Prime Minister calls for national consensus

By Damakant Jayshi 

KATHMANDU, June 25 – The first day of the budget session of parliament saw Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala making a spirited attempt to consolidate the Prime Minister’s powers while at the same time calling on all political forces to forge national consensus on several major issues.

Delivering his speech soon after the House of Representatives convened today to felicitate King Gyanendra and to condole the death of Royal Family members, Koirala remarked that as Prime Minister it was his duty to consolidate people’s power and to forge national consensus on major national issues, besides utilizing all the wings and the units of the government in an effective and coordinated manner.

Before making this call, PM Koirala read out felicitation message extended to King Gyanendra for his accession and wished him long life. Similar messages were read out by Speaker Taranath Ranabhat and leader of the opposition Madhav Kumar Nepal and other opposition leaders. Similarly, in the second sitting today later in the afternoon, all of them paid condolences to late King Birendra and his Royal Family members and friends. The House also observed a three-minute silence as a mark of respect.

The call to consolidate the Prime Minister’s powers comes in the background of real or perceived erosion in the authority of the nation’s highest elected office. A sitting Prime Minister today has to think twice before dissolving parliament due to past rulings of the Supreme Court.

The PM said that he had faced many assaults of different kinds time and again while trying to uphold the rights and the dignity of the office of the PM. He added, "Many think that I am fighting to protect my chair when I am facing the challenges to the Prime Minister’s chair. But today I want to make it clear that my fight is aimed at protecting the prime ministerial system and not for my personal sake."

Koirala also pointed out that in the 12 years of the restoration of democracy, there have been instances of several attacks on the Constitution, the parliament, the constitutional monarchy and the Judiciary.

While calling for national consensus, the Prime Minister presented a 14-point agenda as a base to forge national consensus. For this, said the PM, he was prepared to make "any sacrifice for the greater national cause".

Topping his 14-point agenda was his call to remove ambiguity over the power of the PM and finding constitutional and legal solutions to the conflicts arising due to "our attitude and the court’s verdicts". Also high on his priority was his call to fashion a minimum policy-level understanding to make the relations between the government and the opposition transparent and better managed.

The Prime Minister laid stress on all-party commitment on the government’s security and development package and their agreement to the necessary joint programmes. Another call that is likely to be controversial is his proposal to ban the strikes and bandhs for 10 years for which he asked the parties’ support. "Let us declare the next decade as a decade of economic reconstruction."

Speaking on the controversial Citizenship Bill, the PM asked for agreement to find legal solution to the controversy and the necessary law aimed at removing any controversy over it. The PM also wants to pass the Bill to control corruption in this very session. The Bill was tabled in the parliament in the 16th Session.

In an attempt to solve the problems in the education sector, let us develop an integrated attitude and an all-party agreement to keep the educational sector free from political influence, said Koirala. In the similar vein, Koirala asked the political parties not to affiliate different employees’ and other organizations with their parties. That the PM was apprehensive about the growing politicization of government corporations and other organizations was apparent when he urged the parties to refrain from influencing those bodies and aim at making them more efficient. Even the government interference must stop, he further said.

The other issues on which Koirala sought political consensus are in making time-bound programme to implement the land reforms, pass the Bill on women’s right to ancestral property in order to intensify women empowerment, and prepare and implement concrete policies to end untouchability, social discrepancies and exploitation.

Meanwhile, Madhav Kumar Nepal, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), while lauding the Prime Minister’s proposals "that are worth taking note except a few", remarked that the PM has to match his proposals with his big heart and prepared for sacrifice for the sake of the nation. "If you resign, we are ready to cooperate."

He criticized the government’s security and development package being implemented in the Maoist-hit districts terming the plan "incomplete". Coming down heavily on the government, he said the government had failed to improve law and order "that is in shambles". He added that the executive had attacked the constitutional bodies to render them ineffective.

However, both Surya Bahadur Thapa, President of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Badri Prasad Mandal, parliamentary leader of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) said it was not the right time to talk about different issues on a day that was devoted to the new King’s felicitation. "This is not the time for political bickering," said Mandal, while Thapa remarked that he would speak about the contentious issues later.

Upper House bids adieu to 20 outgoing MPs

By Satish Jung Shahi 

KATHMANDU, June 25 – Coincidence may it be. But as the Upper House convened its business for the 20th Session today, it also had to bid farewell to 20 of its members who are retiring after completing their six-year tenure.

Despite years of sharing political and ideological differences, all of them today were today somewhat in an apologizing mood even asking for forgiveness for any mistakes, if any, unknowingly made.

However, most also had complaints and suggestions to make - all before they finally retire tomorrow and a new set of lawmakers is elected on Wednesday. And a majority of them said that the work of the National Assembly had been limited as most Bills came as Finance Bill right from the Lower House of Parliament.

If the National Assembly rejects a Finance Bill, it may again be passed by majority in the Lower House and presented to His Majesty for Royal Assent.

"We do not get an opportunity to work though we get paid for months as around 80 per cent of the Bills, whether they are related to citizenship, sports or health, are registered as the Finance Bill," said Chiranjibi Prasad Risal, of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC). Risal, retiring tomorrow, is the Deputy Chairman of the Upper House.

Likewise, Rabindra Nath Sharma of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) also called the tendency to announce Finance Bill "on ad hoc basis" as negative. "Look at what happened to the Citizenship Bill," he said.

The Citizenship Bill, though rejected by the Upper House, is now pending with His Majesty after the Supreme Court termed some of its provisions as "against the Constitution."

NTA to license United Telecom for wireless telephony

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has decided to award licence to M/S United Telecom Ltd to operate basic phone service based on Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) system, ending the long-held monopoly of Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) in the service.

NTA, a regulatory body of telecom services, issued the Letter of Intent (LoI) on June 21 to M/S United Telecom Ltd, a joint venture company, in line with the government’s policy of opening various telecom services to the private sector.

In return the company has to submit a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) along with a performance guarantee of 5 per cent of licence fee within 15 days of issuance of IoL. It also has to pay a licence fee of Rs 100 million for a period of 10 years, Rs 90 million as renewal fee for five years and a royalty of Rs 1.94 billion for 10 years.

As per the conditions set by NTA, the company has to begin operation within nine months of acquiring licence and cover at least 10 major cities outside the valley within 3 years of coming into operation.

With the entry of the private sector in the basic phone service, it is expected that customers would not have to wait for years to get a phone line, rather they will have a choice and get quality service at an affordable price.

According to NTC, there are 293,690 customers in waiting list and only 278,977 people have basic telephone commenting till mid April 2001.

Even if NTC distributes all of its installed capacity, which is 332,464 lines, 240,203 applicants will still be in waiting list , which indicates that there is enough room for the new entrant to grow and flourish.

Ashok Agrawal, MD of Nepal Venture Pvt Ltd, the Nepali partner of the proposed joint venture M/S United Telecom Pvt Ltd, says they will begin the distributing lines within a year with a minimum target of 25,000 connections.

Assuring better and easy availability of the service, he said, "We will provide efficient and quality service and the price will not be higher than that of the basic phone being charged by the NTC".

The new announcement is also expected to boost healthy competition in providing quality services to attract new customers.

Bhoop Raj Pandey, Chairman of NTA says, "Now there will be competition and it will upgrade the quality of services and the price will also go down. The most important part is that customers now will have a choice".

Reacting to the latest development, Raghubar Lal Shrestha, General Manager of NTC says, "It will have no immediate effect on us as we have not been able to meet the demand of the customers." However, he accepted that it will definitely affect in the long run.

As the market is not saturated, there will be no direct impact on the revenue of NTC at present, but in the long-run, other services will also be affected and revenue will have to be shared, he said. Referring to the future strategy, he stressed upon the need to make NTC autonomous in order to enhance its competence.

The new service is cost effective and environment-friendly as it does not require miles-long cabling.

Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesman at NTA, says, "The beautiful part of the technology is that it will save the country from turning into an uglier place." The system is also equally efficient as the existing one and can also be used for internet, email and other services efficiently. It will not have frequency problems as witnessed in the cordless phones, he adds.

Nepal Gateway Communications and M/S United Telecom Ltd had applied for the service, but as the former was disqualified during technical evaluation, the latter was selected as per section 24, sub-section 3 of the Nepal Telecommunication Act 2053 BS. NTA had called tender on April 6, 2000 for the new service.

3 writs filed against Regulations

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Another three writ petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the constitutionality of government’s recently formulated Public SecurityRegulations - 2001.

Nepal Janjati Maha Sangh, Kirat Yakthung Chumlung (another Janajati organisation) and a group of three advocates- Tikaram Bhattarai, Bishwo Prakash Bhandari and Sanu Bhai Shakya filed three separate petitions arguing that the Public Security Regulation-2001 was against the spirit of the Constitution and against the Public Security Act-2046.

Issuing a press release after filing the petition, Arjun Limbu, General Secretary of Kirat Yakthung Chumlung states that the new regulation tries to supress the rights related to citizens freedom.

SC today issued a show cause notice in response to a writ petition filed earlier by ANNFSU (student wing of CPN-ML) President Rabindra Prasad Adhikari. Two writ petitions were filed at SC earlier.

Various experts have been pointing out that the government should scrap the regulations as it tries to take away fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

"The formulation of the regulation is unconstitutional as it is beyond the limitation of the Constitution. There is absence of legislative competence," says Constitutional lawyer Bhimarjun Acharya.

The Public Security Regulations was formulated on May 21 and published in the Nepal Gazette on June 18, and the government officials claim that it is in accordance with the clause 14 of the Public Security Act- 2046 BS.

The Regulations has given the right to the local administrator to keep any-body under solitary confinement, or limit their movement to a certain areas and even prevent one from travelling abroad if the officials are or feel convinced that the suspected persons are about to harm the country’s sovereignty, integrity, and violate any law and order.

As the Regulations points out that adequate basis can be considered when the local administrator is "convinced", many argue that this is an "unlimited power" which can be grossly misused.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party (CPN-UML) today organised a rally in protest of the regulation. Present in the rally were party’s General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal along with other party leaders and cadres. The rally also demanded resignation of the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Gastro claims 75 lives in the Far-West in 3 weeks

Post Report

BANKE, June 25 - More than 75 people, among them newly-born infants, have died of gastro-enteritis epidemic in various villages of the far-flung Bajhang and Doti districts since the onset of this year’s monsoon, officials said.

A report from remote Bajhang district stated that 57 people have succumbed to the communicable disease that has gripped the entire communities of the remote western part of the district for over a month, according to the district hospital source.

Hundreds of others are suffering from the disease that normally spreads due to consumption of contaminated water and poor sanitation.

Locals told The Kathmandu Post that 26 people have died of gastro-enteritis from the ward No-3 and 6 of the Bhamchaur VDC alone since the first week of June. Most of those who succumbed to the communicable disease are reported to be the elderly persons, women and infants.

Similarly, nine people have died from ward No-1, 2, 6 and 7 of the Patadewal VDC while three others lost their lives in Kalukhet VDC.

Talking over telephone, chief at the District Hospital, Dr. Pitambar Subedi, said a dozen people have succumbed to the outbreak in Chhanma Kula area since the first week of the month while majority of the locals have been affected by the epidemic in Sain Pasala and Lek Gaon areas.

Subedi said that death toll could be higher than that because the affected VDCs are located far away from Chainpur, the district headquarters of Bajhang. He said that this was the largest ever death toll from the epidemic over the period of last six years. But, there were no reports of cholera outbreak in the gastro-enteritis affected areas.

"Such a large number of people have succumbed to the disease because they largely depend on local shaman rather than on the local health centres," Subedi said, adding that the victims were found suffering from repeated instances of diarrhoea and vomiting.

Subedi added that though there was adequate medicine in the district headquarters, it could not be sent to the affected areas due to lack of porters. He said that additional manpower was needed to tackle the epidemic.

Principal at Chandrodaya High School in the Bhamchaur VDC, Janak Dhami, said that people were facing difficulties even to carry out the last rites of those killed in the epidemic in his VDC.

"Locals were cremating one after another body from the same family in Thapa Gaon," Dhami said. He further added that healthy people were scared to participate in the cremation thinking that they might also become prey to the epidemic.

Another reason behind the heavy death toll is the geographical inaccessibility that hinders locals from taking the sick to the nearest health centres and the district hospital.

Locals said the situation could deteriorate further unless medics are sent to the affected immediately.

An emergency meeting held recently under the chairmanship of the chief district officer had arranged to dispatch medics with medical supply to the epidemic affected areas. But locals said no medics were seen around since the outbreak of the disease.

Meanwhile our correspondent from far-western Doti district reported that death toll from the gastro-enteritis has reached to 21 in 10 VDCs and various wards of the Dipayal-Silgadhi Municipality over the last one and a half months.

Senior Officer at the District Public Health Office, Kehar Singh Godar, said that three persons from Lamikhal, three from Mahadevsthan, two Bajh Kakani, two from Kalikasthan, one from Khatibada, five from Tilaji, one from Madbhara, one from Latamandau, one from Jijaumandau VDCs and two from Dipayal municipality have died of the epidemic so far.

Godar said more than 1,000 people were provided with medical aid from various health centres and district hospital. He said the communicable disease can be easily controlled if locals avoid drinking contaminated water and are made conscious of sanitation aspects.

Census concludes today

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 25 - Census 2001, which commenced almost a month ago, is concluding tomorrow after completing the census counts in most parts of the 75 districts of the country.

Despite the obstruction from the Maoist rebels in affected districts, Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is determined to go according to the deadline with no further extension.

The Maoists who have a grip over the sizeable chunk of the Mid-Western Region have reportedly obstructed the on-going Census from being exercised. CBS said that Maoists intentionally seized the documents from the enumerators. Moreover, some of the Census officials were even forced to leave the districts.

CBS ruled out the possibility of the deadline extension as the data in few of the VDCs in the Maoist-hit districts are yet to be carried out.

"We will go according to the deadline, there will not be any further extension. For the left out VDCs, we will resort to the estimation," said Deputy Director of the CBS, Radha Krishna G.C. "We did whatever we could to collect the data." He further added, "Since it is a apolitical event, we had presumed that there won’t be any intervention from the rebels."

The result of the Census 2001, which has been called as the most scientific Census ever, is expected to bring out the exiting situation of the people of Nepal.

12 killed in landslide in Dolakha

Post Report

CHARIKOT, Dolakha, June 25 - At least 11 people from three households were killed when a huge landslide swept away the houses in Chankhu VDC four days ago, officials here said on Monday. The VDC is located about 25 km away from here, the district headquarters.

Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office, Bijaya Kumar Bhatta, said that those who perished in the approximately one kilometre wide landslide have been identified as Tulasa Gurung and her niece Nirmala Gurung, Nepte, his wife and three children and Ring Bahadur Gurung’s wife and his three daughters.

Ring Bahadur and his mother escaped the natural calamity as they were away from their home when the landslide occurred.

Locals said that Nepte Gurung’s entire family was swept away by the natural disaster. Details of the casualties were yet to be obtained because of lack of proper communication, said DSP Bhatta.

Report of the fatal casualties was known to the authorities after Vice-Chairman of the VDC, who arrived here to cast his vote for the National Assembly election scheduled for Wednesday, informed the authorities about the incident four days later.

Another local, Dal Kumari Gurung, who arrived here to be present before the district court, said that the landslide is more than one kilometre wide from Solung Ghari to Doche Dabali.

"I had never before seen such a huge landslide," she said, adding that the locals had recovered only two bodies from the debris before she left her home for the district headquarters.

Chief District Officer, Dipak Kumar Joshi, said a police reinforcement with a medical team had been sent to the landslide area shortly after receiving news about the incident. It would take at least another four days for the rescue team to get to the site.

A source closed to the district administration office said that they immediately requested the Home Ministry on Thursday to send a helicopter to carry out rescue operation at the landslide site.

"But we failed to send a rescue team and medics there due to the Ministry’s lukewarm response," the source said.

Khare VDC Chairman Buddhiman Sherpa said that 13 families from his VDC have abandoned their houses for fear of another landslide in the area.

Visa for 12 cricketers in limbo

KATHMANDU, June 25 (PR)- The four Nepali cricketers, selected by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to replace the quartet who were denied visa to travel to Canada for the International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy, have been granted visa today, according to the CAN treasurer Shashi Dutt Pandey.

"Although the new set of players have been granted visa, the Canadian Embassy has shown unwillingness to extend the date of entry visa of 12 other team members," said sources close to CAN. Their visa date expired June 25. "The entire team is flying to New Delhi tomorrow," the source added. The CAN officials, meanwhile, are trying to have Nepal’s matches rescheduled.

According to Binay Raj Pandey, general secretary of CAN, they are holding talks with high-level ICC officials to reschedule the match dates of Nepal as four match slots are vacant due to withdrawal of Italy from the tournament. He said: "Since it is not our fault in sending the team to Canada, we expect the tournament organisers to consider our problem."

Uncertainty shrouds SLC results

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 25 - The SLC results 2001 will most likely be delayed further until July not only on account of national mourning and bandhs in the last month but also owing to the cumbersome process involved in the exams itself.

"Besides a long state-mourning, we had also been disturbed by Nepal bandhs," said Dr Shah Dev Bhatta, Comptroller of SLC exams, Sanothimi, Bhaktapur.

The result was published last year much earlier, but, the changes introduced in the SLC 2001 such as coding, de-coding and decentralizing the centres for evaluating answer-sheets have obviously delayed the publication of the results of 213,827 students who appeared their exams in April.

When asked about the date of publishing the much-awaited results, Dr Bhatta said that no date of publication has so far been fixed.

An astounding number of districts have yet to submit their corrected answer-sheets to the comptroller’s office. The office sources confirmed that except Sarlahi from Eastern Development Region and a few other districts, no corrected answer-sheets have been received by the Board. No centres in the Western Development Region have sent the answer-sheets, sources close to the office said.

Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Banke, Surkhet, Siraha, Nuwakot and some of the centres at Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Kavre have so far submitted their answer-sheets.

The distribution of parallel set of question papers was introduced for the first time in Nepal on the basis of exam reforms system. The style of specification grid by different experts, specialists was introduced after a pilot test carried out in 13 districts and a variety of new techniques have been introduced this year.

NC issues whip on NA polls

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 25 - The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) has issued a whip directing party lawmakers to be present and vote for their official candidates during the National Assembly election.

A statement issued by NC’s Chief Whip in the House of Representatives Binaya Dhoj Chand has asked all the 113 lawmakers from the party in the House to be present and vote for their candidates on Wednesday.

NC has fielded six candidates and one woman candidate for the single reserved seat for women. NC, holding a majority in the Lower House, is certain to get all the seven candidates elected.

Maiya Devi Shrestha, who had made headlines donating her house to NC, was the only woman candidate for the one seat reserved for women and has already been declared the winner by officials.

CPN-UML with 69 members in the Lower House, has fielded three candidates. Even after getting their people elected they will have 12 surplus votes, which they have decided to support Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) to get their official candidate Lok Bahadur Thapa elected. RPP has 12 votes of their own but fall short of seven votes to get Thapa elected, which will now be propped by CPN-UML.

In return, RPP has promised to support CPN-UML in the election to be held for the five seats in the five development regions.

The elections is scheduled for Wednesday, when voting will be conducted at the parliament and the headquarters of five development regions.

According to the Election Commission, voting will be between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the parliament secretariat and at City Hall in Kathmandu, Dipendra Hall in Pokhara, Appellate Court in Surkhet, Appellate Court in Dipayal and Community Hall in Dhankuta.

Voting at the development regions will be participated by members of municipalities, District Development Committee members and chairmans and vice-chairmans of Village Development Committees.

Out of the 20 vacant seats, 11 will be elected by the 205 members of the House of Representatives, five will be chosen 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 elites, 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.

Tourists to be charged for visiting Hanumandhoka

Post Report

KATHMANDU, June 25 - After a year-long efforts, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) finally decided to levy entrance fee from the tourists visiting Kathmandu’s ancient royal palace, Hanumandhoka from the next month.

KMC officials said that the plan has been recognised by the City Council and the preparations are also complete to do so.

The issue to slap entrance fee in the area was tabled in the Council meeting last year in June, they said.

Deputy Chief of KMC Heritage Section Indra MS Suwal said that KMC finally decided to levy entrance fee from the tourists so that the money could be used in conservation of the same area. "First we tried to start it earlier, but due to the national mourning the schedule was delayed. We are now waiting for the board meeting to give green light," he said.

He said that as per the updated documents, each tourist would have to pay Rs 200 to enter the square from any side. And the tourists from the SAARC regions will be required to pay only Rs 25 per head.

He informed that the booths are being installed at the five entry points to the Malla period palace complex with scores of temples inside.

Hanumandhoka Durbar square is the only place among the seven zones that make the Kathmandu Valley a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, where the tourists need not pay entrance fee till now.

Kathmandu Valley was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Other zones, Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Lalitpur Durbar Square, Boudha, Swoyambhu, Pashupati and Changu Narayan temples, have slapped entrance fees by the concerned development committees.

And among them, KMC will have its right only on one zone.

Deputy Executive Officer of KMC Naresh Kumar Regmi said that this fee levied from the tourist would be used in conservation of the monuments and other local development activities.

"We are highly motivated by the positive result that Bhaktapur Municipality and Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City produced after launching fee levying programme in the respective cities," he said. "We are hopeful that the tourists will not turn their head from our project to conserve the valuable monuments that everybody loves."

However, the issue to pedestrianize the area is still in limbo even after several years of waiting. Due to the public vehicles, army commotion and an ugly structure of District Police Office, the monument zone itself is being threatened to be outlisted from the World Heritage Site, the cultural experts said.