Floods create havoc in East Nepal
Two killed, hundreds rendered homeless

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 6 – Floods created havoc in the country’s eastern part in the last couple of days as two persons died and hundreds of people have been rendered homeless in many areas.

The off-season rain at the end of this week not only inundated dozens of villages in the low-lying Terai region, it also disrupted the daily life in many villages.

Floods on the Tawa and Khahare rivers swept away two persons of in Udayapur and Solukhumbu districts. Eighteen-year-old Khim Bahadur Rai of Khugu village of Solu was swept away when he was trying to cross the swollen Tawa Khola, our reporter in Saptari said.

Mahanarayan Sah of Gamhariya village in Sarlahi faced the same fate when he was about to cross the Khahare Khola in Solukhumbu. This 22-year-old was returning to Solu as he had been running a clothing store in the hill district.

In Inaruwa of Sunsari district, floods damaged a culvert in Bhantabari, which disrupted the traffic on the Mahendra Highway for 16 hours from Friday evening, a report received from Inaruwa said. About 90 passenger buses and 60 container trucks were stranded in Bhantabari for the whole night Friday.

Floods in many villages of this district have also damaged crops planted in hundreds of bighas of land, which would ultimately affect the food production later in the year.

In Biratnagar, the floods have affected many houses in the main city area. Life in the city was disrupted for the second consecutive day as the majority of the schools and shops remained closed.

More than 100 families in the city area have been given shelter in Bakhari Primary School and Biratnagar Jute Mills after the inundation in their homes made it difficult to live there, according to our reporter there. Many parts of this industrial city remained inundated till Saturday evening.

Similarly, the floods on the Koshi River swept away 38 houses in Gobargadha village and 21 in Hanumannagar village in Saptari while hundreds of people in Wamangamakatti village were forced to take shelter elsewhere after the flood washed away their homes, according to our reporter in Saptari.

Floods have also damaged more than 50 other houses in Rampura Malhaniya village as the village was inundated with about four feet of water. It has also affected other villages in the district like Sakarpura, Biphariya, Tilathi, Barsain, Koiladi and Joginiya where hundreds of bighas of crops have been damaged.

Even the employees at the Saptari district customs office near the Indian border had to leave the office due to the inundation and the police rescue team has been sent to the site, the report quoted officials at the Hanumannagar police station as saying. The floods have also disrupted the traffic on the Saptari- Kunauli road due to the water logging.

Our reporter quoted Koshi Barrage Control Office as saying that the water level on the Koshi River has been inconsistent.

Similarly, the floods have totally disrupted the normal life in Mahottari district as more than 50 families have been left homeless, according to our reporter in Jaleshwor.

The floods on the Ratu River have inundated Bakdi, Mahadevpatti, Bela and Nainahi villages in Rautahat where 50 families left their homes and took shelter in nearby villages. "The villagers could not sleep for the whole night Friday as the water entered our homes," said Binod Paswan of Mahadevpatti village. "It was knee deep water all over."

The Jaleshwor- Bardibas road, where a diversion was constructed after the floods few days ago, has been blocked once again as the latest floods swept away the diversion as well.

Maoist insurgency sends alarm bells to donors

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Oct 6 – Though the hard-line Maoists have not directly attacked the foreign nationals, the Maoists’ "People’s War" has definitely jolted the donor agencies’ commitment on the development of Nepal.

The six-year-old Maoist insurgency has not only sent alarm bells to the donor agencies, but has also reduced the chances of foreign investors coming here for development activities in the days ahead.

Take for example the recent incident when the Maoists vandalised vehicles and field-office of European Commission-funded Gulmi-Arghakhanchi Rural Development Project (GARDEP) accusing corruption in the project implementation and lack of local people’s involvement in the project. The EC even thought of backing out from the project but changed their mind after the reassurance from the rebels.

During the early days of the Maoist movement, "Save the Children-US" withdrew its projects from Gorkha district, one of the first districts to be affected by the insurgency.

Now, many other international and national non-governmental organisations are following these two projects. Wholistic Development Service Centre, an NGO funded by German project GTZ, also withdrew its development project from Arughat village development committee of Gorkha after Maoists "looted" their money and other instruments.

These series of incidents involving the Maoists have been a major setback for Nepal’s development as the donors have become more sceptical on investing more in the future. And the Americans are psychologically terrorised more as the Maoists have time and again spoken against them. The Maoists even termed the recent terrorist attacks in New York and Washington as "the result of the US hegemony".

However, Robert Kerr, Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Nepal, says there is no particular case of Maoist attack against its nationals and any US-funded project. But he conceded some unspecified cases of extortion from its offices.

The US has frequently been alerting its nationals from visiting Nepal after the Maoist insurgency took a serious turn.

But Kerr does not accept that the US administration is curtailing the aid to Nepal. "Though the total amount of ODA (Official Development Assistance) directly given to the Government of Nepal is comparatively small, we have been extending very high amount of grant as multilateral assistance through Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB)," says Kerr.

The US has reached an agreement with His Majesty’s Government (HMG) providing consistent amount of grant assistance of US$ 15-20 million annually for five years, according to Kerr.

This issue has become more important as the Maoists have several times threatened to take actions against the multilateral agencies like ADB, WB and IMF and have even threatened to wash them out of the country.

But Kerr said that the US is not thinking about reviewing its policy towards Nepal due to the Maoist movement.

And the ADB too positioned itself as the number one lender to Nepal this year, with 13.02 billion rupees of loan assurances, most of which are directed towards the Melamchi Drinking Water Project.

"Maoist movement has not made any impact on ADB’s overall policy and operation," said Kavita Sherchan, ADB’s External Relation and Civil Society Liaison Officer. "Since we do not directly involve in the project implementation, we have not come across any of such attacks or threats from the Maoists."

Japan, which has been a principal donor for Nepal for many years, placed itself in the third position after ADB and the United Kingdom, in terms of ODA. But the Japanese Embassy officials do not buy this figure.

Takashi Yokohama, Cultural Officer at the Embassy, says the figure of other donors standing on the top was mixed up with the donations from the multilateral donors as well. Japan is one of the biggest contributors to the multilateral companies. He said it is not fair to compare bilateral agencies with multilateral ones.

Yokohama also refused to have come across any case of Maoist attack against Japan-funded projects and Japanese individuals.

Last year, out of the 12.77 billion rupees aid for the Melamchi Project, Norwegian government alone contributed 634 million rupees.

Though the Ambassador of Norway to Nepal, Ingrid Ofstad, said that they have not faced any attacks from the Maoists, she could not deny that some of the teachers from the Norwegian-funded schools have been forced by the Maoists to quit. She says, "Even if the Maoists come to ask for money, we cannot give it to them because our people have given money to the Nepalese for good purposes."

UML leader rules out unity with ML

KATHMANDU, Oct 6 (PR)- A central level leader of the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist and Leninist) today ruled out the possibility of merger with its breakaway faction of CPN (ML).

UML’s Central Committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari said that several rounds of dialogue with the ML have failed to yield any positive results.

"The CPN-ML have insisted on their demands that are not possible to be fulfilled at present," said Adhikari. "So we finally decided that we would report to our party members that the unification between the two parties is not possible," he said, while speaking at the party cadres’ training at the constituency-6 of Kathmandu.

Adhikari said that the present political situation of the country drove UML to make attempts for the unification of left parties, including CPN-ML.

"We know that CPN-ML is responsible for the downfall of the Leftists in the past parliamentary election. Yet we approached them with lots of hope that they would also realise the need of the unity," he said. Still he considered the talks with CPN-ML positive.

"Although the unification did not take place but we at least opened the door for unification," he said.

He also stressed the need for the unity among the Left forces at the time of present national crisis.

He pointed out that the meetings with other Left parties were quite successful so he did not rule out the possibility of unification with other Left parties. Adhikari also urged the government and Maoists to make the next round of talks successful.

He said that the UML should carry on "ideological war" with the Maoists because the Maoist activities would only pose danger to the whole country. "We love the Maoists but we want to kill the virus in them," he said.

Hundreds throng GPO for DV-2003

By Seema A Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Oct 6- As the final days to send the form for DV-2003 are inching towards closure, hundreds of people are seen thronging the General Post Office at Sundhara to try their luck for the "land of opportunities".

An estimated three thousand mails are being sent every day for DV-2003 starting from October 1, 2001, said an official at GPO.

Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Section Officer of Registration and Distribution Department at GPO said that the mails for DV-2003 have increased since last week of September. Before that only a total of 400 mails were posted but the number has reached as high as 3,500 in the first week of October.

The GPO refuted the rumors that the applicants who processed through the agents or the relatives of GPO staff have more chances to participate in the lottery and others have less chances to participate. "It is totally a wrong accusation that the GPO staff entertain only agent-prepared DV forms or those of their acquaintances. In fact the GPO has maintained a separate booth for DV mails and special care is taken to deliver them in time," said Ghimire.

All mails received are sent on first flight of following day except on Tuesdays. The GPO has also published a notice with an appeal to use regular mail service and not any special services as DV offices do not accept any kind of fast delivery mails, Ghimire added. "We have special counter for the DV-2003 to facilitate the people," he further added.

Punam Tamang of Sinamangal said that she is trying her luck for the second time. She further said, "I got the complete information from US Embassy so I don’t need to go to agents. If I will be lucky enough to win, I will bring all of my family members to United States.

The lottery scheme has opened avenues of income for many. "DV-2003 has been made as a tool for income for many people. Starting from an agent who takes responsibility to deliver it in time, some merely prepare exactly acceptable forms, and some required photographs," said an official at the post office on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, some of the photo studios of Kathmandu have also started to earn hefty amount of money from the first week of October.

"Only few people were coming until the last week of September but suddenly the number has reached upto 50 in a day," said the official at Shree ABC, photo studio at Bagbazaar.

"Sixty people are flocking to our photo studio everyday for exact required size for DV-2003," said one of the staff from Photo Focus studio at New Road, "and we charge Rs 150 for two copies".

Anti-forest encroachment drives in far-west force migrants back to hills

By Surendra Phuyal & Man Mohan Swanr

BASANTA (Kailali), Oct 6 - Forest authorities have succeeded in evicting more than 70,000 illegal settlers from the green forests and wetlands of this fertile Terai district, but the possibility of the hill migrants moving to neighbouring districts and re-occupying the pristine forest areas still remains.

The authorities removed more than 1,500 hill migrants occupying an area of roughly 3,000 hectares from the Basanta forest area alone as part of a drive against illegal forest encroachers last month.

"All the settlers have moved away from here, and many of them have even returned to where they came," said Nawaraj Baral, the District Forest Officer of Kailali, who took the lead in the drive against forest encroachers in early August. Most of these settlers had come from the adjoining hill districts of Achham, Doti, Kalikot and Dailekh, which are the flashpoint of the Maoist uprising that started in 1996.

"They will not dare to comeback and re-occupy the forest areas so long as I stay in Kailali," Baral confidently said. But he also fear that the problem will be back once the politicians and land-Mafias chip in with their vested interests, which include occupying lands and distributing them to landless squatters or their vote banks.

In what is widely seen here as a fairly successful anti-forest encroachment drive, the District Forest Office (DFO), Kailali, in August spearheaded a drive against illegal encroachers with support from local political parties. And in two months, it saw as many as 72,000 encroachers removed from the pristine forest areas such as Basanta, Ghodaghodi Lake area, Lamki, Pahalwanpur and the banks of the Karnali River.

Baral said the 72,000-odd encroachers who have now been "shooed away" from Kailali’s forests mainly include the ones who occupied the forest areas in the last two years time. Independent observers here said most of the encroachers were backed by influential politicians and political parties.

"The Communist Party of Nepal (15 September) was the political force that distributed pristine forest lands of the Basanta area to the hill migrants from Karnali region," said a senior official with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Nepal, which just recently launched a long-term Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) conservation project in western Nepal and India.

The 15,000-odd migrants, under the banner of Karnali Pidit Samuha (affected group), started migrating in the area since 1998, and they became successful in occupying as much as 3,000 hectares of forest area in Basanta forest "corridor" alone. No more. The Basanta area, which is frequented by such endangered species of wildlife as the Asiatic elephants, rhinos and the Bengal tigers, is considered as a crucial forest area linking the Churiya forests of far and mid-western Nepal with the key protected areas of both Nepal and India.

Sources in the Dhangadi, the district headquarters, said the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) too has extended its indirect support to the drive and "has been found discouraging and even punishing those involved in forest encroachment and felling trees."

"We have already cleared the forest areas encroached upon in the last two-three years time, and now we are going deeper into the woods, into the older settlements of the encroachers, and into the vote banks of the unscrupulous politicians," DFO Baral said.

In doing so, Baral mobilized all the political parties by holding local-level all party meets. Also mobilized are the districts Community Forest Users Groups. Twenty-eight of the district’s 33 community forests covering a land area of roughly 5,000 hectares have been handed over to the groups.

"There are still many settlements left in the jungles from where encroachers need to be driven out," said Dirgha Singh Bhat, the District President of the governing Nepali Congress party. "We have forged an all party consensus against that and we will continue our work."

Nevertheless, questions are being raised on the effectiveness and sustainability of such drives. Forest activists and environmentalists are specially concerned that the hill migrants might end up re-occupying forest areas in the other Terai districts in the neighborhood—such as Kanchanpur, Bardiya, Banke and so on.

Said Mohan Bahadur Rawal, chairman of Shakti-Karnali Community Forest User Group, who is also an executive of the National Forest Resources Consumers’ Federation, "The illegal settlers have been, and are being, chased away from here. But I don’t think the authorities have taken any step to ensure that they will not re-resettle in other forest areas in the neighboring districts. Proper communication and coordination have to be there"—something independent forest watchers here say is lacking.

Businessmen announce Gulmi market bandh

Post Report

GULMI, Oct 6- Gulmi Commerce and Industry Association(GCIA) today announced the market Bandh from Sunday to Tuesday next week to protest against the abuses hurled by the Chief District Officer(CDO), Gita Prasad Adhikari to its executives.

Flouting the agreement reached by the Western Region Transportation (WRT)and the GCIA executives to ply the loaded trucks in the Butwal-Gulmi highway, WRT has deliberately hindered the trucks from plying. According to our district correspondent, most of the trucks are being stranded in Butwal.

The source said that, a GCIA delegation team had gone to the CDO anticipating the positive response, instead they were hurled abuses.

Alleged murderer arrested

Post Report

MAHOTTARI, Oct 6 - Police arrested Dularcharan Yadav, the key accused in the killing of Malechhiya Devi of Bela Ekdara village on charges of murder on Saturday.

Malechhiya Devi, 61, died on September 26 after she was fed on human feces and then severely beaten on charges of practising witchcraft by a group of men from the same village.

Dulacharan Yadav along with Nawal Kishor Yadav, Bijo Yadav and Jitan Yadav, the suspected murderers were at large after the death of Malechhiya Devi, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Manohar Kumar Rimal. "We hope to arrest rest of the suspects very soon," added DSP Rimal.

According to Lalchan Yadav, the husband of deceased, Malechhiya was dragged out of her house and forced to eat feces and beaten to death after a three-year-old boy died of typhoid. Malechhiya was accused of killing the boy through her witchcraft.

Police had to work very hard to arrest the accused as all family members left the village after the incident, said chief constable Umesh Prasad Yadav who arrested Dulacharan Yadav.