Public Safety Regulations 2001 draws flak

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KATHMANDU, June 19 – The government’s move to grant more powers to the Chief District Officers (CDO) under Public Safety Regulations, 2001 has drawn flak from opposition parties, Human Rights activists and lawyers.

However, the ruling party spokesperson defended the move saying that it was the government’s prerogative to make necessary changes in the security regulations to uphold public safety.

On June 4, the government issued Public Safety Regulations, 2001 in the Gazette notification using Clause 14 of the Public Safety Act, 2046 BS. This Regulations empower the CDOs or officials on their behalf to put individual or a group under solitary confinement or limit their movement to certain areas if officials are "convinced" that the suspected people are about to harm the country’s sovereignty, integrity or infringe law and order.

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) came down heavily against the government move saying that the government was displaying "anti-people dictatorial streak " by bringing out the Regulations.

Issuing a press release, the party said that the Regulations violate the people’s right against confinement and the right to freedom that are guaranteed by the Constitution. The government, added the UML, has launched an attack on the Constitution, the parliament, the judiciary and the Public Safety Act (2046 BS). "We condemn the move and ask the government to withdraw it immediately," said the party.

Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, Vice-President of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) condemned the move by saying that the government has abused its authority. "The Regulations are against democratic norms and will certainly limit people’s rights and freedoms," fumed Dr Lohani.

Similarly, Hridyesh Tripathi of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) said that the new Regulations infringe on people’s rights. Tripathi also criticized the government for bringing out the Regulations when the next parliament session was in the offing. "What was the hurry? The government could have presented the Regulations in the House. The government has once again cheated the House," he said.

On May 31, the Cabinet had recommended to late King Birendra to summon the 20th Session of the parliament on June 25. On Monday, King Gyanendra summoned the House as per the cabinet’s recommendation.

Likewise, All Nepal National Free Students’ Union and Socialist Movement Nepal both have condemned the move, saying it was against the Constitution and aimed at containing people’s basic rights.

However, Narhari Acharya, spokesperson of the ruling Nepali Congress defended the government move. "It is the government’s prerogative to make changes in the Act approved by the parliament. The Regulations have been brought out to fulfil the objectives of the Public Safety Act." If the Regulations are against the spirit of the Constitution, then either the parliament or the judiciary can overturn it, said Acharya.

He also defended the timing of the Regulations. "Regulations can be enacted anytime; there is no question of bringing it before or after a parliamentary session. The only criterion is that it has to be within the parameters of the Constitution and the law of the land."

On Monday, the Home Ministry clarified that the Public Safety Rules, 1962 was replaced by Public Safety Regulations, 2001 in order to update the Public Safety Act, 1990.

Secretary-level panel completes work

KATHMANDU, June 19 (PR)- The secretary-level committee formed to study the High-Level Committee report on the Narayanhity Royal Palace carnage, and recommend ways to implement it, completed its work today.

The committee will present its recommendations to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who also looks after Royal Palace Affairs.

Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Narayan Shumshere Thapa told The Kathamndu Post that the committee studied various aspects of the report and made recommendations. However, Secretary Thapa refused to disclose the contents of the recommendations.

The committee was formed after His Majesty King Gyanendra, asked the Prime Minister to implement the High Level Committee report on Royal massacre in accordance with the Constitution and law, last Thursday, immediately after the High-Level Committee presented its investigation report.

On Friday the Prime Minister called an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and formed the seven-member committee led by Thirtha Man Sakya, the Chief Secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat.

The other members of the committee were Yodha Shah, Secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat, Srikant Regmi, Secretary Home Ministry, Sri Ram Poudel, Secretary, Ministry for Information and Communication, Udaya Nepali Shrestha, Secretary, Ministry for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Narayan Shumshere Thapa, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Padam Prasad Acharya, Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

Chaos in RPP over NA elections

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, June 19 - The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the third largest party, is once again in the news over voting in parliament.

Not because they are reliving the infamous swapping of support for major parties making and breaking them few years ago, but for their fight for a seat or two at the National Assembly, the Upper House of Parliament.

RPP with 12 lawmakers in the House of Representatives has entered into a pact with CPN-UML, which has promised to support RPP’s official candidate Lok Bahadur Thapa. In return RPP is supposed to help CPN-UML’s candidate in all the Five Development Regions.

RPP needs at least 19 votes in the Lower House to get Thapa elected. And CPN-UML with 12 spare votes can easily get him elected.

Easier said than done, another powerful personality from RPP has also filed his candidacy and with the support of at least eight members, which is two-thirds strength of the party in the House.

Jog Meher Shrestha, once powerful minister during the Panchayati days, filed his candidacy but the party was quick to declare that he was not their official choice.

Not only Shrestha has rebelled against the party leadership, but another candidate Khem Raj Pandit has refused to withdraw his candidacy from the contest in Mid-west Development Region.

Monday was the last day for candidates to withdraw their candidacy before the elections slated for next week.

"Pandit is the official candidate and I am going there to help in his campaign for the elections," said RPP leader Rabindra Nath Sharma.

This would mean that the CPN-UML’s official candidate would not be getting any support from most of RPP’s voters in this region. CPN-UML in a way has been betrayed.

Worse, RPP’s candidate would be getting support from other parties like the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-ML too. This could ultimately guarantee Pandit a victory in this seat.

NC in a high level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala endorsed support for RPP.

RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa has faxed a letter to the Returning Officer seeking to deny Pandit RPP’s official symbol, the plough.

But sources in the party say that both Pandit and Shrestha has the party’s official approval on paper signed by none other than Chairman Thapa himself just few days ago.

"Lok Bahadur Thapa is our official candidate and we will stick by the pact with CPN-UML," said RPP Vice-chairman Prakash Chandra Lohani.

Out of the 20 vacant seats in the Upper House, 11 will be elected by the 205 members of the House of Representatives, five will be chosen by the District Development Committee members from each of the Development Regions and four will be nominated by the King.

Every two years, a third of the total 60 members of the National Assembly, which is also known as the house of the elite, retire to be replaced by fresh members. The tenure of each of the members is six years. There are 10 members nominated by the King.

RPP in the past has remained lucky. With only a dozen or so seats in the parliament, it got two of its leaders catapulted as prime ministers during the hung parliament day.

Switching supports between NC and CPN-UML, it was part of the ruling coalition for most of the tenure of the last parliament. In the end the party split into two factions one led by Thapa and another by Lokendra Bahadur Chand.

And even better, RPP with only three members in the Upper House got its candidate Mohammed Mohsin elected as its Chairman taking advantage of the situation with no single party holding majority.

Even after getting their three candidates elected, CPN-UML with 69 members in the Lower House will have 12 surplus votes, which they have decided to support RPP’s official candidate.

CPN-UML which could have easily used its surplus 12 votes to support Leftist candidates like Santa Bahadur Nepali from the National People’s Front. Instead the party surprisingly decided to throw its weight behind RPP.

And the way it looks for now, RPP which was not even sure of getting any one candidate elected to the Upper House could end up with two new faces there. Thapa could be the winner at the voting in the Lower House and Pandit elected from Midwest Region.

Or it could earn the wrath of CPN-UML and other parties for seeking support and in a way shying away from their pact.

Bardia Park extension program in limbo

By Ganesh Raj Acharya

KATHMANDU, June 19 - Seven months after Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala officially announced to double the area of Royal Bardia National Park (RBNP), little has been done to implement the decision and officials say that they are waiting for a Gazette notice.

All government decisions are implemented only after they are published in the Nepal Gazette.

Koirala’s announcement to double the area of RBNP—which entails including some 900 sq. km area to the existing 968-sq km park territory—last November during the International Conference of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Conservationists and officials say that the mid-western Terai park would become one of the best habitats for the endangered Royal Bengal tigers and other threatened wildlife species once the area is doubled and conservation efforts increased.

While stating that conservation policies and strategies to manage the extended area are being chalked out, officials at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) say that they are waiting for an official go-ahead to actually declare the extended area—which spreads over Banke and Dang districts, northeast of Nepalgunj—a protected area or the extended Bardia Park.

"That was indeed a landmark decision (to double the area of RBNP)," said a DNPWC official referring to the November decision. "But things are so slow here that it takes months— if not years— to get a decision implemented. Well, files are moving pretty slowly this time."

However, the concerned government officials refuse to comment on what is actually happening in the officialdom, but only say that "we are on the process of doing home works and the government will decide on the matter as soon as possible".

Stating that procedures to extend the national park were underway, an official at the Ministry said, "Officially, we need to look into so many issues, including minimizing probable adverse impacts from the people and others in the proposed extended area, its core area and the buffer zone."

Shyam Bajimaya, Chief Warden of RBNP, says that extension of the Park will have positive impact on the flora and fauna of the mid-western Terai region, which is regarded as an important part of the Terai Arc, a proposed eco-region encompassing several protected areas of the Terai of Nepal and India.

"The move would help expand the shrinking habitat of the wildlife, and conserve various wetlands which also attract several migratory birds," he said. "This approach will also help in creating and extending the corridors which are very important to connect several protected areas - and the animals - of Nepal and India."

Educationists skeptical on the PABSON recommendation

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KATHMANDU, June 19- Despite the optimistic tone of All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU), the pro-Maoist students’ organization, educationists said that the present PABSON recommendation, though commendable, would also simply be the repetition of Khania report submitted to the government in 1998.

When asked to comment on the report, members of ANNFSU (R) said that the positive thing about PABSON ‘s recommendations was that it suggested reduction of fees a time when most private schools were charging exorbitant fees."

Revolutionary students have been sticking to their 15-point demand such as 50 per cent reduction in fees, removal of Sanskrit as compulsory subject from the curriculum, stopping chanting National Anthem, not allowing the collection of fees at one go, non-teaching staff to be rewarded just and fairly and a host of others.

They accuse that these private schools, in the name of privatization and global competitiveness, have pushed back the poor people that comprise huge chunk in Nepalese population.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post over telephone, Atindra Neupane, a central member of Revolutionary students, said that it had sought the closure of about 300-400 private and boarding schools since last year in various districts such as in Gorkha and Tanahu.

Devendra Parajuli, President of ANNFSU (R) had earlier made reported remarks that his organization will dismantle the existing private and boarding schools outside the capital while its major thrust in the capital would be to limit their size. Speaking to The Kathmandu Post over telephone, Dr Tirtha Khania, prominent educationist and former Chairman of the Committee formed to probe into the education in 1988 said, "had the government implemented the recommendation we submitted in 1998, there would have been no problems in education now."

"Government ought to have implemented our recommendation then, now the committee, formed, is for not working out the solution," he added. Rajan Sharma, President of the Federation of Education Journalists flayed the government for not implementing the reforms recommended by Khania Commission. He also added that the Maoist-affiliated students seek themselves political solutions too.

He also suggested that the warring students, government and the PABSONs should raise scholarships schemes for low-income students rather than fighting to cut-down the actual fees. "Fee could have been raised and scholarships doubled," Khania had suggested the government in his 1998 report. Khania suggests that the present crisis in education can be solved by increasing scholarships to the low-income students and bringing all the private schools under one regulatory framework alone.

Shraddhanjali Geet to mourn Their Majesties’ death

By Satish Jung Shahi

KATHMANDU, June 19 - Most songs fade off from listeners’ memory after catching the melody for a while. But some may just be so heart-rending that they stay on much longer, even forever.

Hot on the heels of the tragic turn of events in the country, at least four Shraddhanjali Geet (condolence songs) have already been released in the past two weeks — all dedicated to Late King Birendra, and nine other Royal family members who died in the June 1 Narayanhity Palace massacre.

And the singers of these songs are none other than such popular names in the Nepali musical scenario as Ram Krishna Dhakal, Lochan Bhattarai, Prakash Shrestha and Jems Pradhan.

"Such songs give everybody an opportunity to release the grief that has presently been a shock to the entire nation," says lyricist Rajendra Thapa, who penned singer Dhakal’s song, Patyaunai Sakina (I Couldn’t Believe It), on June 3 and immediately passed it over to singer Dhakal and musician Sheela Bahadur Moktan over the phone.

The song, released on June 7, is currently hitting the charts despite its release only on FM stations.

"FM Stations have been saying that they have received numerous calls inquiring about the song immediately after it was released," adds Thapa, a Royal Nepal Army Brigadier General, who is also the lyricist of the famous late Aruna Lama song, Pohar Saal Khusi Phatda (Last Year When Happiness Tore).

"We (Dhakal, Moktan and Thapa) all produced the song voluntarily and Chandra Prakash Sharma of Moonlight Records agreed to chip in about Rs. 25-30,000 as studio charges and for the background artists," he further adds.

Similarly, Dhakal, better known for his melancholic numbers, has also another song Jurukka Uthi (Waking Up) to his credit. The song is written by Sindhu Rana, daughter of renowned litterateur late Bal Krishna Sama and wife of present Chief of Army Staff Gen. Prajwalla Shumsher Rana.

"Both the songs are such a big hit...They get so much requests that we keep playing them numerous times even though they have been played continuously during the 13-day mourning period," says Rabi Shrestha, a radio jockey with Hits FM.

Likewise, similar Shraddhanjali Geet has also been sung by versatile pop singer Jems Pradhan, as well as another duet by Prakash Shrestha and Lochan Bhattarai.

If going by the public mood, the release of such Shraddhanjali Geet is not going to stop at this point. Lyricists say, with so much demand for such songs, more and more of them are bound to follow the bandwagon.

"It is a very positive sign ... Lyricists actually pen down incidents that really touch them from inside. Even in this case, it just shows how much the Late King who has been a symbol of unity is being missed," says Manoj Acharya, a popular lyricist who works with Kantipur FM.

"It cannot be denied that more and more Shraddhanjali Geet will be written in the future," he adds.

Acharya’s prediction is most likely to be right. Thapa, who already has Dhakal’s songs to his credit, reveals that he finished recording another Aim Baral song today.

"The new song for which Alok Shree has composed music is a type that requests the people to move unitedly ahead," he says.

"Swarga Bata Herda Usle Gharma Shanti Dekhna Parchha (His Majesty should see peace within his house when he looks back from heaven)," he said, as he read out a few lines from his new song.