BIRGUNJ, Sept 1 - Scrap contractors on Saturday raised serious concerns over the passiveness of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in taking actions on the complaints of a massive irregularities while awarding scrap contract.

The contractors had filed a complaint against District Development Committee (DDC) of Parsa alleging massive irregularities while awarding the scrap contracts."We had registered our complaints at CIAA in the hope that it would investigate the corruption cases but the silence that it is keeping has surprised everyone," said Ananda Karmacharya, one of the contractors.

The contractors blamed that Janardan Singh Chhetri, DDC Chairman has an uppermost hand in pressurizing the CIAA through political clouts to stop the case from being investigated.

Karmacharya along with other businessmen had registered the complaint alleging that Parsa DDC had embezzled at least 12.1 million in the last fiscal year in the scrap contracts through bribes.

The amount of scrap contract in the fiscal year 2000/01 was only 4.6 million where contractors could claim only 50 paisa for the collection and transportation of each kilo of scrap.

However, in the fiscal year 2001/02, such charge on scrap has been raised by four folds to touch Rs 2 per kilo. Despite such huge rise in charge, the total contract amount has been surged by a dismal 43 per cent.

Refuting the allegation, Chhetri and his colleague said that they had no knowledge of taking bribe but awarded the contract strictly under the present rule and regulations.

Stock market sinks by 14.13 points

KATHMANDU, Sept 1 - The brunt of the recently announced land reform policy and the subsequent freezing of land transaction, though has been withdrawn, continued to be reflected on the Nepalese money market this week.

The Nepse Index, which has been on the wane since the last couple of weeks, recorded another double-digit tumble in the transaction this week indicating the continuously weakening investment confidence of speculative investors mainly due to the confusion created by the land reform policy.

According to the stock information complied and disseminated by Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), the index that stood at 295.17 points on the opening day of the share transaction on Monday slumped by 14.13 points to touch 281.04 points at closing on Friday.

Similar double-digit slump was recorded last week when the market tumbled down by over 13 points to settle at 298.85 points from 312.41 points.

In the group-wise market participation, the commercial bank group again bounced back to capture its lion’s shares. During the transaction this week, the group captured 86.35 per cent of the total transaction whereas the group’s participation last week had slipped remarkably to the second position by capturing just 43.79 per cent. Such participation two weeks ago was 70.89 per cent.

During this week’s transaction, the participation of finance group dropped significantly to capture just 10 per cent of the total transaction. Such participation last week had surged to capture 45.31 per cent and had jumped to the first position by pushing down commercial bank group to the second position. The participation of finance group was 19.93 per cent two weeks ago.

The participation of manufacturing and processing group also remained low whereas such participation was 4.40 per cent on last week and 0.99 per cent two weeks ago. Similarly, the participation of hotel group and insurance group remained 0.31 per cent and 2.27 per cent respectively while the participation of trading group and other group stood at 0.63 per cent and 0.35 per cent respectively.

During this week, in terms of number of transaction, Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Company topped the list with 153 transactions whereas, in terms of share units, Bank of Kathmandu secured the first position with 12,971 share units. Similarly, in terms of value of transaction, Standard Chartered Bank of Nepal was ranked in the top with the total value of Rs 5.76 million.

During this week, 49,818 unit shares of 36 companies valued at 25.36 million were traded through 808 transactions whereas, in the last week, the Nepse market witnessed a trade of 66,306 units of share valued at Rs 29.13 million in 714 transactions.

IT crucial in alleviating poverty: Experts

KATHMANDU, Sept 1 - Information Technology (IT) experts gathered in a program here have stressed that development of IT can play a significant role in poverty alleviation if it is extended to rural sector.

Speaking at a seminar on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Education, organized by Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) here today, Dr Rameshananda Baidya, member of National Planning Commission underlined the need of formulating policy to develop not only the trained manpower but also to focus on human development perspectives.

He also informed that the government is considering to introduce a fundamental change in the structure of IT education in order to cope up with the growing demand of well-trained manpower.

Dr Baidya further said that the government has set target to achieve cent per cent computer literacy by 2010 and a national consensus had been reached on quality education of IT. "The government will also provide a four-hour free Internet facility and computer education to selected schools of five districts."

Speaking on the same occasion, Mahesh Man Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology said that HMG has adopted a national policy on IT to uplift Nepal to the global IT map. "At present, we are focusing on IT education and IT industries under the human resource development programme."

Rajiv Subba, general secretary, CAN said that IT policy of the government has created conducive environment for the development of the sector. "After the government had introduced IT policy in 2057, several private companies have started investing in IT sector," he said.

Dr Nirmal Prasad Pandey, member of National Planning Commission flayed the present education system calling it old and rudimentary accompanied by high school-drop-out rates.

He also informed that the government has allocated over Rs 20 million for the fiscal year 2001-2002 towards introducing computer education for some selected sector.

Dr Hom Nath Bhattarai, secretary-member of University Grant Commission (UGC) urged to introduce ICT education at Master’s Level. He also informed that the UGC has recommended with the government to start an open university in Nepal.

Dr Suresh Raj Sharma, Vice Chancellor of Kathmandu University (KU) hailed the new policy of the government towards IT as a timely response towards the emerging challenges.

The newly emerged university such as Kathmandu University and Purbanchal University are introducing ICT education. While 20 to 25 other colleges are already providing computer education, he said.

Atma Ram Ghimire, ICT consultant of CAN presented a paper on "ICT for Education" and urged for more investment in ICT for proper development of IT education.

The government officials including the members of National Planning Commission called on the CAN to submit detail suggestions to the government on IT education in Nepal for the upcoming tenth plan.

CAN also awarded scholarships to five students in the same programme.

Revision of exchange rate ruled out

Birgunj, Sept 1 - Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Birgunj Branch has accepted that the trend of Indian currency (IC) exchange has increased due to the unnecessary rumour that Nepalese rupee is depreciating against the Indian. However, top banking official stressed that such trend is not going to affect the bank as it has adequate amount of Indian currency to meet the demand.

Speaking at an interaction program organised here Friday, Chandra Shekhar Karki, Bank Manager, made it clear that present rumour on possible revise of the exchange rate of Nepalese currency vis-à-vis Indian currency is totally baseless.

"Though, increment is recorded in the demand of Indian currency, there is nothing to worry as the bank has adequate Indian currency of over 7 billion," he said.

According to the bank officials, the normal demand of Indian currency was just Rs 6 to 8 million on average, which in the recent days has soared to Rs 10 to 15 million. "Such surge in the IC demand is basically due to the baseless hearsay spread by smugglers with the intention of getting undue financial advantage," said an official.

"We have Rs 7 billion Indian currency deposit," said Bank Manager Adhikari. He also expressed the confidence that the present high demand of IC will disappear within two or three days.

Similarly, Adhikari also informed that the huge withdrawn of deposits from the financial institutions prompted mainly by reports of enforcing property holding ceiling has also come to the normal range.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the highest withdrawn, in recent days, was recorded in August 3 with Rs 100 million. However, during other consecutive five days, such trend continuously declined and now it has come to normal range.

On the same occasion, Om Prakash Rungata, Vice President of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that despite the withdrawal of some individual deposits, the local industrialists and businessmen were not disturbed by such baseless hearsay.

He also expressed his dissatisfaction over the government delay in issuing statement to neutralize such unnecessary hearsay.