14 killed, 31 hurt in bus mishap

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TAMGHAS, Gulmi, March, 27 - At least 14 people were killed and 31 others sustained injuries when a passenger bus plunged 200 meters off the country road at Gairikhutta in Gulmi district on Monday evening, police said Tuesday.

The bus with registration number Lu 1 Kha 1624 had left Butwal for Balkot, Arghakhanchi, at 9 a.m. on Monday. The site of the accident is about 16 km west of Ridi bazaar and one hour’s drive from Tamghas, the headquarters of Gulmi district.

Six people died on the spot and eight others succumbed to their injuries on the way to the Tansen-based Mission Hospital. So far, nine of the bodies have been identified.

The deceased who have been identified include Prem Shahi, 30, from Kerunga in Arghakhanchi, bus conductor Deepak Khadka, 25, from Butwal Municipality-10, Kulananda Pokharel from Amar Arwathok in Gulmi, Dinanth Ghimire, 33, from Kharjyang VDC-4. The others include Shambhu Sinjali, 21, from Daugha VDC-6 in Gulmi, Shyam Prasad Shrestha, 65, Jeevan Shrestha, 27, Man Singh Shrestha, 62, Jamuna Shrestha, 55, from Balkot VDC-1 in Arghakhanchi, Dhruba Rayamajhi from Chhatragunj and approximately 60-year-old Mankala whose address could not be ascertained.

The hospital said that condition of nine of the passengers admitted for treatment still remains critical.

The helper of the bus who is undergoing treatment at the hospital said a total of 45 passengers were travelling in the bus.

All the dead bodies have been brought to the Palpa District Hospital for post-mortem. The bus driver, who survived the accident, is still at large. Police suspected that the accident could have occurred when the brakes on the bus failed to function.

Local people helped pull out the injured out of the mangled bus and to transport them to the hospital for treatment early Tuesday.

A local, Tulsi Ram Gywali, from Daugha VDC-6, said that police had not reached the accident site till Tuesday morning though the locals had informed the District Police Offices in Tansen, Bhairahawa and Tamghas about the fatal accident over telephone.

Meanwhile, in a joint press statement issued today by members of Parliament, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and Gokarna Raj Bista, both from Gulmi district said they were deeply shocked to hear of the fatal accident. The lawmakers also paid their heart-felt condolences to the bereaved families and wished for speedy recovery to the injured persons.

Slow verification process irks refugees

By Chintamani Dahal

BHADRAPUR, March 27 - Despite the launch of the much-awaited verification of the nearly 100,000 Lhotsampa refugees by the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) Monday, many here are now concerned about the unusually slow pace of the process.

Only nine refugee families from the Khudunabari camp have been verified so far as the JVT ended its second day of verification process today. The JVT had planned to verify 10 families per day, following which the number should have reached 20 by now.

Rights activists fighting for the repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees have also strongly criticized the JVT for not providing any "basic humanitarian relief facilities" to the interviewees. Refugees who have been brought to the JVT office at Damak in the early morning are having to stay hungry until they are sent back to their camps in the evening after verification.

Moreover, the refugees who were forced to evict southern Bhutan almost 10 years ago have also accused the Bhutanese government of presently escalating the process of sheltering people from northern Bhutan in their deserted home.

"Bhutan has suddenly escalated sheltering Drukpas from northern Bhutan in the land the refugees were forced to evict while the verification process is underway. Even the Bhutanese King has been staying there since Monday," claimed S. B. Subba, president of BRRRC, a committee formed for the repatriation of the refugees.

"Plus, the process of verification has been delayed alarmingly," he added.

The JVT verified 9 people of two families yesterday while 41 people of seven families have been verified today. The verification of two refugees were kept as pending today due to erroneous data, JVT officials said.

Meanwhile, AHURA Bhutan, an association of human rights activists of Bhutan, has raised serious concerns over the unusually slow process in which refugees have been waiting hungrily at the JVT offices.

"We believe it is the responsibility of the JVT to provide for basic welfare of the refugee families asked to report to their office...We also express serious concerns at the dismal progress of the verification exercise," states the release issued by AHURA Bhutan.

"We urge the JVT to strategize mechanisms that would facilitate verification of maximum number of families such that the exercise would be complete at the earliest," the release adds. "The refugees would be able to take solace if the JVT reorganized itself to undertake the verification of at least 50 families in the beginning and increase this number to higher rate of coverage."

PM raises possibility of unity government

By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, March 27 – Under fire from opposition leaders, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala mooted the idea of a national government during discussions with other political leaders today at an all-party meeting convened by senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.

According to those who participated in the meeting held at Bhattarai’s residence at Bhainsepati, Koirala responded to opposition criticisms of his government by saying, "by the picture you have painted, I think what you all want is a national government (all-party government.). I will put such a proposal at my party’s meeting." But he flatly refused to step down as prime minister, the chief demand of almost everyone else in the meeting.

"Koirala talked about a national government but flatly ruled out resigning from his position," a senior politician who participated in the meeting told The Kathmandu Post on condition of anonymity.

The meeting convened today by Bhattarai was an attempt to bring the warring political parties together to find a way out of the parliamentary mess. The House has been disrupted for the entire Winter Session by the opposition parties which is demanding Koirala’s resignation for his alleged role in the infamous Lauda Air jet lease deal signed by RNAC, the flag-carrier.

The stalemate has thrown cold water on government plans to pass three ordinances, one dealing with the formation of the Armed Police Force (APF) and the other about setting up regional administrators, which are set to expire in two weeks time barring parliamentary approval.

Koirala’s advisors today told The Kathmandu Post that this was not the first time the PM had discussed the idea of a national government. "He has been informally discussing the idea for some time," one of his close aides said. "But I don’t think he has made up his mind to take that route as yet."

The all-party meeting at Bhattarai’s residence were attended by all the leaders of the national parties, including Bhattarai, Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba from the NC. Madhav Nepal and K P Oli represented the CPN-UML. While RPP’s Surya Bahadur Thapa, Nepal Sadbhavana Party’s Badri Prasad Mandal and Royal nominee to the Upper House Ramesh Nath Pandey were also present at the meeting. Several leaders of minor left parties such as Narayan Man Bijukchhe, Lila Mani Pokharel and Dilaram Acharya were also present. Speaker Taranath Ranabhat and Deputy Speaker Chitralekha Yadav were also there.

Many of the leaders again laid out their own agenda. Madhav Nepal of the CPN-UML once again asked Koirala to resign. RPP’s Thapa also urged Koirala to step aside to resolve the parliamentary stalemate. The idea was seconded by all the other leaders. Bhattarai himself called on Koirala to step down, pointing out that he had all along asked the PM to resign even before the Lauda Air scandal broke.

According to Koirala’s aides, the prime minister simply listened. In the end he responded with the national government idea, and suggested that all the issues raised in the meeting would first be discussed in NC’s Central Working Committee.

But given the recent history of NC, the CWC is only likely to reaffirm its leadership in Koirala, as did the recent NC gathering of district leaders and activists.

The Koirala camp is genuinely bewildered by the developments inside and outside parliament. They admit, they never foresaw Lauda Air snowballing into such a huge controversy. But they also see a sinister design, the so-called "grand design" which Koirala used to refer constantly in the past.

"Though it began from Lauda Air, we thought that issue is currently under scrutiny both by the CIAA (anti-corruption agency) and Supreme Court," says one of his close aides. "We though we could respond only when those bodies made their rulings. But now, it appears that the whole operation is being conducted with a single-minded purpose to derail the Armed Police Force ordinance. The opposition, knowingly or unknowingly, has fallen into this design."

Meanwhile, a senior politician who belongs to a completely different political spectrum, said that there is indication that Koirala could end the Winter Session without attempting to pass the ordinances. "We’ve got indications that he could then amend the Police Act and put the APF provisions in there. That would prove his aim of bypassing parliament at any cost. In such an event, there is no saying what could happen."

Respiratory diseases on the rise

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KATHMANDU, March 27 – Air quality is continuing to deteriorate in the large urban areas of Nepal due mainly to rising number of vehicles and industries, and this has had a direct impact on human health, says a report released here Monday.

"Respiratory diseases increased from 10.9 per cent of the total outdoor patients visit (5,167,378) in 1996 to 11.6 per cent of the total outdoor visit (7,115,981) in 1998," says the report - State of the Environment Nepal 2001, which was launched by the Executive Director of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Klaus Topfer, Monday evening.

According to the report, acute respiratory infection accounted for more than 30 per cent of total deaths in children under five years of age. And a significant portion of population, in both rural and urban areas, is affected by bronchitis caused by domestic smoke.

While the problem appears to be severe in large urban areas like Kathmandu, Birgunj, Biratnagar and Pokhara, the report says that the inhabitants of mountain region are much more vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of the burning of fuelwood in poorly ventilated houses.

"Hospital records show that a greater number of respiratory diseases occurred in the urban population than in the rural population; this may be due to the smoke and dust emitted from vehicles and industries," the report says.

The report blames the rising number of vehicles and polluting industries as the ones responsible for this. The total number of vehicles increased from 75,159 in 1990 to 220,000 in 1998, out of which the two-wheelers accounted for 51 per cent of the total vehicles.

As a result, the consumption of petrol and diesel increased from 31,056,000 litres and 195,689,000 litres in 1993 to 49,994,000 litres and 315,780,000 in 1998, the report says. "All kinds of vehicle are responsible for emitting pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, suspended particulate matters, smoke and soot," it adds.

This is not all. The report says that the dust particles emitted by cement factories have also caused an adverse impact on vegetation growth, as well as low visibility and low degree of incoming sunlight.

According to the report, 74 per cent of the 4,487 industries registered in Nepal in 1994 were classified as air polluting industries. Of them, 33 per cent were based in Kathmandu Valley.

The report estimates Nepal’s annual emission of greenhouse gases from petroleum products at 72,000 tones (carbon), 1790 tones (nitrogen) from 1970 to 1990. While methane production was 1.2 million tones in 1997. And due to deforestation and burning of fuelwood, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased.

"It is estimated that the annual deforestation of 26,602 hectares of land has emitted 7.77 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere," the report says, stating that the energy supply in Nepal comes largely from traditional sources such as fuelwood, agricultural residue, and animal waste.

"These sources make up nearly 90 per cent of the total energy consumption. Other sources like petroleum fuel, coal, and electricity share the remaining 10 per cent," it adds.

The report blames the rapid and uncontrolled growth of population and poor management and use of the available resources as the major reasons for the deterioration. "The reason for these is the inadequacy of capital and human resources and lack of public awareness," it says. "For sustainable development of the environment, strong commitment on the part of the government to implement programmes that are appropriate and encourage already existing programmes is required."

Besides air quality, the report points out forest depletion, soil degradation, and solid waste and water quality as the key environmental issues of the country. The 235-page report was prepared jointly by the Ministry of Population and Environment, ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development), NORAD, UNEP and a number of other organizations.

Japan envoy urges ‘over-stayers’ to return

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Mitsuaki Fujima today strongly urged all Nepalis who have illegally overstayed their visas in Japan to return to Nepal.

Fujima made the remarks to journalists just a day after the Finance Ministry said that the disappearance of 17 students who had finished their studies in Japan had caused the Japanese government to curtail scholarships for Nepali students.

Ambassador Fujima also hinted of additional measures to check the trend, should it continue, saying: "Japan would then have to reconsider before accepting anyone from Nepal for any future training programs."

Japan has so far trained 111 officials from various departments of HMG who were nominated by the Nepal government for further training or studies at Japanese institutions. Seventeen of them have disappeared in Japan after completing their studies. The problem was pointed out to the government by officials of Japan’s high-level task force on cooperation of policy consultation on their recent visit to Nepal.

Grandeur-of-age finds no place in nuclear families

By Pragya Ghimire

KATHMANDU, March 27 – At 73, Kumari Upadhaya lives with nearly 200 "homeless" senior citizens at the Pashupati Bridha Ashram, a shelter for people of her age who have no one to take care of.

All her life, like most parents in Nepal, she too had dreamt that she would get her sons educated and established so that she too could live a happy life during her old age concentrating on pujas and other religious activities.

Little could she have imagined that her own flesh and blood would one day dump her and she would be forced to live on the mercy of welfare at the shelter waiting for the day when she will leave this world.

"After my husband died two years ago, my sons and daughters-in-law forcefully transferred all the property in their names. No sooner had they got their hand on the property, they told me they would take me to a hospital but instead left me here," she said.

Upadhaya's case is not the only one. With the society changing and families going nuclear, more and more people are beginning to ignore their old aged parents.

These senior citizens who have been neglected by the modern family ethos are now turning their hopes that someday they will be rescued and protected by policies of the Government that will transform their lives.

"The government is planning to build more ashram and take responsibility, give them full protection and help those who are interested to increase its number for the improvement of the condition of the elderly," says Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare Kamala Pant.

She said she was optimistic that the proposed Senior Citizen Bill of 2057 BS, would be registered at the Parliament secretariat soon after completing the required procedures.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has drafted the Senior Citizen Bill 2057 BS which is going to be tabled at the Parliament soon. It focuses mainly on some important plans and policies which stressess on the need to honour and use their skill, knowledge and also create atmosphere to take the responsibility by His Majesty’s Government and other organisations.

The Bill also focuses on to fulfil the basic needs and proper income source for older people, the provision of national pension schemes broadly managed and based on socio- economic aspects, establishment of social security fund, old age allowances, family based security system, cheaper rate for the senior citizens in hospitals, nursing homes aand health care centres.

Minister Pant said that these senior citizens living in these ashram should also get pension since food and clothes are considered as pension which is not fair. She added that people instead of claiming only for parental property should not forget to fulfil their moral duty and take care of their old parents.

In Nepal, senior citizens are categorized in three different groups – first is old senior citizens that refers to the people who are over 75, second is senior citizens that refers to the persons who are over 60 birthdays and the last one is disabled senior citizens that refers to the older people who have no one to look after them and have no source of income and property of their own.

Chandra Mani Gautam, President of Pashupati Bridha Ashram, says," The total capacity of ashram is just 180 which is not sufficient to meet the increasing demand for admission so the government should manage to have more such ashrams not only in the Valley but also in far away districts."

EC livid by govt indifference

By Nitya Nanda Timsina

KATHMANDU, March 27- Two years after the general elections, a number of electoral-malpractice cases are yet to be resolved by the election tribunals set up to deal with just such issues. Now they probably will never be since the government has refused to extend the tenure of such tribunals, inciting resentment at the Election Commission (EC), the body empowered to hold "free and fair" elections.

The resentment is now turning into plain anger as the government continues to give short shrift to EC requests, notably its disregard for a EC protest letter which calls for the speedy resolution of the pending cases.

"This disregard (by the government) is a serious violation of the free and fair elections principle enshrined in the Constitution," a top level EC official told The Kathmandu Post.

The issue in question is the contested election results in several constituencies, such as in Jhapa district, Rupandehi, Rukum and others. In the Jhapa case, Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola is fighting to retain his seat which he won by a narrow margin. In another Jhapa case, powerful opposition leader K P Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML is doing the same.

While some of the cases were decided by the special election tribunals, many more were still undecided when their tenure expired. The Ministry for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, which is empowered to set up such tribunals, refused to extend the tenure of the tribunals even though in many cases, the tribunals were yet to deliver a verdict. It was only in Dipayal, where a tribunal is hearing a contested Upper House election case, was the tenure extended.

EC officials say, this underscores the government’s clear disregard for free and fair elections, as well as towards the EC itself. In a protest letter sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on March 5, the EC expressed its concern that the tribunals were not extended despite several cases pending there. But the Ministry has not made any reply to it yet.

Meanwhile, even the political parties have remained unconcerned about it. The parties, which EC says is indispensable for any functioning democracy, ought to have protested against the violation of the principles of "free and fair" election.

There could be many MPs sitting in parliament who had won through electoral malpractice, says the top EC official source.

Five rhino to be moved to Bardia

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - Conservation officials and experts are bracing for yet another rhino translocation program. This time they are moving five greater one-horned rhinos from Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) to Royal Bardia National Park (RBNP) in mid-western Nepal.

As part of the program, two rhinos were captured Monday in RCNP. The captured animals will be released in the Babai Valley of RBNP on Tuesday. Three more rhinos will be captured in the next few days to come.

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) in collaboration with the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) along with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) - Nepal are carrying out the operation, said a joint press release issued here today.

The task force formed for the operation is headed by Narayan P. Poudel of DNPWC, Dr Shanta Raj Gyawali and Narayan Dhakal of KMTNC. Others in the team include ecologist Narendra B. Pradhan, veterinary doctor Kamal Gaire, RCNP Chief Warden Gopal Upadhaya, RBNP Chief Warden Shyam Bajimaya, RBNP warden Shiva Raj Bhatta and Anil Manadhar of WWF Nepal program.

One of the rhinos captured today is an adult female while another one is sub-adult female, from the Ichharni Tappu that lies 2-3 kilometres south east of the Sauraha park office. "It’s close proximity to Sauraha and regular monitoring by park and KMNTC staff has contributed to the good density of Rhinos in the Tappu," the release said.

Altogether 15 domesticated elephants are being used to scout and round up selected animals before darting and immobilising them. Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation, Shiva Kumar Basnet, observed the operation today.

"The main objective of the translocation of the endangered rhino is to establish a new viable population in RBNP. It is critical to save the species from any natural or other disasters," Dr. Tirtha M. Maskey, Director General of DNPWC said. "The other objective is to minimise the human-rhino confrontations in Chitwan."

Established in 1973, RCNP (932km) is home to over 542 rhinos. The population of one-horned rhinos in RBNP, the flourishing new rhino habitat, stands at over 70 - a result of successive rhino translocation programmes first of which was carried out in 1985. In November last year, the officials had moved a dozen rhinos to RBNP and Royal Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve in far-western Nepal.

Govt fails to punish bribing lawyer

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - Even after two weeks no action has been taken against the government lawyer who had tried to bribe the Lalitpur District Court (LDC) judge to withdraw a murder case involving 17 people who had mercilessly killed Prem Awale.

Joint Attorney General Lekh Nath Poudel’s wife had approached the wife of the LDC judge Gopal Guragai with Rs 195,000. Poudel’s intention was to influence the judge to execute the government’s decision to withdraw the murder case. The district court’s approval is needed to withdraw the case. Poudel tendered his resignation after his attempt to bribe became public.

Nearly two years ago Awale was killed in a clash at Sundhara, Lalitpur. His father had filed litigation at LDC to which the court had passed an arrest order against 17 people. However, only Dhan Master Saav alias Lekman Maharjan is in custody.

At an unanticipated meeting today, while on his way to get a bus ticket to Gulmi, Poudel accepted the fact that he had tried to bribe the judge. But, he refused to comment on the other people’s involvement in the affair.

Accused Maharjan had filed a petition arguing that the case should be withdrawn as it was lodged on political prejudice. Two weeks after the appeal, the then Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, agreeing to withdraw the case, had presented the proposal to the cabinet for approval.

President of Nepali Congress, Lalitpur district, Sagar Shumsere Rana had written a letter to the NC President seeking to withdraw the case as it was shrouded in political vendetta. NC’s Central office then had recommended the then Home Minister Khadka to withdraw the case. Khadka had then taken the proposal to the cabinet. The cabinet decided to withdraw the case after consulting with the law ministry.

Awale had to lose his life as his group collided with the opponent group on a musical nite. The two groups’ affiliation to different political parties had enmity borne out of booth capturing incidents during the last general election.

Others accused in the case are Bikram Maharjan, Maila Maharjan, Sunil Maharjan, Raju Maharjan, Bikash Maharjan, Dharma Maharjan, Bharat Maharjan, Rabindra Maharjan, Rabin Maharjan, Binod Maharjan, Arjun Maharjan, Babu Maharjan, Dinesh Maharjan, Suresh Shrestha and Chakhu Maharjan.