Preparations underway for cabinet expansion

KATHMANDU, Oct 15 (PR)– Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has begun preparations to make Ram Chandra Poudel his Deputy Prime Minister as well as expand his Cabinet, sources close to the PM said today.

The sources revealed that the PM would expand his Cabinet immediately after the 20th session of parliament is over. They added that a list of the new ministers has already been prepared. The new council of ministers will comprise of 35 ministers. At present, there are 13 ministers.

Meanwhile, the nominated lawmakers to the Upper House have been pressurising the PM to immediately appoint new ministers. In the Monday’s sitting of the National Assembly, nominated MP Dr Roopjyoti said the Prime Minister should immediately appoint a minister to head the Ministry of Industries, Commerce and Supplies at a time when Nepal-India trade talks are going on. PM Deuba heads the ministry.

Govt scraps controversial Citizenship Bill
Pledges to introduce new legislation

By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – The government today withdrew the controversial Bill proposing sixth amendment to Citizenship Act of 1963 that had been bouncing between the monarchy, the legislature and the judiciary, triggering yet another controversy.

The withdrawal has raised questions if the government has the authority to scrap a Bill that has already been approved twice by the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba notified the House today that the government had informed King Gyanendra that it was coming up with a fresh Bill following the Supreme Court’s suggestion early this year that the just-scrapped Bill clearly violates Constitutional provisions.

"The Cabinet has decided to bring a new Bill to resolve the problems of citizenship without any controversies and has informed about it to His Majesty the King on October 9," Prime Minister Deuba told the House.

The government of Deuba’s predecessor Girija Prasad Koirala successfully passed the controversial Bill in the Lower House early this year, only to be thwarted in the Upper House where the governing Nepali Congress party is in a minority. The Bill was again forced through the Lower House by the government and sent directly to late King Birendra for the royal seal of approval. The late King asked the Supreme Court to render its opinion on the constitutionality of the Bill. The Court opined against the government, virtually rendering the Bill useless. Things stood there for months until now when Deuba scrapped the Bill.

At the time, the government argued that the Bill would simplify the citizenship procedure and enable over 3 million Terai-dwelling Nepalis to obtain citizenship. However, critics argued that the provisions contained in the Bill could be misused massively.

The government’s backtracking on the Bill has taken some critics by surprise. "The government needs to first clear the status of the Bill to the House and inform what exactly was communicated between the government and the King," urged Subash Nemwang of the CPN-UML today.

"It would have been better if the Bill had been first returned back by the King and then the government had taken it back from Parliament and then only begin the process for the new Bill," said NC’s Whip Ramesh Lekhak.

The opponents of the original Bill lauded the government’s move. "This was the best option for the government to opt for since there was no other way out," said constitutional expert Daman Nath Dhungana. "This gives the government an opportunity to settle the problem of citizenship."

On April 25, the Supreme Court submitted its opinion to late King Birendra stating the proposed Bill clearly violates Constitutional provisions. King Birendra, making use of Constitutional article 88 (5), had sought opinion of the Supreme Court (SC) on February 20 on whether clause 2 of the proposed Bill violated article 8 & 9 of the Constitution. The late King had sought advice from the court after consultation with various political leaders.

The Supreme Court stated that Clause 2 of the proposed Bill was not in accordance with the article 8 & 9 of the Constitution of Nepal. It is the law that should be in accordance with the Constitution and not the other way round stressing that the proposed Bill crosses the Constitutional provisions.

"A new Bill on citizenship drafted through a national consensus incorporating recommendations by various commissions formed for the purpose in the past will be presented in Parliament," Prime Minister Deuba said.

Two separate commissions headed by Mahanta Thakur of the Nepali Congress (NC) and Dhanapati Upadhyay of the main opposition CPN-UML had presented recommendations on resolving the citizenship certificate issue.

Nepal nears U-19 Youth Asia Cup title

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – Nepali colts inched one step closer to the New Zealand trip for the Youth World Cup with a crushing 106-run victory against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the semi-final match of the Youth Asia Cup 2001 held at the Tribhuvan University Ground on Monday.

UAE, after receiving a not-so-easy target of 210 runs, were skittled out for 103 runs in 40.2 overs as Nepali bowlers ruled the pitch. The star for Nepal was once again Lakpa Lama, the young left-arm orthodox spinner. With his flight and length, he created havoc in the UAE middle order reaping five wickets for 32 runs in his 9.2 overs.

Replying to the Nepali innings, UAE, at one stage looked poised for a fight as their opening batsmen negotiated the opening bowlers from opposition with relative ease to post 27 runs. It was then that Faisal Amin, the opening bat of UAE, tried to force the scoring rate and fell prey to Binod Das’s full toss delivery holding out a simple catch to Manjit Shrestha at cover.

Things got from bad to worse as Naeemuddin, the UAE number three batsman, ran himself out without troubling the scorers. The batsmen to follow could not show the determination to stay on the wicket let alone stepping up the scoring rate.

Mansoor Pasha, manager of UAE, said that the run out of Naeemuddin hit the panic button in the dressing room. "The run out proved to be the turning point in the match as he was our most successful batsman on the tour."

Earlier, Nepali batters showed a lot of maturity to put up a total of 209 for six wickets after losing two early wickets with just four runs on board. Shakti Gauchan, the century maker in the last match against the Maldives, came as a savior yet again to take Nepal to safety.

Gauchan, with his steady singles carved a 39-run third wicket partnership with Kanishka Chaugain (11) to revive the hopes for Nepal. He looked at his best when he forged the fourth wicket partnership with Basudev Thapa.

While Thapa compiled 26 runs, Gauchan completed yet another milestone—scoring a half-century (53) before being bowled by Mohammed Aosaf.

Manjit Shrestha (32) and Sanjam Regmi (22) helped swell the Nepali scoring rate adding 45 runs off last five overs. Shrestha faced 28 balls while Regmi took 15 balls to score the runs.

UAE bowlers had themselves to blame for the Nepali batting revival as they bowled a lot of extras—especially in the earlier part of the innings when Nepal had lost two early wickets. They gave away a total of 52 extras, of which 42 was from wides and no-balls.

Pasha, UAE manager, expressed his disappointment regarding the discipline of the bowlers. "We bowled 42 extra balls—equivalent to seven extra overs, which is disappointing."

Roy Dias, the Nepali coach was all praise for his boys. "Despite a couple of hiccups, the boys did pretty well—especially Shakti and Basu while batting," said Dias. "Everything went according to the plan as the bowlers bowled with a lot of discipline. Lakpa did a fine job."

Gauchan and Lama were the joint recipient of man of the match award.

More than 800 leprosy patients in two districts

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 - More than eight hundred people have been found infected with leprosy in two districts, with 307 people infected in Mahottori and 499 in Kapilvastu.

According to District Health Office, Mahottori, 307 people have been found infected with leprosy of which 78 are infected with communicable and the remaining with non-communicable leprosy. While 499 people are infected with leprosy in Kapilvastu of which 25 are new identified patients after 2,151 suspected people were examined.

The search team has confirmed that there are currently more than five leprosy patients per 10,000 population in Mahottori while more than 7 per 10,000 population in Kapilvastu.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a target to eliminate leprosy from the world by 2003. The disease will be considered to have been eliminated if only one percent or less per 10,000 population suffer from the disease.

A search team that comprised of 847 members were mobilized to identify the leprosy patients. The team found 307 people infected with the disease after examining 1,657 suspected people. The search team even found a jail inmate, Ram Bahadur Mahato suffering from non-communicable leprosy.

"New leprosy patients identified is a concern as the government envisages to reduce the number of leprosy patients to one per 10,000 population or less by the year 2003," said Dr Dwarika Prasad Saha.. "It is difficult to achieve the target due to existing superstition in the society and the tendency to hide the disease," said Saha.

The study showed that ten lepers had sustained some damages from leprosy as they had not administered medicine on time.

"The number of leprosy patients which stood at 3 per 10,000 population in the past is now more than seven after the new patients were identified," said Arun Kumar Jha, Senior Public Health Officer at Kapilvastu.

The search team visited 290,651 people which is about 60 percent of the total population of the district, in their efforts to identify leprosy patients. People here are superstitious as well and these people do not come out openly in the society for fear of being boycotted by the society.

"People are now more conscious than in the past due to wider publicity about the disease," said Dr RS Deep, chief of the Kapilvastu District Health Office. "The result is that the process of identifying new patients at the initial stage has increased".

A five-day leprosy control programme was launched in 17 leprosy-affected districts in Nepal recently.

PAC freezes Army chopper deal

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today ordered a freeze in the proposed deal by the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) to purchase a Super Puma helicopter.

PAC Chairman Subash Nemwang said that since there was no competitive bidding and transparency in the deal as required by the financial regulations, PAC has ordered the freeze on the deal.

Finance Ministry official Narayan Silwal told the committee since there was no budget allocated for the purchase of the craft, funds would have to be carved out of the development budget.

Defence and RNA officials had said that the Super Puma helicopter they were proposing to purchase would be used for the King and special foreign guests.

They said that since one of the two Puma helicopters owned by RNA had exceeded the maximum flight hours as recommended by the manufacturers it had become necessary to buy another one. PAC was investigating the case after allegations of irregularities during the purchase process and trying to pay an inflated amount for a craft that is not necessary for RNA’s fleet.

This is not the first time that RNA has been alleged of attempting to buy a craft at a much-inflated price. Last year, PAC had blocked a decision by the government and RNA to purchase an overpriced jetliner RJ-100 that was not necessary for RNA and would have not been able to land except for half a dozen airports in the country.

Meanwhile, PAC has also blocked the agreement between Royal Nepal Golf Club and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) over the leasing of 850 ropanies of land for the golf course.

CAAN had leased the land for a meagre Rs. 500 per ropani a year prompting PAC to investigate the deal. PAC said that since the legal status of the golf club was not clear, there were still many questions that remained unanswered.

Also PAC has recommended action against all the officials involved in signing of the deal.

More delay in awarding private TV licence

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – The private sector’s attempt to open television stations has inched one step forward with the Ministry for Information and Communication finally completing the preliminary evaluation of proposals after a delay of over 10 months.

But instead of selecting private parties on the merits of their proposals, the Ministry last week sent the proposals back to the respective companies asking them to furnish further information. Only after the parties submit the new information will the Ministry begin evaluation of the bids, virtually assuring another long delay.

Altogether nine private companies applied for terrestrial television station licenses when the Ministry called proposals in October last year. While all the nine have submitted bids for opening a metro station, only four among the nine have submitted bids for nationwide television network. The Ministry is slated to select one party each for metro station as well as national network.

Those applying for metro station in Kathmandu Valley have to submit initial two-year detail plans within seven days with effect from October 11 and those applying for nationwide broadcasting license have to furnish similar detail plan for the next five years within 15 days beginning October 11,2001. The new proposals would be opened on November 6, 2001, according to a senior official in the Ministry.

Senior Ministry officials argue that the new information is required since the initial proposals were all unrealistic. "Most of the proposals, especially of the applicants for metro station, were very unrealistic. Therefore, it took us a long time to decide on their proposals, which delayed the preliminary evaluation", said a high level official on condition of anonymity.

The new information being asked of the private parties include additional technical, financial and commercial details and minutiae of programming. A key information being sought by the Ministry is whether investors with stakes in other media also are promoters of the television stations, and if yes, then how much stake they plan to own in the television station/network.

Similarly, the Ministry has also asked the applicants in case of being a joint venture to clarify whether an industrialist is an investor or a foreign media. The Ministry has also asked all the applicants to submit five per cent security bond of the total investment proposal and if a licensee does not operate within a stipulated time, the company’s security bond would be forfeited.

Shangri-La Channel, Kantipur Television Network Pvt Ltd, Annapurna Media Transmission Pvt Ltd and Professional Broadcasting Pvt Ltd are the four applicants for nationwide TV station/network. The four and other five companies - Sagarmatha Television, Image Channel Pvt Ltd, Prime Broadcasting System, Space Time Network Pvt Ltd and Himalayan Television Pvt Ltd - have applied for metro station in Kathmandu Valley.

Experts warn of major environmental disaster at Gokarna dumping site

By Birodh Pandey

MULPANI, Kathmandu, Oct 15- A year ago it was a battleground between the locals, the government and the municipality over the infamous dumping site. But now it is a deserted ground as the government abandoned this place a year ago.

No longer the municipalities truck queue up to dump the hazardous waste into the ground which was categorized as the most sensitive area of Kathmandu valley from every ecological aspects. Sitting next to Rajnikunja Gokarna, the area lies in the catchment area of the Bagmati river, and is less than five kilometers away from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport infamous for its autumn time bird hazards.

The dumping of waste has stopped in Mulpani or Gokarna after much controversy, but without assessing the post-dumping environmental hazards in the area. Which is way, environmental experts argue, a major environmental disaster is likely to hit the area in near future. They go on to assert that the former Kathmandu dumping ground is developing into a "potential time bomb" ready to explode anytime as the underlying methane gas continues to decompose a faster rate.

"Even if that does not happen such a disaster could be a repeat of the infamous Love Channel tragedy that occurred in New York state, in the United States in 1977," says Bed Mani Dahal, a Waste Management Expert at Kathmandu University. The event saw hundreds of people falling chronically ill due to the dumping of toxic chemicals and garbage, according to him.

Environmentalist, geologist and engineers argue that the Mulpani dumping site has been abruptly abandoned by the government after heaping up the capital’s garbage for nearly two decades, and with out carrying out environmental auditing - a tool necessary to study the risk factors involved in mitigating the likely environmental consequences in future.

Even the Environmental Protection Regulation 1997 under the article 24 states clearly to carry out environmental auditing specifying the steps to minimize remaining impacts from implementation of the project site that require Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), but all in vain.

Whilst the government and the municipality continue to shoulder off their responsibilities to each other and narrate stories of plans and masterplans to safely restore the former dumping site, chances of actual implementation of such plans appear slim due to "financial constraints".

"The ministry is seriously concerned about the likelyhood environmental disasters but we have not yet been able to study in details about the possibilities of safe restoration of site due to financial constraints. However we are pursing the donor agencies to help," says Ashok Shahi, Engineer at Ministry of Local Development.

Kiran Ulak, Sanitary Engineer at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and former site in charge of the Mulpani dumping site says the municipality had dug bottom drainage to stop the leachate flow into the ground water table and erected gas extraction pipes to release the underground gas formed by the decomposition of waste.

But without constant monitoring all these systems are functionless now.

"Our responsibility is only to dump waste into an area searched by the government, but it’s the liability of government to mitigate the environmental problems," remarks Ulak.

The 20 years of haphazard dumping of the solid waste has now begun to show its consequences in the surrounding area of Mulpani villages as the villagers are reportedly infected from various contagious diseases.

"Even after the closing of the site we have growing number of people suffering from eye infection, respiratory problems, skin diseases and diarrhea," says Kedar Thapa, the Vice Chairman of Mulpani VDC. "The government promised a safe restoration but only in words."

Experts say Mulpani area should be isolated from the surrounding villages, as there are chances of methane gas catching fire and exploding causing havoc in the vicinity. "The government should act now before it will be too late," says Dahal. "The best solution would be tap the gas and utilize it properly for energy development."

The problem is likely to become more severe as studies by geologist show that Mulpani area lies in the catchment area of the sacred Bagmati, and it happens to be the major infiltration area of groundwater supplied in the capital city.

Pratap Singh Tater, the president of the Nepal Geological Society, says, "Mulpani area is the major water percolating zone of the Kathmandu Valley. Considering the volatile situation the government should act now to stop the penetration of harmful chemical constituents into the ground water table."

"The government should demarcate a buffer zone and promptly carry out the safe restoration of the site if it is to be on safer side," urges Dr. Shree Govinda Shah, an ecologist and policy analyst of the Pro-public. "The gas can be used commercially and once it ceases the site can be developed into a sports ground like in Sydney, Australia, where they hosted the 2000 Olympics."

PM releases first English novel by a Nepali

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba released the first novel in English by a Nepali author, Manjushree Thapa, amid a function here today.

Penguin Books India, one of the premier publishing houses in India, published "The Tutor of History," written by Thapa. Thapa is popularly known as the columnist in the Nepali Times weekly, where she translates popular Nepali poems in English.

In an exclusive gathering of litterateurs and socialites, noted Nepali writer Indra Bahadur Rai praised Thapa’s creativity and said that the novel has depicted the real picture of the contemporary Nepali society.

The participants at the function later lined up enthusiastically to buy the signed copies of the novel.

CPN-ML CC concludes
Accepts resignation of Ojha, Shrestha

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – After four days of elaborate discussions the ninth full meeting of the CPN-ML central committee concluded here today, accepting the resignations of Devi Prasad Ojha and Sushila Shrestha from the central working committee.

The meeting unanimously endorsed the political paper presented by General Secretary Bam Dev Gautam with added suggestions collected during the discussions in the meeting, stated a statement issued by the party central office today.

The meeting as foretold by the party sources stopped ongoing dialogues regarding possible unification with all other left parties. But the statement adds, "since the responsibility of uniting the disintegrated Communist movement in the country, if need arises then the next politburo meeting can reinitiate the unification procedure."

It was already known by the beginning of the meeting that the party would take this decision to stop the ongoing unification dialogue with both the UML and the Maoists. A senior party official had given a clear hint that the party in future would try to re-unite with the main opposition UML from which it had split some four years back. The official had wiped out the possibility of carrying on the talks with the Maoists.

The meeting also came to a conclusion that – "Although demand for forming an constituent assembly was right, the party keeping interest of the nation and the people in mind has decided to push for amendments in the constitution."

The meeting also decided to reorganise its district committees of Dhading, Nuwakot and Lalitpur and ratified the recently reorganised Makwanpur district committee. The meeting also decided to expel few of its party members for misconduct.

The meeting also instated Hiranya Lal Shrestha as the editor of party mouthpiece Bargasangharsa and also the chief of the party’s publicity department.

 Visually-impaired march to mark IWCSD

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 - More than 200 visually impaired people took part in a rally with white cane to mark the International White Cane Safety Day here on Monday.

The rally participated by visually impaired students from various schools and the members of Nepal Blind’s Association, Rainbow Club for Blind and the general public went around the major thoroughfares of the capital.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post, Birendra Pokharel, President of Nepal Blinds’ association said that white cane is a symbol of independence for the blind people. " It is with the help of white cane that we come out in public to contribute in the society," he said.

Pokharel said that the cane is a friend as well as the symbol of safety for the blind people in the society.

Pokharel, however, complained that the government can not realize the importance of white cane for the blind people. He said, "The government is providing a mere 200 canes every year to nearly two lakhs blinds in the country." he added that this rally is also a symbolic protest against the lack of government attention in this matter.

Suresh Rajbhandari, general secretary of Nepal Blind’s Association stressed the need of traffic signals with sounds to make it more easier for blind people to walk on the streets. He also appealed the vehicle drivers to slow down when they see the white cane.

Speaking on the occasion, former speaker of the Lower House Daman Nath Dhungana said that the white cane is a fundamental right for the visually impaired people. He said, "The government should give importance to the need of blind people and provide canes to all blind people in the country." He added that this sort of programmes will enhance awareness in the society about the need of blind people.

Dhungana also distributed 10 canes to the blind students of Namuna Machhindra School, Laboratory School and Adarsh School to mark the day.

Govt announces intensified immunisation programme

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 – The Ministry of Health today announced the dates for Intensified National Immunisation days for the year 2001-02.

At a programme organised by the Child Health Division (CHD), under the Department of Health Services, Minister for Health, Mr. Sharad Singh Bhandari announced December 1, 2001, January 19, February 23 and March 23 – all in 2002 as National Immunisation days in Nepal. He said that it was a great pleasure for Nepal to be a part of the International group to work towards Polio eradication.

Polio a very serious and highly infectious disease was very common in Nepal until the immunisation programme started five years back. The immunisation programme, according to a representative of the Health department has helped a great deal in reducing the number of polio infected people in Nepal and also pointed out that the government has committed itself to help in the eradication of the disease.

Dr H D Shah, Director CHD said that the programmes related to polio eradication has been very successful in Nepal so far but added that because of open border with neighbouring India, transmission continues but precautions are being taken to avoid the disease being spread.

As per World Health Organisation (WHO), there should be global eradication of polio by the year 2005. As per the seven-month-old records, the disease still exists in ten countries. Nonetheless, efforts are being taken for their eradication world-wide and Nepal especially shows considerable improvement in this case.

Speaking during the function, M N Aryal, Secretary at the Ministry of Health said that Nepal is almost nearing its aim of global eradication of the deadly disease. "Immunisation programmes should be taken to all parts of the country in order to meet the goal set by WHO’s eradication plan," he said.

Nepal health record showed that not even a single case of Polio was diagnosed in the country in 2001 compared to four in 2000 and two in 1999. And to erase the disease completely the Health Department has been trying not to spare a single child less than five years from getting immunised.

Representatives of various International groups comprising of UNICEF, WHO, JICA, Rotary International participated in today’s programme and extended their co-operation and support in helping the virus eradication in Nepal

Bhutanese refugee repatriation by 2001-end : Thapa

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KATHMANDU, Oct 15 - Nepal’s ambassador to India and Bhutan, Dr Bhekh Bahadur Thapa today said that the long-awaited repatriation of Bhutanese refugees would begin by the end of the year.

"I expect that the process of repatriation of Bhutanese refugees will start from December this year," said Thapa, speaking at a talk programme today.

Thapa admitted that the refugee verification process was not going on at a desired pace. However, he pointed out that, though slow, the verification was making some progress.

He blamed the surrounding environment for making the process more complicated. "Things became serious when it was reported that the Nepali people living around the camp entered the camps to earn easy bread."

He revealed that the Bhutanese have agreed to sit for Secretary-level meeting in November for harmonisation of the verification process.

Meanwhile, speaking at the same programme, he said that the South Asian countries never tried to sit together for a common and serious reaction on the terrorist attack on USA and its retaliation against Afghanistan.

"Rather than discussing on the critical situation as a region, the countries presented their individual opinion," he said.

He further said that both Nepal and India should work together to regulate the open border between the two countries and make it scientific.

"The open border between the two countries indeed symbolises exemplary friendship and at the same time that might be the seed of ever growing problem too," he said.