Prime Minister asks time for key decision

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KATHMANDU, July 6 – Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s much-awaited decision to whether or not to resign as demanded by the opposition communists failed to materialize today.

Sources close to both the ruling Nepali Congress party and the main opposition CPN (UML) said that Koirala today deferred a scheduled meeting with main opposition leader Madhav Kumar Nepal in which he was expected to provide the latter with a clear time frame on what steps he was to take.

The 78-year old Prime Minister is said to have deferred today’s meeting citing health reasons. A top UML leader said, "the PM has asked for one more day."

Friday was supposed to be a crucial day for Koirala. On Wednesday, during a meeting with Nepal, the prime minister had promised to come up with a decision by today on whether or not to resign, and if yes, when exactly he would do so.

The UML is gunning for Koirala’s resignation on grounds of alleged corruption in the Lauda Air scandal that has rocked the government for some months now. Though the communists are positive about the prime minister’s 14-point national consensus agenda, spelt out last week in parliament, they still want him to quit to pave the way for a "conducive environment of dialogue and cooperation."

Sources in the NC say that Koirala is thinking hard on his options. In the event if he decides to quit, a big if, then the septuagenarian leader wants to ensure that he is succeeded by someone close to him. In this context, Koirala is pushing his close confidante, relative and Nepali Congress general secretary Sushil Koirala as a possible candidate for the Premiership. In fact, the younger Koirala has already been courting support from NC lawmakers, including from supporters of the Koirala’s rival Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Meanwhile, Koirala’s resignation issue has also been percolating inside the halls of parliament. In today’s session, K P Sharma Oli, a powerful UML leader, reiterated his party’s stand that Prime Minister Koirala should quit. "Otherwise the cost is going to be expensive for the ruling Nepali Congress," he said.

"The PM should resign anyhow keeping in mind the seriousness of the situation," Oli said. "No resignation (of PM Koirala) would mean that the ruling party have made up their mind to continue this session without the opposition or that we are heading for a mid-term polls."

During today’s session, the House of Representatives also extended best wishes to His Majesty King Gyanendra on the occasion of his 55th Birthday, which is being marked on Saturday.

Nepal's entry into PRGF to be delayed

By Bhaskar Sharma

KATHMANDU, July 6 – The protracted management hand-over of the two largest commercial banks to private hands will deter Nepal’s hope to enter into Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), say officials.

"Since Nepal is unlikely to complete the management hand-over till next three months Nepal’s chance to enter into PRGF stands slim, if not nil," said a senior official at Nepal Rastra Bank requesting anonymity.

The IMF had tied up transfer of the management of Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) and Nepal Bank Ltd. (NBL) to private hand as the major precondition for Nepal joining the PRGF. The two banks were billed as "technically insolvent" by the KPMG Barnet Group, an international auditing firm’s diagnostic report last year.

Nepal had conducted crucial negotiations with the IMF officials last November over its entry into the PRGF program. However, Nepal has already defaulted two deadlines for entry due to delay in management hand-over of the two ailing banks. The entry was initially expected for last April, which was later on adjusted for June.

The IMF board meeting slated for July third week will finally decide the fate of Nepal’s admission into the PRGF. If accepted, Nepal will be entitled to get an annual assistance of 20 million US dollar for next three years.

Not only the IMF, but the another Brettonwoods Institution - The World Bank (WB) - has also set speedy management transfer of the banks as the precondition for future assistance. "Until and unless the hand-over process is completed, all loans to Nepal from the World Bank would be affected," said Rajiv Upadhyay, External Affairs Specialist at the WB.

Furthermore, it is likely that failure on the part of the government to fulfill its commitments would even result in the freezing of the proposed assistance for Power Development Fund as promised by the WB.

The PRGF is a reform package that aims mainly to accelerate the economic reform process that the then Nepali Congress government embarked upon in 1992. It is the successor of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) implemented back in 1992, focusing specially on attaining macro-economic stability and poverty reduction.

Sweeping financial sector reforms, including the management hand-over, is also a part of the government’s budgetary commitments, which has remained messy so far. The then Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya last year in his budget speech for the current fiscal year had pledged to carry out sweeping reforms in the financial sector, especially to win back the confidence of the donors and lenders.

Hardly a few days remain for a new fiscal year and budget speech in the Parliament yet most of the promises related to financial sector reforms announced in the last budget remain to be implemented.

Experts attribute laxness on the part of the government, and the central bank, who take the center-stage in the overall reform process, as the root cause of the failure to attain the targeted reforms. Then Finance Minister Acharya had introduced over half a dozen financial sector reform programs in the last budget, but not even a single one has been fully executed.

70,000 landless families to get land this week

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KATHMANDU, July 6 - Landless People’s Problem Resolution Commission plans to distribute land to 70,000 families in the coming week. It also expects to collect revenue amounting to Rs 550 million during that period.

According to a press release issued Friday, it has already distributed land to nearly 20,000 landless people free of charge so far.

The release adds that there are a total of 19,485 squatters living in unmanaged settlements in 29 districts. The government also collected Rs 10 million from the residents of these unmanaged settlements.

A meeting was held on Friday to discuss on various issues over the problem of landless people and ways to solve it. The Minister of State for Land Reforms and President of the Commission for Land Reformation and Management, Aftab Aalam and other dignitaries were present at the meeting.

Time bomb explodes in Thimi Cinema Hall 
Banner hoaxes continue in suburbs

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KATHMANDU, July 6 - A time bomb placed by suspected Maoist insurgents went off in a cinema hall in Madyapur Thimi Municipality area this evening, completely destroying the film projector and damaging the projection room, police sources say.

The bomb fitted with a simple time device placed in the projector room of Bimshen Chalchitra Mandir at ward No. 7 of Madyapur Thimi Municipality just behind the municipality building went off at 8:10 p.m. No one was injured in the incident as all the staff had left the hall after the night show.

According to Upendra Kanta Aryal, Superintendent of Police of Bhaktapur a bag containing the time bomb was left in the balcony of the hall by one of the cinemagoers. Hall staffers recovered the bag after the show and placed it in the projector room before closing the hall.

Shiva Bahadur Thapa Shrestha, Chairman of ward No. 7 Madyapur Thimi Municipality the hall was owned jointly by Harish Chandra Thapa Shrestha, Min Bahadur Prajapati and Ramesh Thapa Shrestha of the same locality.

Similarly, suspected Maoist rebels blew up a telephone tower in Devisthan, 15 minutes from Banepa, last night disrupting connections from more than 150 telephones in remote areas of Kavrepalanchowk and Sindhupalchowk districts.

The rebels walked into the relay station tower premises at around 10-11 p.m. on Thursday and placed the explosives at a guardhouse which was empty. Then they blasted the explosives using a circuit device from about 200 meters away, said Bhim Nath Dawadi, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Kavrepalanchowk district.

A team of officials from NTC central office visited the incident site this morning and according to one official, it would cost more than $ 20,000 to repair the damage. Due to the blast all telephone connections in Kavrepalnchowk and Sindhupalchowk districts have been disconnected apart from those cable connected telephones in Banepa, Dhulikhel and Chautara.

The rebels also attacked a power station, belonging to the Nepal Electricity Authority at Panchkhal, 58 Kilometers east of the capital on Thursday night. According to reports the rebels destroyed all the official papers in the station.

On Friday, the bomb hoax continued in the capital in the same line of last few days. The rebels managed to place banners containing anti establishment slogans with pouches hanging on them at Bouddha and Budhanilkantha area.

Bomb disposal squad from the Police Headquarters managed to denote all the pouches successfully. Apart from a pouch at Tushal Chowk that contained some explosives, other pouches were filled with mud, soap cakes and stones.

According to the police sources, the Maoist rebels placed such pouches and banners in Gokarna, Tushal Chowk of Boudhha, Faika of Kapan and near the Budhanilkantha temple area.

College fee gets in the way of poor man’s wards

By Ghanashyam Ojha

KATHMANDU, July 6- The delay in the declaration of School Leaving Certificates (SLC) results is not the worry for Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha, of Kalimati. He spends sleepless nights for what he is likely to face after his son’s results are announced.

He has scoured nearly fifteen colleges in past fifteen days seeking enrollment for his son as almost all the colleges have already opened provisional admissions for the Academic session 2001-2002. Now he has relegated himself to his room with no recourse in sight. For the first time the realization has hit him hard that the admission charges are well beyond his earning capacity.

Bhakta Bahadur who works in a garment factory in the Capital draws a monthly salary of Rs 5000, which is not sufficient to feed his five-member family. This problem is not just for Bhakta Bahadur but many middle class parents are compelled to cut down on their daily food to save money to enroll their children into colleges.

According to Higher Secondary Education Council (HSEC) data, there are altogether 128 private colleges in the Capital running 10+2 courses. Among them 76 run just Plus Two (+2) classes. The admission and monthly fee charges, ranges from Rs 10000 to 33000 annually. The tuition fees too ranges from 1,500 to 3,500 per month, which is too exorbitant for middle class parents.

Asha Batsa , Director of HSEC, admitting the fact that the private college charges are burden to the parents, says that there is no policy to check and curb this trend. " We just inspect the infrastructure of the colleges after they apply for HSEC affiliations, but we cannot fix the fee structure for them," says Batsa. "Despite the fact that it is their own rights to fix the fees, I have been trying, at my own personal level, to bring parity in fees among the colleges," she adds.

Dr. Tara Nath Sharma, an eminent litterateur, working as the Principal of Don Bosco College also admits that the fees being charged by private colleges are very high. He says "government has to work to bring parity in the fee structures among these colleges". However, he adds, some colleges do provide quality education even though their charges may be quite high.

Ashim Joshi, a student at Nobel Academy says that the students are left with no alternatives but to go to these private colleges. According to him, government owned colleges are political hotbeds and they hardly maintain quality in education, so privates are the only alternatives. "Had the standards been maintained in government-owned colleges, we might switch over to them since they are cheaper for us," he adds.

Asked what would be the government’s policy to address this problem facing the poor parents, Batsa said that the HSEC is promoting government schools to apply for HSEC affiliations. She also added that the Council will depute a teacher to every government owned colleges starting this year. It is also increasing the financial grant from this fiscal year. This is all we can do from our side at this juncture to bring this problem under control," she admits.

However, parents remain worried with the government’s plan to phase out all Intermediate Levels from public schools in the near future. " How will I be able to send my children to colleges when they complete their SLC?" questions Ram Bahadur KC, father of four children, two of whom are in grade nine.

Govt claim of financial grant under fire

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KATHMANDU, July 6 – A day after the Finance Ministry came up with a list of prominent names that had received financial grants totaling up to Rs. 100,073,876 from the government, the issue has come under much controversy already after two personalities today declined of having received the said amount.

Both senior human rights activist Rishikesh Shah and Manju Ratna Shakya, president of Nepal Journalists’ Association, have denied receiving the government grant as mentioned in the list provided to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.

"Though it was decided that I would receive Rs. 100,000, I would like to make it clear that I have received only Rs. 25,000 so far," Shah said in a press release issued here today.

Likewise, Shakya denied of having received any such grants from the government ever since the restoration of democracy.

Naming around a dozen prominent names, the Finance Ministry yesterday said that the amount of financial assistance granted by the government to individuals during the first 10 months of this fiscal year has reached Rs. 100,073,876. However, as the statement did not include the amount given during the last two months of the fiscal year that ends on July 15, many say the amount is likely to be much higher.

Sanctioning of such amounts needs the approval of the Cabinet and is released by the Finance Ministry. Earlier, the Home Ministry used to issue such grants but was later transferred to the Cabinet after PAC brought a halt to the practice, citing massive irregularities in the name of donations and medical treatment.

PAC has decided that it will look into the matter again.

RNA denies media reports

KATHMANDU, July 6 (PR)–Royal Nepal Army (RNA) officer Lieutenant Colonel Dhurba Gurung today categorically denied that the RNA Chief of Army Staff General Prajwalla Shumsher J.B. Rana had been asked to cut short his trip to London and return home immediately.

Lt. Col. Gurung’s statement comes immediately after The Kathmandu Post, quoting military sources, had carried a news yesterday saying General Rana had been ordered to rush back home in view of the deteriorating security situation in the Valley.

General Rana is presently on a week-long visit to London since July 1, on the invitation of Admiral sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of Defense Staff, UK.

According to Lt. Col. Gurung, Gen. Rana left for London "after the approval of the Cabinet" and that he would return on July 8, as per schedule. "The media reports saying that he has been called early is totally false," he said.

Tripathi resigns from party vice-president

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KATHMANDU, July 6- The leader of the Nepal Sadvawana Party Hrideyesh Tripathi, resigned from the post of Vice-President expressing concern over the recent reformation of its party working committee today.

President of the Nepal Sadvawana Party Gajendra Narayan Singh on Thursday had reformed the party’s national working committee in which Tripathi was designated party vice-president who was earlier in the position of general secretary.

"I am very shocked to hear that the party President Singh has reorganised the party working committee," said Tripathi issuing a press release. Tripathi, in his release, said that he was not consulted when the party President reconstituted the party working committee and appointed him as the party vice-president.

"I express my concern over the method applied and the act of not informing me. Therefore, I resign from the post of vice-president," said Tripathi in his release. But Tripathi in the release, expressed his commitment to assist in the party’s work.