Homeless ex-Kamaiyas to get land

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TULSIPUR, May 28 - The District Land Reforms Office today said that the office would distribute land ownership certificates to all the homeless former Kamaiyas (bonded labourers) within this week.

According to Land Reforms Officer, Bharat Kumar Bhudhathoki, land registration process has already been completed for 326 ex-Kamaiya families. The remaining 124 families will also be settled on public land within a few weeks, Budhathoki said.

Official records show that out of 1,127 former Kamaiyas from across Dang, only 450 families are homeless. The government has decided to provide land to those former Kamaiyas who are landless and homeless.

Bhudhathoki said almost all the former Kamaiyas would be settled on the public land in various parts of the district. The District Land Reforms Office said there is more than 1,300 bighas of public land in the district but most of it has been occupied by the locals.

Locals fall sick due to contaminated drinking water

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SINDHULI, May 28 - The District Public Health Office has alleged that the District Drinking Water Office is responsible for the increase of patients in the local hospital as the latter distributed contaminated water to the locals directly from a nearby river.

According to health assistant at the District Drinking Water Office, Nawal Kishor Thakur, most of the locals fell sick due to the consumption of polluted water.

Thakur said out of the total 100 people admitted at the local hospital this week, 50 percent of them were found suffered from water borne diseases.

Asked to comment on the allegation, overseer at the District Drinking Water Office, Madhbendra Chaudhary, admitted that the office was distributing contaminated water to the public.

"But we lack equipment that purify polluted water," Chaudhary said. He added that the reservoir is cleansed every three month only with bleaching powder and potash.

Maoists eyeing on former Kamaiyas

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NEPALGUNJ, May 28 - Underground Maoists have started focusing their attention on former Kamaiyas whose lives have become miserable than prior to their liberation from the age-old bonded labour system last year.

The rebels have concentrated their efforts to build up their organisational base in Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts from where the bonded labourers were freed last year on July 17.

It cannot be said merely a coincident that the Maoist-aligned All Nepal Peasant Association (ANPA) organised an open mass meetings in Dhadhwar in Bardiya, Phulbari in Dang and Pahalmanpur in Kailali on Saturday.

The way the Maoist leaders expressed their views in all the three meetings amidst the tight security of armed rebels, it showed that they have eyes on the ex-Kamaiyas, living in misery in different makeshift shelters since their liberation.

Addressing a gathering at Dhadhawar VDC-8, ANPA central committee member, Bhumeshwor Kandel, said his organisation is ready to play a guardian’s role and extend its support if the ex-Kamaiyas want to settle on landlords’ land and the squatters on public land.

Kandel’s speech carries the Maoist strategy as another Maoist central committee leader, who also addressed the meeting, did not refute his statement.

The recently concluded Second National Convention of the Maoist Party, which adopted the Prachanda Path as its thought, has also passed a resolution to incorporate the issues of mass insurrection and class oppression together.

"In the long-term People’s War, mass insurrection and its long-term features are inter-connected and a situation has arisen that both of them should be inter-linked.," the synthesised version of the Prachanda Path says.

The Maoist strategy is to push the government on a defensive position and mobilise the peasants, especially the former Kamaiyas, as a means of mass insurgency and make a leap forward to expand their organisational base in the mid and far-western Terai.

Not only the rebels have a target of assimilating a total of 19,348 ex-Kamaiya families (22,662, according to NGOs), into their movement, but also squatters and tillers.

Director of the UK-based oldest human rights Anti-Slavery International, Mike Dotritz’s prediction is now turning into a reality.

About two weeks ago, Dotritz said that ex-Kamaiyas’ settlements would become a fertile ground for the Maoist rebels if the government failed to provide them enough land for their survival.

Whatever the initiatives, the government has been taking for the ex-Kamaiyas’ welfare over last ten months, they are likely to fall on shadow because of the impending involvement of the Kamaiyas in the People’s War.

According to the official statistics available by the second weeks of May, the government has distributed 432 bighas (721 acres) of land to the former Kamaiyas.

"But the number of former Kamaiyas receiving the land is less than 1 percent," said Mahabir Chaudhary, central member of Backward Society Education (BASE), an NGO, campaigning for the welfare of the former Kamaiyas.

Though it appears to be difficult to settle all the ex-Kamaiyas in the public and landlords’ land, as the Maoists claim, the Maoist slogans are popular among the former Kamaiyas.

Government’s decision done in haste but one time popular move to free the bonded labourers has been a boomerang to the government itself as almost all the ex-Kamaiyas are living in misery since their liberation.

Coordinator of the ex-Kamaiya Movement Mobilisation Committee, Bardiya, Dinesh Shrestha, says that the government has lost a golden opportunity of preventing the ex-Kamaiyas from being diverted.

Five held along with 700 litres of liquor

DOLPA, May 28 (RSS)- Five persons involved in producing illegal liquor by fermenting the rice being provided by His Majesty’s Government to the people have been arrested by the police along with 700 liters of liquor.

Kamal Rokaya, a resident of Sahartara VDC-7 currently staying at Dunai-1, Gagankali Gauchan, a resident of Jumla district currently staying at Dunai-1, Bhagwati Budathoki, a resident of Pyuthan district running a hotel at Dunai-1, Nima Rokaya, a resident of Dunai-1 running a hotel, and Maya Kumari Bhusal, a resident of Parbat district staying at Dunai-1 have been arrested while making illegal liquor.

Consumption of alcohol has been banned after 6:0 p.m. because of various undesired incidents taking place here.

The recent all-party meeting had banned the sale and consumption of liquor in Dolpa district on May 3 with the objective of developing Dolpa an alcohol free district.

The All-Party Meeting had decided to fine persons found producing liquor Rs 5,000 for the first time and Rs 10,000 for the second time and fine persons found consuming liquor Rs 500 for the first time and keep on increasing the fine.

The arrested hotel entrepreneurs were fined Rs 5,000 by the Chief District Officer Kailash Nath Kharel, DDC chairman Shivananda Buda, chairman of the Liquor Control Committee Om Bahadur Buda and DSP Shyam Kumar Basnet and warned not to produce and sell liquor in the district.

The illegal liquor seized by the police were destroyed in the presence of the local people.

Sirubari : A model village for rural tourism

KATHMANDU,May 28 (RSS)- Sirubari, a typical Gurung village located at an altitude of 1,700 metres above the sea level in Syangja district is truly the model village for rural tourism in Nepal.

Tourists visiting this Gurung village on the laps of the Himalayas can experience the real feelings of Nepalese hospitality industry when they are greeted with garlands and bouquets in the vibrating music of Panchai Baja.

The feeling is enough to make one forget the gruelling three hours’ climb to the village and the visitors readily join the local cultural troupes in dances to the accompaniment of folk melodies.

Friendliness, community feeling, clean environment and indigenous culture that are the hallmarks of this mid-hill village are enough to attract the visitors. The fact that Sirubari offers all that the tourists need and the unique experience of village life in Nepal makes a visit to the village necessary once in a life time.

Sirubari which lies in ward No. 4 of Panchamul Village Development Committee was declared as the first model village for rural tourism in Nepal by His Majesty’s Government in October, 1997.

Sirubari is also known internationally as the first community-based tourist village. Even Switzerland, where the concept of village tourism was developed, does not have such a model village.

Out of the total 75 Gurung households comprising the village, 50 households constitute the model tourism village. There are no hotels or restaurants or shops here. The tourists visiting the locality are kept as paying guests by the local tourism development and management committee. Sirubari has a population of 5,000.

What the tourist cannot get in the five star hotels of the cities, he can get it in Sirubari, in other words, Sirubari offers a different kind of hospitality for the tourist. He is treated to a pure and healthy Nepali food, well-furnished toilet with abundant water supply.

Moreover, the affectionate and friendly behaviour of the house-owners— the cheerful Gurung "Ama" and other members of the host family, is enough to make the tourists forget their home.

The tourist who is on a package tour spanning two nights and one day’s stay at Sirubari has a very busy schedule. Early in the morning he will climb to the Thumro hill-top for viewing the sunrise over the Himalayas. The place is about one hours trek from the village. Thereafter, the day is spent by going on short tours to different scenic places.

Then in the evening, there is a grand ceremony at the village monastery located at the centre of the village where the tourist is entertained with a variety of cultural programmes amidst a large gathering of the villagers.

the next morning, after breakfast the tourist is given a hearty farewell by the villagers. Although parting is sad, it nevertheless leaves a deep impression in the heart and mind of the tourists.

Over 50 VDCs in Achham lack telecom facility

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DOTI, May 28 - More than 50 Village Development Committees from the hill district of Achham in the far western region are still deprived of telecommunication facility.

Most of the VHF sets installed in the district are located in the market areas and people from the remote VDCs have to trek more than three days to make a long distance telephone call.

Tapta Raj Joshi, chief of Nepal Telecommunication Corporation in Mangalsen, the district headquarters of Achham, said that only 14 VDCs have telephone facility.

The government has planned to instal at least two telephone lines in each VDC within two years. Looking at the NTC’s present working pace, the government’s set target will not be met, said an NOC official in Doti, the regional headquarters.