KMC tightens its grip on Kathmandu residents

By Razen Manandhar

KATHMANDU, Sept 6 - Buying a house in the capital metropolis and enjoying the facilities here will soon be expensive for the residents as Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has tightened its house tax system.

Mayor of Kathmandu Keshav Sthapit said it is every citizen’s duty to pay land tax that would be used for local development works.

"Those who have not paid the tax will not be allowed to sale and transfer the property," he said.

Ram Sharan Humagain, chief of the KMC’s Revenue Department, said that KMC has completed keeping record of the houses in wards 2, 5 and 20 for this purpose.

"We have even distributed the tax bills last month to the locals in these wards after putting them in our computers," Humagain said. "From ward No. 1 alone, we collected Rs. 500,000 in one month."

He added that the KMC is distributing tax bills to three more wards - 3, 4 and 29 in this month. "KMC will complete making the list of the tax payers in one year and also the calculation who should pay how much for the house property he owns in the metropolis."

Humagain claimed that the project has been quite successful. "One single person paid Rs 600,000 annually for his house in Kathmandu." But he refused to give the name of the taxpayer.

Bijaya Krishna Shrestha, chairman of the ward 20, said the people in general have been aware of paying tax.

"They never opposed tax system here but as my ward is in core area, the majority of houses here are small and do not fall under the taxation standard," said Shrestha.

Article 140 of Local Self-Governance Act 1998 permits municipalities to collect property tax in its area.

According to Humagain, KMC first evaluates the land property of the citizen — ranging from Rs. 4 million to Rs. 1.2 million per ropani- sets its business value. Then it estimates the value of the house as per the age and building materials.

Those who own a house that does not exceed Rs. one million are exempted from the tax. Those owning a house worth Rs. one to two million are required to pay Rs. 300 per month. And an owner of over Rs. 100 million worth of house needs to pay 1.5 percent of his property every year.

The government has been collecting house tax for the last 40 years but it could collect only Rs 100 million every year from the whole country whereas the KMC has already collected half that amount from Kathmandu City alone, Humagain said.

However, Harendra Bahadur Shrestha, chairman of Nepal Consumers’ Forum, said KMC should not collect tax without guaranteeing basic facilities to its residents.

"First KMC should be responsible of providing the basic facilities like water, drainage, electricity, telephone and road," he said. "Then only they can levy tax to its residents."

But Mayor Sthapit said that taxation would reduce the number of migrants in the city and make things easy for the planners.

"Now, living in the city will be meaningful. You pay tax and we guarantee services," he said.

He added that the money collected through house tax would be transparent and would be used in the development of the same locality.

Exhibition on BP Koirala’s photos gets underway

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KATHMANDU, Sept 6 – An exhibition of collection of exclusive photographs, depicting the life and times of Late B.P. Koirala, got underway here today at the Nepal Tourism Board.

This exhibition has a wide collection of photographs related to the late leader’s contribution in Nepal’s democratic history. B.P. Koirala is not only regarded as the leader of the Nepali Congress, but had also made his name in the international scenario as the able statesman.

The collection includes snaps of Koirala’s visit to Israel, China, the United Nations, taking oath as the first elected Prime Minister of Democratic Nepal, visit of Jawahar Lal Nehru to Kathmandu and family photos.

The photo exhibition is being organised by the Centre for Consolidation of Democracy in co-ordination with the Nepali Congress Lalitpur District Committee.

According to the organisers, the bulk of the photographs have been lent and procured from Late Bal Krishna Sama collection, late Narayan Prasad Joshi, photographers Shyam Chitrakar and Min Bajracharya, political activist Sagarlal Mulmi and Pawan Timalsina.

Inaugurating the exhibition, Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai said these photos will inspire the young generation to follow late Koirala’s path of socialism, leading simple life and struggling hard for the development of the country.

Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala said,"I am finding very difficult to describe the personality of my own brother but in fact, in the present condition, the coming generation should follow his path and then only the overall development of country can be possible."

Political empowerment of women emphasized

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KATHMANDU, Sept 6 - Women should actively participate in economic, political and social sectors and should be able to use their knowledge and power in practical feilds, experts said at a workshop on "Political Empowerment of Elected Women Member of Kathmandu Metropolitan City" yesterday.

Kamala Pant, Member of House of Representatives, said, unless women acquire political empowerment, the country would hardly develop, as they comprised half of the population.

She said their role in decision-making position was very low and the lack of right-utilisation opportunity was high.

Mayor Keshav Sthapit,who was also the chief guest of the programme,remarked, "there are many skill development programmes but women are not implementing them effectively as the source of income-generation.

Speaking on the occasion, he also focused on the need of making policies which could be implemented from the top to grass-root level.

Mangal Laxmi Maharjan, elected member from ward number 22, observed that the elected women members should themselves approach the decision-making level to resolve any problem confronting them.

"Their dedication and commitment also matter in execrcising power," she added.

Two killed in Morang
A headless body found, refugee woman raped and killed in separate incidents

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BIRATNAGAR, Sept 6 - Police have found a headless body lying at Lohandra Khola of Motipur VDC-1 in Morang district, Wednesday evening.

According to District Police Office chief Krishna Bahadur Thapa, the body was taken to Lohandra Khola from Netachowk, about 12 kilometres on Tuesday night.

According to police, they have found welt from beating inflicted by ‘bhata’ (bamboo stick) all over the body and it is suspected that the Maoists might have killed him during ‘janakarvahi’. One of the suspects remains absconding from Netachowk village and police investigation is underway.

Similarly, some unidentified people raped and killed Dhana Maya Gurung, a Bhutanese refugee from Pathari Shanischare refugee camp in Morang, when she had gone to the forest to fetch firewood.

Another woman who was with Dhana Maya, when the incident occurred, tried to drive away the criminals, but she was attacked and wounded by them with Khukuri and is undergoing treatment in Damak-based AMDA hospital.

According to police, the incident occurred in the forest located five kilometres north of Pathari, on the way to Jate VDC.

One man missing, 13 families displaced by landslide

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CHAUTARA,Sindhupalchwok, Sept 6 - At least one person went missing while 13 families became homeless after the debris of a huge landslide swept through their houses at Thulo Pokhara VDC-5, police here said Thursday.

The landslide also damaged a six-roomed school building. Students are taking their classes in the open field, VDC officials said.

Local administrator said that Narayan Bhakta Pyakurel, 33, went missing in the flooded Tanglang Khola while grinding food grain at a water mill on Tuesday. A dozen victims of the landslide were currently taking shelter with their relatives.

Locals said that the debris of the landslide washed away around 1,100 ropanis of arable land and a large area of a community forestry was also washed away. The victims were waiting for immediate relief materials from local administration, the VDC officials said.

Muslim women donate blood

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BIRATNAGAR, Sept 6 - Taking a bold social step of coming out of their houses, five Muslim women of Biratnagar-7 donated blood on Saturday.

This is the first time that Muslim women have participated openly at a programme organised by Muslim Youth Society. The new step taken is an indication that they will take more part in social activities away from their homes.

Zarina Khatun, 38, said she wanted to donate blood last year also but it was not possible due to various reasons. She said all her family members were positive about her intention to donate blood.

"I have donated blood with the consent of my family. I wanted to donate blood by calling a doctor. It may be useful for myself if I need and also to other people if I don’t make use of it, she said.

Most of the Muslim women living in Biratnagar enjoy more liberal attitude of their male peers and greater openness at home too. They say that they do not need to wear ‘burka’ (veil) when they are inside their home.

Rajiya Khatun, 30, said she also donated blood without any restriction from her family. "We had to speak even to our elder brother from inside a burka, but now it is not so," she said. She added that she had been always eager to donate blood.

About 300 Muslim families have been residing in Biratnagar since the last 70 years.

Bibi Banu Haider, wife of Blood Donation Programme Co-ordinator Amam Haider said women in Muslim society remained under the supervision and control of father as child and husband after marriage, are gaining more freedom these days. More than 10 other Muslim women had also come to donate blood but they were not allowed due to age and other factors.

Poverty promotes child porters

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UDAYAPUR, Sept 6 - Children working as porters and carrying different kinds of loads up and down the northern hilly areas of Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga and Khotang districts in Sagarmatha zone say they were compelled to work as porters due to poverty.

Hari Bahadur Magar, 13, of Udayapur Ahale says he was compelled to give up his studies when in class five and take up this job to support his family financially.

Like Hari Bahadur, there are many other children who have deserted schools and taken up the career as porter. The number of such children has been on the rise steadily in recent years.

According to a report prepared by Sakriya Sewa Samaj Udayapur, an organisation working in the area of children over the last few years, there were 15 more new child porters this year compared to the last year. There were in all 235-child porters last year and the number has reached 250 this year.

These children who have to work along with the adult porters have left schools while they were studying at primary level. They were forced to leave school, as they could not afford to buy books although initial education was free and the amount would be refunded later. They were also unable to buy educational materials like exercise books, pen and pencil and their parents also expected them to give a helping hand in household sustenance.

Man Bahadur Tamang of Murkuchi Bazaar said he was compelled to leave his village school where he was studying because his teacher used to beat him when he did not bring educational material in the class.

No matter whether it is in winter or summer, they must carry loads when the ‘sahu’ (shopkeeper) asks them to do so to earn their livelihood. They face multifarious problems, such as the goods getting wet or damaged when they carry, falling down and sustaining fracture of hands and legs, and falling ill on the way.

No governmental or non-governmental organisations have assessed the challenges and hardships being faced by these child porters and no programmes have been carried out targeting these children. According to available data, more than a dozen governmental and non-governmental organisations including DDC, municipality and VDC engaged in this area have annually invested more than Rs 10 million on children’s welfare schemes but not even a small portion of this amount percolates down to these child porters.

President of Sakriya Sewa Samaj Udayapur Hira Man Mote said the organisation would launch an awareness generation programme soon.

However, the roads under construction from Katari to Okhaldhunga and Gaighat to Diktel via Beltar invite impending crisis for them and the lot are worried that they might soon lose their job once the roads are completed.