RA’s sorry state leaves airhostesses grounded at home

By Ranjana Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Sept 23 – The job of an airhostess looks very glamorous from far, till you ask a crew about the actual depth of the profession. "The last thing I’d want my daughter to be, when she grows up, is an airhostess,"says this airhostess in the Royal Nepal Airlines, who has been flying for the last 12 years.

This clearly shows the frustration prevalent among the airhostesses presently working in the national flag career. Especially from the crew’s point of view, there are very few positive aspects in the profession, which make one happy.

Only few years ago, the number of young girls aspiring to become hostesses in the RNAC used to be remarkably high as it was the only option available some nine years ago.

With wide range of destinations and exclusive fleet of aircraft, the national flag career was indeed the best airlines. And above all, people travelling on the airlines too used to appreciate the service rendered during the flight. Hence, those working in the airline were satisfied to a great extent.

But the reality is different now. The airline, which used to own four Boeings then, is left with only two aircraft now. And to make the matter worse, one of the aircraft is grounded most of the time. "It is hard to believe that an airline can operate with just one aircraft," one of the RA officials said.

The airline that used to cover 12 destinations till a couple of month back is now flying only to six destinations. This situation has affected the flight crew as well.

The cabin crew strength was 155 about year ago before 26 more were recruited. But the increase in the crew has not brought the increase in number of aircraft. So, eventually it is the cabin crew who has to face the consequences as their earnings depend largely on the flight hours. "We used to fly for at least 110 to 115 hours in a month but now it has been reduced to hardly 60 hours," says a crew who has been "tired sitting at home" with not much work.

These hostesses get meager amount as the monthly salary and have to depend totally on the flight hours as they get paid extra for every hour spent on air. "When we get only four flights a month, we won’t have enough earning to support our families,"says an airhostess, requesting anonymity.

"Nowadays, we do not even get paid for our standby duties like we used to get before," she complains. When they protested against the new rule, the airline officials flatly answered to "stay home instead of coming to the airport for standby duties."

But the complaints raised by the cabin crew are not surprising as the airlines itself is in a bad financial state. One of the hostesses told The Kathmandu Post that in-flight services too have dwindled in the last few months. "Sometimes there is no coke uplifted and sometimes the number of blankets is only a dozen when the pax load is 190," says an airhostess.

Even the association, formed with the view to safeguard their interests, has given a deaf ear to their problems. "They exist only in the name these days," the airhostesses say. "Otherwise, our conditions would not have been this way."

The airline has also decreased the number of staff during the flights. "Though we have more staff than before, we don’t get to fly with sufficient crew as the officials say that they cannot afford to pay them," adds another airhostess. This has left many of those flying on air grounded at their homes.

Kirats requested not to use cement for tombs

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KATHMANDU, Sept 23 - The central committee of Kirat Rai Yayokkha (KRY) has requested the Kirat community not to use cement while making tombs for the dead persons on its fifth full meeting, the official said.

"We have been making the tombs since time immemorial but along the pace of development, we have started useing cement and iron rods to make tumbs in the jungles. This has created problems in environment conservation," the organisation said.

A press relese issued on Saturday states that the Kirats are by origin worshippers of the nature and from that angle too, it is our duty to safeguard nature and help stop its deterioration.

Along with this, the making of concrete tomb is expensive and it raises economic problem among the poor Kiratis. "We want to respect our ancestors and at the same time we don’t want our future generation to suffer from our mistakes."

The organisation has suggested all to use the money, presently being used unnecessary for making cement tombs, to grow trees, make rest houses or tree sheds instead or fund for scholarships in the name of the deceased persons. The meeting was chaired by the central chairman Kul Bahadur Rai.

Eight budding artists display their works

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KATHMANDU, Sept 23 – Eight enthusiastic and promising students of the Fine Arts College have joined hands to exhibit their creations.

Their joint exhibition of paintings, entitled "Initial Paces," began here today at the Nepal Art Council, Babermahal.

"The Viewers" group comprises eight budding artists Aarya Rajbhandari, Anjan Shrestha, Bibhushan Tamrakar, Binod Dhungel, Macharaja Maharjan, Samundra Man Singh Shrestha, Sangita Udas and Sujata Maharjan.

The country’s most reputed comedian Madan Krishna Shrestha inaugurated the exhibition by painting a picture of himself and his partner Hari Bangsa Acharya on the canvas.

Madan Krishna stressed on the non-existence of market for art in the country. "To portray the beauty of Nepali art and culture, the paintings must reach the market worldwide where hundreds of Nepali buyers would be available," he said.

The exhibition consisted of almost a hundred paintings compiled by the artists amongst which were also the paintings of late King Birendra and late Princess Shruti. The paintings displayed at the exhibition portrayed the Nepali traditional and historical dances, festivals and also the Newari females clad in Haku Patasi, black sari with a red border. All the paintings are oil, water and acrylic done on Nepali handmade paper.

Most of the paintings dealt with various sites and idols related to the Hindu mythology.

The basic concept of this exhibition is to introduce the talents of the country’s upcoming stars, Krishna Lal Manandhar, principal of Lalit Kala Campus. "The exhibition was also organised for a good social cause."

According to Sujata Maharjan, one of the eight artists, "Twenty percent of the fund raised from the exhibition will go to Maiti Nepal, an organisation working for the benefit of the underprivileged females of Nepal."

The exhibition will continue at the Nepal Art Council gallery till September 29.

'Maoists falsely presented Siliguri meet'

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DHARAN, Sept 23 – Leader of the opposition and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) today accused the Maoists of falsely presenting his meeting with the Maoist leadership in Siliguri in India.

The General Secretary also clarified that it was not the Maoists who had arranged the meeting in the town in the West Bengal state, but it was leftist Unity Centre party that had organised the secret meet.

The UML leader said only two topics were discussed – the republic and the Maoists’ terror all over the country. He added that he had rejected the demand for republic. "The Maoists have indulged in my character assassination regarding the meeting," he remarked, without elaborating.

The Siliguri meet took place on August 15.

He was speaking in an orientation programme for the district-level party workers from the six districts of the Koshi Zone.

"The Maoists say that they can do anything they like. If they do not improve, the situation can be very grave and suicidal and the country would become another Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina," said Nepal.

2,300 hectares of forest land encroached

By Prabhakar Ghimire

CHITWAN, Sept 23 - Around 3,500 families have built their houses encroaching upon around 2,300 hectares of rain forest in this plain district due to the liberal attitudes of the political parties towards the so-called landless squatters, according to the District Forest Office in Chitwan.

The so-called landless squatters have also encroached upon the prime locations of the Bharatpur Municipality and remote parts of the district, which is a home to the endangered wildlife. Officials at the District Forest Office said that forest encroachment is on the rise as none of the political parties would like to take a risk of antagonising the forest encroachers, who are the vote banks for their party politics.

According to the statistics made available by the District Forest Office the encroachers have occupied around 30 hectares of forest land in Jutpani area, 142 hectares in Shaktikhor area, 60 hectares in Bharatpur Municipality, 250 hectares in Gadyauli, 243 in Amilopani, and 1,138 hectares in Korak area.

"Extreme level of poverty and political protection to the forest encroachers are the major causes behind declining the rain forests in the Terai region," said District Forest Officer Madhav Acharya. He added that the forest encroachers could not be removed from the occupied areas unless the political parties were ready to do so.

Acharya said that not all the people occupying the prime locations near the highways are landless squatters. Most of the people who have occupied forest land at Anptari, Ganesthan and Devghat areas of the municipality also possess land elsewhere. "Can we call them squatters who erect three storied concrete buildings in the forest area?" Acharya questions. He also revealed that the so-called squatters make clandestine transactions of the government land on their own understanding without having legal status.

The forest office has been given the right to evacuate people from the occupied forest area but the government has a policy of keeping them there until the next arrangement is made for their rehabilitation. "There is correlation between the forest Act and the government’s policy," Acharya said, adding that the so-called landless squatters at Manhari had to be compensated before the Royal Nepal Army established its barracks by evacuating them from the occupied area.

Convicts threaten with death to bereaved family

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BUTWAL, Sept 23 - The bereaved family members of a deceased youth are worried about the safety of their lives after the murderers gave death threats to them from a hideout over telephone. The two persons whom the Appellate Court in Lalitpur sentenced life imprisonment had fled from the court premises.

The two accused named as Keshav Nepal from Mainadi VDC, Palpa and Krishna Rana from Dhading were sentenced for life imprisonment on charges of killing Jyoti Nepal, a relative of the deceased from Mainadi VDC, about five years ago in Bhaktapur. The Appellate Court found them guilty of murdering Jyoti Nepal in Dadhikot VDC in Bhaktapur. Earlier, both the accused had been acquitted from the charges by the Bhaktapur District Court.

Organising a press conference here on Sunday, elder brother of the deceased, Chhabi Nepal, who is also an assistant headmaster of the local Kalika high school, said that the accused threatened him over telephone for bringing the case to the Appellate Court. The third accomplice Kamal Basyal from Barangdi VDC in Palpa, however, is serving his jail term.

A 13-year-old boy, Deepak Sharan Jangam, from Dadhikot VDC, had helped the police for identifying the culprits. The Nepal Police has honoured the boy with a Helpful Prize for giving information to the police in arresting the criminals.

Landslide leaves 150 families homeless

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MANTHALI (Ramechhap), Sept 23 - Around 150 families from the Keureni VDC of this hill district have abandoned their houses due to a huge landslide that has engulfed the entire area over the last eight years, a report here said.

According to a local, Durga Bahadur Shrestha, people have left their village to safety places when the mountain started sliding right below their village. He said that 65 other families have already left the area for fear of their safety. There are still about 20 families risking their lives as they have no other option than to see their houses being crumbled away.

Shrestha said all the homeless families have resorted to porters to sustain their family members since their lands were swept through the landslide. The victims said that they received no assistance from the government over the last eight years and they cannot own any piece of land in other areas.

"We requested all the government bodies for our rehabilitation but they turned a deaf ear to our plights," said Shrestha, who is also one of the landslide victims. The experts from the Department of Soil Conservation, after inspecting the loose mountain, had submitted their report, saying that the landslide was beyond the control of modern technology.