Commission to probe graft announced
Oppn leaders say it could go the Mallik way

By Surendra Phuyal & Yuvraj Acharya

KATHMANDU, March 4 : In what came as yet another landmark decision, a meeting of the Cabinet on Monday has decided to form a judicial commission that will probe the property of all the post 1990 high-ranking government officials including political appointees, ministers, municipal mayors and deputy mayors and chiefs of the district development committees and their families.

The meeting has decided to recommend His Majesty the King to form the commission, and describe its terms of reference—duties, responsibilities and rights—in accordance with the Chapter 3 (1) of the Probe Commission Act 2026 (1969), the government spokesperson, Minister for Information and Communication Jay Prakash Gupta told a press conference.

"The probe commission shall submit its report within six months," Gupta said. "The decision is in line with the demand put forth by the political parties during all party meets before the ratification of state of emergency (on February 23)."

The Cabinet has recommended former Supreme Court justices Uday Raj Upadhyay and Gaindra Bahadur Shrestha as members of the probe commission. His Majesty the King shall appoint an officiating justice of the Supreme Court as the commission chairman, in accordance with Article 92 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders, lawyers and anti-corruption lobbyists welcomed the government move, but expressed doubts that the judicial probe commission report may not be implemented.

They referred to the similar probe commission reports of the past like the Mallik Commission report, Public Sector Spending Overview Report, and countless other reports and asserted that "it could very well meet with the same fate".

The main opposition CPN-UML leader Subas Nemwang, who is also the Chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), told The Kathmandu Post: " It is a positive step—something we have been demanding for years. But the success of the commission depends largely on the government’s cooperation. The government should ensure that the commission remains safe from political interference or meddling. Or else it will meet with the same fate as that of the previous probe commission reports."

Said Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, Vice Chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the third largest political force in parliament: "It is too early to comment. But the success of the commission depends on the terms of reference given to it.

Senior lawyer Prakash Wasti, an anti-corruption advocate, emphasized the need to empower the commission and enable its members to thoroughly probe into the known, unknown sources of property of the former and incumbent authorities.

"What is important is not who heads the commission, but the rights and mandates given to them. The terms of reference should enable them to thoroughly probe the sources of property and even carry out raids," he said.

According to him, the main reason behind the failure of the Mallik Commission was that it was not empowered to thoroughly probe the sources of property and raid the houses of the authorities.

The Mallik Commission is the first in the series of post-1990 probe commission that were formed to probe the property supposedly illegally amassed by high-ranking government officials and politicians.

The Commission was headed by Janardan Lal Mallik, a Supreme Court justice. It did submit its report recommending legal action against at least 300 public office holders, who, the report said, were involved in various acts of corruption during the autocratic Panchayat days. But no action was taken against them.

The other major probe commission reports currently gathering dust in the officialdom are: Administrative Reforms Commission Report (submitted by Kul Shekhar Sharma in 1991), Parliamentary Revenue Leakage Investigation Committee (submitted by lawmaker Pari Thapa in 1999), Public Spending Overview Committee (submitted by lawmaker Binay Dhoj Chand in 2001).

The National Peoples’ Front (NPF) lawmaker Pari Thapa said Monday night: "There is no need to form any probe commission. We already have enough commission reports gathering dust…If only the government would dare to implement them."

Added the United People’s Front (UPF) lawmaker, Lilamani Pokharel: "Nothing is going to happen unless the government looks back at the past reports and implements them."

In the last 12 years time, that is since 1990, altogether 11 governments have ruled the nation, with 205 politicians occupying various ministerial portfolios. During the period the Cabinet has been reshuffled for 30 times. And each change in the government has brought about a similar change in the country’s bureaucracy, public offices and corporations.

The target group

* The prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, ministers, minister of states, assistant ministers, and their families,

* The chiefs of Legislative, Judiciary and Executive bodies of the government, chiefs and deputy chiefs of the Constitutional bodies and their families,

* The gazetted third class and seniors in the government service, and their families,

* The heads, deputy heads and members of the executive boards of public sector undertakings and government funded commissions, councils corporations, authorities, centers and boards, and their families,

* The chairmen and vice chairmen of District Development Committees, mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities, and their families

The political appointees posted at different institutions funded by the government, and their families.

11 dead, 45 injured in bus accidents

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TAMGHAS, Gulmi, March 4 : At least 11 people were killed and another 26 injured on Monday when a passenger bus on its way to Tamghas from Butwal fell about 200 metres off the unpaved highway at Kalot of Thanapati VDC-4, the police said here. Among the killed were one child, four women and six men.

The site of the accident is located about 20 kilometres south-east of here, the district headquarters.

Police said that eight people died instantly while three others breathed their last on the way to the Mission Hospital in Palpa. It is learnt that about 50 people were travelling in the ill-fated bus (with the registration number of Lu 1 Kha 906).

According to the police, five people had already been identified while the names and addresses of the others were yet to be known.

One of the passengers, Amrit Kumar, who sustained a minor injury, said that the bus skidded off the road after the driver tried to fill up water in order to cool down the engine. He had parked the vehicle on an inclined portion of the road without providing the necessary support against the wheels. The bus driver fled the scene soon after the accident, the police said.

Meanwhile, our correspondent in Dhankuta reported that 19 passengers were injured, four of them seriously , after a passenger bus met with an accident at Sukepokhari on the Kosi Highway on Monday afternoon.

The seriously injured people were rushed to the BP Koirala Memorial Hospital in Dharan for treatment and the rest are undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Dhankuta.

The bus (Ko 1 Kha 277) was on its way to Basantapur from Dhankuta. The Dhankuta District Police Office said that the bus met with the accident while giving a way to another bus coming from the opposite direction.

Rebel students shut down valley schools

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KATHMANDU, March 4 : Tens of thousands of students aspiring to be great citizens of the country were virtually kept off the schools in the capital Monday as the Maoist rebel-aligned students put pressure on the schools to close the institutions for two consecutive days in a bid to push their demands.

School authorities said that the day off would "probably" extend till Tuesday and that the Friday’s attack on two schools in the Capital has left other schools equally vulnerable.

Two days after willfully wrecking havoc at two private schools at the capital incurring losses of about a million-rupee worth of educational materials, Maoists rebel students successfully shut down schools and colleges in the valley even as the government had assured a tough security arrangement to thwart any untoward incident.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post late evening, Yubaraj Pandey, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education and Sports said the Government was all set to provide tough security measures to the schools had they felt it necessary. But none of the schools, as he thinks turned up with such request.

Though no written notification and letters could be obtained immediately, eyewitnesses said hundreds of large-sized pamphlets were posted on the walls in and around schools premises containing messages that read: close down schools or face consequences. While some messages on the posters intended the government to resume dialogue with the Maoist rebels. Others said letters were dispatched to school authorities requesting to close the schools.

Police sources at the District Police Office, Hanumandhoka however, said no incidence of Maoists’ attacks on educational institutes were reported until late evening.

Though the first day of the bandh passed off peacefully, parents seemed scared to send off their wards to school on Tuesday, said PABSON officials citing colossal losses to children.

"This is a national loss," said school authorities requesting anonymity. Associations of private and boarding schools claim that an estimated one million students from kindergarten to School-Leaving-Certificate (SLC) level suffer a massive loss during the two-day bandh that saw Maoists rebel students renewing their fresh attacks on educational institutions.

Bandh called by Maoists came twice in less than a month paralysing normal lives in the capital and bringing terror among the parents, who refused sending their wards off to school fearing impending atrocities. "Friday’s incident has shocked the parents to send their kids to schools," said Rajesh Khadka, PABSON’s President.

"We are not sure whether we will be able to open schools on Tuesday," he added.

In Laitpur and Kathmandu, almost all private and public schools, including colleges remained closed. In Lalitpur alone, 221 public schools, 324 higher secondary schools and 241 private -boarding schools remained closed.

District Education Officer of Lalitpur Bali Ram Prasad Singh said the teachers reported to the class on time but students failed to turn up leading to closure of schools.

However, he told The Kathmandu Post that the bandh passed off peacefully without any incidence of attack on schools in the district. Meanwhile, sources at DEO Bhaktapur said a few of the schools remained closed throughout the day while some had their classes still going on.

NC fields Regmi for NA election amidst top brass rift

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KATHMANDU, March 4 : Rift over recent formation of parliamentary committee by Nepali Congress party President Girija Prasad Koirala has abruptly grown after the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai boycotted the parliamentary committee meeting today held at the party office, Teku.

The meeting was called in order to choose a candidate for the vacant seat of National Assembly member, which was earlier held by Sadbhawana Party Chairman Gajendra Narayan Singh who passed away last month.

However the meeting went further and unanimously chose the name of Syangja party president Khagendra Raj Regmi as a NC candidate for the National Assembly member election, scheduled for 11 March.

The party has explained the absence of the duo leaders as " health reasons".

The formation of parliamentary committee by Koirala has irked the anti- Koirala camp and they have termed it "illegally formed".

" Bhattarai boycotted the meeting with his sharp differences upon the procedure of committee formation," one of the Bhattarai allies told The Kathmandu Post.

"Bhattarai had expressed his anguish with us a day before saying that the "unilateral" and "illegal" formation is objectionable".

Boycotting of the meeting by the two leaders, known as Koirala detractors, has further hinted at the simmering intra-party feud in the Nepali Congress party. One of the Prime Minister’s advisors said justifying the absence of Dueba in the committee meeting that the cabinet meeting and the committee meeting were held simultaneously so that he could not attend the committee meeting. "But the Prime Minister was not convinced with the unilateral formation of the committee," he put his sleeve off.

One of the CWC members further showed his rage " We had already suggested him not to attend the meeting and there is no any surprise on his boycotting the meeting".

As there is absolute majority of the ruling Nepali Congress party, the vacant seat beyond any doubt is to go for it. The main opposition party in the parliament, CPN( UML) has not nominated its candidate for the post yet.

Khagendra Raj Regmi (54) has been working in the Nepali Congress party and its sister organizations for the past three and half decades. He was brutally attacked by the Maoists on February 9 and is still undergoing treatment at TU Teaching Hospital in the capital.

Nepal-India inundation meet fails to make headway

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KATHMANDU, March 4 : The weeklong high-level joint inundation committee meeting between Nepal and India is likely to be inclusive, as the Indian side continues to remain unwilling to buy a Nepali proposal to dismantle its two unilaterally built structures at Laxmanpur and Marchabar area in western Nepal.

According to a technician at the Ministry of Water Resources, who participated in the meet, the Nepal side stuck to its the demand that India dismantle the controversial bund structures that are causing massive flood and inundation problem in Nepal.

Speaking on condition of anonimity Monday night, the technician said that the Indian side was proposing Nepal to carry out further studies, before going ahead with the dismantling mission. The joint meeting entered its sixth straight day Monday. The meeting turned quite tense after the Nepali side stuck to its demand to dismantle the bund structures in Marchawar area downstream of Rupandehi district near Lumbini and Laxmanpur area, south of Banke. "The studies are possible only after identifying the natural flow of the small rivulets in both the areas," he said. "The study of the natural flow is possible only after we dismantle them."

While the India-built structure in Laxmanpur has caused monsoon-time inundation problem in at least four village development committees of southern Banke district, the Rassial-Khurda-Lauton bund, which was built by India last year, causes inundation problem in thousands of hectares of land in Rupandehi district.

UML justifies constitutional amendment bid

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KATHMANDU, March 4 : Main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) justified here today the rationale of its proposal of constitutional amendment and said it will weaken the base of the Maoist rebellion and create pressure on the Maoists to join the political mainstream.

"It is evidently clear that only the use of force would not solve the Maoist rebellion," said CPN-UML Standing Committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari. "It needs political, socio-economic changes and reforms which not only weaken the base of the Maoist rebellion but also pressurise the Maoists to join the peaceful road of political competition."

Speaking during a meet-the-press programme organised by the party in its party headquarters, Adhikari who is also the chief of the UML task force constituted to give final touch to the Bill on the constitutional amendment said a few people, preoccupied by their own vested interests, are making hue and cry against the UML-proposed constitutional reforms.

"They are putting their arguments in line with the Maoists that the proposed constitutional amendment and the reforms could not solve the ongoing problems created by the Maoist activities," he said.

Even during the existing state of emergency in the country, Adhikari said, the Article 116 is still active and the existing state has not barred public debate on the issue of constitutional amendment. Also the logic of "unfavourable situation" has not any ground, he added.

As a matter of fact the Constitution is amended at such a juncture when the country seeks adjustments and alteration to solve serious problems. "The question of constitutional amendment is not a question of luxury and personal whim," stated a press communiqué distributed during the programme. "But it is a question of astonishment that how the country could be freed from the existing grave crisis without change and reforms and the status quoists have no answer to this question."

The statement further said a comprehensive reform programme based on national consensus, would create national environment and energy to fight against all sorts of anomalies confronted to the country.

Speaking during the programme, member of the UML task force and another Standing Committee member, Subash Nembang, said, "If the Constitution is not amended even at a time when all the political parties representing in the parliament have univocally louded for the amendment, the country will be facing serious consequences."

Member of the task force and another Standing Committee member, Radha Krishna Mainali, urged all to flay those who have been saying that the amendment was merely for seizing power.

Among the proposals put forth by the CPN-UML for the constitutional amendment are the formation of a caretaker government to conduct free and fair general elections, formation of a coalition government at a time of emergency, granting power to the Prime Minister to dissolve the House, limiting the number of ministers within 10 per cent of the total number of parliamentary seats, putting corruption control mechanism in the Constitution.

Nepali Kamaiya discussed at ILO seminar

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KATHMANDU, Feb 4 : At an International Labour Organisation (ILO) tripartite seminar in Bangkok, delegates from across Asia and the Pacific, were told that a two-year project aimed at eliminating bonded labour is now underway in Nepal and aims to help recently freed 14,000 kamaiyas, or bonded agriculture labourers, states a press release issued here from Bangkok.

Representatives from Nepal have been among those from 24 member States of the ILO attended the three-day meeting on the application of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Representatives of the government, employers and trade union learnt about the progress towards ending the scourge of forced and compulsory labour in Nepal at the seminar, states a release issued here.

Syed Zahir Sadeque, ILO’s Chief Technical Advisor for the Sustainable Elimination of Bonded labour in Nepal Project, reminded delegates that all kamaiyas in Nepal had been freed form bondage by the Administrative Degree of HMG/Nepal in July 2000 and their debts cancelled by the same decision.

"The ILO project was designed to reintegrate them into local communities and stop them falling back into poverty and debt," he said.

According to the press release, the project objectives included helping the kamaiyas develop new livelihoods, raising their incomes, ensuring they received the minimum wage as free-wage labourers, helping them acquire marketable skills and educating their children.

Sadeque stressed that the problem of bonded labour was closely linked with human rights issues as it involved involuntary work, fear, coercion and the denial of freedoms. He stated that the causes of bonded labour included exploitative labour relations, social exclusion, trafficking and poverty.

Currently, three ILO projects are targeting the former kamaiyas with funding from the governments of the US and Netherlands and from employers’ and workers’ organisations in Italy.

3 rebels shot dead

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KATHMANDU, March 4 : The Defence Ministry Monday claimed that security forces gunned down three armed-Maoists while carrying out ‘search and destroy operation’ in the Mugran area of Kalikot district of the mid-western region, and seized socket bombs from the area on Sunday.

The Ministry said that an injured rebel was taken into custody after the security forces exchanged fire at him at Neulapur of Bardiya district on Sunday. The injured rebel was rushed to Kohalpur for treatment.

Eleven suspects were arrested from different parts of the country yesterday. The forces also recovered six guns from the Sikles area of Kaski district.

Meanwhile, our reporter in Syangja said that a group of armed-Maoists on Sunday night shot Nepali Congress cadre Dewan Singh Rana dead at Mirdi of Waling Municipality, locals said. The deceased had been staying at a rented house at Mirdi since he fled his home for fear of Maoist attack.

It was only last year when the rebel Maoists had dismembered his hands and legs in the name of people’s action. Rana had just returned to the district after undergoing treatment for six months in the Bir Hospital.

Earlier last month, the rebels had also shot Khagendra Raj Regmi, Syangja District Chairman of the ruling Nepali Congress. But he survived the Maoist attack.