Tightening security

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba called an emergency cabinet meeting a day after terrorists reduced the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon building in the USA to rubble. The meeting was held primarily to tighten security and prevent any untoward incident in this country. It was the first time the government felt such a need. Not that the country was facing terrorism like in the US, and thus thought it necessary to tighten security. But it is the government responsibility to protect joint venture plants, public corporations, financial institutions and foreign missions from any untoward incident. Unfortunately, the government never took seriously the need to maintain law and order in this country. As a result, there have been sporadic incidents of violence and explosions in the capital city, leave aside the rural western region. Had the government made proper security arrangements with a view to maintaining law and order, the Maoist-affiliated organizations would not have taken advantage of the situation. But the government neither took its responsibility seriously, nor provided security, nor
indeed provided adequate protection to public property.

Security lapses in the country were taken seriously only when India blamed Nepal for the hijacking
of Indian Airlines plane from Tribhuvan International Airport. India suspended its flight between the two countries for over six months. It was only last year-end that Indian Airlines resumed its Kathmandu flights. The open border between the two countries has made the security situation worse. The Maoists, who move about with arms, have looted banks, killed innocent people and crippled public administration, all because of lack of security. Yet, the government neither tightened security measures nor took such developments seriously. The Maoists have taken advantage of the current situation, no matter what the government claims. And Indian terrorists operating in the northeast Indian states have often visited Kathmandu. Delhi would not have deployed such a huge force along the Nepal-India border, had it not realized that Indian terrorists moved across the open border.

The cabinet meeting to tighten the security at main points in the capital indicates that the government has at last realized the need to improve security arrangements. The Maoists are going to hold their mass meeting next week. They have done enough harm to this country already, and the government must take the forthcoming Maoist meeting seriously. The Maoists have been doing what was not agreed upon with the government at the time of the ceasefire. They have terrorised and killed innocent people and destroyed public property. If the government does not tighten the security, the situation may further deteriorate. It is high time the government realised the need to improve security and maintain law and order.

Critical observations on land reform bill

By Sanjay Prakash

The government has registered a bill in parliament to reduce ceiling on land ownership, while withdrawing a fiat to freeze the sale and transfer of land nationwide. The bill has endorsed the recommendation of the ruling Nepali Congress Party central committee’s decision to reduce ceiling on land ownership. According to the Bill, one family can hold 11 bighas (6.9 hectares) in terais, 30 ropanis (1.1 hectares) in Kathmandu Valley and 75 ropanis (3.4 hectares) in hills.

Prime Minister Deuba has definitely opened the Pandora’s box. He has invited wrath from various quarters indeed. This means that he will have to fight with different forces, both seen and unseen, on various fronts. Deuba all of a sudden created ripples in the, otherwise, peaceful atmosphere in terai plains when he through his "revolutionary" steps, supposedly to bring into effect a new ceiling on land ownership. This has worried the land owning class in the Terai plains.

The land reform programme might sound attractive, but what implications it has on the common mass or the middle class of the nation? In democracy do we not have a right to property? Is land a property or not? How much land is enough for one person or family, and who decides it? Are those who have been depending on land and do not have other skills to diversify to other sectors, or do not have the needed cash for it to be penalized simply because they have a few more bighas of land than others? If one industrialist can own hundreds of industry and employ thousands of labour and he is called ‘owner’, then why owner of a few bighas cannot employ peasants to cultivate the land?

The constitution of Nepal gives right to all Nepalis to earn and buy property in Nepal. But the government is mean to the common people who are making a hand to mouth living, while other so-called big industrialists borrow money from Nepali banks, raise shares from Nepali public, live a lavish life and eventually take all the money back to somewhere they feel they are more loyal. And they are the ones described as more nationalists by our politicians. How can a man with a pair of stitched slippers in 12 years can become a millionaire or billionaire and still can be more reformist? Are they willing to part with their property in the name of poor public? Will the few hundred rich part with their excess wealth for the sake of the poor? What compensations have the government planned to give to those owners whose land may be nationalized? What rate are they going to pay? Will their rate be very low to that of bank rate or municipality or VDC rate? Which rate should we call genuine? Are all landowners shoshak and samanti? Are we not trying to create another Maoist group by forfeiting people’s property? Is Nepal so unique that the definition of democracy is different from that of other developed countries of the world?

The recent press clipping by the Maoist supported media says that Nepal, a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country is predominantly a feudal economy with about 88% of the total population living in rural areas and about 81% of the population engaged in agricultural sector, with agriculture holding 42% of the total GNP of the country. The feudal land relation can be judged by the fact that 65% of poor peasants own only 10% of land while 10% of rich peasants and landlords own 65% of land. This is reinforced with gender-biasness in the production relations between men and women, as the latter are barred from inheriting their parental property. In fact about 8% of total population owned more than 55% of productive land and more 50% of population have only about 8% of land.

The land-reform programme in Nepal that started with the Land Reform Act of 1964 has yet to reach the point where it can make a substantial contribution to the growth and development of the economy as a whole. Obstacles to land reform are, to a great extent, those that inhibit agricultural and rural development. Much of the problems in the beginning in Nepal are related with unscientific survey of land, its classification, recognition of tenancy claims, landlessness, and so on.

In this context, Prime Minister Deuba’s move should start a process that is long overdue and call for sincere endeavours. But are the perceived beneficiaries the citizens of Nepal, or all those from Nepal’s neighbourhood for which Nepal has become a comfortable residential sanctuary? Then, what is the limit of the problem? Likewise, the concept of land to the tiller looks like a viable political concept, but it is not necessarily a complete solution to the problem of mass poverty in the country. It is the traders, unscrupulous industrialists, foreigners, and the politicians who have contributed more to the problem of poverty in this country than the landlords of hills and terais.

Land fragmentation is considered one of the structural problems inhibiting agricultural modernization. Because of the scattered nature of farm parcels, and in many instances, due to their economically nonviable size, farmers are barred from adopting productivity enhancing technologies that are otherwise readily available to them. The case of shallow tube wells is one example. If a farmer has a piece of land just enough for irrigation with a shallow tube well, he will be attracted to install such a tube well. However, if that land is fragmented into four parts and scattered over four different places, that attraction will fade away. This is exactly the situation at present. Land fragmentation has its roots in the traditional Hindu law of succession whereby all the male offsprings are entitled to the parental property, including land.

The combination of existing legal provisions concerning inheritance and the existing ceiling on land ownership would imply an increasing fragmentation and sub-division of land holdings as the society moves from one generation to another. In 1995, the government formed a "High Level Land Reform Commission" in order to study thoroughly the land issues and suggest corrective measures to the government. However, no follow up actions were initiated by successive governments.

To sum up, the new land reform measures have created both opportunities and challenges.

Way with words

By Nitya N Timsina

Some words are explosive, some words are for household remarks or statement. But some words and phrases are like a dynamite capable of destroying everything. They are equally capable of changing the direction of history, or ruining one’s business forever.

While some properly worded phrases and words, coming from the mouths of clerks, have increased sales at departmental stores, others woven into songs have touched the hearts of many "Boyzone" or Brian Adams’ fans. Yet, some tend to remain truly the tools of thought, that refuse to die from the memory. And if you try to think without them, you cannot.

This gives one an impression that the discovery of words and phrases is not made by theoretical English performers but by practical, hard-headed scholars who have carefully woven them to cause a bigger impact.

How important words and phrases spoken in the not so distant past have clearly faded, while some seemingly irrelevant words keep flooding back to our memory, and as stimulating as ever.

I still remember a trivial incident here a shopkeeper, lacking command over words, lost his business. I was looking for a diary at a stationary shop to record my private accounts of life.

"Do you keep a diary?" I asked an elderly gentleman sprawled on a chair. "Yes, I have desk dairy, calendar diary, appointment diary, which one will you purchase?" he asked quite sarcastically.

I was fascinated by a calendar diary which, I hoped, would serve all my purpose and I had always wanted one like that. But I had not imagined that a mere calendar diary would stun me by its mind-boggling price.

In the next moment as I begun negotiating for price, I found myself caught up a row, and the fellow shopkeeper astonished me by of his witless words and lack of expertise in business policy.

"I would at the most pay you Rs 50," I said. "You have no obligation to buy it," he said. "Of course! But...but...I like it," I persisted. "I repeat you have no obligation ... I mean it...", he continued, "This is no goat. This is neither hen...mind it," he looked uncompromising, shattering my dreams and fancy over the cute little diary.

I was lost for words. And I certainly knew that it was not a hen or goat I was bargaining for, nor was it a great deal, but only a diary I was longing to posses.

An extraordinary day has an extraordinary event. When I revisited it some four years later, I found the stationary shop had closed down . The once blooming store was taken over by a thriving grocery, and a sober, big bellied Marwari with a never-fading smile in his lips sprawled on the old mahogany chair, and easily attracted many customers.

Though the reason behind his successful business is clear, the phrase "be sweet to customers" is largely misunderstood by some Nepalese businesspersons whose happiness lies in possessing just more and more money at the cost of hurting customers. A way with words is a lesson yet to be taught here.

Time to study Nepalese glaciers

By Dr Rijan Bhakta Kayastha

Nepal possesses substantial reservoirs of water stored in the form of snow and glacier ice. The main water discharge systems such as the Sapta Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali originate in the Himalayas and are fed by meltwater from snow and glacier ice. These three river basins have 850, 510 and 460 km2 in area, respectively, of perennial snow and ice within Nepalese territory. In addition, river systems comprising 800 km2 area of perennial snow and ice in the Tibetan region enter Nepal. Since rainwater is directly discharged through river channels in a relatively short period, the meltwater from glaciers contributes significantly to the base flow even in the dry season. This flow is very important for planning and management of water resources for hydropower generation, irrigation, industry and drinking.

A glacier is a huge body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface. Glaciers develop in regions where the amount of the total depositing mass of snow exceeds the total mass of snow melting in polar and high mountain regions. If the climate were to remain constant for a longer period, the size and shape of the glaciers would never change. A glacier sometimes changes size and shape due to climatic change. A glacier would advance further down and expand with the climate changing to a cool summer and heavy snowfall in winter and in the monsoon season. A glacier would retreat or become small with the climate changing to a warmer summer and less snowfall. Nepalese glaciers receive considerable amount of snowfall in the summer monsoon, and hence are called summer-accumulation type. This is a typical characteristic of Nepalese glaciers compared to glaciers in the European Alps and other regions where accumulation occurs mainly in winter.

Since most Nepalese rivers originate in the Himalayas and are fed by meltwater from snow and glacier ice, it is very important to have basic information regarding glacier melting for the proper utilization of water resources. It is very difficult to measure snow and ice melting directly on a glacier due to the remoteness and rugged terrain of glaciers in the Himalayas. Therefore, I have developed an energy balance model by which one can calculate glacier melting from the meteorological (air temperature, radiation, relative humidity, wind speed and cloud amount) and surface parameters (albedo and density) of the glacier. However, the collection of necessary data to calculate glacier melt using the energy balance model is very difficult on remote Himalayan glaciers. Therefore, estimation of glacier melting is done using the positive degree-day method for which air temperature data is enough.

It was found that about 8 mm (kg/m2) meltwater is produced by melting snow per degree centigrade air temperature per day and about 9 mm meltwater by melting glacier ice per degree centigrade per day during the period from June to August at an altitude 5100 m above sea level in the Shorong Himal, east Nepal. Similarly, in the Langtang region the value ranges from 8 mm to 11 mm by melting ice per degree centigrade per day at an altitude of 5200 m above sea level. These melt rates are higher compared to glaciers in the European Alps mainly due to strong solar radiation in the Himalayas. Keeping in mind the importance of solar radiation in the Himalayas, an empirical relation is also established to calculate melting ice, using solar radiation and air temperature.

Melt rates differ once the surface of the glacier is covered with debris (aggregate of rock, gravel, sand, soil etc). Short term research data on the Everest Base Camp (5350 m) in May 1999 revealed that about 17 mm of meltwater was produced per day per degree centigrade from clean glacier ice but only about 11 mm meltwater under a 10 cm thick debris layer.

Since most of the above results are based on short-term research data, it is very important to initiate collection of glaciological and meteorological data in the vicinity of glaciers in the major water project basins. In general, long-term river flow data is taken into account while designing water projects. However, the time has come to study glaciers upstream of major water projects such as the Melamchi Drinking Water Project and other hydropower plants in order to make possible changes in meltwater production because glaciers are melting fast and many small glaciers are disappearing in a few decades. For example, the lowest end of the Rikha Samba glacier in Hidden Valley, Mukut Himal, in west Nepal has retreated by about 300 m between 1974 to 1999.

It is confirmed by long-term surface air temperature data collected at the various stations of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology that atmospheric warming is continuing in Nepal, and the trend is higher in high altitude regions (North: from 0.06 to 0.12 oC per year) than in low altitude regions (South: less than 0.03 oC per year). Such warming enhances glacier melting which reduces the area of the glacier. And such continuous reduction in glacier area will further increase the shortage of meltwater in snow-fed rivers during low flow periods. This is the main reason, compounded by zero precipitation, for the recent shortage of water in many snow-fed rivers which reduces water level at hydropower dams such as Kulekhani, forcing the Nepal Electricity Authority to cut power for a few weeks in the dry period. Although the necessity of power cuts may not reappear due to the supply of electricity from other power plants, it is still important to know the possible changes in meltwater supply in the snow-fed rivers to make the power plants economically sound.

Fast glacier retreating and disappearing is occurring not only in the Himalayas but also in other parts of the world. American scientists report that many glaciers and ice caps atop mountains in Africa and South America will probably melt within the next 15 years because of rise in temperature. At least one-third of the massive ice field atop the Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has disappeared, or melted out, in the last dozen years. Also in Pakistan there was a severe drought in the area of the Thar and parts of Balochstan and a severe water shortage in other parts of the country in recent years. So, the government of Pakistan has taken a decision to overcome the water crises by quickly melting the glaciers, and directed its scientists to examine the option of charcoal spray on Himalayan glaciers in the northern part.

Whether charcoal sprays over glaciers help overcome water shortages in Pakistan, one cannot ignore such a situation here because Nepal is also experiencing frequent water shortages during the dry period. Nepal has to adopt proper water policies, giving due consideration to meltwater production
and climatic changes.