Swoyambhu’s historic temple gutted

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 5 : Coming on the heels of the recent redefinition by UNESCO of the Kathmandu Valley’s World Heritage Sites, Nepal suffered another unfortunate fate as a fire destroyed an ancient temple of historical and archeological importance in the premises of the Swoyambhunath Stupa, one of the seven world heritage sites in the Valley.

The gutted temple is Pratappur, one of two built by king Pratap Malla in 750 BS on one precipice of the Stupa. The other temple is Antapur on another flank, built in the memory of his wife Antapriya. Both temples are the living examples of the Shikhar style of the Malla dynasties.

It is not yet known how the temple caught fire. Mahendra Ratna Bajracharya, general secretary of Swoyambhu Development Committee quoting the priest of the temple told The Kathmandu Post that a man in white dress informed the priest of the fire before leaving the spot immediately. He added that four persons are responsible for the temple’s security.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation today constituted a five-member committee to probe the incident and to suggest measures for the government to adopt to avert similar tragedy in other archeological site of the country in future, said a statement issued by the ministry.

The fire took toll of the wooden archeological fabric and stone idols inside the temple, according to Bajracharya who reached the spot as soon as the fire erupted at about 11pm Monday. According to him, the location and structure of the temple at a difficult height of the hill compelled fire fighters to work late into the evening of the next day, Tuesday.

According to Bajracharya, the temple is not open to public. It is opened only when conducting a puja is felt necessary at the time of national crises and when a new Thakali priest replaces the previous one.

Three security men killed in Maoist laid mine blast

KATHMANDU, Aug 5 (PR) - Three personnel of the combined security forces were killed instantly and others injured in a Maoist-laid landmine blast at Ganesh Chowk of the Gopetar area this afternoon, according to the Home Ministry.

Issuing a press statement here today, the Ministry said, "It is a matter of sadness that the Maoists have continued with such violent activities when the third round of talks is underway to find out lasting peace." The Ministry also condemned the Maoists for carrying out such acts that claimed the lives of the security personnel based at Jorpokhari.

Our reporter in Pachthar, however, said that three personnel were killed in the blast and they have been identified as police sub-inspector Bhaktiraj Majhi and two army men. Other injured security personnel could not be airlifted as an army helicopter from the capital failed to land at the site of the incident due to foul weather condition.

Meanwhile, in another press statement, the Ministry refuted media reports that three policemen at the District Police Office in Ramechhap sustained injuries in a Maoist attack last night.

The statement said that the policemen were, in fact, injured by lightning. Chief of the district police office, Sabendra Khanal, said that the landmines planted around the office building exploded after being hit by a thunderbolt. He said the old office building has been completely destroyed.

Political parties’ umpteenth ‘No’ to PM’s appeal

POST REPORT

KATHMANDU, Aug 5 : A day after Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa appealed to the agitating parties to join the peace talks with the Maoists, the five party alliance unanimously rejected the call, delivering a blow to the government.

An all-party meeting of the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, Peoples’ Front Nepal (PFN), Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) (NSP) and Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party (NWPP), held at the UML’s party office in Balkhu, decided not to join the talks. The meeting also decided to launch a decisive movement against ‘regression’ by next month.

After the meeting, Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the UML, told reporters that the political parties would not take part in the government-Maoist peace talks, as the government he said is an ‘unconstitutional’. "We welcome the talks but there is no question of our participation," Nepal said.

Asserting that the ‘unconstitutional’ government would not be able to deal with the political and constitutional issues as raised by the Maoists, Nepal said that the formation of an all-party government and the reinstatement of the dissolved House were the only means to resolve the current political crisis.

"The Maoists should clarify whether they support the regression," Nepal said.

The rejection has come as a severe blow to the government which was appealing to the parties to join the talks after Maoist leader Prachanda last week urged it to include the parties in the peace process.

Nepal also claimed that the seventh round of joint movement of the five political parties that would begin next month would be decisive.

" We have jointly decided to launch a decisive movement that would defeat the regression and bring power back to people," said Nepal. The five party meeting also decided to discontinue the relay hunger strike and focus all the attention on the planned decisive movement.

While dwelling on the news reports that the government was trying to integrate the Armed Police Force into the Royal Nepal Army, today’s meeting strongly protested the government move."It is pre-planned conspiracy to take the country towards militarisation," a statement issued after the meeting said.

Amik Sherchan, Chairman of the PFN said that the political parties were of the view to initiate talks with the Maoists. "As this government can not resolve the Maoist problem, political parties should take initiative," Sherchan said.

China keen to work with Nepal: Bista

Post Report

Kathmandu, Aug 5 : China has evinced increased interest for peace, stability and development of Nepal , according to former Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bista.

"China is also eager to help Nepal to overcome the present turmoil by itself and remain a proud sovereign neighbour", said Bista who is back after nearly two weeks visit to Beijing on an invitation from the Institute of foreign affairs.

The former Prime Minister had series of meeting with Chairman of the Chinese people’s political consultative conference Jia Qinglin and other central leaders on bilateral as well as regional affairs.

" What impressed me the most this time during talks with the chairman Qinglin is China’s willingness to help Nepal is not limited to economic assistance. It is equally keen to work together in different fields to produce mutually beneficial results".

China-Nepal relation, he said, is characterised by mutual respect, equality and non-interference.

New laws mooted to accelerate reforms

By Ghanashyam Ojha

KATHMANDU, Aug 5 : With over 59,077 cases piled up in the judiciary and over 800,000 documents of the resolved cases gathering dust and being eaten up by termites, the Supreme Court is expecting the government to implement the recommendations made
by various committees in the past.

The Court Management Committee Report (CMCR) in 1998, Court Strengthening Recommendation Committee Report (CSRCR) in 2001 and a recently published report compiled under the chairmanship of Justice Khil Raj Regmi were obvious efforts made by the Supreme Court to bring fundamental judiciary reforms in the past.

However, a committee formed under the chairmanship of Udaya Nepali Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs submitted its report yesterday to the Prime Minister requesting the government to implement the past recommendations.

The committee has said that the government needs to formulate laws to expedite the judicial system, which is not happening for a long time.

Former Chief Justice Biswo Nath Upadhyaya, who was in office from 1991 to 1995, thinks that the judicial system has not been effective because of weak implementations of the recommendations of the past committees. "I tried a lot to implement such recommendations, but could not," said Upadhyaya.

The CMCR, formed under the chairmanship of the then Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya and comprising members Badri Kumar Basnet, Harihar Dahal, Prachanda Raj Anil, had suggested
formation of separate courts such as consumers court, juvenile court, family court besides empowering the existing labour and administrative courts.

The same report had also suggested delegating criminal and civil cases to separate benches so as to expedite and resolve them faster.

Similarly, the CSRCR formed under the chairmanship of Kashiraj Dahal, Secretary at the Judicial Council also prepared a report that took one year and cost about Rs 500,000.

"The legislative body, which is entitled to formulate laws to address the recommendations, does not take affirmative initiatives," Upadhyaya said.

According to experts, the slow and ineffective judicial system also owes to meagre budget allocated to the judiciary, lack of international exposure to court officials, lack of training, and various other issues.

The judiciary gets only 0.4 percent of the total national budget.

Dr. Ram Krishna Timalsena, spokesperson at the Supreme Court, admits that many of the recommendations made by various committees in the past have not yet been implemented. "Parliament should formulate laws in this regard. We are waiting for the new provisions. Besides, we are also working on our own," Dr. Timalsena said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Timalsena is upbeat about the Pilot Court, implemented from July 17. The Pilot Courts being implemented this year with the assistance of Rs. four million by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) looks after civil and criminal cases separately.

It is, as a trial, operated in Kapilvastu, Chitwan, Siraha and Kaski districts.