UML agrees Mahakali Treaty scrutiny

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: The Main opposition party CPN (UML) has agreed to open the controversial Mahakali Treaty to scrutiny, thereby fulfilling one of the major conditions put forth by its splinter party CPN-ML.

The CPN-ML had wanted the treaty to be put under scrutiny and also wanted teh reorganization of the UML party structure as its main conditions for unity.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post Bharat Mohan Adhikari, co-ordinator of the UML negotiating team said that UML has written a letter to ML, fulfilling their two tough demands. Adhikari was speaking after the meeting of the CPN- UML’s standing committee on friday.

The UML has shown flexibility on the two demands that earlier was not acceptable to it - demand for restructuring the entire party system after the re-unification and other demand was that the controversial Mahakali Treaty signed with India in 1996 would be open to scrutiny, revealed a standing committee member.

"Now the restructuring of the party will definitely take place and the re-unification process will follow," a standing committee member said on condition of anonymity.

Prior to its re-unification with CPN-UML, CPN-ML, inter alia, had been demanding that the UML ought to realise its mistake in its role in passing the much controversial Mahakali Treaty. The other demand was that there should be complete organisational restructure from grassroots to the central level after the party re-unification.

Now the UML meeting has agreed to allow the airing of different views, both positive and negative on the Mahakali Treaty, without derailing the whole re-unification process, revealed Adhikari, adding, "UML is also ready to restructure the whole organisational structure as demanded by CPN-ML."

However, talking to The Kathmandu Post, ML leader Gautam said he has not opened the letter sent by UML. "Since the party office will be opened only on Monday, I will see the letter only that day," he said.

Another central committee member of UML, requesting anonymity, said that today’s meeting has given sole responsibility to the negotiating team to opt for any measure favouring the re-unification. "The negotiating team now can do anything that will favour the re-unification," he said.

Issuing a statement after today’s meet, the UML said that the party has called a meeting of its Central Committee meeting on 8th February to discuss the re-unification. However, party insiders said that the meeting was called to endorse the re-unification process. Also to come up for discussion are the forthcoming 21st Session of the parliament and the current political situation in the country. The party also decided that it would take forward the joint efforts with other parties to check the misuse of emergency by the government.

HSEB to de-recognise 21 HS schools

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) is in a process to de-recognise nearly two dozens of educational institutions under its affiliation for not complying with the HSEB norms, an HSEB official said Friday.

"The Board has decided to de-recognise them after they were found violating the basic norms," Koshal Raj Regmi, Vice President of HSEB, told The Kathmandu Post.

The HSEB is going to take the tough measures as these institutions, despite acquiring affiliation from HSEB two years ago, have failed to run the higher secondary education citing various reasons.

In the list of the de-recognition, according to HSEB sources, are four higher secondary schools in eastern region, one in Baitadi district and 16 in the capital. The HSEB has issued a written notification to each of these schools seeking valid reasons for non-compliance by the second week of February (by the end of Nepali month of Magh).

However, some schools in the capital have already responded to the Board , providing various reasons including security reason, lack of adequate students to run the programme, unavailability of teachers and dismal physical infrastructure.

A source at the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) said the Board has complete authority over granting affiliations to the schools as well as dissolving them. "But the Board is supposed to grant affiliations after the institutions fulfil the minimum pre-requisites," said Baikuntha Das Shrestha, an official at the Ministry.

Shrestha further said that the Ministry has given complete jurisdiction to the Board to take any sort of action against the schools that failed to abide by the regulations.

"If they fail to provide valid reasons, we will initiate action against them," said DB Khadka, Deputy Director of HSEB. "So long as they garner profits they run and once the profit is at stake, they close."

Khadka also said the Board now is planning to make sterner procedures for receiving affiliation to start higher secondary schools. In the recent years, such schools have widely mushroomed, basically in the major cities of the country.

It is estimated that there are 775 higher secondary schools across the country under HSEB and Tribhuvan University affiliation.

Nepal fails to advance despite win

By Rajendra Gyawali

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan 25: Nepal, aided by brilliant bowling performance from Lakpa Lama, inflicted a 65-run defeat on Papua New Guinea in their final league match of the Under-19 World Cup held at Hagley Oval ground on Friday.

Despite earning five points, including a bonus, from their comprehensive win, Nepal missed out the Super League on run rate as Pakistan and England progressed through with better net run rate. Pakistan defeated England to finish as the Group C leaders with the net run rate of 0.820 ahead of England, who has 0.804. Nepal finished with the net run rate 0.387.

Top two teams from all the four pools qualify for the Super League stage. As a third team of Group ‘C’, Nepal will now play for the Plate Championship.

"Our players have performed well in the tournament," said Roy Dias, Nepali coach after the win. "It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t advance to the Super Eight."

Nepali slow blowers once again held the edge over the opposition batsmen as they restricted Papua New Guinea to 112 runs in 43.5 overs.

Nepali tweakers cast a spin web on the Papua New Guinea middle order after a relatively good opening partnership that put up 49 runs in 12 overs. Lama, bowling economically, ran through the lower middle order batting giving away just 14 runs in his 10-over spell.

Shakti Gauchan, who was only other Nepali bowler to bowl 10 overs, was at his miserly best taking one wicket for 12 runs. Sanjam Regmi took two wickets while Manjit Shrestha and Bardan Chalise took one wicket apiece.

Earlier, Nepal scored 177 runs in 48.3 overs losing all the wickets after captain Binod Das won the toss and elected to bat first. Nepali batting, especially middle order, once again caved in after openers Kanishka Chaugain (21) and Yashwant Subedi (34) brought up 53 runs in 14 overs.

From a healthy 53 for no loss at one stage, a dramatic middle order collapse left Nepal reeling at 117 for five in the 37th over when Shakti Gauchan departed after scoring a patient 25 off 74 balls.

However, Nepali captain Binod Das (31) and Manjit Shrestha (23) joined forces in time to defy the opposition bowlers to steady the team’s innings. As the Nepal failed to wag its tail with the last 5 wickets falling for just 10 runs, those 50 runs that Das and Shrestha shared for the sixth wicket helped Nepal post a respectable total.

Skipper Das, who has successfully marshaled his troop in defending lowly score against Pakistan in the team’s last encounter, was confident of Nepali could defend the total.

"Although our batsmen failed today, we were confident that we could defend 177 runs," said Das, who hails from Bara district.

Nepal will play its first Plate Championship match against Canada on January 30 in Auckland. Namibia and Scotland are the other two teams in the Plate League 2. Plate League 1 consists of Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea and Kenya. Nepal travels to Auckland on Saturday.

A one-run miss!

Nepal, showcasing its fighting spirit, defended a moderate total of 177 runs against Papua New Guinea. Apart from four regular points, the 65-run win also fetched Nepal a bonus point. Unfortunately, Nepal despite tying with Pakistan and England at nine points failed to enter the Super League.

Nepal, who defeated Pakistan, could have been all smiles, though. It would have finished as the winners of the Group C if Pakistan innings was wrapped up even one run less than 121 runs it conceded. That would have added one bonus point, taking Nepal’s tally to 10 points.

"If only we had bowled Pakistan out a run earlier…." Roy Dias’ pain is shared by the Nepali cricket fans.

‘Concept of alliance not a ploy’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Amid different allegations that the political parties in the field were using the concept of a broader national alliance for their party benefit, Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party ( RPP) Surya Bahadur Thapa has made it clear that the concept was not a ladder to reach the power nor a will of the opposition.

Speaking at a talk programme with intellectuals, Thapa said that motive behind the concept is not used as a means to get the power but was only way out of the problems dogging the country.

"Since the country is almost trapped into the problems of regionalism, casteism, socio- economic disparities, it is the only way out to release the country from the brink of collapse", Thapa said, adding that the party has floated the minimum common programmes to all the political parties in the field.

"We have also proposed for Constitution amendment as all sectors of the society are feeling its necessity", Thapa said, adding that time has come for strict steps to meet the aspirations of the society.

The intellectuals like TN Jaiswal, Pannakaji Amatya , Yuvraj Singh Pradhan, JD Khand, Shadmukh Bahadur Thapa, Shushma Acharya, MD. Habibullah stressed for a concrete decision among the political parties to take the country to a right track .

They had a common voice that the crux of the problems lies in the implementation mechanism of the programmes. " The parties should be able to rise above the numeric strength of the parties in the parliament," they added.

Singh’s last rites performed

Post Report

RAJBIRAJ, Saptari, Jan 25: The last rites of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) leader Gajendra Narayan Singh were performed Friday amid state honour at his residence, Saptari Sewa Ashram in Koiladi village.

Late Singh’s cousin Yaswant Singh lit the funeral fire.

Singh passed away on Wednesday due to cardiac arrest at the NORVIC hospital in Kathmandu at the age of 73. His body was flown to his home district yesterday. A funeral procession was carried out in the major thoroughfares of the district headquarters and thousands of people paid their heart-felt tributes to their leader.

His last rites were performed in the premises of the Ashram considering his political and emotional attachment to the place, which he used to call it a "Peace Zone." Late leader’s contemporaries say that he took major political decisions while staying in the Peace Zone.

Among the prominent persons attending the last rites were Information and Communication Minister, Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, Minister for Population and Environment P L Singh, NSP Vice-President and lawmaker Badri Prasad Mandal and lawmaker Hridayesh Tripathi.

Seven months ago, the late leader Singh donated his property and established the "Gajendra Narayan Public Welfare Trust."

He had announced that the trust property would be spent for the welfare of the poor, helpless and backward community. Treasurer of the trust, Hari Krishna Singh, said that special programmes would be launched soon for the welfare of the backward communities in the district.

"He was a liberal leader and always campaigned against untouchability," said Dhuthar Marik Dom, from the so-called "untouchable" caste. Dom recalled that the late leader had taken part in a saha bhoj (Joint feast) with the "untouchables" seven months back.

After the completion of the last rites, a large number of people shaved their heads at local barbers’ shops, in respect to their leader. The people of the locality seemed to be shocked over the demise of the NSP president.

Govt taking plunge into e-governance

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: His Majesty’s Government is putting together an official website to enable easy access to government activities, policies, objectives, and projects, officials said.

The web site www.most.gov.np, will host all the relevant information of all the government ministries and departments. Officials at the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), which is carrying out the initiative, hope that the website will be the first step towards e-governance in Nepal.

"The Ministry has already sent secretary level letters to government ministries and respective departments asking to send information on a floppy disk to be stored on the web site," said Rewati Raj Kafle, spokesperson at the MoST.

The initiative is a part of the government Information Technology Policy 2000, which proposes an HMG website along with other plans for the development of information technology in the country.

Though touted as a e-governance project, it is unclear whether the website will make government working transparent, the goal of any e-governance initiative. Officials however say, it will.

But the slow pace of government action is causing delays. According to Deepak Shrestha, an officer at MoST, the deadline to the ministries and departments for furnishing information has already expired, but very few ministries has responded with their contents for the site. MoST had sent letters to the government ministries and departments last month to send relevant information within 15 days.

"If the Ministries provide us their respective contents for the site, it will be accessible within two months," adds Shrestha.

When the site becomes operative, policy of government, objectives of the government ministries, ongoing programmes and projects of the ministries, who is who at the ministries above officer level, organisational structure, vision, etc. will be accessible through the site.

The site will also incorporate information and date of the constitutional bodies in the country, according to Shrestha.

However, some of the government offices like Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Population and Environment, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, National Planning Commission, Election Commission have already gone on the net. The Supreme Court is preparing to go through a net linked with private Internet Service Providers. All these sites will now be hosted by the MoST website.

MoST officials say, they are also planning to make accessible regional offices on the net in the next phase. After that will come district level offices.

Meanwhile, MoST is also considering developing a system of exchanging letters between ministries through the net, as well as build a computerized database of all files, but is facing a budget crunch to finance the ambitious projects.

4 rebels shot dead, 50 surrender

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Security forces on Friday gunned down four Maoist rebels, including two women, in Gorkha and Myagdi districts, according to a press release issued by the Defence Ministry.

Three Maoists were killed in an encounter with the Royal Nepal Army forces in Saurpani of Gorkha. The slain rebels have been identified as Kopila, Bina and Nandalal Dhakal. The security forces suspect that there might have taken place more casualties on the Maoist sides.

In yet another incident, the RNA forces shot dead one Maoist, Durga Bahadur Darji, at Baramja of Myagdi district today. He was killed in the exchange of fire, said the Defence Ministry release.

The release said that the RNA forces seized 21 guns and a large amount of explosives in the course of their operations in different parts of the country. Ten Maoists were also arrested across the country today.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said that the armed Maoists Wednesday killed two civilians in Kailali and Dadeldhura districts in the last 24 hours.

The rebels killed Deepak Raj Joshi, Sub-Overseer at the Kailali District Development Committee, at Janaki Nagar VDC on Wednesday. Three suspects were taken into police custody in connection with Joshi’s murder. Nine others were arrested from Narayanpur VDC of the district.

The Home Ministry further added that the rebels on Thursday killed Harilal Saud after abducting him from his home at Jogbudha VDC-1 of the district. Police have been mobilised in the VDC in search of the attackers.

The Ministry also said that around 50 Maoists today surrendered to the local authorities in 14 districts.

CAN Info-Tech 2002 opens; receives exciting response

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: The Eighth CAN Info-Tech and Nepal Information Technology Show & Conference 2002, the biggest annual event of the Information Technology (IT) in Nepal, opened for public from today at the Birendra International Convention Centre (BICC), has received warm response from the visitors.

The display and test of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), carried out by Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) was one of the major attractions for the visitors.

ISDN is a technology that provides different services at a time, like voice mail, text, video and data through a single access to the network. In a country, where one has to wait for a couple of years to get one telephone connection, such modern technology would be a boon for the customers for those who own single telephone line.

Deputy General Manager of the NTC, Ratna Kaji Tuladhar said that the test of ISDN has been successful and the Corporation is going to introduce the service to its customers in a couple of months.

Similarly, video conference displayed by Mercantile Office System (MOS), the pioneer IT company, also drew a considerable number of visitors. They watched the live demonstration with great curiosity as it has not yet reached the general public, though the government had opened it for the private sector a few years back. Likewise, the miniature replica of satellite put on display by MOS was observed by a large number of visitors with keen interest.

Most of the visitors were seen just acquiring information on various new products and services while a few were either booking or buying goods and services. Some of the Internet Services Providers (ISPs) were able to attract a good number of visitors especially asking them to drop visiting cards to participate in a lucky draw that gives away free Internet connections up to three months to the winners.

College students were seen lined up in front of IT institutes, which offer special discount packages on various courses. From IT related magazines to personal computer (PC) traders were busy getting subscribed their products. Other attractions of the event include free Internet access and a good number of young visitors stuck to the computers browsing Internet.

A sizeable number of IT professionals and experts attended two separate talk programs organised this morning.

Kumari Bank Limited, Temenos Holdings NLBV and NCAT Trading House Pvt Ltd organised a talk programme on Technology – The Winning Edge in Banking, in which Kim Goodall, Deputy Chairman of Temenos, the world’s leading banking software producer, and others also made presentation on the occasion.

Similarly, another talk programme on Total Quality Management was also held today, in which Lasse Laaksonen, President and CEO of Inbiton Oy presented papers highlighting the need of quality management in software production.

Many IT professionals, experts and interested individuals are awaiting for a two-day international IT conference which begins On Saturday.

According to Lochan Lal Amatya, President of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN), the organiser of the show, Role of Government in Supporting the Growth of IT-enabled Services, Software Export from Nepal and Join the Global IT Revolution: Offshore Software Services from Nepal are the main topics of the conference. A panel discussion on Creating a Network Society in the 21st Century will also be held.

More than 250 IT professionals and experts from 10 countries are taking part in the international IT conference.

An upbeat C N Upadhyaya, Co-ordinator of the CAN Info-Tech 2002, said that the visitor turnout has crossed their expectation on the first day. A total of 15,500 people visited the show today, which is far greater in number compared to the first day of the last CAN Info-Tech.

"We are very much hopeful that the visitors would cross our expectation during the five days," said Upadhyaya.

Altogether 96 companies are participating in the show in the 5-day show that CAN expects a total of 150,000 visitors, which runs up to January 29.

Nepal be ready for next IT boom: Laaksonen

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Lasse Laaksonen, President and CEO of Inbiton Oy, Finland has emphasized that Nepal should prepare itself to reap the benefit of the next information technology (IT) boom.

"Nepal should cautiously wait for the next IT boom to benefit from it and it should ready itself accordingly", he suggested.

He said that Nepal is laying stress on training manpower. Of course, skilled manpower is necessary to establish IT industry, but training alone does not work. It should be coupled with practice. Attention should be given to this aspect, he added.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, he said that Nepal has a greater potential of emerging as an IT industry hub thanks to cheaper cost, work efficiency and quick delivery of goods and services.

"In fact Nepali products are cheaper than the Indian ones and they are better in quality also. So Nepal has a potential of becoming a hub for IT industry," he added.

However, Nepal should focus on project management skill and the products should have better finishing touch or in other words they should be stylish and elegant. Speaking about the role of the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN), he said it should highlight the problems and potentials of IT development.

He also suggested the government to make it mandatory to purchase local services, software and hardware, but their quality should be controlled. It will help stem the flow of hard-earned foreign currency and help establish and grow the local industries.

He also expressed the views that Nepal needs to hire expatriate consultants, as it is cheaper to establish offices in Nepal than other countries.

Inbiton Oy is one of the few foreign investors in the IT industry of Nepal. The company, which operates with the name of Communication Asia Pvt Ltd, a joint venture with Nepali entrepreneurs, produces and develops tailor-made software.