Officials gearing up for Agriculture Census

By Subas Risal

KATHMANDU, July 11 - Officials at the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) are gearing up for yet another census, barely a month after the census enumerators and supervisors completed the Herculean task of compiling data collected from across the country.

With the population census over, CBS officials told The Kathmandu Post that preparations are underway for the 5th National Sample Census of Agriculture, or unofficially known as the ‘Mini-Census’.

The census is scheduled to begin from the month of February.

According to the CBS, the questionnaire for this sample Census has already been prepared and will attempt to find out "the real picture of the agriculture situation" in the country.

"The proposed budget for National Sample Census of Agriculture is 65 million, and the questionnaire has already been prepared," said Keshav Raj Sharma, the Director General of CBS.

He added, "Since Nepal is a country where a big chunk of the population depends upon agriculture, this census will definitely play a vital role in formulating plans and policies on agriculture and to raise the living standards of the people in the long run."

Like the population census, the ‘Mini-Census’ is conducted at a regular interval of ten years and the data is compiled in all 75 districts not on the basis of door-to door visit but rather through sampling procedures. In doing so, the sample data is acquired from some of the selected Village Development Committees (VDCs).

CBS says that National Sample Census of Agriculture will help in studying the situation of the agriculture and subsequently devise programs and policies to develop the sector. More than 90 per cent of the population is said to be engaged in agriculture in Nepal, according to previous census data.

The need to conduct a separate census stems from the fact that "the data collected during the (just-concluded) 10th National Census will not be sufficient to give the real picture of the country’s agriculture sector," said Tunga Siromani Bastola, the Deputy Director General at the Bureau.

The upcoming census will focus on agriculture, and almost 2,500 enumerators will be deputed to compile the data, according to Bastola, who is also the Co-ordinator of the Mini census.

He further added that some of questions for the census have been included on the basis of recommendations from the World Food Organisation (WFO) and other suggestions from users’ groups and technical committees.

This Census is scheduled to begin from the month of February and will continue for three months-till month of May. There is an inclusion of vital issues like number of domestic animals owned by the family, total area of cultivated land and fertile land owned by the family etc.

The CBS officials also said that it would train its employees to acquire authentic data. "We are going to give much attention on the training. If the training to the employees is effective then it definitely will aid in portraying the real situation of agriculture in the country," said Krishna Prasad Shrestha, another Deputy Director of CBS.

The 1st National Sample Census of Agriculture was conducted in 1961 with a view to bring out the real picture of the agriculture sector. The idea has also been emphasised by the "20 years Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) - the long-term plan adopted by the country, which focuses on commercialisation of agriculture, among others.

The 10th National Census was completed almost a month ago and the data are being processed and analysed. CBS officials have been saying that sampling will be conducted in the left-out districts of the country soon. In some of the districts, officials say, the underground Maoist rebels deliberately obstructed the Census works.

Ship carrying fertiliser to Nepal sinks in Bay of Bengal

KATHMANDU, July 11 (PR) - A Vietnamese ship carrying fertiliser to Nepal from China sank in the Bay of Bengal Tuesday, about 250 kilometres from the Kolkata port, the Associated Press said late Wednesday quoting port authorities.

All 30 crew members aboard the MV Lucnan were rescued by Coast Guard ships and are safe, a spokesman for the Calcutta Port Trust said, according to the AP report carried by The Timesofindiaonline. The Lucnan was headed toward Kolkata, which landlocked Nepal uses to import and export goods. It was carrying 11,000 tons of ammonium phosphate and 2,500 tons of other fertilizers.

Binh Le Quoc, the captain of the cargo vessel, told the Kolkata port authorities that the ship had developed a leak in its hold around midnight Monday, and was beginning to sink as water was gushing in, the port spokesman said, according to the report.

"All efforts to plug the leak failed and the captain and the crew jumped into the water as the ship sank Tuesday afternoon," it said, adding: "The Coast Guard, which had been alerted by their distress signal, sent two ships, two hovercraft and a Dronier aircraft to pick them up, said Coast Guard Commandant K C Pant."

High security expenses come under fire

Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 11 - The government’s budget allocation for security came under severe criticism today from the opposition parties on the first day of discussion on the fiscal budget for 2001/2002.

"How can a poor country like Nepal afford to allocate and spend so much on security?" asked Bharat Mohan Adhikari of the main opposition CPN-UML.

Adhikari, who is also a former Finance Minister and a renowned economist, said allocating almost 25 per cent of the revenue for security was unrealistic.

The government has allocated Rs. 10.21 billion for security forces to be used for the police and the army. This is a little over 10 per cent of the total budget but makes a fourth of the expected revenue earnings. The focus on security comes amid growing attacks by the Maoist rebels who in the recent days, have intensified attacks at police stations.

Last week, the rebels attacked three police stations killing 41 policemen, abducted nearly three dozen and even detonated a bomb near the official residence of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Over 1,700 people have been killed since the rebels began their violent campaign five years ago.

Adhikari further said that the budget estimates are far from reality and it has gone against the government’s commitment for decentralization. He said that of the Rs. 50 billion allocated for development expenditure, only a fifth of that has been allocated for rural development. And when the budget has been increased in most items, the Village Development Committees (VDC) will continue to receive only half million rupees which is not a fair allocation, he added.

Another former Finance Minister Prakash Chandra Lohani said that the revenue will be significantly short compared to the figures given and the expenditure will be much more than expected.

"The ninth development plan says that 33 per cent of the budget will be used for the agriculture sector. But this budget has hardly 20 per cent allocated for the sector," said Lohani, a lawmaker from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).

He alleged that though the government has allocated budget for development work like education, drinking water and health, in reality the money will not be used for this sector and instead will be channelled to other items. Speaking for the budget, Chief Whip of governing Nepali Congress (NC) Binay Dhoj Chand said all the problems will not be solved immediately but rather the process is a slow process.

"This is the most effective budget that we can have at a time like now," said Chand.

The debate will continue on Thursday.

Maoists intensify activities ahead of nationwide shutdown

By Sudharshan Rijal / KP Ghimire

TULSIPUR, Dang, July 11 - Suspected underground Maoists on Tuesday night shot dead Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Parameshwor Sijapati, at Motipur of Tulsipur Municipality-6, about 25 km west of Ghorahi, the district headquarters, according to the District Police Office (DPO).

Superintendent of Police (SP), Prem Gurung, at the DPO, said the rebels fired three shots at Sijapati while he was returning to his office on his vehicle after inspecting the policemen on regular municipality patrol at around 10.45 p.m.

SSP Sijapati, a permanent resident of Parsa district, was transferred from Bara to the Regional Unit of Police Office, Tulsipur about three months ago.

SSP Sijapati is the highest ranking police officer to be shot dead by the suspected rebels since the Maoists waged armed struggle began six years ago.

Injured Sijapati was first taken to Amrit Hospital in Tulsipur. Then he was immediately rushed to the Mahendra Hospital in Ghorahi, where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Sijapati’s driver has also been injured by shrapnel.

Dr. Shrawan Kumar Chaudhary at the hospital, who carried out the post-mortem, told The Kathmandu Post that the bullet entry wound was found at the left armpit. Dr. Chaudhary said the bullets had pierced his heart and lung and entangled on his right chest.

Meanwhile, in a strongly-worded press statement issued today, Home Secretary Shri Kant Regmi said the police organisation has lost a dedicated and inspired police official in this brutal assassination.

"I condemn the brutal murder of a police official while he was on his duty to protect the lives and property of people," Home Secretary Regmi said, adding, "The persons involved in the incident will be found and stern actions taken against them."

Sijapati’s body was airlifted to his home district of Parsa for the last rites after carrying out the post-mortem at the hospital this morning.

Police said Sijapati set out of his office for duty check along with his driver on a vehicle without security guards around 10 p.m.

Police recovered nothing more than some pieces of broken glass at the site of the incident located about one km east of the main market on Wednesday morning. SP Gurung said that SSP Sijapati was shot while defending the Maoist attack.

Another source suspect that a group of around eight people who were last seen at the site shot the SSP after he got off the vehicle to enquire about them.

A local, Bhagawati Acharya, said he heard at least eight rounds of fire when he was about to go to bed.

After receiving information of the incident, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Amar Singh Shah, at the Mid-Western Region Police Office in Nepalgunj, rushed to the site to take stock of the situation this morning.

Police have been massively mobilised around the area after the shoot out incident.Police suspect that the rebels must have taken advantage of him being alone while distracting other policemen on patrol on the eve of nationwide strike called by Maoists on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a dispatch from far-western Mahendranagar municipality stated that the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) defused an unexploded home-made bomb reportedly planted by suspected Maoists at the house of erstwhile minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tarini Datta Chataut.

Dr. Jagadish, a medical store-keeper, who rents Chataut’s house said an unidentified person had cautioned him over telephone that the bomb would explode at around 11 a.m.

Likewise, the RNA defused today a home-bomb left behind the premises of the district administration office in Birgunj.

Earlier on Tuesday, an unidentified person cautioned authorities over telephone about the bomb being planted there. A sweeper had first seen the wrapped object while clearing litter from the office premises.

Superintendent of Police, Arjun Shahi, said the bomb could have destroyed half of the office building had it not been defused before it went off.

In another report from Kailali, Maoist rebels set two police posts ablaze on Tuesday night.

According to the police in Tikapur municipality, the rebels also set a police post located at Tikapur garden on fire.

Similarly, another group of rebels destroyed the Kanari based post, about seven km east of Dhangadhi, the district headquarters. But no policemen were injured during the attack as they were away from the posts.

Meanwhile, a group of Maoists rebels today burnt a vehicle of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in Biratnagar today. Sources close to the Maoists said the burning of the vehicle was a warning to the NEA whose vehicles were being used by the police.

Similarly, on the eve of the Nepal bandh, the Maoists today took out processions and held rallies in many villages and small markets of Dolakha district as a part of the propaganda to the bandh.

Sujata residence bombed

KATHMANDU, July 11 (PR) - Neighbourhood of Sujata Koirala, the daughter of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, remained tense this morning after a bomb exploded at her Manikatar residence causing minor damages.

Police said the bomb planted by the underground Maoist rebels outside the boundary wall towards the west side, exploded at around 5:10 a.m. The explosion took place a day before the nation-wide strike called by the insurgents to protest the Public Security Regulations (PSR).

A portion of the temporary wall and a tin sheet that was supporting the wall has been damaged.

"We were hardly awake when a sudden powerful explosion almost scared us to death. We could hardly go to bed again," said Ramlal Shrestha, Sujata’s neighbour.

Sujata was present in her residence when the incident occurred, locals said.

Police suspect that the Maoists could have caused the explosion as a message to PM Koirala, whose resignation has been strongly demanded by the opposition for his involvement in the Lauda Air scam.

RNAC to sign termination agreement with Lauda Air soon

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 11 – The Royal Nepal Airlines Corporations (RNAC) and Lauda Air (Austria) are likely to sign an agreement within a week to terminate the infamous B-767 jet lease deal "by mutual agreement", highly placed officials said today.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials told The Kathmandu Post that both sides have agreed in principle to terminate the controversial agreement and "are exchanging draft agreements which require minor changes". "Had we negotiated across the table, we might have signed the termination agreement by now. But the delay is due to the correspondence that we are carrying on in the absence of face to face talks," said the officials.

The officials revealed that both the RNAC and Lauda Air had been exchanging mails with a view to terminating the contract before its term expires. The one-year agreement was supposed to end on 30th November this year.

The agreement had drawn much flak from not only the opposition parties but also from the dissidents within the ruling Nepali Congress. The last session of the parliament was completely disrupted by the opposition parties, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for his alleged complicity in the deal. The call for resignation has been repeated in the current session too.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed cases against 10 persons, including the then civil aviation minister and two Lauda Air officials. The case remains pending at the Patan Appellate Court.

The Lauda jet flew to Bangkok in the last week of May for repairs but it did not return to Nepal. Instead it wrote to the RNAC management to clear the mandatory advance payment for the month of June. It was then the two sides began discussing how to terminate the agreement without claiming any legal damages. "It is a win-win situation for both the sides," said one of the officials. He declined to elaborate further.

‘Ponder nation's population growth trend’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 11 - The world’s population has reached a whopping 6.1 billion and is still growing at the rate of 1.3 per cent or 77 million per year.

Closer to home, it took more than 60 years for Nepal’s population to double from 5.5 billion to 11.6 billion until 1971, but only about 30 years to reach the 24 million mark in 2001.

The unprecedented growth in population, however, does not even compare or complement with the slow growth in socio-economic development, experts say. They point out it is time to ponder as the world celebrated the World Population Day (WPD) today.

For the greatest challenge of the 21st century is to enable everyone to have a life of dignity, says Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). But she says there is still a lingering question: "What have we done to manage the unprecedented growth in Nepalese population?"

It took 123 years for the world population to grow from one billion to two billion. However, it took only 33 years to move from two billion to three billion mark, 14 years for the four billion, 13 years for the five billion and just 11 years for the six billion.

Nepal still remains among the 53 countries with low human development index. Taking it into consideration from the Human Development Report 2001, the Representative of UNFPA, J. Bill Musoke said, "WPD is a day we should not only celebrate but also reflect on the numerous problems that human beings face and we need to think about future generation too."

Various programmes that were organized today to mark the WPD noted that growing population is not necessarily a boon when the human beings face numerous problems of ever growing population, crowded cities through phenomena of urbanisation, growing poverty, deteriorating environment, health, education systems and the much talked about status of women and children, among others.

Experts opine that the development of a country should be in ratio of the population and to accelerate development resources should be carefully utilised. Thus, any developmental activity taken should be environment-friendly. With this consideration, the Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE) has put forward it’s slogan for the year as "Population, Development and Environment".

MOPE will also concentrate on these three issues along with the status of women. Minister for Population and Environment Siddharaj Ojha stressed that the development of the society can be expected only after bringing the anticipated improvement in the status of women.

It was for this reason alone that the Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN) put forward their focus to give the utmost importance to the status of women. The Nepalese women play an important role in bringing up the family and eventually the society while men have been the decision makers. Women’s status is low and maternal and child health is poorest as compared to the neighbours.

FPAN, say the officials, thus lays stress on men’s involvement in the family welfare including reproductive health, gender equity, equality and empowerment of women. Nepalese men have a long way to go in promoting child health, analysts say.

"So as the growth of population is likely to overburden the women, the bigger responsibility falls on men today" said Minster Ojha.

When kids hate school, counselling is the answer

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, July 11 - It's always been a challenge for Samita Adhikari to send her
7-year-old son to school. She shouts and takes a long breath after she become successful in her mission: to send her tiny tot to school.

It is not only Samita who has hard time sending children to school but there are thousands of parents who have dumped their wards in hostels just because of failing to bring them up properly at homes.

This is the story of small children. The stories of older but still young (teenagers) might be different. The parents may not have to face similar tough time while sending them to schools but the children fool their parents by going elsewhere by bunking school.

It is not always a good thing to solely blame a child for being obstinate to their parent. But the background reasons might be chilly. The reasons could be the parents may not be open to their children, the teachers rude to the students and giving severe punishment to them, they could have fallen to bad company, the children might have problem in understanding their teachers in classes....… to name but a few.

Psychologists and professional counselors say that it is the lack of counselling that makes the schoolchildren to have problem in schools. Counselor at Campion College/School Mohan Adhikari says that many children are not being able to do up to their potency just because they lack proper counselling and guidance.

"When a small child first goes to school, he will be put in a completely different world, which he/she ever finds," says Padma Prasad Ghimire, President of Organisation for Psychological Research and Counselling (OPRC). "When a child gets regular slaps and scolding coupled with piles of daily assignments from the teachers and with regular pushes from the parents, he/she will be in dilemma and conflict. The initial excitement of going to school will turn to hatred."

Though the counselling to the schoolchildren is yet to be developed professionally in Nepal, very few schools/colleges limited to the Capital - all private - have hired counselling teachers. And more importantly, very few of the hired teachers are professionally and academically trained in counselling. Such schools in the Capital are Campion College/School, Budhanilkantha School, International White House College, Little Angel’s, Shuva Tara School, St. Xavier’s College/School, among others.

Campion’s Mohan Adhikari says that there are two types of tools to understand child’s interest - Vocational Interest Record (VIR) and Educational Interest Record (EIR) - both developed in India. Apart from this, the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) Test developed by India could be very much effective in Nepal to assess each child’s level of understanding. "Not only imply to small children these assessments can also be effectively used for teenagers and late teenagers," says Adhikari.

The OPRC has identified five major areas of problems schoolchildren face - adjustment problem, educational problem, acculturation problem, substance abuse and parenting problem. Apart from them, disorder of over and under-controlled behaviour and learning disabilities have remained other underlying problems the children face. "Teacher-student relationship and parent-child relationship matters much in a child’s overall performance," says Madhu Bilas Khanal, a professional psychologist.

Rato Bangla School is the only school which bars teachers from giving physical punishment and verbal abuse to the children.

"We give training to each teacher before they are sent to teach in the classes. We teach the potential teachers to teach the students to assume responsibility," says Shanta Dixit, Director of the school. "The training includes both psychological and counselling aspect." However, she says that none of the teachers are from the academic background of psychology/counselling.

Though all schools have not felt the necessity to keep a counselling teacher, Adhikari says that school counselling will be a must in almost all schools in the future. And, he even draws the future by saying that it will be difficult to get a counselling teacher.

PM meets Oli to seek support

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 11 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today met with CPN-UML’s Khadga Prasad Oli in his continuing effort to ease pressure on him to resign.

Oli, the second most powerful leader of the main opposition CPN-UML, met Koirala for an hour in the presence of Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola.

According to sources close to the Prime Minister, the meeting concentrated on the functioning of the ongoing parliamentary Session.

The opposition parties that had teamed to pressure Koirala to step down had disrupted the entire Winter Session of Parliament. And now they have again indicated that they would continue their campaign once the Accounts Bill is pushed through the House.

This could come as early as next week leading to more trouble for Koirala. Besides the standing issue of the Lauda Air bribery scandal, the issue of increasing attacks by Maoist rebels and the June 1 Royal Palace massacre is putting additional pressure on Koirala to resign on moral grounds.

Koirala has said he is trying to garner support for his 14-point agenda and once a consensus is reached among the ruling and opposition parties he would quit.

However, even with the draft of the consensus ready awaiting only the signatures, Koirala appears set to back out irking the opposition.

Ravi Bhakta elected FNCCI chief unopposed

KATHMANDU, July 11(PR) - Ravi Bhakta Shrestha, first vice president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), was elected unopposed to the post of president of the Federation Tuesday.

Shrestha was the lone candidate to file nomination till the last date of filing candidacy Tuesday for the post. The annual general meeting of the Federation slated to take place on July 15 would appoint him to the post of president for a period of two years.

As per the understanding reached among the business leaders, nobody filed candidature for the post of president of FNCCI, the apex body of the business community. However, many candidates have filed their nomination for the remaining posts, for which election would take place on July 16. Born in a business family in the capital, Shrestha is Honorary Consular General to Italy. He is also involved in insurance and finances business, soap company and trading.