11 drowned in Trishuli still missing

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KATHMANDU, May 19 - The whereabouts of the 11 passengers drowned into the Trishuli River Friday along with a truck from the highway has not been traced yet.

The truck (Na 2 Kha 729), carrying a marriage party, plunged about 40 metres from the highway, 2 kilometre south of Mugling.

A rescue team member said that the rescue work was started from Saturday morning, with the help of a crane, brought from Simara but the team could achieve anything due to the non-transparency and the strong current of water.

The relatives of the drowned people have accused the police and local administration of not taking the matter seriously. They have laid a blockade in the highway to protest the government’s irresponsibility.

According to Thankot Police Station, the road has been cleared for transportation.

ANNFSU (R) narrows down demands to two

By Tilak Pokharel and Utpal Mishra (Kashyap)

KATHMANDU, May 19 – The ANNFSU (Revolutionary), the students’ wing of the underground Maoist rebels, have promised to stop its agitation against private schools if the government guarantees the fulfillment of only two of its 15-point demand.

Purna Paudel, general secretary of All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (Revolutionary), told The Kathmandu Post in an exclusive interview that his group would cease all violent actions if the government fulfils the two demands and urges the group to cooperate. "All we need is their commitment," Poudel said.

The two demands are: Free education till 10th grade (in all public schools) and reduction in fees by 50 per cent in all private schools.

"All political parties including the ruling Nepali Congress, in their political manifesto during elections, had committed to make secondary education free. Even Arjun Nar Singh KC, a senior leader of Nepali Congress and former Education Minister, had said that he would lock up any school which charges fee from the students," he said. "But, where are their commitments now?"

Poudel was one of the two student leaders arrested last week by the government. The ANNFSU (R) had vandalized two private schools in the Kathmandu Valley and nearly torched one of the principals. The arrests, and the group’s prior call for a strike, led to a week-long shut-down by all private boarding schools across the nation. Schools are now slated to open on Monday.

The two demands laid out by Poudel are the most difficult ones to fulfil for the government. In several rounds of talks last week, government officials refused to fulfil these very demands. Poudel said that the government instead offered to meet the minor demands like annulling the existing National Anthem and making the Sanskrit language optional in the secondary level.

"They said that they would form a commission to solve the minor demands leaving aside the major ones. We also know that it takes time to change the existing system but the government should be ready to commit to solve the problems plaguing the entire education sector," he added.

The student leader argued that the government is spending much more money on army and police than is required to "nationalize" all private schools. He said that allocation of the amount of about Rs 6 billion is enough to nationalize all the private schools in Nepal.

"The government is not keen to invest in the education sector. We don’t think that meeting these demands is impossible. Our problems can be solved within this system and within the existing periphery. But the government should not be apathetic towards it and should not try to avert it," Poudel added.

Asked what the ANNFSU (R) would do if the government fails to heed the two demands, Poudel said that the ANNFSU will launch "a very big and harsh revolution by August/September."

Asked why his group is not using more peaceful forms of protests, Poudel replied, "The government is resolved to detain and convict us even for life even if we stage a peaceful rally or sit-ins or other non-violent protests. So the government itself is forcing the students to go against the law through violent means."

Ethnic groups unhappy with Census 2001

By Subas Risal

KATHMANDU, May 19 – Different ethnic communities have expressed strong reservation about the Census 2001 which is currently underway throughout the country, with their major grievance being ignored in this national exercise that comes after every 10 years.

The people belonging to different ethnic groups alleged that their voice has gone unheeded despite the persistent demand to involve themselves in the process. They have been claiming that the people belonging to the so-called upper caste, "who were deliberately selected by the government", have distorted the collected data in the last Census.

Dr. Chaitanya Subba, Director of National Committee for Development of Nationalities, said that the government should have considered the ethnic communities’ concern while planning out the different modalities of this Census. One major grievance of the ethnic communities they were forced to mention Hinduism as their religion in the last Census.

The Constitution of Nepal, which was promulgated in 1990 after the restoration of democracy, defines the country as multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-racial. There are over 60 nationalities in Nepal with their own religions, languages and dialects.

Subba said that suggestions to incorporate the interests of the ethnic groups in this Census have gone missing. "If the suggestions we gave for this Census are left, then it will not portray a real situation of ethnic groups."

"The demand of ethnic groups are always taken as trivial demands and are ignored. Since the demand of ethnic groups to involve themselves in this Census has not been fulfilled, this Census will not be able to collect the authentic data," alleges Dr. Subba. He reiterated that ethnic groups have their own dialects and to acquire the authentic information on them, the enumerators should be of their own ethnic groups.

Different organizations established to uplift the status of ethnic groups have been conducting different awareness campaign in different parts of Nepal to acquire the authentic data. "Such Awareness campaign is indispensable to attain the correct data which will help in mainstreaming the ethnic groups in the long run," opined Dr. Subba.

However, Deputy Director of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Radha Krishna G.C. said that it was impossible to incorporate every suggestion. " After the consultations with the ethnic groups, we have tried our level best to include their suggestions," said G.C.

He revealed that everything was being done locally to make this Census effective. Local people have been selected as enumerators so that there won’t be any problems regarding dialects, said G.C. He further said that CBS has done everything possible to make this Census a successful one. "Enumerators, Supervisors and other Census-related officials have been trained time again to acquire the authentic data," said G.C.

The first Census was held in 1911 and the eighth in 1981 but never was status of the country’s ethnic groups included in the Census. "Only in the last Census which was held in 1991, we included section of ethnic groups which drew heated controversy after ethnic people said it was not sufficient to portray the real situation of ethnic people," said G.C.

The first phase of the Census got kicked off from May 14. This particular phase focuses on family listings where as second phase, which is scheduled to begin from June 10, will concentrate on population count.

Maoists declare admn, vow to fight army

By Ujir Magar

BHAWANG, Rolpa, May 19 - Vowing to fight the Royal Nepal Army (RNA), underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) have declared their local government here, days before the army is scheduled to march into the Maoists’ base area as part of the government’s recently unveiled Integrated Security Development Package (ISDP).

The army is formally being deployed in the district from the first week of June, where according to official version, they will work on various development projects.

The rebels declared what they call "people’s local government" on Wednesday amidst a huge gathering of local villagers - most of them Maoist supporters - in this remote village, eight hour’s walking distance away east of Liwang, the district headquarters.

The local representatives were elected in local elections held on April 9, 10 and 11, when the underground party was observing its fifth anniversary.

Election Commissioner "Manohar" said that the declaration was part of the party’s policy to announce local governments in its stronghold districts - Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan, Jajarkot, Kalikot and Gorkha.

Speaking at a function held in local Bageshwori Primary School, he added that the declaration of the "people’s local government" followed elections of village and ward committees in Rolpa’s 51 Village Development Committees.

A 19-member committee is in charge of the local government. The committee is headed by Santosh Buda, and is assisted by Khim Bahadur Thapa. Other members of the committee include representatives of Magarat Mukti Morcha, Dalit Mukti Morcha, intellectuals, women and area commands.

Maoist leaders expressed deep concerns over the upcoming army mobilization, blamed the government of working to provoke civil war in the country, and vowed to fight back fearlessly.

While stating that the underground Maoists are now prepared to declare local governments in their bases, Chief Buda said that "the ruling reactionary government was an illegitimate one, and our government has been declared today to topple it."

He added, "Our party is in war phase now, that is why it appears to be more dangerous. But our government will help make constructive works and projects too.

Stating that the Maoists were prepared to fight with the Army sooner or later, Chief of the Maoists’ Military Department, "Lifwang" said that his "partymen are prepared to take on the army which intrudes on our territory and targets our structures."

Most of the speakers came down heavily on the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN (Masal) leader Mohan Bikram Singh.

Talking with this reporter in Liwang, the district headquarters, Chief District Officer Hari Krishna Upadhyay, said that there is a strong possibility of Army-Maoist confrontation in the district, and added that the army would be mobilized after the first week of June.

He was quick to claim that the people of Rolpa have more expectations from the ISDP-carrying army personnel than the "development-unfriendly" Maoist rebels. Deputy Superintendent of Police Mahesh Shah acknowledged that the policemen are "demoralized and are unpreparedness to fight with the guerrillas".

Rebels kill 3 policemen, injure 11

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BIRATNAGAR, May 19 - Underground Maoist rebels brutally shot three policemen dead and wounded 11 others after they attacked a Khani-based police outpost in the eastern hill district of Okhaldhunga on Friday midnight, police here said.

The site of the incident is about six hours trek from here, the district headquarters. There were 20 police personnel assigned at the post, located at a strategically vulnerable location.

Those killed in the Maoist attack have been identified as Police Sub-Inspector Hira Bahadur Thapa (Okhaldhunga) and two police constables - Shyam Dulal (Belbari, Morang) and Prakash Rai (Jhapa).

A police source said that the rebels killed the policemen piercing spears when they had already been wounded due to the bomb blasts.

Among the injured, three policemen have been airlifted to Kathmandu and eight others have been admitted at BP Koirala Memorial Hospital in Dharan for treatment. Six policemen have been discharged, the hospital said.

Police said they defended the post for about two hours against around 350 armed rebels, who rained several home-made bombs and bullets from above the outpost.

The rebels also seized arms and cash from the police personnel after they captured the outpost. Though the communication with the district headquarters has been disrupted yet, a police reinforcement has been dispatched to the clash site.

The dead bodies were handed over to their respective relatives after carrying out post-mortems on Saturday.

Govt lawyers, AG to decide on every case

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KATHMANDU, May 19 - The government lawyers today decided that no agency can investigate the cases in which the Attorney General (AG) and other government lawyers have right to decide whether or not to prosecute any case.

The decision was taken at a concluding day of a two day convention of first class government lawyers.

Such decision from the government lawyers comes at a time when the case regarding CIAA’s investigation to AG’s decision taken back two years ago regarding a smuggling case of Indian currency is pending in the Supreme Court.

Currently, a case between the AG and CIAA is pending in the court where Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki had filed a writ petition seeking to block the CIAA investigation of a decision of the case of Sunil Maskey, who had tried to smuggle IRs 12.1 million in 500 rupee denomination, taken back in September 1998.

Legal experts pointed out that such decision of the government lawyers is a matter of subjudice as it is under the consideration of the court.

Rainwater collection ponds raise hopes over water shortage

By Surendra Phuyal

SHIVAPURI, May 19 - Faced with a daunting challenge to supply clean drinking water to the Kathmandu Valley’s over 1.5 million residents, officials are taking the last resort: Collecting every drop of rain water and preserving it for the dry season.

And experts in Kathmandu say that the idea of rainwater harvesting in ponds on the mountains or the watershed areas surrounding the densely-populated Capital city would go a long way in resolving the drinking water supply problem for once and for all.

More so, with the targetted date to complete the multi-million dollar Melamchi drinking water project frequently getting postponed. Last month, officials announced the postponement of the Melamchi’s completion date from 2006 to 2007.

Following directions from the higher authorities, officials of Shivapuri Wildlife and Watershed Reserve are currently working to construct several dams aimed at harvesting rainwater for the dry season in the Reserve’s key watershed areas—such as Panimuhan which lies in the mountains north of Budhanilkantha, and Dhap area which lies in the catchment area of Bagmati River.

So far, they have built a four-meter high dam in Dhap area at an elevation of 2,500 meters north-east of Sundarijal reservoir. An undertaking of the autocratic Rana regime which was overthrown way back in 1950, the Sundarijal reservoir is the major source of drinking water for the Valley residents to date.

The cost of constructing this dam has been put at Rs 500,000.

"The idea is to collect rainwater in such ponds, and pour it into the Sundarijal and Panimuhan reservoirs in the form of seepage," said Nabaraj Baral, Assistant Engineer of the Reserve. "It works like magic during the dry season when sources of water dry up. We are thinking of building more such dams, after seeing its results in the coming dry season. This will definitely help."

Renowned water expert Ajay Dixit too gives a positive nod to the idea. "This is what we have been recommending, and this is what we have been talking about over the years," he told The Kathmandu Post at the launching of a book on water harvesting last week. "People are collecting rainwater everywhere. They are doing it in Singapore, they are doing it in Germany, why not here?"

Dixit’s close associate and another water resource expert, Deepak Gyawali, argues that if 1.5 per cent of the Kathmandu Valley’s total land area is to be allocated for such ponds the valley will not face shortage at all. "The question is whether you follow alternative science measures or not. If your are to start water harvesting you will not need Melamchi."

Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), the state-owned monopoly responsible for supplying water, is currently distributing water to the city-dwellers only once in two days. Ever since the dry season started in March, it has been supplying between 60 and 70 million litres of water daily (MLD) to the Capital’s households, whereas there is a demand of 150 MLD.

An average Kathmandu household currently waits for 48 hours to see his/her tap running.

Water yet untapped

Abundant with lush green vegetation comprising bushes and shrubs - and various wildlife species - the Shivapuri mountain ridge has remained the major source of drinking water for the Valley for centuries.

And the Reserve officials claim that the water discharge level from the Shivapuri mountains has increased by up to 40 per cent, 15 years after the area was officially protected.

"But not all the water has been tapped," said an official of the Reserve, preferring anonymity. "The water scarcity situation could improve should we tap these waters."

IGP blames police for increasing Maoists

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DAILEKH, May 19 - Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pradeep SJB Rana said on Saturday that maltreatment of police to the ordinary people was the cause behind the increment of Maoist activities in the country.

He said that police maltreated the common people during its anti-Maoist operations in some hilly districts of the mid-western region two years ago.

He was hinting at the police operation that was exercised during the tenure of the then IGP Achyut Krishna Kharel, who was forced to step down from his powerful post, a few months ahead of his formal retirement, following the Maoist mid in Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa, on September 25, 2000.

The rebels had ransacked the district headquarters, leaving 14 policemen dead and looting more than Rs 5 million in cash and valuable from a government-owned bank during the carnage.

"The police killed innocent people, discriminated against ordinary people based on their social status and maltreated the locals during their patrols," IGP Rana said, while inaugurating a newly-built building of the District Police Office in the district headquarters.

As the chief guest of the function, IGP Rana said that he has given emphasis on improving the morality of the policemen, controlling corruption and enhancing efficiency of entire police department.

"The ongoing Maoist problem cannot be resolved by the sole effort of the police department. Civil society should also extend its cooperation to deal with the Maoist violence that is targeted against nationalism and democracy," he said.

Addressing the same function, Chief District Officer, Shanker Prasad Koirala, said the elected representatives should also play their role to quit the Maoist insurgency.

The two-storey building was constructed at the cost of Rs 2.9 million provided by the government.

‘Identity cards needed to curb border crimes’

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BIRGUNJ, May 19 - Experts have pointed out the need to introduce identity cards for the movement of people of Nepal and India to control crimes and illegal trades across the 1,700 long porous Nepal-India border.

They also said that the open border between the two countries has only benefited the criminals and smugglers rather than the ordinary people living along both sides of the borders.

Almost all the speakers expressed this view at a seminar on "Nepal-India Open Border: Negative and Positive Aspects", jointly organised by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and FES, a Kathmandu-based German non-governmental organisation, here on Friday.

The speakers said that revenues to the national exchequer had declined and Nepalese nationals were deprived of employment opportunities within the country due to the Indian immigrants flooding to Nepal.

Presenting his working paper, Dr. Bidhya Bir Singh Kansakar said only seven Nepalis entered India while 224 Indians entered Nepal through the open border at a time.

Lawmaker Ajay Chaurasiya of the ruling Nepali Congress cautioned the participants that people should not be deprived of the facility they have been enjoying even after the open border is regulated.

Representative of Nepal Sadbhavana Party Surendra Kurmi said that identity cards should be introduced only after resolving the existing citizenship certificate issue, particularly in the Terai region.

Professor at Thakur Ram Multiple Campus Avadesh Kumar Jha, said even the Indian government was interested in regulating the open border, which, according to Indian claims, is the major cause of crimes and smuggling across the border.

Chairman of the Institute of Foreign Affairs Professor Mohan Prasad Lohani, said that similar views were found in the frontier cities of Biratnagar and Birgunj regarding the problems of the open border.

Lohani added a concluding report on the Nepal-India border would be submitted to the government after holding a seminar consisting of academics from both the countries in Kathmandu in near future.

NNIEAC gherao army officials

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KATHMANDU, May 19- Members of the Nepal National Independent Ex-Army Council (NNIEAC) today gheraoed the residences of former army chief and former army secretary demanding that the high ranking army officials cannot use Royal Nepal Army soldiers in their household activities.

The team led by NNIEAC president Ambar Bahadur Thapa and Secretary Keshav Poudel gheraoed the residences of former army chief Dharmapalbar Singh Thapa and former army secretary Rishi Kumar Pandey. They claim that there are still about 15-20 soldiers in Thapa’s house and three soldiers in Pandey’s house being involved in household activities.

NNIEAC estimate that there are about 5000 soldiers involved in such household activities.

Just yesterday some 15 members of the NNIEAC had threatened of self-immolation if their 13 point demand that includes Royal Nepal Army Welfare Fund to be made transparent is not met. The members then had staged a sit-in for four hours at Defence Minister Mahesh Acharya ‘s residence.

The NNIEAC members blamed the army headquarters of misusing of funds that the peace keeping force are required to submit. They alleged that such funds instead of being utilised for welfare are put into the Army Wives Club.