it?

Few days before I went to the Hindu sacred temple Pashupatinath which lies by the side of our holy (I think I chose the wrong word) and noisome river Bagmati. I am very sad to say this but the fact cannot be denied. I went there with my friend (a she) to pray to god and for peace of mind.

But all in vain! There again,... how could we run away from our daily rendezvous. Instead, peace of mind was ruffled leaving us amidst those despicable Romeos. What next?

Same old thing, experience their (democratic guys') freedom of speech. Poor girls (we) unwillingly took it in from one ear and let it pass out the other (the only way to deal with it). We cannot flee from it even in places like temples, forget about other public places. I think a long list can be framed if I start mentioning the harassment we confront in public places (viz crowded ones).

After my temple visit a new word has been added in my vocabulary for Roadside Romeos and that is Temple-side Romeos.

Conflict management in organisation

By Dr Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

Management is a process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims. In every organisation the manager must be involved in diversified functions - planning, organising, staffing, controlling, decision making and managing conflict. An important part of a manager’s job is concerned with conflict. The manager often handles conflict through mediating between two individuals or in a large group. Also, the manager applies several techniques in dealing with conflict, which may differ according to the nature of the conflict. The conflict can be observed as comprising various stages: potential opposition or incompatibility, cognition and personalisation, intentions, behaviour and outcomes (Robins, Stephen, P 1996). Inadequate or excessive levels of conflict can hinder the effectiveness of a group or an organisation, resulting in reduced satisfaction of group members, increased absence and turnover rates, and eventually, lower productivity.

In every organisation, the workers mostly face four types of interpersonal conflict, ie personality differences, information deficiency, role incompatibility and environmental stress.

Among the various types of thwarting, conflict has the broadest significance especially in contributing to an understanding of the more disabling maladjustments. Conflict has been defined as a state of affairs in which two or more incompatible behaviour trends are evoked that cannot be satisfied fully at the same time. Webster (1967) defines conflict as disagreements - war, battle, collision, emotional tension and the opposition of persons. Rece and Brandt (1997) also deal with conflict as individuals’ striving for their own preferred outcome. Differences, disagreement and competitions generate conflict when the people involved try to deny each other the right to satisfy their needs. If an organisation and its employees have no effective methods of managing conflict, it can undermine employee morale, divert energy from important tasks, decrease productivity by disrupting cooperation, create distrust among employees and over emphasize the differences between individuals (Managing Stress and Conflict, ODC’s People and Organisational Development Series, 1999).

Although some organisational behaviour scholars note that there are similarities between negotiation strategies and conflict management, negotiations can go beyond just resolving conflict and become a managerial skill for personal and organisational success.

Managers and organisations operate in an increasingly difficult environment. The pressures and challenges facing managers are becoming more complex. Side by side they have to meet social, ethical and environmental requirements, and try to achieve higher standards in the products and services they offer. These pressures often raise conflict, and managers are constantly trying to achieve a balancing act between the two extremes.

The conflict psychology of management is not always negative and destructive. When people work together to resolve conflicts, their solutions are often more creative than they would be if only one person addressed the problems.

In Nepal, the government sector has not carried out its study towards conflict management whereas on the non-government side some organisations have been keenly interested regarding such burning issues. It may be said that in Nepalese bureaucracy personnel basically exhibit conflict due to various causes, viz imbalance of reward and punishment, poor salary, low motivation and poor training facilities, improper job description and assignment, inadequate recognition of performance, excessive political pressures, lack of proper placement and tendency of sharing undue benefits. In research related to conflict management, Afful, Ken and Karki, N Deep (1999) have focused on some related issues of conflict in non-governmental organisations of Nepal. In their findings, the researchers have stated that modern organisations have to resist endless conflict within and with other organisations. Today an increasing number of organisations are spending a significant percentage of their resources on conflict management. Some managers are spending up to half their time in attempting to resolve conflict among workers. Generally, managers of non-governmental organisations never try to know the source of conflict of their employees. So, there must be open dialogue between the workers and managers to resolute the rising conflicts.

Conflict is a basic fact of motivational life. Even in simple choices, there are coexisting motives and actions that satisfy one but may automatically frustrate the other. Lewin (1931) distinguishes three patterns of conflict: (1) approach - approach, (2) avoidance - avoidance, and (3) approach - avoidance. Approach - approach conflict probably has the least impact in organisational behaviour. Although it may arise when making a choice between two positive goals, such a situation is preferable to one that involves two negative goals or a goal with both negative and positive characters. For example, if both personal and organisational goals are attractive to organisational participants, they will usually make a choice rather quickly and thus eliminate their conflict whereas avoidance - avoidance conflict does not have a great deal of impact on organisational behaviour. This type of conflict is usually easily resolved. Approach-avoidance conflict and its aftermath are very common among decision-makers and people in responsible positions in fast changing "new paradigm" organisations. Managers in such situations face a good deal of internal conflict and stress, which may cause indecision, ulcers or even depression.

Conflicts have made an invaluable contribution to the understanding of human adjustments within the organization. They are only the precipitating causes of adjustive difficulties, but also have a relationship to the ability to adjust when confronted by new problems. Psychological experiments show that strong unresolved conflicts make enduring changes in workers’ personality. If a worker persists in conflict over a period of years it makes him inferior or non-adjustive. It is very probable that such type of disabling influences reduce his/her general ability to adjust within the work place and gradually degrade the efficiency and productivity of the organisation.

MBA students of Kathmandu University, School of Management (1999) have developed schemes to deal with conflict in Nepal as it concerns government and non-governmental organisations. In connection with this, the students forward controlling techniques of overcoming conflict through various approaches ie, openness to new ideas, better communication, setting up information groups, trust, respect for other’s opinion, negotiation and clear policies. Also they point out that communication, perception, difference of personality, culture, stress, frustration, generation gap, competence, policies and rules may produce conflict in organisation. They also remark that feedback: motivation, fair competition and open discussion may create a healthy environment within organisations.

On the whole, conflict is seen as part of the process of testing and assessing himself/herself. As such, it may be highly enjoyable, as it makes it possible to experience the pleasure of full and active use of one’s capacities.