ADB reviews pre-loan commitments

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KATHMANDU, June 29 - The one-man mission from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that was in the Capital scrutinizing the fulfillment of the various commitments made by the government returned to Manila today.

The ADB mission reviewed the progress made by the government since the signing of a US$ 50 million concessional loan agreement for the development of the eighth power project last July.

The government then had, among others, promised to increase the electricity tariff rates, collect arrears within three months, maintain self financing ratio of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) at 23 per cent and the rate of return at six per cent before the loan amount is actually transferred.

The mission, headed by senior ADB official John Kuiper, held a series of meetings with various government ministries and agencies since Monday. Though John Kuiper could not be contacted for comments, ADB officials in Kathmandu have expressed satisfaction over the government’s performance.

"The progress made by the government in the past couple of months is laudable, especially in the collection of arrears," said Dr Richard Vokes, Resident Representative of the ADB in Kathmandu, talking to The Kathmandu Post today.

"However, there are some areas where the ADB is still concerned," Dr Vokes said. Asked if another mission would come on a visit, or if the loan would be sanctioned soon, he said, "It is too early to say."

It may be recalled that though the loan agreement was signed in July 2000 and was initially scheduled to be come into effect by April 15, clearance had been delayed by three months to mid-July following the unfulfillment of various commitments by Nepal.

Despite the positive view held by the ADB currently, it is not yet clear if the mission is satisfied with the government’s performance in all fronts. The eighth power project loan, among others, would be used for rural electrification, expansion of transmission lines, improving power distribution system and constructing computerized facility in the capital.

HM affirms commitment to democracy Stress on security and prosperity

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KATHMANDU, June 29 – King Gyanendra, addressing the joint session of Parliament today, said that the government shall follow the policies and programs aimed at encouraging mutual unity and national consensus, among others and participation of all the Nepali people.

"While translating into action, the liberal thoughts and ideals of His late Majesty King Birendra, our common resolve and objective of the day has been to preserve and promote the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the Nepali people and to achieve social justice, security and economic prosperity through constitutional monarchy and multiparty parliamentary democracy," King Gyanendra said.

He was outlining the government’s programs and policies for the upcoming fiscal year, which is regarded as the basis for the government to follows and base the budget for the same year.

The government is also proposing to make sound provisions for the protection of life and prosperity of the people as well as for the exercise of the fundamental rights of the people by enhancing the institutional capabilities and by effective mobilization of agencies responsible for maintaining peace and order in the task of controlling violence, terror and criminal activities.

"In order to ensure the security of the people residing in areas affected by violence and terror, their socio-economic development and their rights to fair justice, the Integrated Internal Security and Development Plan shall be implemented effectively," he said. "Extensive reforms shall be made in the existing institutional capacity and laws relating to corruption control for guaranteeing good governance and controlling corruption."

The government is also proposing to issue voters’ identification cards to additional 60 constituencies of 40 districts during the next fiscal year that begins next month.

Programs aimed at reducing poverty will be made operational under the one and single roof of Poverty Alleviation Fund and poverty alleviation will continue to be principal objective in the formulation of the Tenth Plan.

In order to promote national industries, the government is proposing to follow the policy of using domestic products as far as practicable with the campaign "let us be self reliant, let us use domestic products," and arrangements shall be made for security of industrial districts. Priority will be on implementing programs to control revenue leakage as well as corruption and tenders and contracts shall be made more transparent.

Plans to decentralize and implement the Local Bodies Fiscal Commission report will be prepared to in a phased manner to consolidate the system of local self governance.

On the education sector, necessary criteria and basis shall be established and implemented for ensuring quality education and appropriate fee structure in private schools. Health care will gradually be expanded and made easily available to all. In accordance with the Agricultural Perspective Plan, the availability of such facilities as irrigation, fertilizers, market mechanism, rural roads, electrification and appropriate agricultural technology shall be ensured for development of the sector.

The government is also proposing to review the laws that is discriminatory to women and widen the accessibility of women to political, economical and social activities for making them active partners in the development works.

For attracting domestic as well as foreign investment, while making timely revision in the hydropower development policy, the government proposes to initiate work preparation of an overall national water resources management plan. An Electricity Development Fund will be established and national capital investment shall be encouraged into small and medium sized hydropower development projects.

The government will also continue study, research and preservation of different languages, literature, art, culture, and tradition of various communities in Nepal.

In the campaign to provide drinking water, the involvement of non-governmental as well as community organizations, local bodies and the private sector shall be encouraged and speedy implementation of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project shall be stressed for a lasting solution to the problem of demand and distribution of drinking water in the Kathmandu Valley.

The government is also proposing to formulate laws to manage the right to information as per the Constitution and communication services shall be made competitive by increasing the participation of the private sector in the development of the telecommunication services.

High priority will be accorded to the task of creating an appropriate physical and legal environment for the development of the information technology sector. The government is also proposing to bring about timely reforms in the existing laws, judicial system and procedure and a governance reform program aimed at creating an accountable, result-oriented and people-oriented administration shall be initiated.

Within the framework of national security concept, the Royal Nepal Army shall be made even more capable in order to make it able to face the multi-dimensional security challenges the nation may face. The policy of involving the army in the tasks of internal security, development and construction works shall continue, King Gyanendra said.

The government is also proposing to establish a residential Royal Nepalese Embassy in Denmark as per the policy of strengthening and expanding bilateral relations with Scandinavian countries. Also the government will continue its efforts towards holding the 11th SAARC summit in Nepal as early as possible and make efforts for ensuring speedy completion of the joint verification of the Bhutanese refugees.

Information on landslide delayed

DHADING, June 29 (PR) - Information about the ill-fated landslide that took the lives of 33 people Tuesday night here in Satyadevi village was only obtained at the district headquarters after 24 hours the fatal incident occurred, said Chief District Officer (CDO) Netra Prasad Sharma today.

CDO Sharma also said that additional information on the ill-fated landslide could not be obtained immediately as the police rescue squad was yet to return from the rural site of incident, at least a two-day’s walk from here in Dhading Besi - the district headquarters.

"We could only mobilize the police for rescue operations after the villagers informed a police station in Mapak - about 10 hours walk away from where the landslide occurred," he said.

All of the victims were returning from day’s work in planting at their paddy fields until the torrential rainfall triggered the landslide.

Electricity disrupted in far-west

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TIKAPUR, Kailali, June 29 - Electricity supply in the far-western hill districts of Doti, Dadeldhura and Dhangadhi Municipality will remain disrupted because of the short-circuit that destroyed the Attariya-based sub-station of the 133 KV national power grid on Friday.

"Three big transformers supplying power to Dhangadhi municipality, Dadeldhura and Doti districts have been destroyed due to the supply of high voltage power from the Kulekhani hydel project all of a sudden this afternoon," said Attariya sub-station in-charge Indra Bahadur Khamcha.

The 92 megawatts Kulekhani hydro plant was shut down for maintenance until 3.15 p.m. today. But the power was connected in the national power grid without any prior notice, he said, adding that the short-circuit in the sub-station has damaged property equivalent to Rs 7.5 million. Khamcha said it would take, at least, one month to supply power to the affected region. Fire fighters from Dhangadhi, the district headquarters, about 16 km south of Attariya located on the east-west highway, put out the fire three hours later.

Oppn critical of govt policies

By Pramod Poudel

KATHMANDU, June 29 – Immediately after the government made public its policies at the joint session of the Parliament today, opposition leaders have raised doubts saying that the policy is still silent over the "burning issues" faced by the nation.

On the other hand, prominent businessmen have taken the announcement "very positively" as His Majesty King Gyanendra addressed the government plans today in the Parliament, also known as the Budget Session.

KP Oli, a CPN-UML central committee member, blamed the government for not being able to come out with substantive policy to sort out the burning issues faced by the country.

"The policy has not been able to address the burning issues faced by the people. There is no such steps taken in the policy to move the country ahead," Oli told The Kathmandu Post.

"There is no difference between this year’s policy with that of the previous year¼Whatever the government has come out this year ranging from economic, foreign and corruption related issues were all addressed previously," Oli accused.

"The announcement today shows that the governmet is not serious about the grave situation faced by the country," he added.

Oli further said that his party’s views on the 11-page policies and programmes of the government would be lengthy and that his party would be discussing in greater detail. "We will register an amendment policy by day after tomorrow and discuss in the Parliament," said Oli.

Prakash Chandra Lohani of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) also accused the government policy being the same as the previous years.

"No matter what the policy announcement is, the real happening is close to zero. Whatever policy have been mentioned there is no relevance to the reality," said Lohani citing how corruption has reached its heights despite the government’s previous policy stressing upon corruption control.

"It is just traditional function of providing for structure discussion in the Parliament," he added.

Referring to the 14-point agenda call for consensus among political parties announced by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala last Monday in the inauguration of the 20th Session, Lohani said that not even a point of it has been addressed in the announcement today.

"The 14 point agenda which the Prime Minister Koirala thinks could form the basis for his retirement is not even mentioned in the announcement," said Lohani.

Commenting on the further proceedings of the Parliament, Lohani said that there are still old issues to be discussed, citing the PM Koirala’s resignation for his involvement in the infamous Lauda Air jet lease deal.

He said the issue of Royal Palace massacre on June 1 would also be figured out in the Parliament. He expressed his concern over the government’s unwillingness to take in moral responsibility over the carnage.

Meanwhile, the business communities have taken the agenda of the government policy and programme "very positively".

Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, President of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the announcement has tried to address various economic problems. "It is a welcome step that various reforms are addressed in some sectors," said Shrestha.

But even Shrestha pointed out that despite the good policy announcement, the problem would lie in the implementation side. "However, we have to wait and see what sort of exact programs will come along with the budget," he said.

Likewise, Rajendra Khetan, FNCCI Vice-President, was of the opinion that "the main problem of the economy has been addressed" by the government’s program and policies.

"The government should effectively implement the announced policy which would accelerate the economy that is currently going at a slow pace¼There has been a good announcement to boost the domestic industry," Khetan said.

Archeology Dept threatens action against non-traditional houses

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, June 29 – After years of defying government orders and turning deaf ears to the Archeology Department’s objection at renovating houses in non-traditional styles around the Valley’s protected monumental zones, the locals will now have to suffer the department’s aesthetically innovative ideas of enforcing the rule.

The solution: to cutoff the electricity, telephone and drinking water facilities to such houses built defying two decades old government laws that prohibit construction of houses in modern style.

Department of Archaeology (DOA), the agency responsible for the up-keep of all archaeological artifacts in the country, is finally waking up to enforce its long comatose duty to enforce the decision giving a go-ahead by the cabinet over a year ago.

The historic Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur Durbar Squares, the stupas of Swoyambhu and Boudha, and temples of Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan, are the seven zones within the Valley listed under the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites (WHS). And, the residential areas immediately around the WHS are defined as protected monumental zones.

More than 3,000 houses are located around these monuments, some for centuries, and the number of new constructions defying the government orders is on the increase everyday, DOA officials say.

"The decision is actually old but had been kept pending serious enforcement. Now, we are working hard to implement it as the protected WHS are turning uglier and uglier everyday," says Chandra Prakash Tripathi, the chief conservation officer at DOA.

The Ancient Monuments Protection Act was regulated in 1980 that ensured protection and maintenance of the indigenous and traditional architecture in private houses around such monuments. The regulation obligated the houses to be less than 35 feet in height, built with exposed red bricks, have wooden ceilings, traditionally carved windows and doors and tiles with sloped roofs.

But with the rapid urbanization that followed since then, these traditional houses were replaced with modern buildings disregarding the regulations. This newly built concrete jungle of private buildings is one of the few causes the UNESCO has slapped a strong threat on Nepal to exclude the Kathmandu Valley monuments from World Heritage List last year.

UNESCO had urged Nepal government to "practically implement" a 55-point recommendation made in 1998, most of which have gone unheeded, cultural experts say. The 1998 recommendation highlights the ineffectiveness of the regulation that has been overlooked by most of the locals.

The DOA official Tripathi admits that most of the houses rebuilt or renovated in the protected areas had overlooked the WHS standard.

"Only a few have followed the rules," Tripathi said, adding that some have built their houses completely disregarding the maps DOA had approved and many others have built new houses even without applying for permission from the Municipality.

"The DOA refunds 10 per cent of the total construction expenditure and also helps to buy timber at subsidized rates if the house is built maintaining the points specified by the regulation," he said. "But a majority of them do not claim for the subsidy as they have to adhere to the standard which they don’t want to follow."

However, the locals blame the troublesome and lengthy process for the failure of the scheme. Apart from this, they complain that constructing a house in traditional style is quite expensive these days. Likewise, though Kathmandu Valley Mapping Programme (KVMP) has completed a survey and documentation on reconstructing traditional buildings at Chikanmugal in Basantapur area of Kathmandu, they have not been able to encourage enough local will from the residents to make the plan successful. The survey was conducted with the help of Engineering Campus students.

"It will certainly be difficult to motivate the locals to rebuild buildings in such a costly manner," says Jharana Joshi, conservation consultant at KVMP.

Dhanesh Ranjitkar, a Chikanmugal resident and a tourist guide himself, is quite aware of the significance the traditional buildings hold, but he too had to opt to turn his own house into a modern building some four years ago due to the high building cost. "I wanted to make my house in traditional manner but it costs three to four times more than constructing a normal building," he says.

Moreover, the locals’ willingness and actual contribution in solving this problem is lukewarm and meager.

Dr Ram Bilas Pande, chief at the Culture Department of Tribhuwan University, said that the conservation of the private houses at the monument zones has been a big problem in the Kathmandu Valley. "Either the residents should respect the standard or they have to follow what the government decides," he said.

He further suggests that the government should buy the house after paying the resident satisfactory amount of compensation. "Let the people sell off these precious buildings if they do not have the sense of respect and glory of being a proud owner of a living monument in a WHS zones," he said.

HR groups protest PSR - 2001

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KATHMANDU, June 29 - A group of Human Rights activists, staged a street demonstration urging the government to withdraw the unconstitutional Public Security Regulations, 2001 enforced two weeks ago.

The Regulation was made public on June 4, when the nation was mourning the death of the King and the Queen of the country. The participants warned the government that the rights groups were ready to "resort to any action against the government" on the Regulations issue.

The activists chanted slogans against the Regulations in the street of the Capital and demanded that the government guarantee the Human Rights of the citizens which the National Constitution assures.

A pamphlet prepared by the organisers states that the Regulations has hurt the rights of thought, including Rights of speaking, writing, publishing, gathering peacefully without arms, rallying, demonstrating and even travelling throughout the countries, apart from the Human Rights.

Talking to the press, Chairman of Human Rights Protection Forum, Padma Ratna Tuladhar said that the Regulations was introduced in haste on such a day when the whole country was engrossed on the crowning of the new king, King Gyanendra.

"We can see an ill-intention behind the timing of the introduction of the Regulations," he said.

Tuladhar added that it had turned to ashes all the guarantees of Human Rights and the rights to express the Constitution has provided to the citizens of Nepal.

Daman Nath Dhungana, former Speaker and a member of Constitution-Drafting Committee said that the this new Regulations has slandered the heights of the Constitution and the Human Rights it secures. "This is an attempt to make the People’s Movement, 1990 and the Constitution meaningless," he added.

Meanwhile, a mass rally is being organised by 34 political parties, student wings and Human Rights organisations in the Capital Monday afternoon. "This will the biggest rally in last 12 years, after the restoration of democracy in 1990," they said.

CJ urges judges to be cautious

KATHMANDU, June 29 (PR) - Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya today strongly urged judges to be more cautious while delivering justice to cases of public interest, ensuring its constitutionality and legality.

"Judges should prudently deliver justice in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution keeping in view of the people’s right to justice," said Chief Justice Upadhyaya speaking at an inauguration ceremony of a two-day program on "cases of public interest and delivery of justice" jointly organised by the Judicial Service Training Centre and Judicial Council Secretariat.

During the program, Upadhyaya also stressed that the judiciary should be more cautious for the quicker delivery of justice to the commoner and that people in the judiciary should exchange information and knowledge for better outcome of the two-day program.

Justice Laxman Prasad Aryal stressing the need for such program said that in a dynamic society where legal principles and definitions keep changing, justice should be delivered through

current rules and policies in accordance with the Constitution.

Speaking on the occasion, Judicial Council Secretary Kashi Raj Dahal and Nepal Bar Association President Sindhu Nath Pyakurel pointed out that such programs would help to manage better the justice delivery system.

In the program attended by 21 justices, Minister for law, justice and Parliamentary Affairs Mahanta Thakur and various other legal professionals, Justices Laxman Prasad Aryal, Kedar Nath Upadhyaya and Krishna Jung Rayamajhi had presented separate working papers.