Renovation of Akash Bhairav temple in full swing

By Perina Pathak

KATHMANDU, Oct 7 – The renovation work of Akash Bhairav Temple at Indrachowk is going on war-footing to revive its historic charm.

And, the concerned officials say they will complete the renovation of the century-old temple by April next year.

This historical monument was in a dilapidated condition for many years until the locals themselves initiated the renovation works last year. Thanks largely to Akash Bhairavnath Guthi, Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation, local ward committee and local religious organisations.

"After the renovation, the temple will get its original look, like it was before 1910," says Bikas Bhakta Shrestha, chairman of the Akash Bhairavnath Renovation Committee and the local ward committee. The added attraction after the renovation will be the balcony, which was discarded during the renovation 60 years ago by the Ranas, according to Shrestha.

And, the ten Astamatrika paintings, kept in Khopi (hole on the wall) behind the big Bhairab statue, will be changed to respective stone statues, Shrestha said.

The Malla period monument, which is situated in the heart of the capital, was last renovated in 1939. But in course of construction, the Ranas had discarded its balcony and replaced the original stones.

But the historians are still confused about when the three-and-half–storey-temple of deity Bhairav, the fierce form of Lord Shiva, was first constructed. It is believed that the temple came into existence along with the origin of the Kathmandu City in 11th century. However, evidences such as the names of King Pratap Malla and King Narendra Malla carved on the stones found in the temple depict that it was built around that time.

"About 60 per cent of the renovation work has already been completed and we hope everything will finish by Chaitra (April 13)," says Shrestha.

His Majesty King Gyanendra, on his visit to this temple a month ago, had asked the renovation committee to complete the renovation by Chaitra.

Shrestha said the renovation of windows and walls has been completed, except the remaining finishing works. "The renovation of roof-top is only left to be done," adds Shrestha.

After the completion, there will be extra rooms for security personnel, water pipes and electricity. "One of the extra rooms will also be used for traditional parties," says Sharad Kumar Dongol, secretary of the renovation committee.

To ensure its original look and maintain its historical significance, the committee has changed only the fallen and damaged woods. "Even if we had to replace them, we have hand-crafted the new woods with original form so that the monument will not loose its age-old charm," says Dongol.

"After the renovation, ground floor will be given on rent for shopkeepers like before, which will later help the temple sustain financially," he said.

Locals to protest Kathmandu Parking

KATHMANDU, Oct 7 (PR) - The local representatives of Tinthana Village Development Committee have decided to protest the opening of Kathmandu Parking on Monday, claiming the company has illegally encroached the public land.

"The representatives and locals will be at the spot from morning," states a press release issued today.

The VDC office demanded opening of the motorable road to Kirtipur that should go through the parking area, conservation of the river bank area, track for locals, buspark owner should employ the manpower from the local area.

"But the owners did not appear at the VDC meetings and decided to run the buspark, neglecting the VDC office’s demands," the release claims.

The release says Jagadis Agrawal and Mohan Sherchan bought the land of the VDC area, Ward no 8 and 9 with understanding that they would not disturb the public land, river bank and cremation site, but the new owner of the land property, Kathmanmdu Parking, violated the understanding.

Meanwhile, a press release from Federation of Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs has informed the passengers, trasport entrepreneurs and labourers that tickets for the long route buses would be made available from the Kathmandu Parking from Monday.

Disables need equal rights not compassion

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KATHMANDU, Oct 7- The intellectual disabled people do not need compassion rather they need equal rights, participants at the fair organised here today, said.

The intellectual disabled fair was celebrated today on the occasion of "First Intellectual Disabled Day-2001" in the Capital.

Near about 400 children from 13 different schools of Kathmandu Valley which participated in this fair was organised by the Association for the welfare of Mentally Retarded (AFTWOMR).

The fair had more than 40 hand-made items like, envelopes, greeting cards, candles, knitted bags, caps, different idols, decoration pieces, jars and others.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Keshar Jung Rayamajhi said that all the volunteers, teachers and parents have made a great contribution towards this intellectual disabled people to bring them until this stage of their life.

"Education is a great engine for personal development", the saying of Nelson Mandela is very important in everybody’s life here where our country’s half of the population is illiterate and even a normal person has a hard time to deal with his/her life, he added.

Dr Mahendra Prasad, president of AFTWOMR highlighted on the importance of the parents’ role towards the mentally retarded children, who take care of them without any hesitation.

Dinesh C. Devkota, General Secretary of ARTWOMR said that the mentally retarded people should get equal rights, not the mercy from the people. " We should change the view of looking at the intellectual disabled people so that we can bring them into the real world", he added.

Mahavishnu temple to have false idol inside

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KATHMANDU, Oct 7 - The government is on the way to complete costly renovation of 170-year old temple of Mahavishnu but it is going to have a false idol instead of the historic, officials said.

"The idol was taken to the Hanumandhoka Palace but now it is unlikely that it will come back to the temple," said Sundar Khanal, the engineer of Department of Archaeology (DOA).

DOA started the reconstruction of the temple two years ago.

People took the around-three-feet tall gold-plated idol of Lord Vishnu with five heads, sitting with his consort to the Hanumandhoka Palace when the temple collapsed during the great earthquake of 1934.

"It might be difficult to bring back the original idol from the palace so we are planning to have a new idol casted instead," said Khanal.

The Hanumandhoka Palace belongs to His Majesty the King.

The chief of Hanumandhoka Palace Protection Office Tej Ratna Tamrakar said the palace would not return the idol for the temple.

Culture expert Hari Ram Joshi said the temple would be meaningless if the original idol was not reerected in the temple.

"The idol needed a shelter when the temple collapsed but now its own proper ‘residence’ is being reconstructed. It means that the idol must come back," he said. "We can’t see a child lives in an orphanage when he has a beautiful house."

Joshi added that each and every temple as well as its parts have their historic as well as cultural values and it will vanish if changes are brought in them.

However, architect of Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust said keeping the original idol in the palace is justifiable because of threat of art theft that is going on rampantly in these days.

"We have to think about safety too," he said.

Attack from wildlife forces villagers to migrate

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HETAUDA, Oct 7 - Residents of the area which are lying adjacent to Parsa Wildlife Reserve are impatient to migrate to other safe areas due to the harassment caused by wild animals, according to soldiers and employees of the Reserve.

Residents of Ramauli and Pratappur villages in ward Nos 5 and 6 of Manahari VDC are particularly affected by the wildlife of the Reserve. They live in constant fear as they can be attacked by them at any time.

They are also raising their voice in favour of migrating to some safe places for years because they have also to bear the misbehaviour meted out to them by the soldiers and the employees of the Reserve from time to time.

Tigers from the wildlife reserve have killed 150 domestic animals in the sheds over the last six months in Manahari VDC, which can be reached in one hour on foot from Manahari Bazaar by crossing the Rapti river, chairman of Ramauli, Ward No 3, Bimala Karki said.

"A tiger had come to kill people in the village recently, but when the people fled , the tiger killed a cow from the cowshed," she said.

People of Danuwar Community, who are in the majority here, say they have not received compensation for the domestic animals killed by the tigers and food crops destroyed by the elephants, rhinoceros and boars. "We have been told that they have to pay us compensation according to rule, but we have not received compensation as yet," ward chairman Sukbir Rai said.

"As the Reserve lies next to our doorstep, our domestic animals rush to the Reserve the moment they are set free from the shed, but the employees do not allow them to enter it. "How can we lead such a difficult life in this condition?" they ask "Last year, a tiger killed my two cows and two oxen from the cowshed on the same night . But I have not received any compensation so far," Dal Bahadur Rai said.

On the other hand, the residents of Ramauli Pratappur are also facing threats from the Rapti river, Maiga Khola and Bhalu Khola which are eroding the fertile land of Ramauli Pratapur.

Three houses were also washed away by the floods last month, ward chairman Bimala Karki said.

The local VDC has also been requesting different agencies for migration of the people who are leading a miserable life due to the threat posed by wild animals and rivers. When children go to school there is a fear of them being washed away by the river and rivulets. When they play in the open space, they may be attacked by wild animals. Therefore we want to leave this place and migrate to a safe place, Bimala Karki said.

The landless Squatters’ committee had decided to resettle the residents of this area on the land lying between Manahari and Lothar and it had also completed mapping of the area, but since the committee was dissolved recently, the certificates of land ownership could not be distributed to them although they were ready, Chairman of the committee Ramchandara Aryal said. Each family was to receive 4 katthas of land for housing.

Parsa Wildlife Reserve has also kept the villagers of the area under the list of those that need to be migrated, but it has no definite plan for this. Warden Tika Ram Adhikari also admits that people of this area should be migrated for the safety of the local people and the wildlife of the Reserve.

Primary schools lack teachers

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KAVRE, Oct 7 - More than two dozen government funded primary schools in remote areas of this district rely on a single teacher in each school to run all classes at a time due to unequal distribution of the teachers, a report received here said. Whereas there are more than the required number of teachers in some accessible and urban centres at the same level.

Quality of education, especially in primary level in the remote areas where only one teacher has to handle all the classes, is worse. A source close to the District Education Office (DEO) said that many of the teachers who have political clout or influence in the DEO want to stick to the district headquarters or to its periphery.

Although the DEO tried its best to bridge the gap of unequal distribution of primary level teachers about two years ago, it became unsuccessful in achieving its target, the source added.

The sources said about 25 primary schools are run by a single teacher in the rural parts of the district. They run four or five classes at the same time. Whereas there are 11 primary level teachers at Kusha Devi high school that lies close to the district headquarters of Dhulikhel and seven teachers in Banepa and Panauti, urban centres of the district, at the same level, according to the DEO source.

The education regulations, 2049 requires at least three teachers in a primary school with grade five and a teacher among 45 primary level students.

Khuwanath Dulal, the only teacher running Bhairav Primary School at Gokule Village Development Committee, said the elected representatives of the district did not pay proper attention toward the plights of the children studying at schools in remote areas.

Asked to comment on the situation, DEO official Mahakanta Jha said he was attempting to bridge the gap of unequal distribution of teachers by transferring some teachers to the remote areas from the urban centres where there are more teachers than required.

Army launch special operation against smuggling

BIRGUNJ, Oct 7 (PR) - The Royal Nepal Army team, which has been mobilised to prevent smuggling in the border area, has seized two tractors, four motorcycles and smuggled goods worth Rs 2.5 million within a week after it launched a special operation against smuggling.

The team seized goods worth Rs 820,000 , Rs 400,000, Rs 700,000 and Rs 600,000 on the first, second, third and fourth day respectively of its special campaign which it launched to intercept goods being smuggled from India for the festivals, Birgunj Customs Office said on Sunday. The goods include ‘paanparag,’ electrical goods, sarees, hand-ker-chiefs, ‘khaini’ etc. This is the first time that such a large quantity of goods being smuggled into the country was seized in a week after the army was mobilised in Birgunj.

On Saturday, the team members arrived at Chhapkaiya, a noted site for smuggling, without using their vehicles and as they were not seen by anybody, smuggled goods started arriving from India and they could capture a large quantity of goods. In the past, when they went on patrol duty in their vehicles, people used to run away along with the goods meant for smuggling.

They also seized two tractors and four motorcycles carrying smuggled goods at Gulariya and Badariya of Harpur VDC.

A smuggler said on condition of anonymity that their organised smuggling would not succeed as long as the presence of the army continued there.

Civil Vigilante Committee set up

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NAWALPARASI, Oct 7 - People of Pithouli VDC have started patrolling the villages at night for the security of their villages after incidents of theft and looting increased as the festivals were near at hand.

Some masked criminals were on a looting spree in the last week of September. Then the people of three wards of Pithouli VDC organised a joint meeting, formed a civil vigilante committee and started patrolling in these wards.

Local youths of ward nos 3, 4 and 5 have started patrolling in their villages from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. at night. One youth from each house takes part in the night patrolling, according to chairman of ward no 3, Krishna Gurau. The meeting of the wards has decided that every house which does not send a youth will have to pay a fine of Rs 50 per night. Youths from every house are therefore taking part in the night vigil regularly.

According to local youths, incidents of theft and looting go up on the eve of Dashain and Tihar festivals every year in these villages. Therefore, they have embarked on this campaign to save their villages from thieves and dacoits.

A local resident, Hari Neupane, said incidents of theft and looting have stopped altogether after they started patrolling the villages at night.

Following the success of the night vigil in these villages of Pithouli VDC, youths associated with different clubs have also set up Civil Vigilante Committees and launched night patrolling in their villages in the adjoining VDCs.

DAO freezes bank accounts of 16 VDCs

DHANKUTA, Oct 7 (PR) - The District Administration Office (DAO) in Dhankuta has freezed bank accounts of 16 Village Development Committees (VDC) of the district after the underground Maoists locked up the VDC offices and announced their so-called local government.

Chief District Officer Shambhu Koirala said he had to suspend the bank accounts of those VDCs to prevent misuse of the budget by unscrupulous people. He said the underground Maoists looted or destroyed the official documents from these VDCs. The local administration’s decision to freeze the bank accounts has affected the already-commenced development projects. The teachers who are hired by the VDCs have been deprived of their salary ahead of Dasain festival.

However, the rebel Maoists have returned the looted documents of Jitpur VDC of the Constituency-2 under the pressure of the locals. Locals of three other VDCs have also unlocked the offices defying the Maoist threats. Several VDCs have not been able to conclude their annual village council meet due to the closure of their VDC offices by the rebels.

Teachers’ four-month salary looted

SALYAN, Oct 7 (PR)- Two armed people, who identified themselves as Maoist workers, looted four months’ salary of teachers from the office room of the school at gun-point at Ranikot of Sejwaltakura VDC recently.

The two men looted the four-monthly salary of four teachers of Ranikot-based Saraswoti Vidya Mandir amounting to Rs 78,000 as the teachers were preparing to go home at the end of the school hour. The teachers who lost their salary were Bam Dev Sharma, Lila Raj Regmi, Pabitra Sharma and Rusi Shrestha. Later, they returned Rs 1,000 to each of them as Dashain expense, according to teacher Rusi Shrestha.

This is the first time that the four-monthly salary of teachers was distributed at the school. In the past, the salary was given to the teachers outside the school premises.

She also informed that headmaster Ek Raj Budhathoki who had kept his salary at home has promised to hand over his salary to them on the next day.

The assailants also beat up the headmaster and another teacher, Lila Raj Regmi and threatened them not to disclose the incident to outside people. They warned that they would be killed if they disclosed the incident to other people.

The assailants escaped into the forest carrying the money they looted from the teachers, according to students.

As all their salary was looted on the eve of Dashain and Tihar festivals, all the teachers said with tears in their eyes that some others must have a hand in this incident.