Hotel employees to begin strike today

By Shree Ram Subedi

KATHMANDU, March 14 - The threatened strike by hotel employees has become a certainty as tourist-class hotels across Kathmandu and outside are slated to remain closed indefinitely from Thursday morning until hotel owners agree to a 10 percent service charge tax as demanded by the agitating employees.

A last-ditch attempt by hotel owners to halt the strike through legal action has failed for now as the Patan Appellate Court refused to issue an interim restraining order, as hoped for by the hotel owners.

Immediately after the court gave its interim ruling, hotel workers held a mass meeting in which they confirmed that the strike planned to begin from Thursday would go on.

"We will not allow to open any hotel at any cost" declared Basudev Joshi, member of the Central Action Committee (CAC) which was formed by two hotel employee unions to spearhead the strike.

Meanwhile, the mood at the hotel owners’ camp was despondent after the court’s interim ruling. The Hotel Association, Nepal (HAN), which had banded with 11 other hotels to file the suit in the appellate court seeking to block the strike, urged the government through a statement to seek to avert the strike.

The striking workers are demanding a compulsory 10 percent service charge (TSC) to be levied on all services provided by a hotel. The revenue, they say, should be divided among hotel employees.

But hotel owners argue that the TSC would discourage tourists from visiting Nepal. HAN even claims that the strike from Thursday would cost the tourism industry nearly half a million US dollars a day in lost revenues.

Currently there are 500 travel agents, 846 Hotels, 400 trekking agents, 70 rafting agents and 600 registered restaurants in the Kingdom and the strike will affect all of them, says HAN.

HAN had pinned its hopes on Patan Appellate Court which held two days of hearings on the case. But on Wednesday, their hopes for an interim restraining order was dashed. Appellate Court judges Bodhahari Raj Pandey and Madhav Raj Thapa in their interim ruling stated that the TSC issue is a question of government policy. And as such, the question of issuing mandamus does not arise.

When the striking employees were asked about the immense losses their agitation would result in, CAC member Joshi said, "Indeed it is great loss but there is no alternative left for us."

Meanwhile, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Omkar Shrestha issued a statement late Wednesday calling on both sides to resolve the dispute amicably and avert the strike. "Since the government has initiated effort to find amicable solutions, we urge both parties to be ready for the dialogue," he said.

The government had formed a committee to look into the TSC row under the convenorship of Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission Prithvi Raj Ligal. The committee report, which called for an optional hospitality charge was submitted to the government a month ago, and was welcomed by both sides initially. But since then talks have stalled.

20 pc children not immunized in hills

By Nitya Nanda Timsina

KATHMANDU, March 14 - At least 42 people, mostly children have died of epidemics in the recent weeks in the far-flung districts of western Nepal while over 200 have been admitted for treatment, despite claims of intensive immunization programs in the recent years.

Hardly a few weeks after 24 children below the age of 10 succumbed to measles in Humla, another remote district in the western hills, Kalikot is feared to have an attack of polio.

Doctors have suspected that Aan Prasad Pandey, an 11-year-old boy from district headquarters Manma, has been attacked by polio once considered to be a deadly disease.

However, doctors say as Pandey had earlier shown signs of ‘Acute Flaccid Paralysis ‘ (AFP), it would take another month for the result of various tests to come from Thailand before the disease is confirmed.

A visiting team of doctors from Epidemiology and Disease Control Division today confirmed that Pandey had not taken the vaccine. "Our tests have confirmed that Pandey has never taken polio or any other types of vaccine in his life", Dr Shuk Dev Neupane told The Kathmandu Post over telephone.

He also said that about 20 per cent of the children in Kalikot and the neighbouring districts have not taken any type of vaccine and thus have been deprived of the benefit of immunization program.

After series of immunization programs, government officials have claimed to have attained an immunization rate of over 95 per cent.

Asked why so many children have not been immunized against such diseases in these hill districts, Dr B.K. Subedi, Chief at the Immunization Cell at the Child Health Division said, "It was not the problem of supply but the vaccines are not a total guarantee against diseases."

However, an official at the World Health Organization (WHO) said, "Since the vaccines are imported from Denmark through UNICEF they are full-proof…the only problem could be the way it is fed to the children."

Visiting doctors have also revealed that the vulnerability of the children to these diseases has increased due to alarmingly high - 60 per cent - malnutrition rate prevalent among the children.

Nepal has been launching an enhanced immunization program to eradicate polio through the united efforts of HMG, WHO, Japanese government, Norwegian government, UNICEF and the USAID. The government annually spends 90 million rupees in the National Polio Vaccination Programme.

Min Bahadur Shahi, President of Kalikot DDC, who is currently in the capital told The Kathmandu Post that many children have succumbed to these diseases due to lack of health facilities in the district. He unfolded a gruesome fact that the whole of Karnali has no single laboratory to test blood. "There is no doctor...no medicines," said Shahi.

Confounded by hunger and epidemics, far-west could face a humanitarian catastrophe, warned Shahi.

The WHO official, however, warns that the Terai region could be even more vulnerable to such diseases. Already two cases of polio have been detected in Banke and Saptari districts in 1999 and four cases in Rautahat, Dhanusha and Siraha in 2000.

"It may be due to its proximity to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh which have record case of polio," an official at the WHO said.

Government officials claim that they are ready for massive district-wise immunization programs if and when polio cases are confirmed.

"We are sparing no efforts to control the out-break within the limits of our manpower, logistic and supervision besides spreading awareness programmes," said Dr Mahendra Bahadur Bista, Director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.

But we would take immediate action to immunize the epidemic area once the disease is confirmed, he said.

According to a report from WHO in 1999, there are an estimated 3, 500 cases of polio in the world and India alone accounting for 700 cases.

Amicus Curiae strongly opposes Citizenship Bill

By Utpal Raj Misra

KATHMANDU, March 14 -The Supreme Court today began hearings on the controversial Bill proposing to amend the Citizenship Act of 2020 (1963 AD).

On the first day of hearings, most of the noted advocates argued against the Bill, saying either it was not a Finance Bill or that it directly contravened the clauses of the Constitution. The only notable exception was the government’s defender, Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki.

Karki fired the first salvo in the debate Wednesday by arguing that the Bill was completely in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal - 2047. "The Bill does not clash with the Constitution in any way," he said.

He claimed that the fear in people’s mind that once the Bill passes into law it will lead to a flood of citizenship certificates being granted to the non-Nepalis is a "hypothetical question and the allegations that it is unconstitutional are just speculations."

The Bill has got into the Supreme Court because it was sent there for an opinion on its constitutionality by His Majesty the King on February 20. The Monarch, in accordance with the Article 88 (5) of the present Constitution, had sought the opinion of the Supreme Court on whether or not Clause 2 of the proposed Bill was in consonance with the Articles 8 and 9 of the Constitution.

The Court called an Amicus Curiae (Friends of the Court) to provide its opinion on the case. There are altogether 6 members in the Amicus Curiae. The government side is officially being represented by Karki, the Attorney General.

During hearings on Wednesday, Karki also claimed that the Bill was just a procedure which had been taken up by the government to solve the problems that had arisen because the district administration, which provides the citizenship certificates in the districts, focussed mainly on certification rather than in implementing clauses of the Constitution. "We are facing problems like refugee and double citizenship because of the administration not understanding the Constitution," he said.

It was then the turn of the members of the Amicus Curiae and here too the government arguments got a pounding. The first to come from the Amicus Curiae was Sarvagya Ratna Tuladhar, ex-Attorney General who is close to the main opposition communists who are critical of the Bill.

Tuladhar argued that the Bill was unconstitutional as it purports to distort the present constitution. "If any clause in the Constitution is to be changed then a separate Bill to amend the constitution should be brought forward," he said.

Tuladhar also claimed that since the sub clause (8) of the Bill is in direct contravention with the Constitution of Nepal- 2019, and since the present Constitution refers to the 2019 Constitution (which was abrogated in 2047) in this case, the Bill is in conflict with the present Constitution.

Another Amicus Curiae member, senior advocate Biswa Kanta Mainali who is also close to the communists, argued that the Bill in no circumstances could be called a Finance Bill as endorsed by the Lower House of the Parliament. "Why was it necessary for the Speaker of the Lower House to call it a Finance Bill now when for five times on previous occasions it has not been called so?" he questioned.

He also said that it was illogical to compare the constitutions of other countries and that of Nepal because of its unique geographical structure.

Mukunda Regmi, senior advocate and a ruling Nepali Congress member, also came down against the Bill, but not on its constitutionality. He raised the same point Mainali raised, agreeing with the latter that the Bill could not be called a Finance Bill. But Regmi showed his governing party affiliations when he argued that the Bill was not in conflict with the Constitution.

"The question of ultra vires (clashing with the constitution) does not arise as when studying the Bill and keeping Nepal Citizenship Act-2009, Constitution of Nepal-2019, Citizenship Ordinance- 2020, Citizenship Act-2020 and Constitution of Nepal- 2047 in mind, it is clear that the Bill is in accordance with the Constitution," he said.

The final speaker for today was Motikaji Sthapit, another ex-Attorney General who is considered a Congress sympathizer, also argued against the Bill. He said that it is not permissible to let any clause of the Constitution to get distorted because of an Act.

"An Act can get annulled according to the needs but the Constitution remains the same and since the Bill proposes to distort Clause (3) of the Citizenship Act-2020 which has been incorporated in the existing Constitution, the Bill proposes to do something unconstitutional," he said.

The hearing was adjourned till 10:30 tomorrow morning. The Amicus Curiae includes former Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament, Daman Nath Dhungana, former Attorney Generals Motikaji Sthapit and Sarvagya Ratna Tuladhar, senior advocates Mukunda Regmi, Biswa Kant Mainali and Bipulendra Chakrabarty. The others included in the discussion are Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki, senior advocates Ganesh Raj Sharma and Krishna Prasad Pant.

Gupta could withdraw resignation

KATH MANDU, March 14 (PR) - In his bid to resolve the fresh trouble that brewed up in the government Tuesday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today continued with his vigorous exercise to convince his disenchanted close confidants.

According to one of his close aides, Koirala met his close confidant, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta for one and half hours at the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, and claimed that "there is a strong possibility of Gupta withdrawing his resignation."

"The talks were very positive and Gupta is likely to take heed of PM Koirala’s requests," he added. Another close confidant of Koirala, Surendra Hamal, however, has gone out of the capital city, family sources said.

Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Gupta and Minister of State for Labour and Transportation Hamal tendered their resignations to the PM citing "serious policy differences", among other things, Tuesday.

Gupta could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts. Earlier on the day, he was seen walking around the House of Representatives when lawmakers of the opposition parties were busy chanting anti-Koirala slogans, and Koirala sitting mum in his chamber.

A few "senior members" of the rebel camp of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) party, meanwhile, were discussing the "pros and cons of the current political turmoil" at the Bhainsepati-based residence of the party’s another senior leader, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, late Tuesday, sources said.

Another meeting of the rebel camp, slated to be held earlier at the contact office of former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, did not take place.

In another development, the central office of the ruling party has called a meeting of all the NC leaders, including immediate-past and present Central Working Committee (CWC) members, District Working Committee presidents and NC lawmakers at PM’s Baluwatar residence, at 8 a.m. Sunday (March 18).

A press release signed by Purushottam Basnet, Chief of NC’s Press Department, says that the meeting will discuss the on-going political turmoil and the challenges facing the year-old Koirala government.

Smuggling tumbles as army begins to patrol

BIRGUNJ, March 14 (PR) - Several border points used for illegal trade across the Nepal-India border in and around Birgunj fell silent on Wednesday as a contingent of Royal Nepal Army soldiers began patrolling the border to discourage smuggling.

The reason for this sudden drop in illegal border trade is rumours circulating among the traders that the soldiers had orders to shoot at sight to stop would-be smugglers.

There are more than a dozen crossing points for illegal goods along the porous border in and around Birgunj. The RNA personnel were seen patrolling almost all the entry points on vehicles. They have also been authorised to check the warehouses in this frontier city.

A local from Chhapkaiya village who made a living from ferrying goods illegally across the border said that no boulders were smuggled into Indian markets via Inarwa, Bhakuwa, Chhapkaiya, Sirsiya and Alau border points. Before the army was mobilised, people used to smuggle boulder into India through these points to evade Rs 200 for per square metre of boulder as customs duty.

Meanwhile, chief of Birgunj’s main customs Ishwor Pokharel expressed confidence that additional Rs 1 billion would be collected from the Customs as a result of the army mobilisation.

Genuine businessmen and industrialists have welcomed the government’s decision to mobilise the army for the control of illegal trade from across the porous border.

"We have stopped bringing any goods from India and will observe the RNA’s action for a couple of days," a local illegal trader, requesting anonymity, said. "On the other hand, low level peddlers are also reluctant to take any risk due to the shoot-at-sight rumour." He added that whether or not he would resume his old illegal business depended upon the RNA’s activities.

Sen transferred to Jaleswor jail

By Rabindra Upreti

MAHOTTARI, March 14 - Editor of Janadesh weekly Krishna Sen said authorities forced him to sign papers stating his release but in reality he was moved to another jail and continued to remain in custody.

Sen, who was reported missing since his release over the weekend and then re-arrested by authorities, said he was actually transferred to Jaleswor Jail but did not even know where he was.

Sen was arrested by the authorities two years ago and put into custody. He was released on Sunday by the authorities but since then there had been no news about his whereabouts for the next two days.

It was only some time later that did authorities admit Sen had been re-arrested and put back into the police custody.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post in Jaleswor prison today, Sen said that he was kept for two hours at the Janakpur-based Regional Police Office on Sunday morning and brought to Area Police Office at Gausala in Mohottari for the next three days. He said he was arrested and kept in custody without a warrant.

"Police put me in the custody at the Gausala-based Area Police Station after completing paper works in Janakpur," Sen told The Kathmandu Post. "I sensed another conspiracy from the authorities after I was released from the Rajbiraj-based jail on Saturday night."

About 8 p.m. on Saturday, jail authorities gave him verbal notice about his release and told him to come out of the jail.

"But I refused to be released at night. They waited till early Sunday and dragged me out of bed while I was wearing only an underwear and a vest and brought me to Janakpur."

Sen said he had no idea where he was moved to and he came to know about his transfer to the Jaleswor jail only after reading newspapers in the jail. He also charged that some wrong information was fed in the media about him by the authorities.

Sen said although media reported about his release five days ago, police forced him to sign an acquittal paper on Sunday noon at Gausala Area Police Station.

"I was forced to sign the paper of my acquittal from Saptari jail while I was in Jaleswor prison and I was kept in custody without any warrant paper for three days," Sen lamented.

Commenting on Chief District Officer in Mahottari, Laxmi Prasad Bhattarai’s statement, Sen said CDO Bhattarai handed over him a letters of detention only after he was put into the Jaleswor jail. Sen has now been put behind the bars under the Public Security Act.

CDO Bhattarai could not be reached for comment for he left the district today for Madhubani, India to take part in Nepal-India border meet. Sen said the government’s act against him was the gross violation of human rights and the Supreme Court’s decision of his release from illegal detention.

The Supreme Court issuing a writ of habeas corpus had released Sen last week, who had been in custody nearly for two years on charges of possessing of illegal arms.

Sen’s paper is considered sympathetic towards the Nepal Communist Party (Maoists) that has been waging a guerrilla war for the past five years that has claimed over 1,500 lives.

UN peace centre to boost regional security

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, March 14 – Thirteen years after the United Nations began holding regular annual meetings in Kathmandu to discuss peace and disarmament issues in the Asia-Pacific region, a permanent UN disarmament office here is on the verge of turning into a reality.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was here on a two-day visit, said on Tuesday that the United Nations would soon be moving ahead with the development of a regional peace and disarmament centre in Kathmandu, and the staff to man that important outpost would also be arriving soon.

But for that to occur, Nepal must first provide the requisite land and other infrastructure. At the moment, the government is pondering the issue and could soon come up with a definitive answer.

Mahesh Acharya, Minister for Defence, says, "We still need to do our homework; we have to provide land for the purpose and arrange the necessary infrastructure for the purpose." Acharya also disclosed that it was the UN that had mooted the proposal for establishing such a centre in Kathmandu.

The establishment of such a centre would be a major boost for Nepal’s image not only as a conference capital of South Asia, but also the place where the mighty nations of the Asia-Pacific region thrash out sensitive security-related issues.

The proposed UN disarmament centre is already here in some ways. For the last 13 years, the capital city has played host to annual UN regional peace and disarmament meetings which brings senior officials from major Asia-Pacific region governments. The meetings have been known as the "Kathmandu Process," and its importance has been underscored by several key achievements.

UN and Nepali government officials say, the most notable achievement of the "Kathmandu Process" has been to bring together senior officials from both North and South Korea whose countries in the early years of the 1990s were barely on speaking terms. That initial breakthrough has yielded to more direct contacts between the two Koreas culminating in June last year in a summit between their leaders.

"Although the two Koreas have started discussing directly, the ‘Kathmandu Process’ can still make its impact," says Evgeniv Gorkovskiy, the UN’s Director and Deputy Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, who was here to attend the annual meeting last week. "The Kathmandu centre is still the best forum to thrash out contentious issues among different nations."

Officials here hope to replicate similar breakthroughs in the future, since SAARC, the South Asian regional forum, rarely discusses contentious issues, if at all. Moreover, since regional antagonists, India and Pakistan, both detonated nuclear devices in 1998, the world has been nervously watching developments in South Asia.

Under such circumstances, the proposed UN regional disarmament centre could yet play a key role. The "Kathmandu Process," it seems, is just getting into high gear.

PM hindered again in making statement

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Mar 14 - Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala failed to make his statement in the House of Representatives for the second time again with an adamant opposition insisting on grilling the PM on Lauda Air controversy.

The Lower House convened at 2.30 p.m. instead of the scheduled time of 11 a.m. The Prime Minister waited in his chamber for half an hour while the opposition, except Nepal Sadbhavana Party kept on sloganeering demanding his resignation.

During this time and for the next 20 minutes, Speaker Taranath Ranabhat repeatedly appealed to the opposition members to go back to their seats and let the PM make his statement.

At one point, the Speaker also reminded the agitating members that the PM, as the leader of the House, has the right to make his statement. But the opposition was in no mood to relent. Then the Speaker adjourned the House until tomorrow.

Earlier, at an all-party meeting, held at the Speaker’s chamber, the two sides failed to reach an agreement over the modalities of allowing the PM to make a statement in the House.

Speaking to journalists after the all-party meet, Subash Nemwang, lawmaker from Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), said the opposition had reiterated their demand of speaking before the PM made his statement. "First, he has to respond to our statements; then we must be allowed to react and only then he can make his statement."

The opposition also want an opportunity to grill PM Koirala on his statement, something that the House rules do not allow. When asked to comment on whether the opposition was wrong, "We know the House rules do not allow any debate on the statement but this is not a normal time when the House remains disrupted for over a month."

Nemwang demanded that a live telecast and radio broadcast be done of the whole proceedings when the PM is grilled in the House.

TIA equipped with improved radar

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 14 - The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport, today went modern vis-à-vis air traffic systems with the strengthening of the present radar systems with Japan’s assistance.

Mitsuaki Kojima, Japan’s ambassador to Nepal today handed over the recently-completed Project for the Improvement of the Existing Air Traffic Systems under the TIA modernization project to Omkar Prasad Shrestha, the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, states press release issued by the Japanese embassy.

With this modernization of the radar systems, it will now be easier for aeroplane to maintain a safe altitude and make the steep climbs and descents necessary to take off or land from the TIA, which is surrounded by the mountains.

After the incidents of two air crashes in 1992, Japan undertook a study to develop a master plan for the modernization of the TIA. The release adds that under an Urgent Improvement Plan, Japan extended grant assistance of Rs 2,975,896,000 for the implementation of the project. A radar navigation system, alongwith a radar training centre, was established at the TIA in 1996.

Later, the radio communication system was also modernized. An emergency power supply generator has been installed at the Civil Aviation Academy at Sanothimi, Bhaktapur.