Schools compelled to shut down

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RUKUM, March 25 - A number of temporary schools running for many years in the district are being shut down or are in the process of being shut down after they failed to receive government’s recognition as permanent schools.

A primary school which was running for the last five years in Sankh VDC-4 has been shut down after it failed to obtain government recognition as permanent school. The District Education Office had not provided any assistance to the school to date.

The VDC office had been paying teachers’ salaries. As it announced its inability to pay the teachers any more, it has been closed now.

Another temporary school at Rangsi-7 has also been closed recently after the District Education Office withheld recognition.

Similarly, temporary primary schools located at Sankh VDC ward nos. 8,9 and 5 are also about to be closed. A local resident, Sharad Gautam, has warned that these schools will be closed in a few months if they are not recognised as permanent ones immediately.

In Rukum district, there are 185 primary, 11 lower secondary and 17 secondary schools which have received recognition from the District Education Office as permanent schools, whereas the number of temporary schools is 45 primary, 25 lower secondary and 9 secondary.

The VDCs cannot pay salary to teachers because of the need to deposit the VDC fund in the "basket fund" from now onwards and this will cause unemployment of about 150 teachers.

Telephone lines expansion disrupted

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NAWALPARASI, March 25 - The 500-metre cables used by Telecommunication Office for expansion of 14 telephone lines in Tribeni VDC have been stolen and the telephone lines have been blocked.

The cables were stolen from the poles in Raninagar and Mahalbari areas hampering the services of P.C.O.s, other offices and private sector communication.

Thieves have stolen 250 metres cables of 100 pears and 250 metres of 50 pears worth about Rs 50,000. This has hampered the installation work of 48 new telephone lines to be distributed, according to Telecommunication chief Prakash Singh Rana. The new cables will not be installed there again as long as no arrangement is made there for the security of the cables, he added.

Earlier, 200-metre cables were stolen in this area about a month ago. This area lies adjacent to the Indian border. It is suspected that the cables are taken to India, according to the office chief.

'Victim Justice system should be guaranteed in the constitution'

TKP : Generally, the word ‘victim’ relates to crime victim. As a victimologist, how do you define the word ‘ victim’?

SS: Anyone who is badly affected to his inconvenience, wrongly treated to the deprivation of one’s interest or dealt illegally is a victim.

TKP: Could you please point out some kinds of victims?

SS : There are about 23 institutions in the country dealing about Human Rights. But unfortunately, they deem only torture victims as victims. But there are many other victims such as consumer victims, information victims, service victims, corruption victims, utility victims and so on and so forth. Consumers are entitled to get non-adulterated food. But people are victimized by the flow of adulterated food in the market. He/she is a consumer victim. If a teacher remains absent from the class and does not discharge his duty, the students are the victimized. This is then service victim. There is no water in the taps, but still, we have to pay the charge. It is utility victim. Pedestrians in Kathmandu cannot walk freely on footpaths because of the street-vendors. They are then utility victims. If a journalist is unreasonably deprived of information, they are then information victims. In this way people are victimized in every nook and corner of life.

TKP: Can a victim claim for the damages incurred thereof ?

SS: As you know, we cannot sue anyone or make claims anywhere for the failure of delivery of water into our taps. Thousands of such cases that subject the people as victim pass off in impunity. There are few laws covering the provisions relating to compensation like in Vehicle and Transportation Act, Food Act, but they too are inadequate and insufficient.

TKP: How they are inadequate and insufficient?

SS: The existing laws regarding criminal justice, by the name itself, seek justice for criminals, not for the victims. The laws ignore the fact that the victims are the real justice seekers. Thus, the law itself causes postcrime victimization. The criminals already victimize the victims. Then, they are made to suffer again in the course of seeking justice. For instance, let me tell you about real incident. A gang of nine vagabonds raped a thirteen years old girl. She was unconscious and rescued by a passerby villager and reached home. A case was filed against the rapists. In the court, the eyewitness who had rescued the girl denied it and claimed that he was elsewhere on the fateful day and time. The court acquitted the rapists on some technical grounds. Now what about the girl and her future? Is there any Human Rights activist who cares about this particular girl? What the rights activists care about is that the criminals, in prison or elsewhere, should be treated humanely.

Suppose the court deemed the rapists guilty. Then, the girl would have been able to claim half of the property of the rapists. But it is very difficult to put this into practice. To claim the property, she has to be coparcener. But, she is not coparcener. The cobweb of the due process is very complicated.

Worse still, the criminals generally have connection with people in the government and exert influence. The government gets the case reverted. The victim is then left with no recourse for seeking further justice. In case of this girl, the government has already returned the case on her behalf. How injustice, immoral and intolerable it is?

Lets imagine another scenario, where the criminals (rapists) go to prison. The criminals there enjoy free lodging, food, medicine and even education at the cost of the government. But the girl mercilessly raped, need to bear general hatred in the society, is made to feel uneasy everywhere and has to bear the agony as well as psychological trauma. If the state provides the above said privileges and facilities even to the criminals in jail, why not such facilities be provided to the victim as well ?

TKP: Is there any way to curb these all shortcomings?

SS: Yes, of course. First of all, the rights of the victims should be guaranteed in the constitution itself. The whole judicial system should be victims-oriented. As there are some rights guaranteed for the criminal in Article (14) of the constitution, there should be some rights to safeguard the interest of the victims. Following the constitutional provision, other laws should be enacted accordingly.

TKP: As you are working for the sake of victims for a quite long time, what results have you achieved so far?

SS: Some achievements have been made. The move to safeguard the interest of victim is gaining voiced over the years. The trend of getting the cases returned by the government is changed. The court has now begun to interrogate the government when it seeks the withdrawal of the cases. Awareness is being increased among the people of judicial sector. Similarly, new provision has been made in law, which entitles the victim for Travel Allowance and Daily Allowance at par with non-gazetted first class civil servant for the time called as witness in the court.

TKP: Last of all, anything you want to add?

SS: Let’s pray for the betterment of the victims. In my opinion, the victims are the real justice seekers, not the society, nor the state. And, the people are the one and only consumers of the democracy, let them live without being victims. Because, everyone has the right of not to be victimized.

Govt indifference over border encroachment flayed

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GULARIYA, March 25 - Even one month after the Indian forest employees encroached the land of Nepal, the Nepalese Border Settlement Team has not arrived here to collect information.

The forest employees of Taranagar Range Post of Baharaich district in India’s Uttar Pradesh have encroached the Nepalese land at Tepari of Gulariya Municipality-12 and have dug out pits. In the area from 61\6 to 61\8 they have dug out a one kilometre long pit.

It is suspected that they have encroached 20 to 500 metres Nepalese land. The process of pit-digging and encroaching of Nepalese land was stopped with the initiative of border Police Office, Mathura Haridwar.

When Kantipur, the sister publication of The Kathmandu Post published the news of border encroachment immediately after the incident, the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor of Gulariya Municipality requested the Chief District Officer to take the incident seriously and take necessary steps to control the encroachment. Locals are stunned to know that no survey team has made its appearance at the scene as yet. If the border survey team does not take interest even when the country’s border is being encroached, what is the need of survey teams? Why is it that the government does not take action against such teams? says Bal Bahadur Gurung of Gulariya Municipality-12.

Chief District Officer Dilli Raj Joshi says, " I am also astonished. Why does the border team not arrive even after repeated correspondence? We have repeatedly informed the concerned authorities about the incident."

The Nepal-India Border Settlement team was supposed to complete border delineation in the no-man’s land in Bardiya by repairing and painting of the damaged border pillars towards the last December or January. However, as the team did not come, the Indian forest office employees crossed the no man’s land and encroached the Nepalese land and destroyed border pillars inside thick forests.

The floods in the Babai river had washed away border pillar nos. 58 and 58/1 six years ago, but they have not yet been repaired. Indian citizens have constructed houses and are residing in this land near Thapuwa village.

Similarly, Indians living in Ghumana village have been cultivating the Nepalese land in Khalepuruwa. They do not allow Nepalese to cultivate the land, according to locals.

Most of the Nepal-India border pillars need repairing. Since both Nepalese and Indian citizens have been cultivating the no man’s land and as there is dense forest in many areas, the no man’s land is not visible.

Artistes flay film festival

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JANAKPUR, March 25 - Artistes of Janakpur showed dissatisfaction over the result of Janakpur Film Festival, organised here Wednesday.

The witnesses said that many of the artistes rejected certificates, calling that the organisers themselves judged the telefilms, not even forming a jury.

Actor Ramesh Ranjan Jha said that it was not acceptable that actors working since 1992 were categorised as shining stars where as one who came to the camera only three years ago was named as a senior actor.

Lyricist Ashok Datta claimed that the organisers held the programme just to have felicitated themselves.

In the programme, artistes from the capital Saranga Shrestha, Resham, Srhsti, Mahadev and local talents, Mithilesh Jha and Amrita performed dances.

Producer-Director Nir Shah, Pawan Mainali, Subhash Gajurel and many more artistes were present in the programme.

NAFA holds art workshop

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KATHMANDU, March 25 - Nepal Association of Fine Arts (NAFA) today organised a one-day art workshop at Sita Bhawan.

Seventy-four artists from the capital city as well as from other parts of the country participated in the workshop, in which they made paintings in water, acrylic or oil colours on the spot. The creations were mostly imagined landscape, cityscape, life style and cultural heritage of the Kathmandu Valley.

NAFA provided canvases and papers to the participating artists. The creations would be sold in future and if left unsold, the artists could claim it at the office, the organisers said.

"Artists do have individuality, but still, there should be healthy relation among the artists," said Academician Vijaya Thapa, the co-ordinator of the programme.