Second day of shutdown leads to death of 2 patients

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KATHMANDU, May 28 – Sixty-year-old Bagedi Shah of Birgunj Sub-metropolitan City and Shankar Chaudhari of a remote Bikuwagadhi VDC in Parsa district, died because they could not be taken to the hospital in time due to the ongoing nation-wide strike.

Mukhal Shah, son of deceased Shah said, they failed to rush him to the hospital on time as the public transportation stayed off the road and about half a dozens of ambulance services in Birgunj failed to provide service citing various "technical problems."

"At the end, we had to carry him on the back…but it was too late before we reached the hospital," said Shah. He informed that his father had a complain of terrible stomach-ache.

The three-day strike, called by six left parties demanding the Prime Minister’s resignation badly hit the patients all around the capital city in the two consecutive days.

Relatives of Choudhary also said that they lost him because of the strike. "We also tried ambulances but non of them agreed to come to pick the patient so we had to manage a bullock-cart to take him to town," said Kabikanta Choudhary, Chairman of the Bikhuwagadi VDC. Choudhary died on the way to hospital at Milan Chowk.

The unprecedented three-day long strike has also seriously impacted the patients and ongoing examinations of the students in the capital and other parts of the country.

The biggest state-owned health institution of the country, Bir Hospital recorded only 41 patients in the emergency ward, which used to have around 300 patients each day on normal time. "Obviously, the patients could not reach the hospital because of the strike," said a hospital staff.

Similarly, only 67 patients went to the emergency ward of the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) against average 100 patients on normal days.

The relatives of the patients said that they faced unprecedented difficulties to get their patients to the hospital as the public transportation system remained completely paralysed due to strike called by six left parties. Six left parties, including the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) have called three-day nation-wide strike starting May 27 to pull down Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for his alleged role in controversial Lauda Air deal.

Ram Sundar Sujakhu of Bhaktapur Municipality had to walk all the 13 kilometres distance to see his friend’s 9-year-old son Sandesh Deshemaru, who was brought to Bir Hospital in an ambulance Monday morning. Deshemaru had head injuries the previous night.

Meanwhile, TUTH has condemned the attack on Dr Suman Amatya and other health staffs by the cadres of the left parties, while the medical staffs were on way to hospital Sunday.

Nepal Medical Association has also issued a press release condemning the attack. "Even during the war, health service staffs are spared from such attacks," the release says.

The strike came as yet another blow to the 30, 000 schools and 700 higher secondary schools some of them undergoing examinations while most were battling to complete their syllabuses.

Hardly had the children started going to schools after a week-long bandh of over 8000 private schools in the country called by the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union, revolutionary (ANNFSU-R).

"This is the first time in Nepal that bandhs have so enormously impacted the exams," said Dr Tirtha Khania, expert in Education.

Besides thousands of hours lost by the students recently, the bandh has brought a serious impact on their examinations. Speaking to The Kathmandu Post, Bhim Sapkota, Principal of Adarsha Soul Higher Secondary School (+2) at Lalitpur said that his students appearing for their first year IA examinations were seriously disturbed.

Students of Adarsha Soul Higher Secondary School had to walk from Champi to Mangalbazar to write their exams that started at 7 in the morning. "Who would understand their difficulties when they have to walk 2 hours from Champi to Mangalbazar on foot?" asked Sapkota.

A group of five to six student-supporters of the bandh broke into the Adarsha Kanya School on Sunday and forced around 30 teachers to stop evaluating the SLC answer papers, sources close to the office reported today.

Lauda Air case hearing begins

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KATHMANDU, May 28 - The main accused in the controversial Lauda Air deal Hari Bhakta Shrestha, former RNAC Executive Chairman gave his nearly five-hour statement in front of division bench judges of the Patan Appellate Court today. His statement will continue tomorrow as well.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case against 10 people at the Patan Appellate Court last Friday.

Former Minister for Civil Aviation Tarani Dutt Chataut, one of the accused in the case, still has not presented himself before the court. The other person absconding after CIAA lodged the case, is RNAC’s former Marketing Director R R Upadhyaya.

On Friday, RNAC’s Board members Tirtha Lal Shrestha and Siddha Raj Joshi had furnished their statements. After Hari Bhakta’s statement, Board member Gauri Nath Sharma, RNAC’s Finance Department’s Upendra Prasad Upadhyaya and its Corporate Department’s Pushkar Wagle will furnish their statement.

The six who presented themselves before the court will remain in detention at Hanuman Dhoka Police Station until the court passes its order later this week after the private lawyers from the accused conclude their arguments.

Two Lauda Air executives Andrea Molineri and Otmar Lenz have also been charge-sheeted in the case.

The former chairman Shrestha said that the wide-body jet was brought in accordance with the long-term strategic plan of RNAC. He stressed that to ensure international goodwill it was necessary to increase the number of international flights that compelled the RNAC management to lease the jet.

Shrestha said that the Board decided to go for direct negotiation as the legal advisor had advised that the law did not prevent to do so. He added that the RNAC had followed its own regulations besides the international lease agreement requirements.

Shrestha also accused the CIAA of witch-hunting. "The CIAA had acted on prejudice without conducting in depth analysis and without the scrutiny of international aviation experts. Spurred by its selfish motives and in order to gain cheap popularity, the CIAA has levelled false charges against us."

Justifying the advance payments to the Lauda Air as bank guarantee and one month’s advance, which do not find mention in the RNAC-Lauda Air agreement, Shrestha said it was necessary as no company would lease out a jet costing about Rs eight billion without any security deposit.

"Initially Lauda had asked for cash security deposit of four months lease amount of US$ four million but only after persuasion, it had consented to the bank guarantee of one month’s lease amount," said Shrestha.

"Such bank guarantee was issued to Lauda Air only after the government granted the permission," he added.

Shrestha also said that he had held discussions with senior pilots and the Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) regarding a procedure for the Nepalese pilots to fly the Lauda jet," said Shrestha. "But after I was suspended the matter was dropped," he said. "However the CIAA has made this itself one of the issues to file the case."

CIAA has asked seven of the accused (excluding the three RNAC officials) to pay a fine of Rs 389,706,731 (net loss incurred by RNAC over the Lauda jet deal) collectively.

UML stand on PAC signals confusion

By Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, May 28 – The three-day bandh forced on a hapless nation by the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), has been called ostensibly to pressure Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to step down for his role in the Lauda Air scandal.

Koirala was, after all, first implicated by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) even before the anti-corruption watchdog agency CIAA jumped into the case. Last week, the CIAA delivered its findings, clearing Koirala of any criminal wrong-doing but dragging his cronies to court.

It is now up to the courts to decide the merits of those findings, but what galls spectators here is the apparent dual yardstick employed by the UML throughout the PAC’s spirited investigation of RNAC, the national flag carrier, whose leasing deals with various aircraft suppliers have raised much controversy in recent years.

If UML can slam Koirala guilty on the Lauda Air case on the basis of PAC’s findings, then why is it refusing to acknowledge the same on the China South West Airlines case in which PAC has implicated Bhim Bahadur Rawal, a top UML leader and former Minister for Civil Aviation?

In both the cases, clearance of foreign exchange for the respective deals came under fire from the PAC members. While the Cabinet had approved the necessary foreign exchange for RNAC-Lauda deal, Rawal had cleared the same for the RNAC-CSWA deal during its fourth renewal. The CSWA jet deal, just like the Lauda Air deal, has been branded as full of irregularities, of malafide intentions and against the interests of the RNAC by the parliamentary committee.

Ironically, it was the UML that had cried wolf when the Koirala government went ahead with the RNAC-Lauda Air agreement, ignoring two directives by PAC and CIAA. At the time, the UML had accused the Koirala government of transgressing on parliament’s authority.

Now the same party does not hesitate in branding the parliamentary committee of going beyond its mandate. While the UML terms PAC’s decision on Lauda Air as an example of fair justice, but it slams PAC for the CSWA decision, which it asserts, is wrong and hasty. Is it all because its own party members have been implicated?

There are no easy answers to this question except the obvious one, and that is to conclude that Nepal’s second largest party is resorting to double standards in its game of political one-upmanship with the government. If it is otherwise, the UML has provided very little evidence thus far.

Judging by the various pronouncements of UML leaders, the party itself appears confused. While party spokesman Pradip Nepal declared that the UML was not bound to accept all the verdicts of PAC, its leaders also, as it were in the same breath, do not hesitate to call on Koirala to accept PAC’s verdict on the Lauda Air case.

That the dual standards here are so obvious that even a top party leader, K P Sharma Oli, tried to do some damage-control last week. He publicly declared that the party should not suffer by trying to defend someone who has been found guilty. But whatever respect that earned was washed away the very next day when spokesman Nepal again asserted the party stance: That the party had rejected the PAC’s verdict and had decided to investigate the matter internally.

Understandably, PAC members are furious. Some of them accused the party of showing double standard. During the discussions on the UML’s reaction to the PAC verdict, both Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani and Hridyesh Tripathi criticized the main opposition for its "attack on parliamentary supremacy".

However, the severest criticism of the UML’s volte face vis-à-vis PAC’s sanctity came from Dilli Raj Sharma, the NC lawmaker who has been accusing the parliamentary committee for political purposes. "PAC is merely a tool in the hands of the UML to use it against the Nepali Congress," Sharma told The Kathmandu Post. "So at least I am not surprised over the UML’s reaction to the PAC verdict. What can you expect from a party that acts and reacts according to the prevailing political climate?"

Bandh paralyses life

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KATHMANDU, May 28 - At least 36 people were arrested throughout the country in course of bandh called by the alliance of six left parties, including the main opposition CPN-UML demanding resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today, stated the Home Ministry.

According to reports the second day of the three-day bandh passed off "peacefully" as compared to Sunday in terms of violence and clashes between the agitators and the police. However, the day was not completely free of violence as several incidents of vandalism and police-agitator clashes have been reported from various places in the country.

There have been reports of locals protesting against the bandh as well. In Dhangadi the local people took to streets protesting the bandh. Around 600 people took to the streets today shouting anti bandh slogans. Similarly in Okhaldunga the local people and businessmen published a statement protesting the bandh.

At least 43 people including seven policemen were injured in Tikapur when the police clashed with protesters trying to mob the local Land Revenue Office.

Similarly, our correspondent from Syangja reports that at least five policemen, two agitators and two teachers of Purnamrit Bhavani Higher Secondary school have been injured following a clash between the police and the protesters. The police had to lathi charge and fire teargas shells and blank fire to contain the mob that forced into the school premises and started tearing answer papers of the students taking their regular exams.

Likewise eight people were injured in Sindhupalchowk as the protesters tried to force the district administration office in Chautara.

As stated by the Home Ministry, nine people including six police personnel were injured in Chitwan.Reports from Ramechhap, Pyuthan, Dang, Jhapa, Biratnagar, Dhankuta, Taplejung, Bhojpur, Saptari and Birgunj state that bandh was "completely successful" with general life coming to a standstill.

In several places including Rolpa, Jumla, Mugu, Kalikot, Dolpa, it is stated that the bandh only had partial effects.

Regular examinations of Higher Secondary level were held smoothly after the police arrested people trying to disrupt the exams in Rolpa.

While in Jumla most of the shops were open till 10 AM until a mob led by Member of Parliament Devi Lal Thapa threatened of ugly incidents. All the educational institutions were open in the district.

In Lamjung things were calm after a day of violence that resulted in a one death and several injuries. Several Communist parties and Human Rights organisations have condemned yesterday’s "killing" of Sukman Gurung, member of UML’s district committee and the elected chairman of Kudhi Village Development Committee. Gurung had died yesterday due to excessive bleeding after a teargas shell fired by the police hit him below his right knee.

In Rukum, villagers trying to sell milk and vegetables in district headquarters Musikot were stopped by the agitators. There has been report of minor scuffle between the villagers and the agitators.

According to reports from Doti the bandh had very negligible effects as almost all government and private offices and market place remained open. Similarly, the bandh had very little effect in Bajura, Bajhang, Dadeldhura, Accham, Baitadi and Darchula.

Apart from some minor incidents of violence the capital city remained calm. The Valley Co-ordination Committee of Kathmandu has issued a press release stating that the second day of the bandh was successful. It has also been reminded that medicine shops, ambulance and hospital vehicles, fire brigade, press vehicles, army and police vehicles, drinking water tanker and garbage vehicles would not be stopped. The press release also states that cars in marriage procession will not be stopped on Tuesday.

Home-financed Chilime hydel project to go public

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, May 28 - A medium size hydroelectric project, which is scheduled to begin its commercial operation from April next year, will create history in the country when it begins to issue shares for general public sometime in July-August.

The 20 megawatts (MW) Chilime hydel project, developed at a cost of Rs 2.323 billions, will issue public shares worth Rs 470 million - roughly 40 per cent of the project’s development cost - in Bhadau (July-August), a top official of the company said.

Chilime is one of the first project constructed solely on local investments in Nepal, and will become first hydro power project to issue shares to the general public.

Dr Dambar Bahadur Nepali, Chief of the Chilime Hydroelectricity Development Project, said that Rs 470 million worth shares would be opened for public subscription, out of which Rs 240 million worth shares would be offered to the 9,000-odd staffs of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), while the remaining Rs 230 million worth shares would be floated for open sale.

"We are currently having consultations with the Public Investment Trust, through which we want to go to public," Dr Dambar Nepali, Chief of the Company told The Kathmandu Post. "In the first phase, the shares would be opened for NEA staff. Then only floated for the general public."

A brainchild of the then NEA Board, the Company came into being in 1996, after which it started developing the project on the snow-fed river, which flows down from the heart of the remote mountainous Rasuwa district, north-west of Kathmandu.

The project is currently being developed with the loans taken (at an interest rate of 15 per cent per annum) from the Karmachari Sanchaya Kosh and other financial entities. The project was scheduled to begin its commercial operation from autumn, but "complications in the tunnel works" has delayed the project by at least six months.

The company has already signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the NEA, at the rate of Rs. 3 per unit. According to the PPA, the per unit power price is subject to rise by six per cent annually.

The Chilime power cost is cheaper by at least 60 per cent compared to the price of the power which stands at over Rs 5 currently generated by similar foreign-developed and financed projects like the 60-MW Khimti and the 36-MW Bhotekoshi power projects. Hydropower experts and officials closely following the developments expressed happiness and welcomed the Chilime-type initiative which, to quote them, "would save the nation from bankruptcy and lead towards self dependency and prosperity".

"This is a great project," said chartered accountant-cum-energy expert Ratna Sansar Shrestha, "A great job. Chilime is a real made-in-Nepal project with local money and for locals. And in Chilime, there are no foreign parties looking for hefty sums in profits."

According to his calculations, the per unit price of locally-developed Chilime would climb to Rs 8 or 10 while the cost of Khimti and Bhotekoshi supplied power would shoot up to a whopping Rs 42 - more than five times that of Chilime - by 2016. Added another hydropower expert, Bikash Pandey, "This is the best and most appropriate way to develop small and medium size power projects, which do not require heavy investments. We have enough money in the market which can be channeled to develop such projects. These are cheap and the best."

Chief of the Project, Dr Nepali, asserted that such projects also tend to remain corruption free and free from kickbacks as the "general public and company staff, who have poured their earnings into it, constantly keep a vigil on the project’s financial dealings".

Once it starts commercial operation beginning April 2002, Chilime would generate 136 million units of electricity annually, and earn between Rs 520 to 540 million. The Project plans to recover its investments by 2005.

Lack of dual Citizenship law causes trouble for BNO passport holders

By Satish Jung Shahi 

KATHMANDU, May 28 - Nepalis with British National Overseas (BNO) passport, take note. Be ready to pay a visa fee of 30 US dollars per month if you’re entering this country after a foreign jaunt using the BNO passport.

Not only that, you become virtually a foreigner in the eyes of the immigration officials manning Nepal’s borders and the only international airport, even though the BNO passport doesn’t give you the right of abode in Britain. No relaxations whatsoever even if you have been living in Nepal for years and earning in Nepali currency.

The reason: Nepali law has no provision for dual nationality.

While the issue matters little for most Nepalis, it is a dear one for about 2,000 Nepalis who were born in Hong Kong (mostly children of British Gurkha servicemen) who hold the "Overseas Passport." They complain that they are being asked to pay exorbitant visa fees while entering their own country.

The problem would not have existed but for the Britain’s handed over its flourishing Hong Kong colony to mainland China in 1997. Two years before the handover, the British government started issuing BNO passport to thousands born in Hong Kong.

British authorities then had announced that the issue of BNO Passports was for those Hong Kong residents who wish to continue to travel to Britain on British passport after the 1997 handover of the territory. About 2000 Nepalis applied, and got, the BNOs before the British stopped issuing the documents on March 31, 1997.

But instead of the trouble-free existence Nepal’s BNO holders expected, the document has become a source of much confusion and anger, all because the government here does not recognize dual passport holders. Nepalis with BNOs who returned were shocked to learn that they would have to pay visa fees on arrival in Kathmandu, like any foreigner, if they continued to hold on to the British document. And the problems has continued to exist since 1997.

"There were three to four cases last one month alone where Nepalis holding BNO Passports had to surrender one of their two passports as our Immigration Regulations has no provision for dual nationality," admits Umesh Prasad Mainali, Director General at the Department of Immigration in Kathmandu. "In most cases, they end up surrendering their Nepali Passports seeing more opportunities elsewhere."

According to Mainali, the Nepali immigration officials have been charging visa fees to Nepali BNO Passport holders, as they would do to any other foreigners. "We do not charge them anything when they leave the country for the first time...but once the holder leaves the country, he becomes a foreigner," he says.

"In one case, a Nepali was recently forced to pay almost Rs. 200,000 as visa fees," he adds.

It must be realised that a BNO Passports does not give its holder the right of abode in the United Kingdom (UK). A BNO Passport holder is different from other British citizens in the sense that s/he does not enjoy the right to vote in UK. S/he can stay in UK for six months without visa but after that the person needs to obtain a fresh visa like any other foreign national.

"It is just unfair...I feel as if the BNO Passport is of no use to me now. I would turn stateless if I use it and return to Nepal," says Anuja Gurung, a Nepali who holds an Overseas Passport.

Like in most cases, Anuja was born in Hong Kong when her father was serving in the British Army.

Meanwhile, the British Embassy maintains that it "has no problem with dual nationality" and that even Nepalis can hold a British Passport.

"A BNO Passport holder can even be a Nepali, Australian, American or any other national who were born in Hong Kong until 1997," says John Chick, Head of Consular and Immigration Services in British Embassy, Kathmandu. "The present problem may have come up as many countries including Nepal may not have the provision of dual nationality."

Strike hampers festival

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KATHMANDU, May 28 - One of the major festival of the Kathmandu Valley, Sitthinakhaa, turned dismal on Monday, due to the three-day strike called by six left parties, all of whom had voiced strong support to indigenous culture during the last election campaigns.

Sithinakhaa is a big festival celebrated on the eve of the rice planting season with special dishes and grand family get-togethers in which all relatives come home and pray to the "family deity". Along with this, community work like cleaning of wells, water-tanks, water-sprouts, drainages etc also take place on this day.

"This affects the social and religious life of the residents of the Kathmandu Valley and the Newars living in other districts," said Dr Chunda Bajracharya, a cultural expert.

She said that it is either the left leaders have no concern for the cultural heritage of the country or they are deliberately trying to undermine the festival of the associated communities.

She added that the organisers has given freedom to wedding processions on Tuesday but nothing has been considered about the festival which plays direct role in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Newars in the country.

Naresh Bir Shakya, the secretary of Nepal Bhasa Mankaa Khalaa, said that the whole community were deprived of celebrating their age-long festival due to the strike. "When fixing the date of any such protest programmes, the leaders should first find out its possible effect to the people," he said.

Nepali Congress lawmaker PL Singh said that those leaders who often claim for conservation of culture have themselves hampered the people’s cultural life. "It is a deliberate step to destroy the nation’s culture," he said.

Even a left leader Malla K Sunder said that this is not reasonable time for the organisers of the strike. "Knowingly or unknowingly, the wrong date was chosen."

Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the chairman of Valley Protest Programme Co-ordination Committee said that the protest date was not fixed after studying the religious calendar. "We wanted even the elderly people and housewives to feel the effect of the strike. This will let them be aware of the prevailing political situation in the country," he said.

Lauda jet to head for repair

KATHMANDU, May 28 (PR) – The Lauda jet, grounded since Saturday, will go on a "ferry flight" to its spare parts station - Bangkok in a day or two for repairing its pressurization system and thrust reverser (for the break), according Rajesh Raj Dali, Executive Chairman of the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation(RNAC).

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post today, Chairman Dali said, "The Lauda jet will fly-out within a couple of days. I have already instructed our Operations Department to make the necessary arrangements." Dali admitted that he had earlier had some reservations in allowing the Lauda jet to go on a ferry flight (without passengers). He had insisted on calling the Lauda Air’s engineers and maintenance staff to Kathmandu for the repairs.

However, Dali relented when the Lauda Air officials pointed out that repairs was possible only in Bangkok. According to RNAC sources, Dali had to give in to Lauda officials after they pointed out that under the wet lease agreement, it was the Lauda Air’s prerogative to decide how and where to repair the aircraft.

Now, it will take off without passengers "either on Tuesday or Wednesday" after air clearance from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand to use their air space, a necessary condition during ferry flights. Dali informed that the clearance is under process. When asked about the losses due to the B-767 jet’s grounding, the Executive Chairman said that according to the agreement, Lauda Air has to pay for it. He added that the RNAC would first have to calculate the amount.

The unavailability of the jet disrupted the flight plan of the national flag carrier, according to sources. While some flights had to be cancelled, others had to be rescheduled, with several of the flights delayed. Currently, the RNAC international fleet has only two of the four jets in operation. One of its own 757 jet is in Brunei for maintenance.