Ex-Kamaiyas to receive land in Ramechhap

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MANTHALI, June 25 - The Kamaiyas who have been living in the remote district of Ramechhap for generations will receive land from the commission set up to resolve the problems of the landless squatters.

Fifteen Kamaiya families have been working in the fields of Birtatar in Sukajor VDC-1 belonging to the residents of Bahangeri. As there is no land registered in the names of these Kamaiyas, the District Committee of the Commission has decided to give land not exceeding four ropanis to each family.

The Kamaiyas are tilling the land belonging to the residents of Bhangeri for generations. No one knows how long they have been living there. "We don’t know where we have come from and who our ancestors are," Buddhi Man Hayu, a Kamaiya, said. The owners of the land have given them house to live in.

They get wages for their labour in the field of the land owners. The Hayu and Bhujel carry the foodgrain, fruit, fish and meat on their back and hand over to their masters at Bhangeri and get wages for this labour. However, it is difficult for them to get wages from their sahu ( masters) for their works done on other occasions, they say.

Realising the miserable condition of the Kamaiyas, the commission wanted to give them land last year. However, despite the fact they were living so close to the district headquarters, they had not received citizenship certificates. Therefore, there was a hurdle in the process of giving them land.

Moreover, during the field visit of the commission member, the Kamaiyas said they also needed houses in addition to land."If we received only four ropanis of land from the commission our sahu will expel us from the house we are living now. In that case, where can we go along with our family members and how can we support them? Lal Bahadur Sunuwar, a Kamaiya, said.

When the commission said it was not possible to give them houses, they hesitated to receive the land last year.

With the recommendation of the VDC, citizenship certificates of all but one Kamaiya (whose father is not identified) are ready for distribution.

According to the commission, as the Kamaiyas are likely to be expelled from their sheds, they are given four ropanis of land to cultivate it and support their families.

Maoists loot bank, set police outpost ablaze

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DIPAYAL-SILGADHI, Doti, June 25 - Underground Maoist rebels on Saturday looted a branch office of the state-owned Agriculture Development Bank and set a police outpost ablaze in Chawara Chautara VDC, located about 45 km away from here, the district headquarters, officials said.

According to bank accountant, Sohan Thapa, the armed rebels seized all land ownership certificates deposited in the bank as collateral and set other important documents on fire. Thapa said that they distributed bank’s furniture to local primary schools.

The rebels had disconnected the telephone lines installed at the bank and other lines at the local market before they raided the bank that was providing its banking service to 11 VDCs.

Locals quoted the rebels as saying that they would return their land ownership certificates to the respective owners in the near future.

They said that the rebels also held a mass meeting following their action at the bank and the police post.

Maoist activities have escalated in this far-western hill district since a few months ago.

Earlier on the second week of June, the rebels looted a large chunk of arms after attacking a police outpost at BP Nagar of the Barchhen VDC, about 35 km away from here.

Keeping in mind the impending Maoist attacks, the Jorayal-based area police post has been shifted to Budar and the Gopghat-based branch office of the state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank to the district headquarters.

Few holiday-makers are making it to the Central Zoo

By Ganesh Raj Acharya

KATHMANDU, June 25 - The Central Zoo at Jawalakhel, Patan continues to wear a deserted look with fewer visitors thronging here, weeks after the sad and untimely demise of Royal Family members. Zoo officials say the zoo is still facing slack in the number of visitors.

"After the state mourning and series of government leave in Nepal, the Central Zoo is opened as usual, but number of visitors in the zoo is still not encouraging," says a technician at the zoo.

After the national tragedy of Their Late Majesties King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other Royalties on June 1, the country is facing crisis.

" I postponed my schedule to return home with a desire to visit the zoo. Unfortunately, however, today happens to be a holiday and I cannot get inside here," says Ramesh who hails from Bardia.

The Central Zoo is being currently managed by the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), a non-government organisation, working in Nepal for conservation of nature and natural resources with some international chapters.

According to the zoo source , about three thousand visitors used to come daily before the June first Royal incident. After this accident, the number of visitors to the zoo began to decline sharply.

Entry fee at the zoo differs depending on the citizenship of individual. Entry fee for the Nepalis is Rs ten for children and Rs fifteen for grown ups while for SAARC countries is Rs twenty and thirty respectively.

In the case of other nationals, they have to pay sixty rupees for adult and that for children the charge is thirty rupees.

" On public holidays, arrival of the visitors is more than usual and I find myself busy with almost double sale", says Mira Nani, a road vendor selling ground nuts near the zoo gate.

"May it be holidays or any other functions, there used to be a long row of ticket buyers in front of the zoo, but nowadays there is no such sight", Mira adds.

The entry fee at the zoo is reported to help in the maintenance and infrastructure development of the zoo. Some zoo officials believe that continuous rainfall for the past couple of days in the capital and the commencement of monsoon may have affected the zoo business.

Court orders compensation

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KATHMANDU, June 25 - Nawalparasi District Court has ordered the culprits to pay Rs 50,000 to Amar Narayan Lohiya, a resident of Ramgram, Deogaon - 7 as a compensation of torture exerted upon him by police.

According to a press release of Centre for Victims of Torture,Nepal, Deputy Superintendent of Police Gambhir Prasad Shah, Sub inspector Yubraj Chaudhari and policemen Shaligram and Lila Bahadur Khatri tortured Lohiya one year ago. The legal practitioners from Lohiya’s side demanded health checkup for him when he was in custody.

"This is the biggest amount of compensation since the Compensation on Torture Act 2053 came into force," the release said today.

The decision was passed by the single bench of judge Ganesh Panjiyal.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, in its release today urged the government to secure goverment’s position against torture culture to keep the country’s image clean in the international arena.

Though 123 countries in the world have shown commitment to fight against torture, 125 countries reportedly have the tradition of torturing people.

Nepal has ratified the international conference against torture in 1984.

Maoists burn police post at Haldibari

BHADRAPUR, June 25 (PR) Maoist insurgents Sunday burnt to ashes the police post at Haldibari, about 10 kilometres west of Bhadrapur, headquarters of Jhapa district.

The Maoists have intensified their attack in Jhapa district in recent weeks. Out of the total 47 VDCs and three municipalities of the district, they have locked 33 VDC offices, paralysing the normal works of these VDC offices.

According to District Police Office, there was no one when the wooden police post was torched by the Maoists. The wooden building and the documents contained in it were reduced to ashes. They had also torched the police post building in Korobari and Topgachhi VDCs a few days ago.

Maoist insurgents have started locking the VDC offices two weeks ago completely paralysing the official business. They have announced in some pamphlets that they have constituted their ‘jansarkar’ in some of the remote VDCs where their organisation is strong. They have made their impact felt in all the six parliamentary constituencies in the district by locking one or other VDCs .

When police come to know about the locking of the VDC office, they open the VDC office, but at night, the Maoist insurgents come again and lock the office. This process of locking and opening the VDC office has been going on for some time in different VDCs. Chairman of Maheshpur VDC Rohit Rajbamsi complains that the VDC has already spent more than Rs 500 to buy the padlock.

Some of the 33 VDCs which have been locked by the Maoists in this district include Gaurigunj, Gauradaha, Mahabhara, Maharani Jhoda, Sharanamati, Surunga, Duwagadhi, Haldibari, Maheshpur, Kechana, Charpane and Garamani. Even the VDC offices which have been opened by the police have not been able to carry out their daily activities.

Land ownership certificates distributed

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BHADRAPUR, June 25 - The commission for resolving the problems of the landless squatters in Jhapa district distributed land ownership certificates to 696 landless people of Surunga VDC area at a function held at Kankai Campus, Surunga on Sunday.

Initiating the land ownership certificate distribution programme, Minister for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Banstola said the commission had made a good beginning to resolve the long-standing problem of landless people in Surunga.

Chairman of the commission in Jhapa district Tilak Prasad Sitaula expressed his commitment to gradually distribute the land ownership certificates to the landless people of Jhapa district and resolve the problem which had been plaguing the people for years.

Member Secretary of the committee Hridaya Narayan Mishra said preparations had been made with a view to distributing land ownership certificates to 10,200 families of Jhapa by mid-July (end of the month of Asar).

At the programme, Nepali Congress Jhapa district president Sudhir Siwakoti, UML district joint secretary Yukta Bhetuwal, representatives of different VDCs and political parties and vice-chairman of the commission in Jhapa Chandra Bir Nembang expressed the view that the sooner the problem of landless squatters was resolved, the easier it would be to maintain law and order in the district.

A total of 1,637 landless squatters received land ownership certificate together on Saturday and Sunday in Jhapa district.

More and more people take to smoking due to illiteracy

By Mohammad Sadrul

BHADRAPUR, June 25- A large number of people are taking to smoking day by day despite the fact that smoking is injurious to health.

Mostly illiterate people from the low income group in the rural areas have been found to be habituated to smoking.

Although in the past people used to smoke indigenously-made cigarettes such as the bidi and the chur, at present they have taken to expensive brands of cigarettes in the course of time according to their increasing level of income.

Shikhar, 555, surya, ganesh bidi, yak and bijuli are some of the most popular cigarette brands in Nepal.

People become habituated to smoking under different circumstances. some people learn to smoke from their friends, some do it just out of curiosity while others take it to escape from physical and mental tension.

Down the ages, physicians have been warning people about the hazards of smoking. According to doctors more than 4,000 harmful chemical substances are found in the tobacco which when carried to different parts of the body can cause cancer.

Besides, smoking causes more damage to the non-smokers than the smokers, especially children. Smoking can damage the fetus and in some cases can cause cervical cancer in women who smoke during pregnancy.

Although the state has been spending a lot of money in conducting massive awareness campaigns on the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco consumption, the number of smokers seems to be increasing every year.

The booming sales of cigarettes and chewing tobacco in the domestic market is a testimony to the fact that the number of smokers is on the rise.

According to the World Health Organization (who), out of the world population of 6 billion or so men and women, 47 percent men and 12 percent women are smokers. in nepal 84.7 per cent men and 71 per cent women are said to be active smokers.

Similarly, as per WHO statistics, 71.7 percent women in the hilly region of Nepal and 58.9 percent in the Terai region smoke cigarettes.

Despite these hard facts and efforts being made by both the governmental and non-governmental organizations to wean people from the habit of smoking, the efforts seem to have paid little dividend.

The WHO has imposed a complete ban on the sales of cigarettes in three districts of Bhutan. In Nepal also, His Majesty’s Government has been publicizing various informative programmes through the mass media to discourage people from smoking.

Every year, May 31 is observed as the no tobacco day. the world no-tobacco day is also observed in Nepal. The slogan of this year’s no-tobacco day was "smoking takes your life."

It seems that a lot still needs to be done to drive this message home for the millions of Nepalese who are habituated to smoking.

Transportation starts in Dhulikhel -Bhakundebesi highway

Banepa, June 25 (RSS) Transportation services have been started along the 22-km Dhulikhel- Bhakundebesi portion of the 50 km Nepalthok- Dhulikhel section of the Banepa- Sindhuli- Bardibas road which is under construction.

The construction works of the road are underway for the last five years with a target of completing it by 2006 with 70 percent of investment from the government of Japan and 30 percent from HMG.

Project Chief Bindu Shmsher Rana says transportation services are allowed upto Bhakundebesi which is considered as the mid- point of Kavre district because of increasing demand by the people.

After the services were started, the people of 11 VDCs including those of Bhakundebesi, Kavre, Nityechandeswori, Patlekhet, Methinkot and Daraune Pokhari have been directly benefited. the road has been a boon to the people who only relied upon growing maize, junelo and millet, local journalist Ram Sharan Kharel said.

The road was neglected after the political change in 1960 for which is the foundation stone was laid by the then prime minister Bisweswor Prasad Koirala at Srikhandapur.

After the restoration of democracy, the foundation stone of the road was laid again by prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala in 2053 B.S. at Dhulikhel.

The construction works began at both the places as Kavre residents demanded the road to pass through the point where Late Bisweswor Koirala had laid the foundation stone.

The 158-km long road beginning from Dhulikhel will be constructed in four phases and the 36 km Sindhuli - Bardibas portion has already been completed. The 39-km section 2 Sindhuli bazar to Khurkot portion will be constructed in the second phase. The 22-km portion of the 50-km long Nepalthok-Dhulikhel section to be constructed in two phases has been completed so far.

The road is being constructed under the concept of linking Kathmandu to the Terai region by giving a boost to the socio-economic conditions of the remote hilly districts of Kavrepalanchok, Sindhuli and Ramchhap.

The per hour speed has been set from 20- 40 km in view of the environmental impact and natural disasters. The control in speed is also because of the mere 4. 75 metre width of the road.

After the transfer of the road to hmg, repair works will be undertaken by HMG as per the agreement and Japan has already provided dozers, loader, trailer and trucks as grant.

The locals of Bhakundebesi which is a plain area will find it easy to sell their products including milk, vegetables, fruits and brooms, a local Rajendra Timilsina said.

Urbanisation has already begun in Bhakundebesi. Local journalist Ishwor Ojha stressed that government bodies should take measures to manage pollution free modernisation.

A local Shyam Timalsina is worried about the evils that have crept in and advises setting up of a police post.

Another journalist Hiramani Sharma said it will be easy to export fuits and vegetables and milk in the Khasa, Lhasa, and sigatse of the people’s republic of China. rss translated byTirtha Prasad Bhattaraee.