Their Majesties to visit China

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 (PR) – Their Majesties King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya will be paying a seven-day state visit to the People’s Republic of China starting February 26, Foreign Ministry officials said here today.

Prince Nirajan and Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola will also accompany Their Majesties during the state visit at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

According to the program schedule, Their Royal Couple will grace a dinner hosted in their honor by the Governor of Hainan Province, on the evening they arrive at Kaikou in Hainan Province on February 26.

Likewise, His Majesty the King will attend the inaugural ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia, as the guest of honor, in Hainan Province. On February 28, Their Majesties will leave for Beijing.

On March 1, Zemin, the Chinese head-of-state, will welcome the guests at the Great Hall of the People before a meeting between the two heads-of-state will take place. Later in the evening, the Chinese President will host a state banquet in honor of Their Majesties.

Similarly, Their Majesties will receive in audience the Chinese leaders on March 2. Their Majesties will then grace a reception hosted by Rajeshwore Acharya, Royal Nepalese Ambassador to China. Their Majesties will leave for Shanghai the same day and will grace a dinner hosted by the Mayor of Shanghai.

Meanwhile, Chinese Defense Minister General Chi Haotian is slated to arrive here on a four-day official visit, Wednesday afternoon.

The visit of Minister Haotian, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission and State Councilor of China, is on the invitation of Defense Minister Mahesh Acharya.

During Minister Haotian’s visit, he is slated to hold bilateral talks with his Nepalese counterpart as well as Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola. He will also be visiting Lumbini and Pokhara.

His wife, Madam Jiang Qingping, and senior Chinese officials of different departments are accompanying Minister Haotian.

King seeks SC’s opinion

By Utpal Raj Misra

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 - The fate of the controversial Bill proposing to amend the Citizenship Act 2020 has now passed on to the Supreme Court (SC) as His Majesty the King today sought the court’s opinion on whether the Bill is in accordance with the present Constitution or not.

The King has, in accordance with the article 88 (5) of the present Constitution has sought the opinion of the Supreme Court on whether clause 2 of the proposed Bill is in consonance with the articles 8 and 9 of the Constitution or not, said Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyay. The Bill was endorsed by the Parliament on July 26 last year as the Finance Bill and was forwarded for the royal assent last month.

Following which, the monarch had called on leaders of different political parties for discussion on the Bill.

According to the Constitution, the royal seal must be affixed on a Finance Bill within 30 days after being forwarded to the monarch. Unlike in a case of a general bill, according to the Constitution, the monarch cannot send back the Finance Bill to the Parliament for further discussion.

The Bill drew criticism as it purports to provide citizenship to anyone, even a foreigner, if he or she can prove Nepali ancestry. There is also no need that the applicant’s father should be holding 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, especially to the Indian immigrants and even to the over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees.

However, despite the reservations, almost all political parties unwittingly passed the Bill without any debate when the Bill was first tabled in the Parliament for approval in the last parliamentary session. It was the Upper House that sent the Bill back to the Lower House without approval thereby igniting a controversy.

Unlike in the Lower House, the ruling Nepali Congress does not enjoy majority in Upper House.

At this juncture last summer, the main opposition CPN-UML and other parties pounced on the provision and demanded an amendment. But NC, which holds 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 Parliament Secretariat for months, the Bill was finally sent for the royal seal in January.

King Birendra then began consultations on the Bill with various political parties and has now sought the opinion of the Supreme Court on the matter.

NC and the opposition parties remained divided over the role of the monarch concerning the Bill. Now as the King has sought the opinion of the SC, legal experts as well say the move is in accordance with the Constitution.

"It is His Majesty’s obligation to protect and implement the provisions of the Constitution. We have to look at this action of His Majesty in true spirit of protecting and implementing the Constitution," said Ramesh Nath Pandey, an Upper House member nominated by the King.

Pandey is one of the members who had strongly opposed the Bill in the Upper House.

Mukunda Regmi, a legal expert close to NC said that the monarch’s move is in accordance with the Constitution. "Now the SC has to give this issue the top most priority and give decision as soon as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the SC states that Chief Justice Upadhyay, after reviewing the matter, has ordered that the matter be presented before a special bench on 14 March 2001.

House adjourned till Friday

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 - After yesterday’s live-wire action, the House of Representatives was quiet today as hectic and heated arguments raged outside the House in the Speaker’s chamber.

However, it was not yesterday’s unruly incident, nor the demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation that dominated the discussions in Speaker Taranath Ranabhat’s chamber for nearly three hours. The discussion centred around a news item by state-run Radio Nepal quoting another government agency, the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), the national news agency, on yesterday’s fisticuffs in the House.

Radio Nepal broadcast yesterday that Buddhiman Tamang, lawmaker of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) had told an RSS reporter that he had seen Rajendra Pandey of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) hitting Omkar Prasad Shrestha, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation inside the Parliament. Tamang not only denied the quoted statement, but the news raised the heckles of the entire opposition. They were quietened only when Radio Nepal aired an apology on the news item.

Then another round of all-party discussions started in Speaker Ranabhat’s chamber over how to conduct regular business in the House. In the meeting, the opposition reiterated their demand for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation for his alleged role in the "corruption" in the RNAC-Lauda Air wide-body jet lease deal. It was decided at the meeting that the House would remain adjourned till Friday during which it would be the Speaker’s responsibility to discuss with different party leaders to break the impasse.

Former prime minister and veteran Nepali Congress leader, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who had arrived before the scheduled time of 11 a.m. today, returned disappointed. Throughout the two rounds of discussion, lawmakers squatted on the parliament lawns in small groups.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly, the Upper House of the Parliament, too was adjourned till Thursday after the opposition boycotted today’s proceedings over yesterday’s incident in the Lower House. Basudev Risal of the NC tried to object to Chairman Dr Mohammad Mohsin’s ruling that in the absence of the opposition, the House could not conduct regular business under parliamentary norms. The Chairman, however, did not overturn his ruling.

Show cause to CIAA

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 - The Supreme Court (SC) today issued a show cause notice to Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in response to a writ petition filed by Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki on Monday stating that CIAA has intervened over his authority.

The order was issued by a single bench of Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyay.

Attorney General (AG) Karki had stated that there was no litigation required in a case against Sunil Maskey who had tried to smuggle Rs 12.1 million (in Indian currency of 500 denomination) to Singapore.

Following the seizure, the Revenue Investigation Department had sought advice from AG on whether there should be a lawsuit filed against Maskey.

Objecting to the queries from CIAA such as which law prevents a law suit to be filed against Maskey in a case of foreign exchange transaction, the Attorney General had filed the writ petition.

Last Thursday, CIAA had sent a letter to AG asking him questions like on what basis the AG did not recommend a litigation against Maskey and the confiscated money was returned back to him. Karki opted for a writ petition instead of answering the query.

"The Constitution has given the Attorney General the right to make the final decision as to whether or not to initiate proceedings in any case on behalf of the government in any court or judicial authority. The law has not given any body the power to raise a question against AG’s such power," the writ had stated arguing that the letter sent to him by CIAA and all other related proceedings be declared illegal.

The writ petition has asked the court to declare the interference of CIAA in the authority of the Attorney General as illegal demanding a prohibition order.

After CIAA filed a case against Maskey in the Patan Appellate Court, he has been in custody for the last two months.

Nepal denied entry to BIMST-EC

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 - Nepal’s vigorous lobbying for its entry at the exclusive BIMST-EC, the five-nation regional economic cooperation group, has failed despite support from Myanmar and Bangladesh, due to "procedural problems".

Speaking at the Tribhuvan International Airport on his return from participating as an observer in the two-day meet in Yangon, Myanmar, Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, today said that "procedural problems" arose as the moratorium of five years for allowing new member countries has not expired yet. BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand - Economic Cooperation) groups the nations surrounding the Bay of Bengal. In the Bangkok Declaration signed during the formation of the group in 1996 a provision was made not to allow any new-membership for the ensuing five years.

"We’re happy to note that Myanmar proposed our membership and Bangladesh supported it. But there were procedural problems...," Minister Bastola said, who had lead a four-member team to the meeting, on February 12.

However, Minister Bastola termed the bilateral meetings with his counterpart U Win Aung, the Chairman and the Vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar and Senior General Than Shawe and General Maung Aye as "successful."

"We discussed on a large number of issues...But one of our major focus remained on some 250,000 Nepalis living there." he said. He also said that Nepal and Myanmar discussed on the possibility of establishing direct air links to promote Buddhist pilgrimage.

"We have also requested the Nepali community there to come up with a trade delegation and explore the possibility of trade and commerce," he said. "Myanmar is a very resource-rich country."

NC, Oppns fail to break deadlock

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 – The ruling Nepali Congress (NC)’s frantic attempt for an all-party meeting to sort out an impasse in the Parliament failed today after the main opposition party Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) refused to engage in such a meeting.

The meeting could not take place today as the main opposition party was not ready for it, said Narhari Acharya, NC Spokesman. " We will put another effort for such a meeting tomorrow."

Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Standing Committee member of the CPN-UML, however, said he had no knowledge of the ruling party’s such initiative. But he said that the opposition parties were ready to sit down for such a dialogue.

The parliamentary session that convened on February 9 has already been stalled for the sixth time since then as major opposition parties continued to disrupt regular business of the House until Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala resigns.

All the opposition parties but Nepal Sadbhavana Party have been demanding Prime Minister’s resignation over the government’s alleged role in the controversial Lauda Air deal.

An emergency Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the NC held on Monday had decided to sit with the oppositions for a "serious dialogue" to resolve the stalemate. With the mounting pressure for resignation from the opposition parties and from within the parliament, Prime Minister Koirala is facing a tough challenge to retain his post.

Former Prime Minister and Koirala’s challenger in the ruling Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba and members of the minority Deuba camp in NC also urged Prime Minister Koirala to resign to break the deadlock during the CWC meet.

Though Acharya claimed that yesterday’s meeting has decided to throw party’s weight united behind the beleaguered Prime Minister, pressure within the party is likely to grow if the deadlock continued.

As of now there is little sign that the opposition parties would agree to end the stalemate with anything but Koirala’s resignation.

"The impasse will not find a way out without Prime Minister Koirala’s resignation, instead it will worsen further spilling into streets," warned Adhikari.

Adhikari also said that his party has already decided to organize mass meeting in different parts of the country to inform the public about the controversial Lauda Air deal. Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), the state-owned airlines corporation, last December leased a jetliner from an Austrian company violating parliamentary Public Account Committee’s directives. The oppositions claim that there have been irregularities while signing the deal

Hybrid seeds steadily replacing indigenous variety

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

Chitwan, Feb 20 - The growing use of hybrid seeds has been supplanting indigenous seeds, fostering dependency of local farmers on foreign seed companies, which can lead to serious problems of food insecurity in the long-run.

The more formidable aspect of the continued use of hybrid seeds is that it is likely to lead to widespread sowing of genetically engineered seeds. Genetically modified seeds do not have breeding capacity. Hence, they are known as "suicidal" or "terminator" seeds.

The use of such seeds not only requires farmers to buy seeds from certain companies every time, but also requires them to pay a royalty upon every purchase once Nepal joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime, as they are patented by some companies. Besides this, because of the increasing use of imported hybrid seeds, a considerable amount of foreign currency could also fly out of the country, which is something to be reckoned with.

According to the Seeds Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (SEAN), seeds worth over Rs 351 million were imported in the fiscal year 1999/2000 through organised dealers alone. A significant quantity of seeds are imported but go unrecorded, say the concerned people.

Both commercial and non-commercial farmers no longer bother about preparing and sparing seeds of high-value crops and cereals and the trend of using hybrid seeds is burgeoning among them as they can be grown off-season, give better yields in shorter periods and fetch a better price.

Jwala Bajracharya, Senior Seed Technologist at Nepal Agricultural Research Council suggests not to use hybrid seeds alone as it makes farmers more dependent on others. We should also protect our bio-diversity so that we can have some alternative, she says.

Another reason for the soaring use of such seeds is a lack technology to develop improved seeds in the country.

Nanu Jha, Chief of the Seed Division at the Agriculture Inputs Corporation, says besides green vegetables, hybrid Indian seeds like Kanchan, Kargil and Hira brands of maize and Mansuli and Kanchhi Mansuli brands of paddy are being increasingly used by farmers in the eastern region. They used to cultivate indigenous brands like Basmati, Rajbhog, Manabhog etc ten years ago, he adds.

Hybrid seeds are most used in green vegetable farming. Cabbage has cent per cent hybrid seeds, cauliflower 21, tomatoes 50, coriander 65, spinach 45, radish 30 and okra 22 per cent, states an Action Aid Nepal (AAN) study. Private dealers supply about 95 per cent of such seeds. Hybrid seeds are expensive and have to be bought every time to ensure better crops. One kg seed of Snow Crown brand of cauliflower costs Rs 40,000. Under such conditions, if the seeds are in the grip of multinational companies, their prices are likely to soar even higher. "It seems only commercial farmers are using hybrid seeds. But, very few farmers may have indigenous vegetable seeds. If the supply of seeds is stopped for any reason, the entire field will remain barren," says Yamuna Ghale, Food Rights Campaign Coordinator of AAN.

Ram Chandra Aryal of Birendranagar VDC, who cultivates green vegetables on 3.5 hectares of land, says even non-commercial farmers have no local varieties of vegetable seeds. If the import is halted, it will be well-nigh impossible to cultivate vegetable.

However, Jamuna Kayastha, MD of NFC Seed Company, says the use of hybrid seeds of high-value crops and cereals are inevitable. Her argument: only hybrid seeds can meet the demand for food and vegetable for the growing population.

But, experts warn of possible import of terminated seeds being produced in India thanks to the porous border between Nepal and India. With the seeds new diseases are also entering and since they are not produced targetting the climate of Nepal, they naturally have lower resistance than local varieties.

Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Assistant Seed Development Officer at the Seed Development and Quality Control Service Section, says hybrid seeds have both pros and cons, which farmers should be made aware of. Initiating joint venture with private companies could be better but it is too costly, he says.

Hybrid seeds are mostly imported from Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, the US, Denmark and India.

Interim order on vehicle import

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Feb 20 - The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the "interim order" to the government not to import Indian vehicles based on self-certification until the final hearing scheduled for March 12.

The order was issued by a division bench comprised of Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya and Justice Kedar Prasad Giri.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of the respondents in the case, still has not furnished a written response to the court. The court has slated its final hearing on March 12 considering the seriousness of the case.

The Supreme Court earlier on January 12 had issued an interim order to the government not to import Indian vehicles based on self-certification until further discussion by the court within the next fortnight. But due to postponement of the case, the court could give its decision on Tuesday only-based on a hearing last Friday. The division bench comprised of Justices Kedar Nath Upadhyaya and Top Bahadur Singh then had asked the respondents to present themselves before the court within 15 days, until which the interim order was issued.

The writ petition was filed on December 26 by Advocates Prakash Mani Sharma and Bhoj Raj Aiyer of pro-public, Bimal Aryal of Martin Chautari and Amod Kumar Pokharel of Leaders Nepal challenging the government’s decision to import Indian manufactured vehicles based on self certification. The petition had challenged the concession made by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to allow the import of such self-certified vehicles.

The writ petition had stated that the circular issued from the Minister for State of Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE) to the Customs Department on November 23, last year that the certificate of Conformity of Production (COP) can be provided by the Indian manufacturing company itself, violated the Nepal Vehicle Standard Emission Norms-2056 (BS).

The writ had argued saying, "The COP certificate can only be provided by the government affiliated independent agencies. The manufacturing company in no way can certify such COP."

The Nepal Vehicle Standard Emission Norms requires both "Type Approval" and "Conformity of Production" while importing vehicles from any country. However during his India visit last year Prime Minister Koirala had signed an agreement with the Indian government to allow the import of Indian vehicles merely on "type approval".

"There was the risk of low quality vehicles being dumped into Nepal if the government’s decision to allow the Indian manufactured vehicles without COP certificate is not checked," the writ had stated.

The writ petition had stated the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretariat, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MOPE, Ministry of Labour and Transport, Director General of the Customs Department and Director General of the Department of Transport Management as respondents.

Maoist rebels kill former minister's relative

Post Report

RAJAPUR, Kailali, Feb 20 - A group of armed Maoist rebels killed relative of a former minister at Ratipur of Ramsikhar Jhala VDC-1 and injured five others on Monday night, officials said today.

The rebels killed Ashok Bahadur Singh, 36, relative of the former minister, Prakash Bahadur Singh, at his home, located about 40 km east of Dhangadhi, the district headquarters.

After returning to Dhangadhi from the site of incident, acting Chief District Officer, Chet Narayan Ghimire, told The Kathmandu Post that former minister Singh, Angat Bahadur Singh, 32, Ganesh Bahadur Singh, 50, and his wife Narendra Kumari, 42, Tal Bahadur Singh, 60, and Sanjaya Singh, 22, from the same VDC, were seriously beaten by the rebels.

Sanjaya and Angat Bahadur, who were seriously injured, have been airlifted to Nepalgunj Hospital and others are undergoing treatment at the Dhangadhi-based Seti Zonal Hospital, acting CDO Ghimire said. The rebels struck as they had gathered at the former minister’s home.

A local eyewitness, Hari Prasad Acharya, said that the insurgents also robbed two home-made guns and one pistol.

In a Maoist notice posted at the VDC office, the Singhs were charged of torturing ex-Kamaiyas and local people and of committing sexual crimes against women, acting CDO Ghimire quoted the Maoist notice as saying.

About one week ago, a group of suspected Maoists attacked one forest employee and set the Sadepani-based Range post ablaze, accusing the forest employees of their involvement in massive deforestation of the neighbouring forest.