Attend all-party meet or risk non-inclusion in talks: PM warns parties

Post Report

TEHRATHUM, April 12 : Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand today issued a veiled threat to the political parties that they would not be included in the peace process with Maoists if they don’t participate in the all-party meeting tomorrow. Main political parties including the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have already announced their decision to boycott the meeting for the third time. But PM Chand’s warning, according to party sources, is unlikely to change their stance.

Chand, however, said the government was keen to hand over power to the elected government once the peace process is over and elections conducted. He was in the town in connection with distribution of pro tem homestead ownership certificates to all those who were affected by raging fire three months ago.

"People who were the epitome of corruption while in power are now crying foul claiming the nation is going towards regression," Prime Minister Chand said.

He also claimed that the government has achieved a lot by initiating action against all those found to have indulged in corruption while the rebels too have been brought to the talking table. He also said that the government was trying to thrash up an all party consensus before holding talks with the rebels.

Meanwhile, speaking at the inauguration of Bagdole Community Complex in the capital today, Physical Planning Minister Narayan Singh Pun, the government co-ordinator for peace talks with Maoists said here that he was ready to leave his position "if there was a better alternative".

Pun, who is also Minister for Physical Planning and Works said, "I did not effect the cease-fire in order to earn money and fame." The minister’s comments come in the wake of reports in some section of the media that he had made up his mind to quit both his posts. Pun is the only one from the government side for the talks, whereas the Maoists have named a five-member negotiating team under Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

Commenting on the price rise of petroleum products, PM Chand said that the same was effected due to compulsion and not due to any other interests. He also flayed political parties for inciting students against the price rise.

"They ought to have thought of thrashing up a comprehensive solution to the crisis faced by the nation rather than telling students to take to the streets," he said, adding that the political parties would do well to attend the all party meeting called for Sunday.

Earlier, students had waved black flags protesting the death of Devi Lal Paudel, a student in Butwal, who was killed in police firing, on Tuesday. They also protested the rise in the prices petroleum products. Although police had arrested 16 protesters, they were set free after the departure of Prime Minister Chand.

Meanwhile, PM Chand has termed the dismissal of three ministers as forced by forces of circumstances. He did not elaborate while talking with reporters in Biratnagar. Fielding reporters’ questions, he said Dharma Bahadur Thapa, Devi Prasad Ojha and Mahesh Lal Pradhan, who were home, education and commerce and supplies ministers respectively were relieved as part of a regular reshuffle. "They were honest but could not be retained owing to special circumstances," Prime Minister Chand said.

Strikes put off for a week

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KATHMANDU, April 12 : Students demonstrating against the price hike, which is fast snow balling into a scattered movement across the country, have postponed their indefinite Butwal bandh for a week. The organisers have issued an ultimatum to the government to fulfil their demands within the given time or face the added fury and intensity of the movement. However, it is not clear how their central fraternal organisations will show their solidarity to the decision.

Similarly, as part of their protest, the students today observed a bandh in Butwal and Nepalgunj, and forced petrol pumps to remain shut across the country.

According to reports from Nepalgunj, the protests were the worst, with seven students and 10 policemen being wounded in clashes. Policemen also beat up three local journalists while they were covering the violence.

In Butwal, over a dozen students were injured when police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse protesting students.

The incident in Nepalgunj took place as the agitated students attacked public vehicles and were forcing shops to down shutters, according to the police, who tried to bring the situation under control. However, the student leaders said at a press meet in the evening that police "intervened in their peaceful protests".

Life in Butwal remained paralysed due to an indefinite general strike called by the Joint Students Struggle Committee (JSSC), as most shops and private offices remained closed and traffic came to a halt.

The protesters damaged two trucks and a bus this morning. They also caused partial damage to a truck carrying he-buffaloes.

In Biratnagar, police lathi-charged upon a mob of students who showed black flags to the visiting Prime Minister, chanting slogans against him. The Prime Minister was in the city to inaugurate a newly-built building of Morang Industry Organisation. The students, in retaliation, attacked two government vehicles, eight motorcycles and 13 shops. As the students resorted to rampant attacks on shops, the whole bazaar remained closed and tense.

Another report from Butwal further added that worst affected by the strike were the daily wage earners who were rendered jobless. Linked by the Mahendra Highway, Butwal forms an important regional in the west Nepal. Butwal has witnessed a dearth of vegetables and other edible items due to unavailability of goods for the past three days.

"There is a severe dearth of green vegetables as Butwal has stopped receiving them from the rural parts of the district and Palpa, the neighbouring district. Shopkeepers operating secretly have raised the price of goods by 40 per cent," said a local. "This is perhaps the longest strike seen in Butwal."

A probe team constituted by the government to look into the incident of firing resulting in the death of a student, completed its activities within the stipulated time period, today. The civil society here has formed another ‘counter’ commission to make public the report on the incident . The newly formed seven-member committee, headed by Gokarna Thapa, the Chairman at the Appellate Court Unit of Nepal Bar Association, is to make public the report tomorrow, according to Tilak Achrya, a member of the new commission.

Meanwhile, according to reports from Morang, police today broke into the office of a local newspaper published from Biratnagar and manhandled a journalist and a computer operator this afternoon.

The incident occurred when police followed a group of students protesting against the killing of one of their colleagues in Butwal. Police cracked down upon the mass of students, who were forcing the local merchants in Biratnagar to close down their shops. A group of students entered inside the newspaper office to escape police attack, thereby inviting the police inside, according to a concerned source

A team of police in the command of Pralhad Gajurel, the Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office (DPO) entered the office of Darshan Dainik, a local daily and manhandled Dharma Raj Dhakal, a journalist and Krishna Basnet, a computer operator associated with the newspaper, according to Mohan Bhandari, the editor of the daily, Police also manhandled Barun Mishra, an Indian journalist. The Morang branch of Nepal Federation of Journalists (NFJ), severely condemned the police action in a press release issued.

Similarly, a meeting of Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) here today decided not to stop the ongoing strings of protests until the government revokes its decision to hike the price of petroleum products, according to Gagan Thapa, general secretary of the NSU, a student wing of the Nepali Congress Party.

Cut in power tariffs soon: Minister

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KATHMANDU, April 12 : The government is doing homework to slash electricity tariffs for the first time, in a bid to make electricity affordable for domestic cooking purposes and to discourage the use of imported kerosene and liquefied gas, Minister for Water Resources Deepak Gyawali said here today. The proposed reduction will be effective from this year’s monsoon.

"Now the tariff of electricity will go down, it will be cheaper than cooking gas," Minister Gyawali said, after inaugurating the Fourth Central Convention of Clean Locomotive Entrepreneur’s Association of Nepal here today.

He, however, did not mention the amount of reduction in the existing electricity tariff.

"We are doing homework on how much tariff will be reduced and when", the minister said.

The minister also informed that a decision to this effect will be announced soon, in order to increase the domestic consumption of existing surplus electricity in the country.

The NEA was mulling over possible slashing of electricity tariff ever since the country’s biggest hydro project 144-megewatt Kaligandaki ‘A’ came into operation. NEA has 100 to 150 megawatt surplus powers at present.

Despite government’s subsidy to petroleum products and the recent price hike, the Nepal Oil Corporation suffers losses worth Rs100,000,000 a month, according to the minister. "We will be able to save dollars being spent to import cooking gas and kerosene at least for five months (during monsoon), if we reduce the price of electricity," he said.

Nepalis pay nearly Rs seven rupees per unit of electricity, which is one of the highest power tariffs in the world. The NEA is selling 576 gega bites of electricity to 840,000 clients across the country and earning Rs 4,000,000,000.

Meanwhile, a source in the NEA told The Kathmandu Post, that the proposal for tariff reduction is being discussed in the board meeting to be held within a week.

Similarly, officials at the NEA said that even the proposed reduction will not affect the income of the NEA.

How the ball lies in the royal court

By Damaru Lal Bhandari & Ghanashyam Ojha

KATHMANDU, April 12 : While the Maoist leaders have been trying to peddle their agenda of round table conference, interim regime and constituent assembly, other political parties including the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML are still suspicious of the rebel agenda.

Instead of expressing concurrence with rebels, political parties are wielding pressure on the king to rectify his October 4 royal takeover or face a movement for the restoration of the democratic process.

Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala today said that the parties were bracing for a movement "after it has become clear that the nation was on a regressive path as in 1960."

"We are soon going to give tremendous pace to the movement for the restoration of the constitutional course," Koirala said.

In terms of the Maoist demands, both Nepali Congress and UML leaders have been urging the Maoist leaders to clarify their demands for constituent assembly, round table meeting and interim government.

Flaying the Chand-government of being a puppet to the regressive force, Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of CPN-UML, said that such force was trying to bring about divisions in various political parties.

He said in an obvious reference to KP Sharma Oli and Bam Dev Gautam without mentioning their names. Both the leaders are struggling within the party to have their share in the power.

Oli and his coterie on the other hand, are all set to revolt against the party leadership. "This is very bad in democracy at such a critical situation," Nepal said.

The feud between Oli and the party leadership in the UML is likely to invite serious division in the party.

"The party leadership keeps on marginalising the dissent opinion in the party and the dissent group may involve into working alliance with the Maoists," One of the UML cadres said requesting anonymity.

He made it clear that the UML would join all the three other major political parties for a united peaceful movement against the regressive acts of the king.

"We are very soon calling an all-party meet that will take a final decision regarding this," Nepal said.

Meanwhile, members of the Maoist talk team are cutting a picture of confusion. They including Dr Baburam Bhattarai, have held a series of meetings with leaders of other political parties but have failed to win them over to any extent.

Dr Bhattarai, after a meeting with K P Oli, leader of the UML told The Kathmandu Post that they were trying for reconciliation among all political parties.

"We are very serious on the issue of the government delaying the peace process," Dr Bhattarai said. "All political parties should get united to put pressure upon the government for immediate talks."

The schedule is likely to be made public in the next few days. The high point of the protest programmes, however, shall be a joint mass meeting in the capital around May 9.

Koirala reiterated the stance that the king had only two options: either go with parties which believe in thrashing up the solution by reviving the dissolved parliament or go with others and pave the way for a republican state.

"Ball is in the king’s court. And I have asked him to decide fast," Koirala emphatically said. He also ruled out any lasting solution against political instability, as long as army is not brought under the purview of the elected representatives.

Defending the role played by political parties all along, Koirala also said that the Royal Palace had been the source of political instability ever since 1990. In fact, he pointed out at the delay in peace process as yet another ploy to keep the political process disrupted.

"Of course they are trying to impress upon us the need to start with a clean slate, but we still have doubts about them," CPN-UML leader K P Oli told The Kathmandu Post. Oli also revealed that the rebels could be expected to wait another three months before talks get underway.

Oli said this after meeting rebel leaders Dr Bhattarai and Krishna Bahadur Mahara at his residence yesterday. Reacting on the demands put forth by the rebels, Oli had instead suggested admissible interim government and commission to draw up a new statute. However, Maoists leadership has not yet come to any conclusion on the issue.

Govt takes cautious approach to GM foods

By Suvecha Pant

KATHMANDU, April 12 : While the international debate on the pros and cons of Genetically Modified (GM) foods on human health continues, and experts remain divided on the issue, Nepal is taking up a ‘precautionary’ approach as it braces itself to make labelling of GM foods mandatory.

"We will soon make the labelling of GM foods mandatory," said Tika Bahadur Karki, Director General, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control. The regulation, according to Karki, is likely to be enforced within this year.

The regulation will help in identifying the products that contain GM organisms in Nepal. Till date, there is no concrete evidence to support the presence of GM foods or seeds. That, however, does not mean such foods are totally absent.

"Although it has not yet been proved that GM foods are in Nepal, the chances are high," said Prof Dayananda Bajracharya, Vice Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST). " Imported foods such as corn, canned tomatoes could be genetically modified," he added.

The mandatory labelling is a necessary step in identifying GM foods in market, but not a sufficient one, say experts.

"We need to test food products to determine whether they are genetically modified," said Bajracharya.

According to Karki, the establishment of a ‘clearing house’ - a laboratory for testing of GM foods/seeds - will be the next step in the determination of GM organisms. To test whether food contains Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is determined after testing the food’s ‘polymerage chain reaction (PCR)’ on a PCR apparatus.

"However, the methods of testing are also still under debate," added Karki.

Currently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are jointly undertaking research to find a standard for testing of genetically modified food products. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) is the body under WHO/FAO that is developing the principles for the human health risk analysis of GM foods.

"The principles are at an advanced stage of development and are expected to be adopted in July 2003," said Karki. "According to the standard methods published by this research, we will form policies for the development of a testing lab in Nepal."

So, what are GM foods? Generally, GM foods - also called "Frankenfood or transgenic foods" - contain gene transplants from other plants or even animals.

There have been sporadic incidents of side effects of GM foods, such as allergy on its consumers, but till date no one has died from consumption of GM foods. While many groups have opposed GM crops, others argue there is a moral case for introducing GM technology to developing countries, to help tackle poverty and hunger. "While international debate is going on whether GM foods are safe or not, Nepal needs to take a precautionary measure," said Ratnakar Adhikari, Executive Director of the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment.

"Measures like labelling of GM foods would give consumers a choice and they can decide if they want to consume such foods," added Adhikari. Recently, Nepal has also signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB). The CPB is an environmental treaty, which after ratification from 50 countries, will regulate transboundary movements of living modified organisms (LMOs).

GM foods are within the scope of the protocol only if they contain LMOs that are capable of harming the environment. Nepal signed the Cartegena Protocol on March 2, 2001 but has not yet ratified the protocol.

Community power turns fledgling bus service into agent of change

By Sangeeta Rijal

KIRTIPUR, Kathmandu, April 12 : Tired of the ‘erratic and unreliable’ service of the city’s archaic mini-buses, denizens of this ancient town on the southern fringes of the capital got together and decided to start their own bus service. That was five years ago.

Today the nearly 500 community members of this ‘relatively backwater’ town - famous for its hardworking farming communities - are the proud owners of 13 buses. So efficient is the bus service that the Kirtipur Yatayat (KY) buses tend to be the first choice of the commuters commuting in and out of the capital.

It is also profitable. So much so that the entrepreneurs are now contemplating expanding the fleet. "We are planning to bring in more shareholders and more shares very soon, and with that we want to add four more buses," said a smiling Milan Maharjan, secretary of Kirtipur Yatayat.

Now compare the success story of this community-owned bus service with the failure, if not bankruptcy, of the state-owned Sajha Yatayat, which boasted of nearly 200 buses, most of them gifted by the Japanese government.

Established more than three decades ago with a fleet of 183 buses and 728 staffers, Sajha Yatayat provided services to thousands of passengers for three decades. But the government decided to liquidate the bus service last year.

On the contrary, the Kirtipur Yatayat earned over Rs 122 million, out of which Rs 3.1 million were profits, in the last fiscal year. In the running fiscal year, however, they are expecting "neither losses nor profits because of the domestic situation."

Most of Kirtipur Yatayat’s passengers tend to be the students going to and returning from Tribhuvan University, and most of them enjoy the privilege of 33 per cent student discounts, the provision for which started only last year following a prolonged student strike. Add to that the steep rise in the price of petro-products.

So who, or what factor, is responsible for this - success of Kirtipur Yatayat and failure of Sajha Yatayat? Nothing else, but the ownership, say experts and entrepreneurs. While the former is owned by the people or the community, the latter was owned and also operated and managed by the government.

Economist Ratnakar Adhikari, director of South Asia Watch On Trade (SAWTEE), said that the Government cannot work efficiently in the transport sector and fulfill its aim to serve the people, as the government offices are places where neither does good work go rewarded nor bad work gets penalised. They promote their people on the basis of working period. These factors lead to work negligence, something which occurred in the case of Sajha Yatayat.

People who travelled on the buses of Sajha Yatayat during the 1990s and prior to that, feel that the services it provided would be difficult to obtain from the new bus companies.

Kirtipur Yatayat provides facilities for every social group. Except during public holidays, all the 13 buses ply everyday, ferrying nine to ten thousand passengers, most of them being students.

Milan Man, Secretary of KY said that their ultimate goal is to own a petrol pump and work shop, servicing out of the valley. They also have plans for operating smaller buses for faster services as huge buses create traffic problems.

If Kirtipur Yatayat can have such an ambitious plan, why can’t Sajha Yatayat be revived. The dozens of buses that they still have, experts say, can be easily repaired and re-operated? To this Adhikari adds, "If Sajha Yatayat is handed over to the private sector, it can operate again with full efficiency. "

However, Shankar Sharma, vice chairperson of National Planning Commission, who was a member of the same when SY was dissolved, says that due to economic depression, government had to dissolve SY. If private sector takes it would be good.

People travelling through KY seem happy and comfortable. "They hardly used to give students discount before the price hike in petroleum products", said Binaya Dhital, a regular passenger.

Not only students prefer it but working people also have taken to it. "We cannot reach our offices on time if we board any other other local bus, but due to the punctuality of KY, it’s easy commuting to the office," opines Raju Bhatt.