Global anthrax scare leads to local precaution

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 - Nearly a month after the bio-terror of anthrax started shaking people around the world, Nepal’s postal authorities, too, have started to take precautionary measures to protect the postal staff from possible attack of the deadly bacteria.

General Post Office (GPO), the central postal authority that handles between 50,000 to 60,000 letters and other mail packages everyday, today gave away protective masks and gloves to its 200-strong staff who physically works with the postal items.

The postal officials revealed that each of the letters to be registered from the post office were also checked for security.

Shridhar Gautam, the Chief Post Master of the GPO said, "Today we distributed masks and gloves to our staff who directly get involved with sorting the different mails. We have also tightened the posting system as far as the registered mails for the time being."

Gautam said that paying precaution to the possible deadly bacteria is better than waiting for the casualty to take place and seek means of treatment. "We don’t know whether such contaminated mail will come to Nepal or not.

Since the bio-terror is said to be disseminated by those who target beyond political boundaries, the possibility cannot be neglected," he added.

The GPO took the step a day after it received the Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) circular that urged Department of Postal Services to take precautions while handling and distributing mails.

However, no such measures have been taken for postmen and other district post offices.

The UPU circular advises special attention be paid to a mail that is unexpected, addressed to someone no longer with the organization, bears no return address or one that can’t be verified as legitimate, be of unusual weight, lopsided, marked with endorsements such as personal or confidential. However, the UPU also says that people shouldn’t stop using the mail because of these isolated incidents. "The simple act of paying attention to incoming mail will go a long way in keeping it save and viable."

Till now, India, Australia, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa and Israel and the US have traced evidences of anthrax and at least three persons have been dead.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Director General of Department of Livestock Services (DLS) Shubh Narayan Mahato said the disease of anthrax is rare in Nepali cattle. "It is just one among numerous livestock diseases that is infectious but not contagious. Even simple anti-biotic medicine like penicillin can cure it if diagnosed in time" he said.

Trade talks failure could call for political solution

By Bhaskar Sharma

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 – With the crucial trade talks between Nepal and India beginning in the capital on Saturday, Kathmandu’s power corridors is already swirling with talk of the need to search for a political solution if the coming negotiations also ends in an impasse.

The two neighbours are beginning the talks on Saturday, a day after an Indian delegation led by Indian Commerce Secretary Prabir Sengupta arrives in Kathmandu. The talks are being held when only a little over a month remains before the expiry of the deadline for the ratification of the 1996 Nepal-India Trade Treaty. The treaty expires on December 31, unless ratified by both the governments before December 5.

"Though it is early to comment on the success or failure of the forthcoming discussions, there are chances that the trade dialogue would be upgraded for discussions at the political level," said an analyst closely monitoring the talks who preferred to remain unnamed.

A political search for a solution would mean that Nepali and Indian political leaders, probably the commerce ministers of the two countries, or if need be, even the Prime Ministers, would have to meet to thrash out the differences and direct their respective governments to reach a solution.

Though that still remains an option, government officials, meanwhile, prefer to focus on the crucial weekend. They say though the dates for the upcoming talks were fixed well in advance, absence of the Commerce Secretary Sengupta at New Delhi had initially cast doubt over the holding of the talks.

Failure of the talks this time may mean an end to the bilateral trading arrangement between the two South Asian neighbours unless settled at the political level.

"The upcoming talks are crucial since it would decide the fate of the five-year old Treaty. India is fast stuck to its demands and Nepal is not budging either," said an official at the ministry on conditions of anonymity. Though another round of talks is still possible, but "that is unlikely," he said.

Other officials also expressed skepticism over the absolute success of the talks. "India and Nepal have taken an adamant stand so far. The success of the talks cannot be guaranteed," said another official.

The upcoming round of talks is the third in the series of failed trade talks that was held after India formally sought ‘review and revision in certain provisions of the Treaty’ recently. Already one round of secretarial level and joint-secretarial level meets have convened over the Treaty renewal.

However, some private sector entrepreneurs are hopeful for a breakthrough this time. "It is unlikely that the talks would be futile. Some consensus would surely be drawn in this round," said Badri Prasad Ojha, General Secretary at the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The crux of the dispute between the two neighbours is the increasing exports of some Nepali items to India, including zinc oxide, copper twines, vanaspati ghee, acrylic yarn and steel pipes, which India claims to have fallen under the ‘surge net.’

India wants to curtail the export of these five products to its markets, in addition to defining the contentious issue of export surge and rules of origin. Furthermore, India also wants to include various provisions such as value addition and material and labour content in the exported Nepalese goods in the amended Treaty.

The Indo-Nepal Treaty is of special importance to both the countries since both have benefited from it. While exports of Nepal to India within two years of the implementation of the treaty surged by over 80 per cent, imports of Indian goods into Nepal at the same time rose tremendously.

Exports from Nepal to India in the fiscal year 2000/01 stood at Rs 27 billion, up from below Rs 4 billion in 1995/96. Similarly, imports grew from Rs 24 billion to Rs 46 billion in the corresponding period.

UN calls for preparedness to avert quake disaster

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 - The United Nations today warned that a major earthquake in the Kathmandu Valley could claim as many as 40,000 lives, injure another 95,000 people and flatten 60 percent of the building leaving half the population homeless.

"Nepal is in a highly earthquake prone zone but in Kathmandu there is almost unrestrained construction that will not withstand a major earthquake," said UN Resident Representative to Nepal Henning Karcher.

That may sound alarmist, but alarmist or not, experts say the best way to prevent such massive casualties is to foresee the event and prepare for it. Speaking today at a ceremony to mark the 56th anniversary of the UN, Karcher underscored the point saying prevention of high number of casualties due to natural disasters like earthquake could be through preparedness. Enforcing building codes like standards of construction materials and restriction on the number of stories of these buildings are among some of the preventive measures that can be taken.

To mark the anniversary, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Emergency Operations Center at the UN complex and launched the UN Disaster Response Preparedness Plan.

The center will conduct all response activities in an event of emergency to keep communication open with the rest of the world and within the country through radio and satellite phones and coordinate rescue efforts.

"The earthquake preparation plan and disaster mitigation makes us realize the urgency of keeping ourselves prepared to meet challenges from natural calamities. In this context the government has already prepared a Plan of Action on Disaster Management in 1996 and is bent upon taking appropriate measures for lessening the effects of natural disasters," Prime Minister Deuba said.

The UN is predicting that because of unplanned urbanization, Kathmandu Valley is increasingly vulnerable to disastrous earthquake. "A big earthquake is long overdue in the region and Kathmandu Valley is in the heart of it. Preparedness is to visualize what could happen and prepare for it since a quake like that could cause absolute chaos in the Kathmandu Valley," said Stewart McNab of the UNICEF.

Being a relatively young mountain range, the Himalayas are still rising as a result of the Indian tectonic plate pushing itself under and against the Eurasian tectonic plate creating tensions which sooner or later could result in major tremors and damage. Every year more than a thousand earthquakes of various magnitudes ranging from 2-to-5 on the Richter Scale occur in the country.

Nepal-Bhutan talks from Nov. 6

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KATHMANDU, Oct 31 – The three-day Nepal-Bhutan Secretary level talks aimed at harmonization of the two countries’ position on categorisation of the Bhutanese refugees is set to begin in Kathmandu from November 6.

The Bhutanese team led by Foreign Secretary Ugyen Tshering is coming to Kathmandu on November 5 to hold talks with the Nepalese team led by his counterpart Narayan Shumsher Thapa. The exact number and nature of the Bhutanese team is still not clear as they are yet to send the list of names for the talks.

Although Nepalese officials do not expect an outright breakthrough in their objective of reducing the four existing categories to only two - Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese - they are hopeful of making some progress on the contentious issue. The other two categories are "Bhutanese who emigrated willingly" and "Bhutanese with criminal records".

While Nepal has been insisting on the two categories, Bhutan has been citing an earlier agreement between the two countries when the current Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, was the Home Minister.

Meanwhile, the officials also revealed that the much-expected repatriation of the refugees from the Khudunabari refugee camp in Jhapa district would likely begin early next year. The verification process in the camp that began on March 26 this year will be completed by late November or early December, said the officials at the Shital Niwas.

Nepalese officials are very "cautious" about the whole exercise as they realize the Bhutanese sensitiveness to the issue. The ice that was broken by the 10th MJC in Kathmandu in December last year has been "inching towards the ultimate goal of repatriation".

The agreement to form the Joint Verification Team and speeding up the slow verification process currently underway are the two positive signs that the Nepalese officials point out. "They have not said ‘No’ to our proposal of favourably considering the case of those Bhutanese who left Bhutan due to adversarial circumstances like threat and coercion, said an official on condition of anonymity, adding the Bhutanese have shown more flexibility in recent times.

A law passed in Bhutan in 1985 bars the return of any Bhutanese citizen who leaves the country. However, many of the Bhutanese refugees who are in the camps in Jhapa and Morang districts claim that they were forcefully made to sign documents that they were willingly leaving Bhutan for good.

When asked if the repatriation of Khudunabari refugees and verification of refugees from another camp would be simultaneous exercises, Gyan Chandra Acharya, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said that was possible. "We are ready to provide extra teams for the purpose," Acharya told The Kathmandu Post.

The Secretary-level talks are a follow up on the 11th Ministerial Joint Committee (MJC) in Thimphu in the third week of August. The MJC had agreed to hold the Secretary-level dialogue in Kathmandu to "harmonize the differences" in the two sides’ differences on the categorisation of nearly 100,000 refugees staying in seven camps in eastern Nepal.

Meanwhile, Bhutanese refugee leaders in Jhapa have expressed their scepticism over the talks. They said that the talks could be "very complicated since the two countries are yet to declare the modalities of the so-called harmonisation".

Their Majesties visit Nawa Durga temple

By Kiran Chapagain

BHAKTAPUR, Oct 31 – Their Majesties King Gyanendra and Queen Komal on Wednesday visited this medieval town and offered puja to Goddess Nawa Durga and received prasad and tika on the occasion of Kojagrat Poornima, the last day of Dashain.

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Paras and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Himani accompanied Their Majesties. Her Royal Highness Princess Prerana was also present on the occasion.

According to the priests at the Nawa Durga temple, the King and Queen have been visiting the temple since 1988 on the final day of Dashain. However, it was a first visit of the new monarch to the temple since his accession to the throne in June.

It was also the first visit of the Crown Prince to a public place. His Majesty the King declared Paras as the Crown Prince last Friday. The Royal Family members also visited the temple of Taleju Bhawani, Mul Chowk of the temple, Bhairab Chowk, Nag Pokhari, Kumari Chowk, Bhandarkhal Pokhari and Bhandarkhal Chowk of this historic city.

Residents of Bhaktapur congregated at the temple premises to welcome Their Majesties and the other members of the Royal Family. The residents said that the crowd at the temple premises this time was thinner compared to previous years when a large number of people from Bhaktapur and surrounding villages would converge to welcome the King, Queen and other members of the Royal Family.

Said Krishna Pradhan, a local resident, "People from as far as Kathmandu and Lalitpur would come here to see the Royals but this year there are less people." Pradhan lives just in front of the temple and claims that she has been seeing the Royals on this day since 1988.

Added Gopal Krishna Shrestha, who came all the way from Dhulikhel to see the Royals, "People would start thronging the temple premises from as early as 10 a.m. But today I don’t see them here; it’s already 2 p.m." Their Majesties arrived at the temple at 3 p.m.

Many residents were also seen peeping through the windows of their houses, as the Royals walked past the street of Gachhen and the Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

Rajkumar Banmala, the head priest at the Nawa Durga temple, complained about the problems the temple is facing with The Kathmandu Post. "We are facing many problems: We don’t have enough fund to perform even the temple rituals. Besides this festival, we have to conduct more than a hundred other rituals each year, and the temple is not receiving anything from the land Gudhi (trust)."

The head priest of the Taleju temple, Dr. Siddhi Bir Karmacharya said he was very happy to welcome Their Majesties. "I am very happy that the Royal Family also visited the Taleju temple and performed puja. We want this to happen in the days to come as well".

A case of wrong diagnosis troubles a family

By Tashi Dolma Thinley

KATHMANDU, Oct 31– A case of negligence at a private hospital has again focused the spotlight on the quality of medical care provided by some of the so-called quality hospitals in the capital.

Amrit Man Tamrakar, 55 of Bishalnagar, who had been suffering from a mild fever, was recently admitted to Kathmandu Hospital, a posh private nursing home at Tripureshwar. Doctors there examined him and advised that he be admitted for observation.

Tamrakar’s relatives said that after series of tests, the patient was told that he could be suffering from Kala-azar. They then conducted bone marrow tests and confirmed that he was suffering from the dreaded disease, something that rarely affects Kathmanduites.

The doctors immediately prescribed high dosage of medicines including intravenous antibiotics which they said must be administered for 21 days. But Amrit’s son Rajeeb Man Tamrakar was hesitant and confused.

Rajeeb decided to seek a second opinion and, despite pressure from the hospital doctors, delayed giving his father the prescribed medicines until other doctors confirmed the diagnosis. He got re-tests done at the Shahid Surkaraj Tropical Hospital which has the country’s best equipped laboratory, and two other hospitals. Soon, all three hospitals proved the diagnosis wrong. The senior Tamrakar was not suffering from Kala-azar, the test results showed. Most likely, said doctors, it was simply a case of seasonal flu.

"I was speechless, couldn’t think of anything ... I felt hurt and cheated," said Rajeeb. But Amrit himself was the one who was most affected by this diagnosis. According to his relatives, his health started deteriorating, and psychologically the effects were worse. Trauma, pain and fear engulfed the Tamrakar family.

When inquired about the case at Kathmandu Hospital, Dr. D.M. Joshi, who had conducted the original tests, admitted that such mistakes could sometimes happen but lamented that he never got the second chance to see what went wrong.

The hospital’s consultant physician Dr. I.L. Acharya, also citing possibilities of such wrong diagnosis at times, claimed that he was the one to advise reconfirmation of the test result with other doctors.

The misdiagnosis and its effects on Amrit aside, what hurt the Tamrakar family most was that Kathmandu Hospital, instead of admitting the mistake and compensating the family, kept pressing Rajeeb to pay up for the tests even though it was flawed. Both Dr. Acharya and Dr. Joshi failed to reason out as to why this happened.

"The fact that they asked me to pay is not the question. The issue is they didn’t at any point take responsibility, but was instead trying to negotiate the price with me," a visibly angry Rajeeb said.

Amir Pradhan, chief of the administrative department in the hospital, said that one has to pay the bill no matter what the case is. "We at the administration have no moral responsibilities, and so have to present the bill to any one who takes the service".

If that is so, then what is a patient who has been wrongly diagnosed and saddled with a hefty bill to do? Where does he/she turn to? Rajeeb says, without adequate consumer protection laws, he’s still searching for an answer.

UML reception: A memorable fare

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KATHMANDU, Oct 31 – It was a social get-together, a gesture of good will and everyone was invited. They were all there- top politicians and government officials, leading bureaucrats, foreign diplomats and dignitaries, artists, Human Rights activists and well known faces from the media- all busy exchanging greetings at UML’s Central office in Balkhu.

The main opposition party keeping the trend started by its leader Man Mohan Adhikari today hosted a reception on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami and Dipawali and in the words of Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of the party it was aimed to provide a informal forum in order to strengthen friendship and cordial relationship among people from all wakes of political and social sector in the country.

It was quite a scene, arch political rivals gathered in one place chatting informally and even sharing jokes at times. UML leaders played good hosts present in full numbers welcoming every guest with warm smiles and words.

One highlight of the day was that Bam Dev Gautam, General Secretary of the ML, the break away faction of the UML entered the premises in Balkhu for the first time along with ML President Sahana Pradhan and other members. Gautam had himself started the construction of the building as deputy general secretary of UML some four years back before the split of the party.

The leaders of both the parties gave enough evidence that the two parties were still positive, rather somewhat certain that the two parties would reunite in near future. "Please do come again but then permanently," Nepal said to Gautam as the latter was about to leave. Moreover, K P Oli one of the most influential personalities in UML, who till some time ago was very critical of ML and who had even publicly said that the UML would not have anything to do with ML, invited Gautam to "return along with his party". In turn Gautam quipped that it was the same thing if Oli joined the ML and in return invited him to join the splinter group.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, NC president Girija Prasad Koirala and senior leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai all were thronged by the media personnel hoping to milk out information but all leaders were in the partying mood and apart from light quips and regulation stuffs.

A huge gathering of all the prominent personalities of the country, it was a memorable one indeed.

Ex-Kamaiyas towards Mustang for employment

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MAHENDRANAGAR, Oct 31 - Twenty six former Kamaiyas of Kanchanpur district as per an accord reached between Kanchanpur District Development Committee (KDDC) and Mustang District Development Committee (MDDC) have left for Mustang for employment.

These former Kamaiyas were sent to Mustang as per an agreement reached between Kanchanpur and Mustang District Development Committee in an effort to find alternative means of employment to them. KDDC Chairman Rajendra Singh Rawal bid farewell to these former Kamaiyas amidst a programme.

KDDC has also sent Bal Bahadur Dangora who is a member of a committee to look after former Kamaiyas to Mustang. Dongora is responsible to make arrangements accordingly for these former Kamaiyas so as to employ them.

"The Employment Promotion Commission (EPC) will provide training to these former Kamaiyas regarding tourism promotion and they will be provided employment if they become eligible," said KDDC Chairman Rawal. KDDC is financing the trip of these former Kamaiyas to Mustang.

This is the first time that former Kamaiyas are sent for alternative means of employment to a hilly region, says Rawal. "EPC is providing Rs 10,000 per former Kamaiya for their training," said Rawal.

"These former Kamaiyas could also be engaged in packing of apples into bundles and carrying them to certain destinations," says Rawal.

Earlier 17 former Kamaiyas were employed by the municipality here as sweepers. There are more than 3000 former Kamaiyas in Kanchanpur alone, out of which about 2,500 are homeless. Government, earlier, had announced to distribute 5 katthas of land per family and the government aims for their rehabilitation by February next year.