Strict traffic rules a must to curb road accidents

By Suvecha Pant

KATHMANDU, April 4:The number of vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley is increasing day by day. The roads are becoming smaller and the totality of traffic bigger.

While on the one hand, the traffic hazard and environment risk have increased, the lack of proper system to control this ever-expanding traffic cannot be ignored.

One has to leave only the boundaries of home to start encountering numerous problems on the roads. Just take a walk down the neighbourhood and a long list of violations of traffic rules and regulations can be detected.

Why is this so? Before a driver is able to drive a vehicle, doesn’t he have to get a licence? In addition, isn’t this licence meant to ensure capable drivers? What about a traffic rule-monitoring policy ?

To give some answers to these questions a senior officer at the Valley Traffic Police Office, Ghataghar said, "We take a written and a practical driving test under strict surveillance. Although a demonstration of driving skills is essential, the assessment is also made to examine the attitude of the licence-seeker to driving, his outlook towards fellow drivers so as to ensure safety of the pedestrians."

"The tests range from an understanding of major controls of a vehicle, completing certain manoeuvres, driving in a busy traffic, observation skills and dealing with hazards," said the senior officer

Well after examining the list of rules that is issued by the traffic centre to the want-to-be drivers, it seems many rules are left out to be learned by the drivers on their own. Perhaps, this could be one of the reasons why drivers tend to create problems in roads even after getting a licence from the concerned authority.

"Despite the implementation of strict laws while issuing a licence, it is the negligence of the drivers that causes serious problems on the roads," said a traffic police.

A pedestrian was about to cross the street from the zebra crossing at Ratnapark. On being asked to the pedestrian, what he would do if a vehicle was approaching him, his response was "I will have to out-run the car in this case."

Asked about the zebra-crossing mark on the street, a tempo driver retorted, "How do I know? It may have been marked that way to make the street beautiful!"

If one knows a little about traffic rules, he should understand that any vehicle has to stop before the zebra crossing to give way to the pedestrian first who may have already entered the zone by then.

Another rule that was found to be alien to drivers was the use of driving signal or blinkers. According to traffic rules, the driver should always use it to indicate to other drivers when he intends to diverge on the left or on the right, to make a U-turn or to slow down and suddenly stop.

"We do this by the means of hand or arm," said a taxi driver. This is,however, very dangerous as the person could be seriously injured by an approaching fast vehicle.

After enquiring many vehicle drivers, it is also revealed that another headache in the city are motorbike riders. They are one of the most annoying causes for traffic jams in the streets.

"The way they drive at a high speed through small spaces in between other vehicles can lead to serious accidents in the streets," said microbus driver Arun Chhettri.

Bidya Shrestha, a car-owner said, "I believe that current traffic rules in the Kathmandu Valley are being violated by reckless drivers," adding "They seem to lack the knowledge on how to maintain a safe and peaceful system for driving and the valley traffic police should see to it."

It seems the traffic problem in the Kathmandu Valley is never going to end. Nevertheless,as a token of reassurance, the Valley Traffic Police Office says they are trying their best to improve the situation.

The primary causes of road accidents are inattention, confusion, negligence, speed and drunken driving. However, we can contribute enormously to reduce ever-increasing traffic problems in Kathmandu by safe and attentive driving.

Clean-up expedition to Everest leaves for base camp today

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KATHMANDU, April 4:From almost 8,000 metres high, a team of 36 people will be bringing down to the Everest base camp, a garbage load of approximately 1.5 tonnes.

The team led by Ken Noguchi, 28, the youngest person ever to scale the highest peaks on the world’s seven continents, is leaving for the base camp tomorrow in an expedition to clean up the South Col of Mount Everest. In a press conference held today, the team said that they will be trekking from the Nepal side this time and have a mission to clean up the area between 5,360 metres to 7,900 metres of Mount Lhotse.

The mission of the "Noguchi’s South Col. Cleaning Expedition - 2002" is to collect garbage such as cans, debris of beer bottles and oxygen cylinders and other various types of trash. Speaking at the conference, Noguchi said that they have estimated the load carrying capacity of one person to maximum 20 kilograms.

Out of the garbage brought down from the South Col, Noguchi plans to re-export 70 percent of them to Japan and Korea to put up an exhibition of the garbage, "so that people see for themselves as to how they are littering the beautiful Everest," he said. He recalls that earlier he had taken file photos and video recordings of the garbage in the Everest region but such mode of creating awareness has proved to be unsuccessful.

Currently, the garbage collected along the routes to Everest from both sides of Nepal and Tibet accounts to 1000 tonnes, Noguchi quoted the experts who have conducted such researches. But comparing the two routes, he said that Nepal side is a bit cleaner due to some developments in sanitation there.

Even when the expedition takes them almost to the peak, Noguchi said that they would not climb the peak after the clean up, as they will be physically worn out by then. According to him, a clean-up expedition is much more difficult and tiring than climbing the peak and they have not taken the permission to climb the peak altogether as royalty they have to pay will then be too high.

With a total budget of US $ 400,000, the team includes three Japanese, three Koreans, two Georgians, twenty Sherpa climbers and six technical staff for the clean up expedition of almost five weeks.

Noguchi had earlier conducted similar cleaning expeditions in the year 2000 and 2001 from the Tibet side and later also at Mt Fuji,Japan in 2001.

German school’s unique concept helps disabled in Nepal

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KATHMANDU, April 4:Every one kilometre of run is worth one Mark. This is how the people in the German City of Lindwedel raised money for a social cause, that too to utilise in Nepal.

Grundschule, a school in Lundwedel, recently organised a charity race near the school premises, in which 135 students of the school ran around the village of Lundwedel. And the parents of the students paid one Mark for every kilometre their children ran. After a day’s programme, the school managed to raise 15,392.40 German Mark (Approximately Rs. 600,000).

Though the concept of this charity race was of retired German teacher Christa Haeuser, teachers at Grundschule, Hundsdorfer Rahn and Zillner, organised the race.

A part of this amount has now been given to the Early Rehabilitation Centre, a Nepali non-governmental organisation working in Lalitpur district. About 1,000 Mark worth of equipment have already been handed over to the Centre.

Remaining part of the money will be spent to support the underprivileged disabled students in Nepal. One of those getting the much needed support is Raju Tamang who is presently studying at Namuna Machhindra High School in Lalitpur. This nine-year-old boy from Budhanilkantha village is blind since six years of age. He had lost the eyesight after he fell down from a tree.

After couple of years in the school, Tamang left the school due to the lack of sponsor. Now that Grundschule has decided to take up his fees. Tamang would once again be able to continue his studies.

Maoist rebels continue destroying public property

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KATHMANDU, April 4:Outlawed Maoist rebels have continued targeting government facilities, development infrastructure and VDC offices destroying millions of rupees worth of public property over the last few weeks, according to reports received here from across the country.

In a series of fresh attacks, the rebels on Wednesday night destroyed worth millions rupees of public property after bombing a Neulapur-based branch office of Agriculture Development Bank in Bardiya, our reporter quoted the concerned officials as saying.

Bank Manager Sagar Chandra Joshi said that the nine-roomed, two storey-building was shattered by "bucket" bombs. He said the rebels destroyed the bank office in the absence of security guards. Security guards did not use to stay there during night hours for fear of their lives. The rebels also set afire two motorbikes of the bank, Joshi said. Details of the property damaged on the blasts were still to be assessed.

Local authorities estimate that the rebels have destroyed public property worth over Rs 50 million for the last weekend in Bardiya. The rebels have so far burnt down 15 VDC offices, two offices of irrigation projects, and blasted bombs in three bridges of the district over the weekend.

Our reporter in Palpa said that the four buildings of Road Division at Jhumsa, about 35-km south of Tansen, the district headquarters, were destroyed when a group of rebels doused them with petrol and set them on fire.

In Ramechhap, officials of the Road Division have handed over two bulldozers to the security personnel for security reasons after the rebels destroyed two others a few days ago. These bulldozers had been used to construct rural roads in the district.

Our reporter in Jhapa said that around 50,000 people of the southern seven VDCs have been disconnected with the district headquarters of Bhadrapur after the rebels on Wednesday destroyed a wooden-bridge over Deuniya River. Traffic movement to-and-from the VDCs have been suspended for indefinite period, police said.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry today said that the security forces on Wednesday confiscated foodstuff worth Rs 31,000 and stationary hidden by the rebels in Thulo Gaon area of Rolpa district, and distributed them to the local poor and school children.

The Ministry said that the security forces yesterday airlifted a 12-year old boy to the capital for treatment at the Birendra Military Hospital on humanitarian ground from Dolakha. Parents of the boy, Dhan Bahadur Tamang, whose one of the legs was fractured after falling off a tree, could not rush him to Kathmandu as the rebels had blocked the Araniko Highway at Sukute.

The security forces, in co-operation with the people of Rumjatar of Okhaldhunga district, yesterday repaired pipelines of drinking water that were chopped off by the rebels a few days ago.

People of Rumjatar were reeling under acute shortage of water after the rebels destroyed the water supply at a time when hundreds of students had gathered there to appear for this year’s SLC examinations.

The Ministry further added that the security personnel dismantled a waiting shed built by the rebels at Gam Gaon yesterday. Roof of the waiting shed was built by looting corrugated sheets of a local school under construction. The security forces gave the sheets back to the school. Bomb disposal squads of the security forces also defused bombs planted by the rebels underneath a culvert in Panauti road, and the other one in the premises of a higher secondary school in Thimi, Bhaktapur.

Famous Manakamana temple of east awaits renovation

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KHANDBARI, April 4:A master plan designed to develop the famous Manakamana temple at Khandbari municipality-12 in Sankhuwasabha district, as a primary centre for pilgrimage in the eastern part of the country, has not materialised as yet, owing to budget constraints, said sources here.

The temple is situated on the banks of Arun river, and the folk song Wari jamuna pari jamuna, jumana ko tirai ma Manakamana, that has hit the music market a few time back refers to the same temple. The temple draws a considerable number of devotees from the neighbouring districts of Bhojpur, Taplejung, Terhathum, Dhankuta and others during the famous Maha Ekadashi festival.

With a view to developing the site of the temple as an important religious and tourist hub, some intellectuals in the district and those in Kathmandu had formed a committee to design a master plan for the development of the temple in 1999.

As per the master plan, the District Administration Office (DAO) in the district had also raised Rs. 400,000 in 2000 and handed over the amount to the committee. DAO collected the amount from the donation of the people acquiring passports. However, nothing has been accomplished on this issue as yet.

"We have received money from the DAO but we are not sure as to how to go ahead with this meager sum of money," Saroj Kumar Bajracharya, the Chairman of the committee said. "The committee’s account has only that sum of money."

According to Bajracharya, the committee has a grand plan of renovating the temple and constructing a praying hall, an orphanage home, rest house, latrines, garden, a police post and a health post within the temple’s premises. The committee also presented the projects worth more than 10 millions rupees.

Khandbari municipality had launched a promotional programme, ‘Manakamana Festival-2058’ four months ago, on the site of the temple, so as to enhance its religious and touristic values. The deity to whom the temple is devoted is said to be the younger sister of famous Goddess Manakamana of Gorkha district.

Locals running an orphanage

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SYANGJA, April 4:An orphanage in the district is taking care of eight helpless children through help extended by the locals. At present the orphanage is fostering eight children providing all the basic needs of education, health and other necessary requirements.

An interesting feature with the orphanage is that it does not receive any sort of assistance from the government and is managed by aid availed by the locals. In order to run the orphanage, the local families collect a fist-full of grain daily and hand it over to the orphanage.

However, the orphanage was set up in the beginning with 1.2 million rupees that was raised by organising a ‘Shrimadbhagabat Saptaha,’ a sacred religious ceremony, last year at Syangja bazaar.

The children in the care of the orphanage are attending school and will be provided for up to the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) level education and after this, they will be given skill generating training, according to Bharat Dhakal who is associated with the orphanage.

The orphanage at present is situated in a rented house and around seven ropanis of land was bought at Putalibazaar municipality-5 to construct an orphanage building in the future. "The orphanage shall have its own building in the coming year," Narayan Poudel, co-ordinator of the orphanage said.

Row over electricity in Birgunj

By Gopal Devekota

BIRGUNJ, April 4:A strange case has occurred in Birgunj of Parsa district where a responsible body was found committing a sort of crime that could be serious, despite cautioning people against immoral acts. Following the charges made by the sources at Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) branch office at Birgunj to the Birgunj sub-metropolis to have enjoyed the electricity facilities without its permission, a row has surfaced between these two bodies.

The sources at NEA branch office have revealed that a sort of game is going on between themselves and the sub-metropolis. While NEA cuts the electric supply to the Musical Fountain and to constructions of the sub-metropolis, the latter is found to be connecting the electricity time and again without the permission of NEA.

"As the electricity charges are not cleared, we disconnect the electricity supply but soon after the sub-metropolis reconnects the supply through illegal means," Baijanath Sharma, Manager at the branch office of NEA said. "What is the public expected to do when the one that has to set an example is itself on the wrong track?"

According to the sources at NEA, the sub-municipality has dues amounting to Rs. 4,00,000 to the NEA as electricity charges.

When contacted, Bimal Shribastab, Mayor at the sub-metropolis said that he was unknown to the case. However, sources at the sub-metropolis say that it had handed over the musical fountain on lease to a contractor and that the contractor had fled without clearing off the electricity charges.

In recollecting the past, the District Development Committee in the district, had committed the same mistake and had ceased to continue the illegal use of electricity, after news on the case was carried out by the Kantipur Daily last year.