Disabled people firm to stand on their own feet

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KATHMANDU, Jan 27 – Disabled people too can do something in their life and help others like them. If they get an opportunity, there is nothing they cannot achieve.

With a slogan Active Participation of Disabled People in Media, Today’s Necessity a group of disabled people launched a monthly paper Sahas Sandesh, amidst a function here today.

Senior journalist Suresh Acharya of Nepal Journalist Federation released the newspaper. "Think yourself as able-bodied people and do not regret," he says.

Mani Poudel, a disabled person, and executive director of the paper says," The social injustice towards the disabled people deprives us from opportunity". Due to social injustice and psychological concept of being a disabled person, they feel humiliated. Their able-bodied brethren consider them as second class citizen,Poudel laments.

Mani along with Krishna Prasad Bhattarai editor of the paper (also a disabled person), started the paper with an aim to encourage all those who are willing to do something for the country and to all the disabled people.

Disabled people who are deprived of office-and-institutional work thought to promote all the disabled people and opened Chaghunarayan Shewa Private Limited which is dedicated towards the promotion of disabled people.

Sahas Sandesh is considered to be the first SAARC regional paper launched by the disabled people."Disabled people too can do something in this 21st century; I encourage every disabled person to do something through this paper", says Mani.

28-year-old Mani started journalism career in 2047 BS after the completion of his SLC examinations.Mani, who was honoured with Daman Shrijansil Journalism Award and a cash prize of Rs 5001 during the function, is determined to involve disabled people in this field.

"We don’t want donations but we don’t want to deprive ourselves from what we can earn",Poudel says.Though the family members of every disabled person are supportive of Mani, he dislikes being supported.

His only sister Gayatri who used to comfort and encourage him died when she was only 21 years old. She had a desire to open Gayatri memorial school and charity hospital which could not be materialised.

People like Nigma Tamang Pakhrin and Binod Kumar Upadhyay, also the financial sponsor of Sahas Sandesh remark that with the spirit of not feeling themselves as disabled individuals and with the hope that they too can do something, they are encouraging many others who are like them."

Another diabled Krishna Kadel expressed his view that he wanted their paper to be distinct and of better quality than other papers now available in the market."

During the function, Dr Bhola Rijal and Super Link Computer Institute donated 10 thousand rupees for the successful publication of the paper.

Butwal metropolis brings code of conduct into effect

BUTWAL, Jan. 27(RSS)- The Butwal municipality has brought into effect from today a code of conduct designed by the Transparency International with a view to maintaining transparency and accountability in its organisation and make its functions people- oriented.

In order to maintain transparency, the municipality needs to chart out a list that describes the functions and working procedure of all its units and their services by hanging up a public notice within the office premises, make public the decisions of public importance and bring out a news bulletin under the new system.

Under this system, commitments have been made in writing to do away with corruption, irregularity and administrative hassles and an announcement has been made to strictly adhere to such provisions.

The system also prescribes following the financial regulations while making purchase or sale through any competitive bid, making arrangement for people’s participation for work which need to be accomplished through Consumers’ Committee and for monitoring whether the construction work has been done in accordance with the prevailing price list in order to maintain frugality.

During the function held here today to declare the adoption of the code of conduct, chairman of the Transparency International Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey expressed the view that the code of conduct would help clear the mistrust among the citizens towards democracy and maintain transparency in development work.

Mayor of Butwal municipality Bhoj Prasad Shrestha hoped that with the enforcement of the new system, the municipality could take up its functions in a smooth and convenient manner.

Stranger kills temple priest

JANAKPUR, Jan 27 (PR) - The priest of local Mahavir temple, Ram Kumar Das was killed by a unidentified man on Friday.

According to eye-witnesses, an man of around 45 to 50 years of age, was spotted acting strangely east of the temple after lighting a fire to keep himself warm. When the man started burning firewood which belonged to the temple, the man and the temple priest become involved in a fight.

The man grabbed the priest and jumped with him into the Dhanush Sagar, a nearby pond. The fighting continued for another five minutes under the water. After this, there was no motion in the water, a local shop-keeper said.

By this time, a large number of people had been gathered outside the Dhanush Sagar. On the initiative of local youth club members a fishing net was thrown into the pond and the priest was pulled out. He was almost dead.

The priest was then taken to the local Janakpur zonal hospital by the rescuers. There was no doctor on duty when they arrived at 9 a.m.The life of the priest could not be saved. Neither the murderer, nor his body, were found in the pond even after a day-long search on Friday. Some people thought he might have escaped when the attention of all the crowd was focused on the priest after he was pulled out, while some others speculated that he might have disappeared due to supernatural powers.

A deer from India met its death in Nepal

By Surendra Phuyal

It was just another ordinary evening along the Nepal-India border near Nawalparasi district in central Nepal. Villagers of Gabraiya trap a deer, which supposedly came from a forest in (India’s) Bihar’s Western Champaran district, an area falling in the buffer zone of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve. As is natural at this time of year, we were told that the deer had sneaked into the village crossing dozens, if not hundreds, of acres of sugarcane plantations. The deer had come here for food. But such was the turn of events that the hapless animal ended up food for a stronger faunal species: Homo sapiens.

Such was its fate that the deer was not killed by a Royal Bengal Tiger, or a clouded leopard, that day. Neither was the animal attacked by a Royal Bengal Tiger or a clouded leopard marauding the outskirts of the Reserve. Valmiki Tiger Reserve, and Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve combine together to form the Greater Chitwan region, a bio-diversity hotspot. Rather, we were later told that the animal had been "slaughtered and subsequently eaten up by bigwigs of the district, including a parliamentarian and his supporters".

We were in the Highway Township of Bardghat. Buses and trucks were whizzing towards the east and west along the East-West highway, the lifeline of Nepal’s Terai or the plains. Nestled on the lap of Daunne Pahad, Bardghat is a small highway village in the central part of Nawalparasi district in (I should say) central Nepal. It is just like the other two major townships-Kawasoti and Parasi, the district headquarters of the big Terai district. We had reached Bardghat in the afternoon via Dumkibas and Kawasoti, covering a distance of more than 70km by motorcycle. Kantipur’s Nawalparasi correspondent Narayan Sharma was explaining the people and places of the district to me. The drive, I found, was indeed a fun-filled one with a cool breeze blowing from the nearby Sal forests and green fields.

We were on a mission: to investigate how unscrupulous members of the land-Mafia are grabbing government-owned and forested lands in the district in general and in Dumkibas and Beni-Manipur Village Development Committees (VDCs) in particular. After meeting our knowledgeable sources in Dumkibas and Kawasoti villages, we climbed over Daunne hill and down to Bardghat in order to collect some documents from a commercial bank there.

From the small police station in downtown Bardghat, we left for the nearby Area Forest Office. Again on a mission: meet up with the Forest Officer and check things out. Because we had already announced our arrival over the telephone a few hours earlier, I did not hesitate to go into the Office premises. It was like a little resort, situated in the middle of a community forest and the Sal forests. Assistant District Forest Officer was inside his quarter, and there was no one outside, not even a dog. "Nepal sir," I yelled twice and a tiny tot asked from the window, "Who is that?" "Tell your Daddy that uncles have come to meet him." After a while, a man in his early 30s showed up and welcomed us in.

The next moment, we were seated in his little drawing room, talking about the problems and prospect of forest management in the district. Originally hailing from the town of Hetauda in Makawanpur district, Nepal was doing his best to satisfy our queries. But just as we prepared to leave for our lodge, his junior staff hurriedly entered the scene and reported the story of the deer which, at that point of time, had just been captured by the farmer.

We later found out that ‘Munna babu’ and his people had somehow snatched the lovely animal from the poor farmer that night. "They slaughtered and ate the animal there and then," forest officer Nepal told us two days later. Citizens of Nawalparasi and his henchmen refer to Nepali Congress-elected MP Devendra Raj Kandel as "Munna". It was only after we encountered "Munna" in the district’s Parsauni village the next day, that we became convinced that Munna indeed was present in the district.

Bardghat and other towns were abuzz with rumours that the animal’s meat was sent to almost all the bigwigs of the backwater district-the Chief District Officer, the chief of the police and so on. Thank god the deer was not one of the endangered or protected fauna species. Had the animal been an endangered one, and had there been sufficient proof (and a functioning bureaucracy) those involved in killing the animal would have been jailed. But that was not to be.

Ironically, the incident-which according to Reporter Sharma is not even the tip of the iceberg-comes as Nepali and Indian wildlife officials are engaged in talks about strengthening trans-boundary cooperation in wildlife conservation. Exotic wild animals like deer, blue bull and gaur keep crossing over to Nepal’s Susta and other areas, only to be killed by Nepali policemen, ex-armymen and bigwigs. No one knows what happens to animals from Nepal wandering onto Indian soil. Probably the same thing.

‘Human rights violations on the rise’

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KAVRE, Jan 27 - Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the ninth annual general meeting of the Nepal Amnesty International(AI), Chapter at a function here Friday.

Addressing the function, Deuba said that despite the restoration of democracy, human rights violations were on the rise due to the Maoist movement.

Speaking on the same occasion, Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committee, Som Prasad Pandey, observed that both the government and Maoist rebels had resorted to violence and had violated norms and values of human rights.

Chairman of the Parliamentary State Affairs Committee, Homanath Dahal, said that people in the rural areas of the country had suffered more from human rights abuses than those from urban areas.

Dahal also observed that existing human rights organisations had lost credibility as all of them were associated with one political party or another.

Chairman of Human Rights and Peace Society, Krishna Pahadi, said that the government should not respond negatively whenever the human rights organisations opposed any human rights violations committed by the government.

Chairman of the AI-Nepal Chapter, Krishna Kandel, said that Amnesty International had asked Maoist leaders, Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Prachanda, to stop the ongoing violence and honour the Geneva Convention on War.

VDC vice chairman shot dead in Jajarkot

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JAJARKOT, Jan 27 - Maoist rebels shot dead the Vice-chairman of Jagatipur Village Development Committee at Kudu Bahun village Friday night, according to a fresh report from the VDC. Vice-chairman Man Bahadur Khatri was staying at his neighbour’s home when the rebels attacked. The VDC is close to Khalanga, the district headquarters.

The whereabouts of other three people, including VDC Chairman, Gopal Bahadur Batala, is still unknown. A technician of the Budu-based Drinking Water Project, Ambika Prasad Acharya and his son Niraj, have been missing since the rebels shot Khatri dead.

Maoist rebels abducted Khatri from his home about two years ago. However, he escaped from the captivity by plunging himself into the mighty Bheri river, where rebels planned to kill him. Khatri had been living underground from the rebels since he fled Maoist captivity.

Locals suspect that the rebels killed Khatri accusing him of assisting the police killing of one of their local cadre, Gopal Basnet, on 19 December 2000. A source said that the rebels have already killed 34 civilians across the district since the second weeks of August 2000.