House furore only a sideshow Big test for Koirala is CIAA

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 –  The smug smile on the faces of executives of Royal Nepal Airlines Corp. (RNAC) on December 1 last year was understandable. Despite a heated battle in parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and in the realm of public opinion, the national carrier had finally been successful in flying in a Boeing B-767 wide-body jet from Lauda Air for an 18-month lease agreement.

The smiles, however, soon turned sour when, first, the chief executive of RNAC Hari Bhakta Shrestha and then the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarinee Dutta Chataut both lost their jobs because of the controversial aircraft leasing deal.

Now, as the Lauda Air jet enters its third month of somewhat haphazard service with RNAC, it is threatening to take a higher toll. In what some analysts believe, the heat generated by Lauda Air is threatening the very position of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

This past week, what has happened inside parliament is just a small indication of things to come. Armed with reams of documents collected by PAC, and independent investigations being continued by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Prime Minister Koirala is facing the first real challenge to his power.

And all because, the Cabinet, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the Lauda Air lease in spite of its own prior recommendations. The question "why" is already moot. What matters now more than ever is: Where will all this lead to?

The biggest threat to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is not from the rabble-rousing opposition lawmakers who have been claiming the support of some rebel Nepali Congress MPs, but from the CIAA.

It is to be remembered here that ex-Civil Aviation Minister Chataut, under whose watch the deal was finalized, resigned to facilitate an unhindered probe only after CIAA summoned him for interrogations. That has created a sort of precedent for Koirala to follow if the CIAA eventually summons him, say analysts. Ex-RNAC boss Shrestha was also suspended upon the recommendation of the CIAA.

Now, the more-than-million-dollar-question is: Will the CIAA summon Koirala? As the chief of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister bears equal, if not more responsibility for the actions of his subordinates, say his critics. Moreover, the final decision to send over US 2 million dollars to Lauda Air as advance payment and bank guarantee were both done through Cabinet approval. So will the PM be summoned?

There are already rumours that Koirala has been trying to contact the CIAA Chief Commissioner Surya Nath Upadhyay. But Upadhyay denied to The Kathmandu Post that he had met Koirala recently. When asked whether the Commission would summon the PM, Chief Commissioner Upadhyay declined to comment. "What question are you asking? I will not comment on this."

Under this backdrop, would the Prime Minister tender his resignation if summoned by the CIAA as his subordinate did, and thereby hand over a major victory to the opposition parties? The Commission’s next step, so keenly watched and awaited, has now become the proverbial Damocles’ Sword hanging over the head of Prime Minister Koirala.

In the end, it must be questioned whether the powers-that-be foresaw what the Lauda Air lease would lead to? Not at all, at least from the public statements of RNAC officials.

"We never imagined that it would come to this (the standoff in parliament)," Tirtha Lal Shrestha, who as member of RNAC’s Board of Directors actively lobbied for the deal, told The Kathmandu Post today. "A small issue has been blown out of proportion." When asked if the deal was being used as a political weapon to oust the PM, Shrestha replied "no comment".

Had the Lauda jet performed according to expectations, the controversy could have quieted down. But no such luck here too. According to RNAC estimates, since the jet began operations with the airline on December 1, 2000, the national carrier has lost tens of millions of rupees.

When pointed out, RNAC’s Shrestha had this to offer: "With all this adverse attention, we are not able to concentrate on our work...In business, there will be losses."

The government could withstand the monetary losses, but not what it has already lost and may yet lose – its own head.

Parties at loggerheads over King’s role on Citizenship Bill

By Utpal Raj Misra

KATHMANDU, Feb 15- The ruling Nepali Congress and the opposition parties are divided over the role of the monarch concerning the controversial Citizenship Act Amendment Bill, raising the specter of another heated debate before the fate of the bill is decided.

The Citizenship Bill was passed last summer by the parliament as a finance bill and forwarded to His Majesty the King for approval in mid January this year. The monarch then had called on different political parties for discussion on the bill.

According to the Constitution Royal Seal must be stamped on a finance bill within 30 days of being forwarded to the monarch and there is no provision of referring it back to the parliament for further discussion.

It is this provision that is raising all the heckles among the ruling and opposition parties. The division was clear at a Face to Face program in the capital today where leaders of different parties and some legal experts expressed their views on this controversial bill.

Where as the leaders of several opposition parties claimed that the bill and the process through which it was passed by the Parliament was faulty, the leaders of the ruling Congress claimed that the bill is a necessity and is in favour of the nation.

The Congress leaders including Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Mahanta Thakur claimed that the monarch must affix the royal seal on the bill within 30 days since it was passed as a finance bill. But the opposition, citing another constitutional clause, stuck to its grounds that the King could send the bill back to the House after consultations with political and other parties. Some legal experts also said that the King could also consult the Supreme Court to decide whether the bill is actually a finance bill or not.

The bill is controversial because it purports to provide citizenship to anyone, even a foreigner, if he/she can prove Nepali ancestry. There is no need for the father of the citizenship applicant to hold Nepali citizenship. Whereas under present laws, the applicant must present the father’s citizenship certificate to claim hereditary citizenship.

Opposition parties fear that the provision will lead to a flood of citizenship certificates being granted to non-Nepalis. However, despite the reservations, almost all political parties unwittingly passed the bill without any debate the first time it came up for approval in the last parliamentary session. It was the Upper House that sent the bill back to the Lower House igniting a controversy.

At this juncture last summer, the main opposition communists and other parties pounced on the provision and demanded an amendment. But the Congress, which has an outright majority in the Lower House, ramrodded the bill through the Lower House again and sent it to the Royal Palace for approval. After lingering in the Parliamentary Secretariat for months, the bill was finally sent for the royal seal in January

His Majesty King Birendra then began consultations on the bill with various political parties. It is here that the matter now rests.

CP Mainali, leader of the CPN-ML (Marxist and Leninist) said that the fact that the bill was passed by the Lower House of the parliament addressing it as a finance bill was in itself a violation of the Constitution.

"The King has full right to consult this issue with the political parties and is doing the right thing," he said. He also said that the CPN-ML had advised the King to refer the Bill to the Supreme Court according to Act 88(5) of the present constitution.

Mukunda Regmi, a legal expert, aligned with the Nepali Congress, said that keeping all the factors in mind the Bill was in accord with the Constitution. However he also added that the Bill has nothing new to offer, and that the King has full authority to refer the Bill to the Supreme Court. Other legal experts, including Sher Bahadur KC and Mahadev Prasad Yadav expressed their view that there was no alternative for the monarch other than to affix the royal seal to the bill.

Minister for Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Mahanta Thakur, said that the bill was introduced in order to solve the problems of the Nepalis of Terai. "It is brought in favour of the Nepali citizens and I believe that it has to be passed," he said.

Now LPG-run vehicles start to rule the roost in Valley

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 - More and more Liquefied Petroleum (LP) gas-run tempos and microbuses are continuing to make inroads into the Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere, despite them contributing to the crippling shortage of cooking gas in the country.

Worse still, experts working to monitor the capital’s deteriorating air quality say that the gas-run vehicles are causing as much air pollution as the petrol-run vehicles that will be banned from operating inside the Valley from (Shrawan 1, 2058) mid-July, 2001.

Ironically, these vehicles do not need to undergo any emission test whatsoever as yet despite suggestions to do so by a team of experts. In its reports submitted to the Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE) in April last year, a team of environmental experts recommended emission testing of the gas-run vehicles.

According to the guidelines suggested by them, just like any other petrol-run vehicle, an LP gas-run vehicle should not emit more than 3 per cent carbon monoxide. "But the government has not yet started the job (of testing emission levels of the gas-run vehicles)," says environmental expert, Amod Pokharel of Leaders’ Nepal, who was also a member of the expert team that submitted its report to MOPE last year.

He adds, "We have already recommended the pollution standard for these vehicles, and the Danish Embassy has already provided them an emission testing machine and even trained their staff. Yet nothing has been done. We can’t understand why!"

The woes caused by the gas-run vehicles do not end here. Ramesh Parajuli, a researcher with the Martin Chautari, a non-governmental organization, claims that the gas-run vehicles continue to enjoy waiver of 99 per cent custom duty and 10 per cent VAT (Value Added Tax).

The government had offered the facilities only to the owners of Vikram tempos that were banned from the Valley last year.

Krishna Murari Sharma, Director General of the Department of Transport Management, concedes that the government continues to register the cooking-gas-run vehicles in the Valley. "They are still registered here, but are allowed to ply only outside the 27.3km Ring Road territory," he says.

But environmentalists express concern that such vehicles can easily sneak inside the Ring Road area because no such thing as a monitoring authority or body that can keep constant vigil on the movement of such vehicles exists.

"Gas-run vehicles are registered in the Valley means that they are free to go literally anywhere here," fumes Parajuli of Martin Chautari. "If not, where is the authority that monitors such vehicles’ movement?"

According to research conducted recently by Martin Chautari, over 900 LP gas-operated vehicles—600 three wheelers and over 300 four wheelers (microbuses)—are currently travelling along the roads of the capital city.

Now, add to it the new gas-run vehicles that are making inroads into the Valley, thanks mainly to the government policy that allows the registration of the gas-run vehicles in the Valley.

Knowledgeable sources say, besides the leading vehicle importers, private companies like Metro tempo, South Asia traders and one more company that imports Chinese vehicles are openly importing and selling gas-run vehicles in the thriving vehicle markets of the capital and other cities.

When asked to comment, Ananta Raj Pandey, spokesman of MOPE, on Thursday denied reports that gas-run vehicles are continuing to enjoy the waiver of 99 per cent custom duty and VAT.

"It is not true," Pandey said. "But what is true is the fact that all the gas-run vehicles have to meet Nepal Emission Standard 1999, the Nepali version of the Euro-I emission standard introduced last year. That is why there is no question of these vehicles polluting the environment."

But environmental experts say Pandey’s remarks will not be justified as long as MOPE allows such vehicles to run freely without emission tests or certificates.

Moreover, experts forecast, there will be more incidents of gas shortage in the markets in future, and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the state owned monopoly, will have to import more LP gas from India to meet the growing gas demand.

Following last month’s gas shortage problem in the Valley, which consumes more than half the gas imported by the country, NOC has made arrangements to supply as much as 3,700 metric tonnes of LP gas every month.

Prior to that, NOC had been importing only 2,500 metric tonnes of LP gas in a month. So, expect more cooking gas shortage in future and, needless to say, air pollution.

Speaker adjourns House

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 (PR)– The Speaker of the House of Representatives adjourned the House until Monday after his efforts to break the impasse between the Treasury and the Opposition benches failed to yield any result today.

The Speaker made the efforts to conduct the regular business both inside and outside the House.

As soon as Speaker Taranath Ranabhat called on CPN-UML’s Som Prasad Pandey, Chairman of the Parliament’s Foreign Relations and Human Rights Committee, to present his report on the firing in Banke Prison in Nepalgunj, the opposition lawmakers rushed to the rostrum shouting slogans demanding Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation over alleged involvement in the RNAC-Lauda Air jet lease deal.

Prem Bahadur Singh of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) tried to grab the microphone but he was pulled back by the marshals. In the scuffle that followed, Singh’s cap fell. His comrades lunged forward to rescue him amidst the Speaker’s repeated pleas to return to their seats.

At first, the House was adjourned for two hours until 1 p.m. today, during which Speaker Ranabhat called an all-party meeting in his chamber. In the meeting that lasted more than two hours, the Speaker tried to seek a way out of the deadlock that has become a regular feature of the last four days of the current Winter Session.

According to UML’s Subhas Nemwang, who himself was at the meeting, the Opposition refused to back down from their demand for Prime Minister Koirala’s resignation. Nemwang told the reporters that the Speaker sought cooperation from the members, citing many pending legislations.

The closed-door meeting decided that House be postponed until Monday and that the Speaker would meet with top leaders of the different political parties to resolve the impasse.

Butwal Power gets two suitors

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 - With the expiry of the deadline Wednesday for the third and last tender call for privatizing Butwal Power Company (BPC), only two serious bidders have come forward to purchase a controlling stake in one of the nation’s most profitable hydropower companies.

When the bids were opened on Thursday, only two companies applied for 75 per cent of BPC shares. They are the Norwegian developer Interkraft and the Anglo-American company called IPC/PLC. Interkraft is aligned with the local Jyoti Group, while IPC/PLC has taken the Chaudhary Group as its local partner. The two local partners are fierce rivals.

Responding to the latest tender call for BPC privatisation, six companies had obtained tender documents from the privatisation cell, Ministry of Finance. The other companies were Pacific Hydro(an Australian multi-national power developer), Khetan Group, Sanima Hydro and Imsit. But they failed to submit tenders by the last date that is yesterday.

The technical bids submitted by the two companies that eventually came forward would be thoroughly examined by a technical team and only then would they be allowed to participate in the second round of financial bids, slated to be held after two weeks.

The latest development paves the way for accelerating the privatisation process of BPC. The government in December 1999 amid mounting controversy had scrapped the privatisation process only to recall the tender last September. Since then, it had extended the tender period thrice.

Only two companies, Interkraft and IPC\PLC, had responded to the first call for tender. The IPC had quoted US$ 10 million for the 75 per cent shares, which is Rs 109 per share, and Interkraft had quoted US$ 8.25 million, which is equivalent to Rs 90 per share. However, it is likely that the financial bids this time would be of a lesser amount.

The first call was cancelled following revocation of the bid by IPC/PLC, which alleged of "irregular circumstances surrounding BPC’s privatisation." In a strong-worded letter sent to the then Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya on December 7, 1999, IPC had alleged the ministry of favouring Interkraft, IPC/PLC’s only rival bidder in BPC. Pacific Hydro and Khetan Group had joined at only the second call, while Sanima Hydro and Imsit joined last in January 2001.

The privatisation of the BPC was marred by controversy from the beginning amid intensive lobbying from both the parties. Both the parties used their respective political clouts including diplomatic channels to influence the decision in their favour. The lobbying attained its worst form also because the foreign power developers had two of the rival business houses as their local partners. However, experts believe that the government must award the BPC to the highest bidder, without creating more controversy.

The three-year old BPC privatisation process has affected the overall privatisation program of the government, which it promised to undertake as part of national reforms. The government’s failure in speeding up its privatisation programs has begun to irritate even the international and multi-lateral donor agencies like Department for International Development (DFID), who even threatened to withdraw its financial support if the government does not accelerate its privatisation process.

Grant to ease traffic in capital

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 -  What is it that strikes  you most while you’re driving down the busy streets of Kathmandu? Traffic congestion, pollution and badly-maintained roads may have topped the list of many, but one thing that strikes almost everyone, is certainly the highly disorganised traffic at the capital’s major intersections.

Moreover, many experts say that half the capital’s traffic problems would be reduced if only such intersections were better organised. Even traffic at the Thapathali crossing has become more organised, they say, ever since the entire intersection was revamped a few years ago.

But now, Kathmanduities might not have to wait that long before more of such similar intersections like the one in Thapathali are created.

The Japanese government today agreed to extend a grant of US dollars 928,000 (around Rs. 68,362,000) to Nepal for debt relief measures and what else? Nothing other than for the materialisation of an intersection improvement project in the capital.

According to a press release issued by the Japanese Embassy here today, around US dollars 197,000 of the grant has been allotted for the materialisation of the project for Improvement of Intersections in Kathmandu City alone.

The Japanese decision came as per the recommendation made by the Basic Design Study undertaken by Japan, says the release. Japan is also the country behind the Thapathali intersection facelift a few years ago.

"The grant will be utilised for procuring the services necessary for the Detailed Design of 10 such intersections of the said Project," the release states.

An agreement was signed here today between Dr. Bimal Prasad Koirala, Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and the Japanese Envoy for Nepal, Mitsuaki Kojima.

Likewise, the remaining US dollars 731,000 of the total grant has been allotted under the Debt Relief Measures (Portion 3) to be utilised for procuring construction materials, fertiliser, petroleum products, medicine and transportation equipment for various development activities.

SC summons Attorney General

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 - The Supreme Court today passed an order to call the Attorney General in response to an application filed by Under Attorney General, Narendra Bahadur Chand, asking the court to look at a "citizenship case" that is currently being looked after by the Appellate Court, Butwal.

The decision was taken by a special bench comprising of Justices Govinda Bahadur Shrestha, Krishna Kumar Verma and Harish Chandra Prasad Upadhyaya.

Chand had filed an application one month ago at the Supreme Court (SC) stating that it look after the case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) at the Appellate Court, Butwal.

The CIAA had filed the case at Butwal Appellate Court stating that Chand, the then District Attorney of Kapilbastu had misused his power by filing a weak case against Liyakat Khan who had obtained citizenship through illegal means. The CIAA had filed the case as per the Corruption Control Act - 2017 (BS) against Chand as he had filed the case in such a way as to render the case weak. The Appellate Court has kept Chand on bail.

At Thursday’s hearing, private advocates Prakash Osti, Balram KC, Anup Raj Sharma and Shambhu Thapa represented the CIAA. Normally, government attorneys represent the CIAA. Senior Advocate Ganesh Raj Sharma argued from the petitioner’s side.

Meanwhile, the single bench of Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel today passed an order to call government lawyers in response to a petition filed by Liyakat Khan asking SC to annul the decision of the Appellate Court, Butwal which had ordered to proceed the case keeping Khan into custody.

Khan stated in his petition that he had acquired Nepalese citizenship through legal means.

Report on discrimination to be submitted

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 15- Jagaran Media Center, working on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination in Nepal Thursday said that it will submit Nepal Alternative Country Report 2001 to the Asian Regional Preparatory Meetings to be held in Tehran, Iran from Feb 17 to 21.

A 24-page Report seeking the re-enforcement of International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in Nepal was released Thursday at a "Face to Face Program" called by Jagaran Media Center here at Ganapati Hotel, Baghbazar.

The Report prepared by National Dalit NGO Preparatory Committee Nepal for WCAR (NDNPC) seeks to abolish all forms of racial discrimination in Nepal. It seeks legal action against casteism and special reservation for backward communities.

Speaking at the occasion, Subash Darnal, President of Jagaran Media Center said that the alternative report will properly address the ills faced by Dalits in Nepal which was improperly addressed in the subsequent country reports submitted by the government.

"We have not been able to live as human but the government stated in its report that our condition is normal," said Darnal.

The twenty-four page memorandum highlights Dalits grievances like racial discrimination in Nepal, their economic plight, marginalisation, and reservation. They also seek Legal Action against Casteism in Nepal.

The "Face to Face Program " was attended by prominent Dalit leaders and Human Rights Activist in which they openly accused the State Machineries for not upholding the 1971 UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination in Nepal.