Indian agriculture export policy could affect Nepal

By Bhaskar Sharma

KATHMANDU, June 21 - The proposal of the Indian government to grant direct subsidies to farm produce export, in addition to removing all existing quantitative restrictions on their exports, may come as a boon to Indian farmers, but for their brethren in Nepal, it might spell a disaster.

The proposal, first of its kind in India, which still awaits Cabinet approval, was presented by the Indian Commerce Ministry this week. According to The Economic Times, June 20 edition, traders exporting agro-products — like rice, wheat, sugar and pulses – will be paid back the difference between their total costs and the final realized export price.

Though aimed at improving the competitiveness of the Indian products vis-a-vis the American and European products, once approved, the decision could provide a heavy blow to the Nepali farmers. Indian farmers already enjoy the competitive edge in terms of cost of production over the Nepali farmers.

This is likely to aggravate the already worsening price situation for the Nepali farmers. Low priced agro-imports from India last year pulled down the prices of most of the domestic agro-products, making food grain production an unfeasible venture.

"If India moves forward with the export subsidies, Nepali farmers will have a tough time surviving since the prices of Indian agro-products in the Nepali markets are already lower," says Ratneshwor Lal Kayastha, Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

"If the Indian Cabinet endorses the proposal, some counter action for protecting farmers’ rights would be more than just necessary," says Kayastha, adding, "With a giant economy like India to the south, and the 1,700 kilometers long open border, we cannot sit on the rot of the failed policy."

The effect of the latest decision would be more severe since import tariffs for agro-products presently stand at only 10 per cent.

The latest proposal of the Indian government is also a major blow to the anti-subsidy drive in Nepal led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Nepal, which already had one of the lowest subsidy bills in the world, had to revoke the remaining subsidies in fertilizers and most irrigation facilities since 1999, though India continue to subsidize its agriculture inputs, including electricity, fertilizers and irrigation. It was the ADB that successfully coaxed the government in scrapping subsidies during the signing of the Second Program Loan during mid nineties.

With the latest move in India to grant export subsidies, experts here say that Nepal has no option but to reintroduce subsidy in basic agriculture inputs.

"It is high time that Nepal resolve subsidy issue. There is a need for subsidy not just in irrigation facilities, but also in fertilizers and exports," says Ratnakar Adhikari, General Secretary of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE). "The agriculture sector must be protected."

The contribution of agriculture to Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) presently stands at around 40 per cent and absorbs 80 per cent of the total work force.

The proposed export subsidies in India are a part of a new agricultural export policy aimed at encouraging Indian agro-products export. The latest Indian move was prompted due to the lack of enough food grain storage facilities, aggravated by an unprecedented favourable monsoon for twelve consecutive years that raised the aggregate agro-production in India to new heights.

Show cause on Security Regulations

KATHMANDU, June 21 (PR)- The Supreme Court today issued a show cause notice in response to a writ petition seeking that the court declare null and void the Public Security Regulations, 2001 which was recently formulated by the government.

Single bench justice Bhairab Prasad Lamsal has also given a seven days notice to the Office of the Attorney General to decide whether an interim order should be issued or not on the petition.

Advocates Mukunda Prasad Poudel, Narayan Bahadur Khadka, Prem Bahadur Thapa and Guru Prasad Adhikari had filed the writ petition on Wednesday. The petition had argued that the Public Security Regulations was against the spirit of the Constitution and violated the provisions of the Public Security Act-2046 BS (Nepali calender).

Another writ has been filed by ANNFSU (student wing of CPN-ML) President Rabindra Prasad Adhikari on Thursday challenging the regulations and seeking its annulment.

Arrests have nothing to do with Regulations: DPM

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 21 - Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel today said that arrest of several political leaders and demonstrators during the past few days is not based on the recently enforced Public Security Regulations.

Answering the volley of questions raised by journalists during a face-to-face programme in the capital, Poudel said that yesterday’s arrest of Lilamani Pokhrel of the United People’s Front had nothing to do with the Public Security Regulations.

"The Regulations does not stop anyone from organising a mass meeting, taking out a rally or calling for strikes," he said.

Explaining why Pokhrel and other leaders and demonstrators were arrested in the last few days, Poudel said; "we are going through a very sensitive period and the government is very keen on not letting anyone provoke the people against national integrity, Monarchy, the Royal Nepal Army and do anything to create anarchy. We arrested Lilamani not because he was about to address a mass meeting but because of the objectionable slogans he was shouting in front of the people."

The Deputy Prime Minister also defended the Public Security Regulations, pointing out that the Regulations was just a clarification of the Clause 14 of the Public Security Act, 2046 BS. "Since the Public Security Act does not explain in detail the actions that violates the present Constitution and the Act itself, this Regulations was made to mention clearly the actions that are offensive."

"This is just an extension well within the Constitution and the Law. In fact this is just a byproduct clarifying the things already mentioned and there is no way it violates the Constitution," Poudel said whisking aside the remarks made by several news papers earlier. "This kind of practice prevails in most of the democratic countries as Preventive Detention Act and we are no exception," he added.

The Regulations had already been decided upon on May 21 but were published only on June 18 due to technical reasons. This Regulations empowers the Chief District Officials (CDOs) or their subordinates to act on their behalf to order any individual or a group to be put under solitary confinement or limit their movement to a certain areas if the officials are convinced that the suspected persons are about to harm the country’s sovereignty, integrity or violate law and order.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary State Affair Committee (SAC) has summoned Poudel to question him on the issue on June 26.

At the programme Poudel has also defended himself on what he had spoken to the foreign media over the Narayanhity Royal Palace carnage of June 1. "I received a lot of calls inquiring if the Maoists were responsible for what had happened and I only told them that it was not so and that it was entirely a family incident...I can’t be responsible for what they had written."

Poudel also mentioned that no government minister was in the position to take moral responsibility of the Royal Palace carnage of June 1 as the entire security arrangement of the Palace is directly handled by His Majesty the King.

"The Palace is beyond the reach of any person in the government so we can do nothing about it," DPM Poudel said.

RPP reiterates alliance with UML

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 21 - The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) today denied having reached any agreement with the governing Nepali Congress (NC) and reiterated its partnership with CPN-UML during the National Assembly elections next week.

A statement signed by RPP spokesman Kamal Thapa said the news about alliance with NC was totally untrue since a pact with NC would not be on their benefit.

NC has only one spare vote while RPP, with even 12 votes in the House of Representatives, needs another seven votes to win one seat in the Upper House.

"Keeping in mind the benefit RPP would gain from a partnership with CPN-UML, RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa approved the pact," said spokesman Thapa.

He also reiterated that the party’s official candidate was Lok Bahadur Thapa, who was injured in the local elections in 1997 in an explosion.

The statement however does not say anything about the candidacy filed by Jog Meher Shrestha, a powerful personality from the party, who despite warnings managed to gather support of two-thirds of the party’s lawmakers and refused to quit the race.

Instead Thapa said the party gives permission to any one in the party to contest if they do not solicit the votes of the 12 lawmakers from the party in the Lower House.

The statement also said that the party has asked Khemraj Pandit, contesting from the Mid-Western Development Region, to withdraw his candidacy. Pandit, however has not done so and instead is contesting with the blessing of some rebellious members.

The election is scheduled for next week.

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.

Stigma of caste, status and generation gap in Nepali society

By Ameet Dhakal

KATHMANDU, June 21 - After the June 1 Royal Palace massacre many Nepalis were shocked to discover how complex nature of the family relationship in the Royal Palace.

Besides the complexity, the family relationship proved totally different than the way common people had idealized it. However, very few noticed that the family was also similar, at least on one count, to a typical Nepali household: it was equally fussy about caste, hierarchy and status. The seven-feet high concrete wall circumscribing the Royal Palace proved too low to keep it away from the social afflictions that racks the common Nepali family.

Insignificant it may be to debate that the tragedy would not have occurred had the Royal Family been liberal about this anachronistic family value system.

"But it is important that we look into the root of the tragedy that has remained as one of the important causes of our family tensions/ conflicts so that we can think of a meaningful intervention," says Janak Rai, anthropologist at the Tribhuvan University.

Personal choices about bride or groom has always been a difficult affair in a largely caste-exogamy (where Brahmins marry only Brahmins, Rai marry only Rai) and clan-endogamy (Poudel does not marry Poudel) Nepali society. " Besides the caste, it is the status, the hierarchy and a collective family decision that often prevails over personal choices regarding marriage," says Bhabana Pandey, a student of culture at the Tribhuvan University.

Royal Family seemingly inherited the value systems that uphold or exacerbate the caste system from the 104-year long Rana Oligarchy that ruled Nepal from 1848 to 1952 A.D. "Ranas wanted to concentrate their power and prosperity within the family kinship thus they promoted such practices," says Dr Tulsi Ram Vaidya, a professor of history.

The age-old practice of caste system and status consciousness has outgrown beyond the traditional domain creating a different landscape of social exclusions in Nepali society.

The practice of concentrating power and affluence within certain families and/or caste groups through marriage and other social relationships has exacerbated the powerlessness of the marginalized caste groups. This is reflected not only in the unequal concentration of wealth but also in human development indicators: Brahmins have an average 57 per cent of literacy rate while it is 18 per cent in traditionally lower caste groups. Similarly, infant mortality rates swings from 75 to 118 in these two caste groups.

Waning influence of the political parties (and the absence of civic groups) as the forces of social reform has helped the continuation of this social disease. The ruling Nepali Congress during the first decade of its formative stage in late 1940s and early 1950s was a force reckoned for social reforms. Many of its Brahmin cadre went to plough fields challenging the traditional belief that Brahmins should not do so. Similarly, the main opposition CPN-UML encouraged its cadre to opt for inter-caste marriage during 70s. " But these mainstream political parties have totally lost their mettle for social reform after post 1990s...They should reinvent their crusade for social reform, " says Professor Vaidya.

Anthropologist Rai points out towards a need for a meaningful social intervention to rescue the society blighted by such maladies. " If the monarchy in England and Japan can accept women from a common family, why can’t the Royalties in Nepal embrace the same," he asks.

Old Bus Park improvement programme in the offing

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, June 21 - The messy and over-crowded city bus park at Ratna Park is getting a systematic improvement soon, the officials at Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) said.

The only city bus park of the metropolis bears entrance and exit of over 800 buses to and from 36 destinations daily of the Kathmandu Valley. It covers over 5,500 sq metres in the heart of the city and gives room for around 150 buses at a time.

Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme (KVMP), an assisting section of KMC, is launching a project to develop the condition of the KMC-owned bus park presently filled with potholes, street vendors and other unmanaged shops around the park.

The bus-owners agree that bus-owners’ organisations of different destinations manage the queue system themselves separately, causing misunderstanding among them now and then.

However, they have still not agreed to any solution yet, with the result that the daily chaos at the bus park is a common sight.

The park is now leased to a party which levies Rs 7 from each bus using the bus park everyday. "We pay Rs 7 everyday in the morning. This allows us to come and go from the park all the day," said a bus-owner at the park.

Naresh Pradhan, the infrastructure engineer of KVMP said that the over-crowded bus park will be improved upon from its present filthy situation. "This is not going to be a reconstruction of the bus park. We are just trying to redesign it, to bring it into a system," he said.

He said that the entrance and exit gates will be broadened and buses plying out of Valley will be excluded from the park after the completion of the project. Presently, the bus park is a depot for buses plying outside the Valley as well.

Pradhan, however, did not mention when the project would be completed and which institution will bear the cost of the improvement of the bus park.