Displaced people seek compensation

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 16: Minister for Home and Local Development, Khum Bahadur Khadka, has assured a delegation of displaced people and police officers from Bhalung, Dang to provide compensation for them as early as possible.

The government had decided to compensate these people who were displaced from their residences located near the Armed Police Force (APF) barrack at Bhalung due to security threats. The Nepal Journalists Association stated this in a press release issued here today.

Despite the commitment of the government to provide compensation, there has been no sign of help for the past three months. The 400 people in the area who live in 70 houses have been forced to resettle in the nearby village.

The 6-member delegation led by the member of the region Nityananda Sharma also appealed to the Minister to provide Rs. 6,600,000 as compensation to the displaced people.

Devkota’s plea for new Constitution

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 16:The Chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party- Nationalist (RPP-N), Rajeshwore Devkota, has said that it is high time that the King come up with a new Constitution since the current one has proved to be redundant for all practical purposes. He said this at a press conference organised by the party in the capital on Tuesday.

Devkota also explained as to why the country has arrived at the constitutional crossroads. " We would not have faced the crisis such as the ones which are plaguing the nation now, had the Constitution originated from the King," Devkota said.

He also claimed that the current Constitution was the outcome of the "People’s Movement" and thus could not be expected to last long. He also said , " If they can have a Constitution at the end of a movement, why can’t the Maoists too ask for the election for constituent assembly?" Devkota queried even as he flayed the government for not yielding to the demands for the constituent assembly.

"Talks with the Maoists would have been successful had the government gone more than half way to meet the demands," he said, and added that the same holds good for the Maoists too.

Commenting on a query suggesting that the Constitution could be amended by the Parliament, Devkota said, " In consideration of the extent we have to go, the Parliament cannot be expected to achieve the feat." The preamble of the Constitution has proscribed the amendment covering constitutional monarchy, multi-party democracy, sovereignty on people and parliamentary democracy," he said, stressing the need for drastic changes in the constitutional set up.

However, Devkota also reiterated his party’s stance for constitutional monarchy and the need for "all patriotic forces to come together at this crucial juncture." He also said that the party was taking part in the forthcoming elections. Moreover, he also pointed out that the revival of the "Zone of Peace" proposal was in the interest of the nation.

He also said that his party stressed the need to regulate the cross-border movement between Nepal and India, review of the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India and review of the 1990 agreement entered between Nepal and India.

First phase of inter-school conservation programme ends

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 16:The first phase of Inter-Nation School Conservation Programme 2002 jointly organised by the Kathmandu Environment Education Project (KEEP), working in the sectors of tourism and environment, and the World Challenge Expedition of Britain concluded here today at Dada Village Development Committee.

According to a press release issued here today from KEEP, the programme was co-ordinated by the King Edward Sixth School of Britain and Bal Bikas Primary School of Dada village.

At the programme fifteen students of King Edward Sixth School identified land for the under-construction building of Bal Bikas School and participated in levelling the land.

The release further states quoting P.T. Sherpa Keru, Director of KEEP that the programme has helped to develop mutual, intellectual and emotional relations between the students of different countries.

At the programme Kaji Sherpa, who has already scaled Everest five times said, "It is the most respectable thing to extend help by the students from one country to the students of other country in the rural area."

Sherpa also presented certificates to the participant students, teacher of King Edward I.N. Throsel and leader of the campaign, Peter Nobel.

Before the campaign all the students and participants took part in sapling plantation in the nearby barren hill, the release states.

Call to set up Shankhadhar academy

RSS

BHAKTAPUR, July 16:Chairman of the national hero Shankhadhar Sakhwa Statue Construction Committee Shyam Krishna Manandhar handed over the committee’s report to Mayor of Madhyapur-Thimi Municipality Madan Krishna Shrestha.

Speaking on the occasion Mayor Shrestha expressed the view that the construction of the statue of the national hero Shankhadhar Sakhwa has contributed to the development of Madhyapur-Thmi Municipality into a historical and cultural city.

Chairman of the Construction Committee Manandhar said that it was not enough to declare Shankhadhar Sakhwa as a national hero and build a statue in the memory of him.

Manandhar stressed the need to set of Shankhadhar Sakhwa Academy to conduct extensive research and maintain factual reports in the archive.

Deputy Mayor Murari Prasad Acharya and journalist Gyanram Shrestha also expressed their views on the personality of social worker Shankhadhar Sakhwa who promoted the Nepal Sambat.

Madhyapur Thimi to appear on tourist map

RSS

BHAKTAPUR, July 16:Mayor of Madhyapur-Thimi municipality Madan Krishna Shrestha has said that the municipality had been carrying out economic and social development works for the uplift of the municipality and the local people by developing the municipality into a tourism place by preserving and promoting its historical and cultural hertitage.

Mayor Shrestha made this remark at a press conference organised here yesterday to inform the people about the works being carried out by the people’s representatives in the past five years to develop necessary infrastructures despite various challenges and the future programmes of the municipality.

Shrestha said the municipality is actively involved in development work with the objective of extending the fruits of development to each and every locality within the municipality.

Stating that Madhyapur-Thimi municipality has been set up by merging Balkumari, Chapacho, Nagdesh, Nilbarahi and Dibyaswori VDCs in 2053 B.S., Shrestha said that at present 59 persons including officers and assistant employees are involved in administrative and development reform activities in accordance with the policy of decentralization.

The mayor said that a 20-year master plan has been formulated for the development of Madyapur-Thimi municipality by dividing the municipality into various areas under the concept of land utilization.

Wanna buy a ready-made house?

Razen Manandhar 

To dream of buying a house in the capital is perhaps "a duty" of all the citizens who come here at least for once on whatever purpose. In a country where decentralisation is only a minister’s pastime and all the decision-makers are stuck to it; it is not a crime either. When people realise that buying a house in the capital is not easy with regular income, some dig out "source-force" to get a job at the Department of Customs and others try their luck in Wai Wai Noodles.

While all sorts of industry are licking the ground, one unprecedented type of business is shining here. In a year, around two dozen companies have come up with dreamy schemes to sell ready-made houses and apartments in the suburbs of the valley. And, there is no government or municipality in the "urbanisation" campaign but private business houses.

According to available sources, there are at least 30 such companies who have already either taken their plans to the floor or table-working to face the market. That has become almost mushrooming in the periphery of the valley.

Ansal Chaudhary Developers, Sunrise Homes, CE Engineering, are some of major investors in this field and others are ICL property, Civil Co-operative, Oriental Housing, Sangril-la Villa, Comfort Housing, S Investment and so on. The Ansal Chaudhary Developers alone has planned to spread their merchandise in 85 ropanis of land. That means, in total, there will be more 1,200 families with permanent residences in the capital, either with independent houses or with apartments. In the history of housing, this is of course a groundbreaking event. They do deserve encouragement.

Still, there are things each citizen should think about before leaping. The business of real-estate itself has an infamous history. This type of business emerges when people can’t find any suitable place for investment. Buying a piece of land instead of investing the money in an industry or running an individual business has been our "culture". We don’t believe that investment pays. The housing companies or the banks supporting them have lots of money and they know that one after another industries are falling into the pit of bankruptcy. So they chose this "risk-free" business: They say, there may or may not be profit but there is little risk of losing your investment.

This is the reason real-estate business came on the rise after the 1990 democracy. People had money but they needed safe landing of the capital. The developers as well as the clients are in search of a glamorous means for financial mobility. Thus housing and land development is the apt business when nothing progresses or the state is in confusion.

Most of the developers has taken this new business as a part-time or supplementary to their major corporate organisations. Most are related with construction business. Some have industry of building materials or just imports them or own banks. And they admit that they are just experimenting on the business. They might have money enough to practice "learning by doing" but the clients may not and their life and money should not be guinea pigs to the big houses industrialists.

Despite the laws and regulations concerning building construction, what goes on at the Map Section of KMC is not a secret. The laws hardly reach implementation stage. Therefore KMC openly admits that one in three houses are built against the regulations, how can we be assured that all the built house have indeed followed the regulations inch by inch? KMC has just come up with a grand building by-laws and its implementation is still far way. In this situation, how can one expect that the houses in the showcases are really "legal (in practice too)"?

The ready-made houses are being built in the capital’s suburb or in the surrounding villages, where there is no system of map approval, quality inspection. Such areas are more or less virgin to urban development and need a long term vision to develop so that they may not be more "New Baneshwor" areas.

The developers will bring only physical facility but the quality of a building cannot be visible in Photoshop-aided diagrams and pictures. To make a "house", what is more important than washable distemper is the right place to dispose human waste. The main road, the drinking water, drainage, telephone, electricity etc are still the part of the state facilities and a house cannot be a piece of heaven but a inseparable part of the urban infrastructure.

This is a capital where a campus wall falls and a passerby dies on the spot but the builder or owner of the wall is not punished. In such condition, who will be responsible if the houses turn fake, low quality some half a decade later? Will the developers be present after one decade and be ready to respond the house/flat owners’ complains? Who will take the guarantee of future of the buildings? State?

Seven rebels killed in five districts

Post Report

KATHMANDU, July 16:Security forces shot dead seven Maoist rebels in five districts on Sunday and Monday, the Defence Ministry said here today.

In its regular press statement, the Ministry said that two rebels each were killed in the Batase and Simpani areas of Khotang and Mankanda area of Salyan district.

The rebels who were killed during encounters in Khotang have been identified as militia commander Dilkaji Karki and Indira Karki, who was the district chairperson of Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary. The names of two other rebels killed in Salyan have not been mentioned.

Likewise, the security forces killed one rebel known as Devraj in Gorkha, Lal Bahadur Gharti, one of the members of village people’s government formed by the Maoists, in the Rimna area of Jajarkot, and another unidentified rebel in the Dhulabari area of Jhapa district.

The security forces recovered firearms, explosives, socket bombs, parts for detonating electric landmines from the sites. On Monday, locals of Makwanpur district collectively handed over 21 guns to the security forces.

Phewa lake registered under government ownership

Post Report

POKHARA, July 16:Fewa lake and other two lakes of tourist city Pokhara have been registered under government ownership. Kaski District Land Revenue Office (DLRO) took the move to curb the long standing problem of encroachment that posed threat to the existence of these lakes.

Phewa, one of the most popular lakes of the valley, has already lost around 3,000 ropanis of land due to encroachment, revealed the statistics of District Development Committee (DDC). Most of
these land were encroached in 1975 when the dam was broken, sources said.

There is unbelievable difference in the land area the lake has today and land area registered in the Land Revenue field book, said the DLRO. The lake is heading to the state of depletion gradually and its depletion rate is 0.18 square kilometre every two years, the DLRO added.

While registering the lake under government ownership, its area is mentioned according to the field book rather than the present area, according to Sudhir Kuamr Shah, the chief of the DLRO. "Following the directives from the Department of Land Reform, we are now committed in registering all the non-registered lakes and land under government’s possession," Shah said.

Other lakes registered recently are Begnas and Depang lakes. Begnas lakes spreads in 7,560 ropanis of land whereas Dipang lake, due to depletion occupies only 163 ropanis of land.

‘91pc of Nepalis use iodised salt’

RSS

SIRAHA, July 16: Nepal ranks in second position among SAARC member countries in terms of the use of iodised salt.

About 91 percent of people of Nepal consume iodised salt compared to 97 percent of people of Bhutan which tops the SAARC member countries in terms of its use, according to manager of Salt Trading Corporation Ltd. Brajesh Kumar Jha.

The Sri Lankans consume iodine with tea. In India, water mixed up with iodine is used for irrigating vegetables and cereal crops. India ranks fourth and Sri Lanka sixth in the use of iodine.

Salt Trading Corporation sells around 150,000 metric tonnes of iodised salt a year. Sale of iodised salt began in Nepal in 1996.

A healthy person requires 150 microgram of iodine. About 39 percent of people in the country develops diseases like arthritis, mental problems, miscarries and other reproductive health complexities.

Only 35 percent of people of Siraha district are estimated to use iodised salt while the rest of the people rely on the use of non-processed salt which are smuggled into Nepal through various towns in India.

Intellectuals of the district are of the opinion that if permission to sell iodised salt is granted to private sector, there is a possibility of the whole market being captured by sub-standard salt which is detrimental to public health.

Surkhet industrial estate in financial crisis

RSS

SURKHET, July 16:Industries located inside the Birendranagar Industrial Estate have been going through hard times and are presently incurring losses worth Rs. 1.78 million every year.

Established 21 years ago with cooperation from the Dutch government, the industrial estate spreads over an area of 90 ropani, some two kilometre east of Birendranagar Bazaar. However, industries began running inside the estate only from 1988.

Presently only six industries—Nepali Paper Industry, Poultry Farming, Textile, Chalk, Country Craft Pvt. Ltd.—are still running. Some nine industries including the Siddhiram Textile Industry, R.N. Books, Bheri Engineering Workshop have already been shut down. Nevertheless, six new industries are under the process of establishment. Some of the industries inside the estate had to be closed down due to scarcity of raw materials while many industries closed down in absence of market for their products.

Industrialists here feel that the raw material used by the industries inside the estate used to bring in raw materials from the Terai districts except for the Nepali paper industry.

Industries here could make profit only if goods are produced by collecting materials from the remote region of the Karnali zone, say the industrialists.

Tul Bahadur Rana, manager of the industrial estate says the estate is running in losses because there are not many industries that run with electricity. His Majesty’s Government should take special initiative in reviving the sick industries and properly managing the estate, say experts concerned.

Altogether 26 industries were registered under the estate but hardly half a dozen are properly running.

High amount of arsenic found in water of Terai

By Madhav Dhungana

BHAIRAHAWA, July16:Following the report on the presence of arsenic, a harmful chemical in drinking waters in the districts of Lumbini zone, Lumbini Zone Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Project (LZRDWSP) in association with several other government and non-government bodies has launched a campaign of examining the quality of ground water.

As around 90 percent of people in the plain belt of the country use ground water for drinking purpose, National Arsenic Direction Committee has been formed so as to create awareness among the public against the disease, Kalawati Pokhrel, a health and sanitation expert at the LZRDWSP said.

A recent test carried on 18,000 community ground water taps has revealed that five percent of taps pump water containing high amount of the chemical dangerous to health. Districts like Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Nawalparasi, Rupendehi, Kapilvastu and Bardia are found most affected. The water of Nawalparasi was found most risky to human life.

The maximum amount of the chemical is detected in Devadaha Village Development Committee (VDC) of Rupendehi district. One litre of water of that VDC contains two mililitres of arsenic, which is far above the limit prescribed by Nepal Government for safe drinking water.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) categorise the water containing 01 ml of arsenic as drinkable, Nepal Government has termed the water containing upto 05 ml of the chemical to be drinkable.

District Drinking Water Office, UNICEF, Department of Drinking Water and Sewerage , Nepal Red Cross Society and the LZRDWSP are engaged in testing the water quality in some twenty districts in the Terai. However, no tests on private ground water taps and those in the hilly region have been carried out yet.

Arsenic is an odourless and colourless chemical that can not be seen by the naked eyes. Initial symptoms of the disease cause by the consumption of the chemical are darkening of the skin with small white dots and thickening of the skin at palm and feet. As the disease grows chronic, it culminates to cancer, according to experts.

At a programme organised by the LZRDWSP here on last Monday, it was revealed that of over 700 thousand population in Rupendehi district, only 26 percent have access to clean drinking water. 63 percent of the people in the district suffer of various diseases due to unhygienic drinking water and poor sanitation. Of the total population in the district, 19.38 percent so far have latrines.