NC in favour of lifting emergency

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KATHMANDU, Feb 3: Leaders of different political parties today said that effective role of media could resolve the present "fluid situation" of the country.

Spokesperson of the ruling Nepali Congress, Arjun Narsingh K.C. said that both the electronic and print media could play a significant role in resolving the present crisis. "Our party has been pressurising the government to allow the media to work independently," said K.C. at an interaction programme held today on "Role of media during emergency".

K.C also said that his party would not remain silent if atrocities were committed against the innocent civilians in the name of emergency.

Former Minister K.C. said that ruling party was in favour of lifting the emergency soon. "Emergency will be lifted as soon as objectives are fulfilled."

Speaking on the same programme, standing committee member of the main opposition (CPN-UML), Bharat Mohan Adhikari said that media should be allowed to work independently so that the real picture was portrayed.

"Our party has repeatedly urged the government to allow the media to work independently," said Adhikari.

Adhikari said that government was not serious regarding the objective of the emergency. "Even after two months of emergency, the peace has not been restored in the country," said Adhikari.

Former Finance Minister, Adhikari also highlighted the impact of emergency on economic front. "Closure of industries during emergency has only aggravate the problems of employment."

Similarly, addressing the programme Pashupati SJB Rana, General secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) said that army should not be discouraged in such critical situation.

However, he also said that government should relay the authentic information to both the electronic and print media." Misleading news from the government will not help in quelling the Maoist movement," said Rana.

Left parties meet

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KATHMANDU, Feb 3: Leaders of 13 left parties including the main opposition CPN-UML today met and assessed the country’s current political situation developed after the imposition of the state of emergency two months ago.

According to a press release issued here today, the left leaders during the meeting that was called by the UML expressed their concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation of the country and committed to forge a left alliance to fight the existing political anomalies.

Some of the major topics discussed in the meeting are massive arrest of journalists, violation of press freedom, Maoist violence and law and order situation, the release said.

The leaders present in the meeting were officiating general secretary of CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli; UML leaders Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Amrit Bohara and Raghu Pant; Trilochan Dhakal of CPN-ML; Jogmehar Shrestha and Khem Raj Pandit of Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

Others in the meeting were representatives of CPN (United), CPN (Marxist), CPN (MLM), United People’s Front, Hariyali Party, National People’s Front, Nepal Pragya Parishad, CPN (Mashal) and CPN (Unity Centre).

Cultural city Bhaktapurto wear a new face

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BHAKTAPUR, Feb 3: The smallest district of the country, Bhaktapur, is now coming up with a unique name.

The ancient city of Bhaktapur is now to emerge as a Cultural City, with all renovated temples, rich traditional dances and clear streets.

"Bhaktapur Municipality is proceeding on this path," said Mayor Prem Suwal. "We are working on to develop Bhaktapur as tourism destination by conserving the base of a Cultural City, the art, architectures, language and culture."

Bhaktapur Municipality is now on the mission to produce one graduate from one house at least from the city area in the coming 15 years.

According to the data made available by Suwal, around 80 percent of the citizen are literate and in some wards there are one SLC holders in one house. Over 2000 students appear in the SLC examination.

Suwal has urged the government to handover the right to management of public schools to the municipalities.

"We are providing necessary assistance to traditional dances and drums contests and Dafa troupes. At the same time we renovate temples, sattals, monasteries, wells, stone water spouts and ponds with priority every year. In the same way we also help schools with making of toilets, furniture and school buildings as well," Suwal said.

From the fiscal year 2049/50 to 2057/58, Bhaktapur Municipality have renovated 49 temples, 91 sattal pati, 35 stone water spouts, 50 wells, 27 ponds, 4 bridges. The municipality spent Rs 107 million for the projects and it also received wide support worth Rs 9.5 million. for that.

Parliamentarian Narayan Man Bijukchhe said that the aims of the local authority would meet if all, including the government help it to make it a success and a model district of the country.

"We would meet our goals if we would give priority to villages where the Dalits and indigenous people live, improve the situations in some school and train the teachers. We need only commitment and united attempts," Bijukchhe said.

Another parliamentarian Lekhnath Neupane said that all the representatives and other authorities should hold meetings to materialize the dreams.

Ukesh Raj Bhuju, the chairperson of Nepal Heritage Society, said that the attempts of the municipality towards conservation of cultural heritage in the city area are appreciable and needs more efforts to maintain the temples and palaces.

He further said that the watershed area of Bhaktapur district should be protected for the sake of the district and its residents.

"Due to the continuous sand mining by the Manahara river, the whole of the hill on which stands the UNESCO World Heritage Zone of Changu Narayan now stands may fall apart any time. The municipality must take urgent action to protect the calamity," he urged.

Member-secretary of Kathmandu Valley Urban Development Committee said that though the government has Building Ethics, it has not been implemented due to government process. He suggested the municipality to implement the Ethics so that no more ugly, unscientific structure may come up in the well-conserved ancient city.

"While letting the citizens construct new buildings, the municipality must seriously monitor if the measures to protect the buildings from earthquake damages or not," he said.

‘Accelerate reform process, focus on decentralisation’

TKP: How do you assess the present economic situation?

Karcher: The current economic situation looks gloomy. The reasons are to a larger extent related to external factors. The recession in the US, Europe and Japan has impacted adversely on exports. The USA, the major importer of Nepalese garments, has provided duty- and quota-free market access to African and Caribbean countries. This has made garment export from Nepal more difficult.

Similarly, the tourism sector is facing acute problems. Following the events of September 11 the number of tourists visiting Nepal has dropped significantly. Security considerations play a role. I expect, however, that tourism will pick up very soon. There are also signs that the US economy is turning around.

TKP: Has the government been able to satisfy the donors?

Karcher: The government has kept development partners well informed about progress in the implementation of the reform agenda and about preparations for the NDF meet. There have been regular briefings by the Finance Minister and Finance Secretary. Progress reports have been prepared. In this regard the government has lived up to its commitments made at the last NDF. There is steady progress in the implementation of the reform agenda.

However, reforms need to be faster. Decentralisation represents an important prerequisite for poverty reduction. In particular the delivery of social services needs to be effectively decentralised. One of the commitments made at the last NDF was that responsibility and authority for sectoral activities like education would be transferred to local governments and community organisations. This has not happened. As a result teachers are not accountable to local communities. Their performance has no impact on their professional advancement.

More resource should be given to local governments to manage. In 2000, 82 per cent of all development resources were managed centrally. The reform process has to be accelerated in such a way that results in visible improvements of the living conditions of the rural population.

TKP: What could be the most important concern of the donors?

Karcher: The single most important concern is the impact of development cooperation. Nepal receives development assistance worth between US $ 400 to 450 million annually. This significant amount of money should result in faster reduction of poverty. The management of projects represents is problematic. In most cases projects require government counterpart budgets and they suffer if local counterpart contributions are not made available in time. Also monitoring and supervision are generally weak.

There are too many projects. It would be important to establish clear priorities and drop some projects which are not of high priority. Government resources are spread too thinly over too many projects. An important beginning has been made to cut down the number of projects in the current budget and also in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

TKP: What should the government do in the NDF meet?

Karcher: I consider the NDF as an important opportunity for the donor community to engage in a policy dialogue with the government on development cooperation. The formulation of the Foreign Aid Policy represents a significant step on the part of the government to determine key policies that should be pursued in the area of foreign aid.

The draft has been prepared in a consultative manner and I expect that the NDF will help the government and the donor community to reach on agreement on key policies. The topics selected for the NDF are very relevant. The agenda is focussed on four key areas: the reform agenda, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), the medium term expenditure framework, and the foreign aid policy. The government and the donors will have an opportunity to pursue a dialogue on these issues.

TKP: Are you happy with the government’s preparation for NDF meet?

Karcher: I appreciate particularly the large number of consultations in the run-up to the NDF. It is helpful to involve a broad range of stakeholders in such consultations. It is also significant that the NDF is being held for the first time in Nepal. This will enhance broad ownership of policies and strategies. The papers distributed during the preparatory process are generally of good quality. I see a new preparedness on the part of the government and the donor community to evaluate their cooperation and move forward jointly to find solutions to existing problems.

TKP: What does UNDP primarily focus on?

Karcher: Our overriding objective is poverty reduction, and in order to contribute to poverty reduction, we work primarily in four areas: democratic governance, environment and energy, pro-poor policies, and gender equity and women empowerment. Support to decentralisation has been one of our primary preoccupations and will continue to be very high on our agenda. Under the heading of pro-poor policies, we prepare annual national human development reports. We focus also on monitoring poverty including poverty mapping.

Our rural energy program is successful in 15 districts and will continue with new partners. Rural energy particularly micro-hydro can be a very powerful entry point for poverty reduction. Women empowerment is a cost-cutting subject that permeates all areas. We feel that enhancing gender equality is an important pre-requisite for poverty reduction, apart from being a basic human rights issue.

TKP: What should be the main agenda of the government at present?

Karcher: Progress in the implementation of the reform agenda will strengthen donor support. Donors will also appreciate enhanced government leadership in the identification and formulation of projects. The entire development process must be single-mindedly focused on poverty reduction. One key element of the government strategy should be pro-poor growth, which creates employment and also benefits the part of the country where poverty is most severe. This applies particularly to the mountain and hill areas of the Far Western and Mid Western regions. There has been no significant improvement in the lives of the people there between 1996 to 2000.

The PRSP must pay attention to reducing inequality within the country. I see pro-poor growth, effective decentralisation, and social mobilisation as three main pillars for a successful poverty reduction strategy. And improvements should be made in the implementation of projects. This is directly linked to decentralisation. Decentralisation will also enhance transparency and accountability.

TKP: It seems that there is lack of coordination among donors. What do you say about it?

Karcher: We have gone a long way in improving donor coordination. However, it would be good to involve the government more in thematic groups, where much of the coordination work takes place.

Minister KC dismisses corruption charges

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POKHARA, Feb 3: Minister for Civil Aviation, Tourism and Culture, Bal Bahadur KC, here today publicly challenged his party leadership to prove the charges of corruption against him by the high-level task force, formed by the Nepali Congress to monitor the state of emergency.

NC had earlier formed a five-member taskforce headed by party General Secretary, Sushil Koirala, to monitor the emergency period. Minister for Physical Planning and Works, Chiranjibi Wagle, has also been alleged of being involved in corruption.

"If the task force proves the charges, I will immediately quit my post," Minister KC said, replying to the queries of the newsmen. He said that the corruption charges were solely motivated by prejudice and jealousy.

It has been charged that the minister called for a tender violating the existing regulations regarding the construction works inside the Tribhuvan International Airport.

"I am ready to fight against such elements that are strategically bidding to assassinate the characters of honest cadres within the party," KC added.

He also vowed to come up with concrete plan of actions for the conservation of Phewa Lake, management of dumping site, and construction of an international airport in Pokhara within a month.

Surkhet lacks enough phone connections

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SURKHET, Feb 3: For most of the people in Surkhet district, telephones at their homes are still a dream as the district Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) has been unable to distribute phone lines due to technical insufficiency.

"The demand for phone lines in Surkhet Valley alone is higher than 4,000," says Krishna Prasad Shrestha, the chief of NTC here. "Our plan to distribute 275 lines this year is pending due to the lack of cable."

The NTC exchange has the capacity to provide only 1,752 lines, according to Shrestha. "Currently there are more than 2,000 pending applications for telephone lines among which about 450 have been recommended by the Communications Minister," says Shrestha.

Only 26 among the 50 Village Development Committees (VDCs) of the district has the facility of telephone. But even among those, only the telephones in the Valley and Chinnu VDC are working, according to the NTC.

"Telephone lines in a few villages were destroyed by the Maoists, while other lines are not working because of some technical problems," says Shrestha. He added that security fears have stopped them repairing these lines.

Dang badly needs public toilets

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DANG, Feb 3: Absence of public toilets at Tulsipur Bazaar, the business centre of Dang district, is said to be a matter of concern for tourists, businessmen and travellers coming there.

Eight years ago the Tulsipur Municipality had built a public toilet in the bazaar area but lack of public awareness on the use of toilets made it useless.

The toilet was reconstructed and later turned into a shopping centre, says the municipality.

The absence of public awareness as well as the lack of budget at the municipality is the reason behind the absence of toilets in the area, said the deputy mayor Ghanashyam Pandey.

We should preserve public toilets like our own toilets at home, adds Pandey.

He also informed that the local businessmen, traders, intellectuals and local people are presently working together to build a public toilet at the bus park area.

Humla to be hit hard by food scarcity

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SIMIKOT, Humla, Feb 3: People of this Himali district are likely to be hit hard by food scarcity during this rainy season as most of the foodstuff provided by the government for this year has already been sold out. The government has been subsidising on food grain to the people of 16 mountain districts of the country, including the Karnali zone.

According to Purna Prasad Dahal, Officiating Chief of the Nepal Food Corporation here, the government had allocated around 6,500 quintals of food grain for the district during this year, which has already been transported to the needy areas. He said the Corporation had only 1,500 quintals of food grain in its stock in the district headquarters. Officials, however, have asked the government to allocate around 16,000 quintals of foodstuff to meet local requirements.

Chief District Officer Krishna Chandra Poudel said that the available food stock would be able to meet for the coming five months. Poudel added that food distribution to the locals has now been suspended because they have already harvested crops and the stock would be distributed in the crisis period. He also conceded that the food grain made available to the people is misused for brewing liquor.

Many SLC centres cancelled

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KHOTANG, Feb 3: Several remote areas in several districts won’t be having examination centres this year for the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) due to security concerns.

The district education office of Khotang has decided to conduct the examination in the headquarters Dektel and two neighbouring village development committees (VDCs) only, according to our reporter there. Last year, the district had 17 examination centres.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Nawalparasi has said that an SLC exam centre in the remote Bulingtar VDC at the Tribhuwan Secodnary School has been unexpectedly cancelled.

There are several other districts which have reduced the number of examination centres.

Volunteers make up for absence of blood bank

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ILAM, Feb 3: As there is no blood bank in the district, the District Committtee of Nepal Red Cross Society has set up recently an emergency blood service facility.

To make this facility possible, 200 youngsters have been volunteerily donating blood to needy patient. "We have detailed information about these persons and they are ready to donate their blood any time," said Ratan Chaudhary, the coordinator of the service committee.

The needy patient contact the Red Cross through the hospital and the committee then contact the possible donor, according to Chaudhary. "The patients don’t have to go to hospitals in other districts for blood now," said Chaudhary.

"More than 126 patients in last two years through this way in the last two years," said Krishna Bahadur Khadgi, a technician at Ilam Hospital. "The donors even came in odd hours."

"We don’t have a storage facility for the blood, so this the only way out," said Chaudhary. "Now we are thinking of setting a blood donors’ club."