Left parties, Maoists ready for united agitation

By Ghanashyam Ojha

KATHMANDU, March 11 : Eleven left parties including the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) today agreed to launch a movement against the October 4 royal take over after a joint meeting.

In the first ever meeting with the ten left parties, Maoist leader Dinanath Sharma said that his party would cooperate with all the left political parties in their "united move against the king’s "regressive step".

Sharma also urged the left parties to persuade the Nepali Congress and other political parties to extend support and solidarity to the movement. However, he did not divulge on the modality of the peaceful agitation that would be jointly carried out by the parties.

"We will sit for another round of meeting in order to thrash out the modality of the movement," Maoist leader Sharma told the journalists after the meeting. "But the peaceful movement will help in executing the peace negotiation."

Sharma also termed the current Lokendra Bahadur Chand government as illegitimate and said that the Maoists were initiating peace process not with this government but with the state. "It’s the talks between two regimes," Sharma said.

The meeting was attended by the CPN-UML, the CPN-Maoist, the CPN-ML (Restructured), the CPN-Unity Centre, the CPN-United, the CPN-MLM, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (NWPP), the CPN-Marxist, Nepal Samyabadi-MLM, Peoples’ Front Nepal (PFN) and Socialist Revolution Nepal.

"All left parties including the Maoists showed their commitment to jointly protest against the regressive move of October 4," Bharat Mohan Adhikari, the UML standing committee member, said of the meeting.

He said that the left parties expressed their commitment to protect the achievements of the 1990 Peoples’ Movement. They also decided to be united so as to restore the peoples’ sovereignty seized by the royal move.

Adhikari said that the Maoists declared the cease-fire in order to stop regressive steps.

For his part, Sharma reiterated his commitment to move ahead with better coordination with all the political parties.

"We will work together with all the political parties in the peace process," Sharma said.

He also rejected reports that the announcement of the cease-fire followed a secret meeting between the Maoist leaders and the King. He also made it clear that the Maoists had not backtracked from their demand for a republic.

Talking about the delayed peace process, Sharma said that the Maoists were ready to hold negotiations with the ‘state’ anytime.

"I am hopeful that the talks will begin soon," Sharma said. "But I don’t know why the process has been delayed."

C P Mainali, Co-ordinator of the CPN-ML (Restructured), said that the Maoist leader assured all left political parties that the Maoists would move with better reconciliation with all the political parties.

Mainali quoted Sharma as saying, "We never wanted to bypass the political parties."

He also claimed that the King had to bow down to the united demand of all left and democratic parties.

According to one of the left leaders, Sharma said that the united movement of all political parties could bring even the King to a proper ‘size’. "We are now more powerful to launch a united agitation as we have also our militants," the left leader quoted Sharma as saying.

Sharma also urged the leaders of the left parties that the peoples’ militants belonged to all political parties and the people, which could be of great help in the united agitation against the King’s regressive act.

The meeting also agreed to call such meetings soon in order to explore the modality of the peaceful movement against the regressive act, a press statement issued by the UML after the meeting said.

Saptari fire-victims sans relief for three days

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MADHAVPUR, Saptari, March 11 : Fire-victims in Madhavpur village here have not received any relief materials even though three days have passed since their thatched huts were reduced to cinders last Saturday.

Although police said that a total of 190 people of 46 families were left homeless due to the blazing fire, the fire-victims claimed that more than 250 people were affected in the incident. The site of the incident is just 15 kilometres away from the district headquarters but Red Cross Society has still to reach the place.

Most of the fire-victims are land-less squatters and they work in the farms of landlords for their survival. Chandra Kant Choudhary, who was about to get married, has also been left homeless after his thatched hut caught on the fire. He said that clothes amounting to Rs 20,000 were also gutted in the fire.

Rajbiraj Industries and Commerce Association and locals provided them with 59 sets of clothes and Minister Kuber Sharma and his wife handed over four kilogrammes of rice, three litres of oil, beaten rice, salt and kerosene to each of the fire-victims.

"We immediately need tents to protect us and our children from heat," said Meena Devi Chaudhary whose hut was also burned down. Chairman of Rajbiraj Industries and Commerce Association Nirmal Sancheti said that the administration should immediately provide them with necessary relief materials. The fire erupted from when one of the huts inside which children were playing caught fire, when their parents had gone out for work.

SC order on obsolete vehicles

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KATHMANDU, March 11 : The Supreme Court has ordered the government today to remove all vehicles from the Kathmandu valley, that are 20 years old and those not complying with the pollution regulations, within two years

The joint bench of Justices Arvinda Nath Acharya and Chandra Prasad Parajuli issued the order after the government failed to implement any rules and regulations to reduce the pollution level in the valley. However, the government had earlier published a notice in the Gazette to ban the 20-year-old vehicles in the valley.

The Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public) had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court six years ago demanding the government to ban the vehicles and set vehicular emission levels. Pro Public had stated that since environmental pollution in the valley is a big concern, without any proper rules to regulate the pollution emission levels, it would turn out to be a major health issue.

Each year more than 1,000 new vehicles enter the valley further polluting the valley air.

Meanwhile, Pro Public, in a press statement today welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court. In neighbouring India, after the implementation of a similar Supreme Court order, the pollution level in New Delhi saw a considerable decrease.

All should help to cement lasting peace: Koirala

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BHAIRAHAWA, March 11 : President of the Nepali Congress (NC) Girija Prasad Koirala said today that the cease-fire between the government and the Maoists should be translated into lasting peace, but did not quite reveal what way his party is going to. Koirala was speaking at the inauguration of the Buddhist Chaitya in Bhairahawa today.

"My view is we must work to translate the cease-fire into permanent peace," Koirala said, adding that any failure to do so would culminate in the worst scenario. He also said that the NC has taken the cease-fire as a positive development and has entered into a unity of purpose.

He however added that the big responsibility lies on the shoulders of the government and the Maoists when it comes to ensure lasting peace. "If they do not become serious, things can still go wrong."

Meanwhile, Koirala also committed himself to the demand to build an international airport here. "I had tried to pass the proposal but the same was abandoned after I had to resign," he claimed. He underlined the importance of an international airport in the town since Lumbini is a religious site of international importance.

Govt to go alone: Pandey

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KATHMANDU, March 11 : The government has given up its efforts to forge an all-party consensus on the code of conduct for peace process and is set to finalise it without consulting the parties, said Ramesh Nath Pandey, government spokesperson and Minister for Information and Communication.

Talking to reporters after a meeting boycotted by major political parties Minister Pandey said that the process of consultation with the parties on the issue of code of conduct has ended with today’s meeting.

"Consultation with the parties is over and the government will finalise the code of conduct by itself on the basis of suggestions received so far," he said.

Today’s meeting was attended by Samata Party, Hariyali Party, Nepal Rastriya Janamukti Party and Rastriya Prajatantra party (Nationalist)- all of them having no representation in the dissolved House of Representatives.

SLC exams to start March 30

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KATHMANDU, March 11 : A total of 284,024 students have been registered for this year’s School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, which commences from March 30 and ends on April 7.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post today, Dr Shah Dev Bhatta, controller of examinations said, this year about 30,000 more students are appearing for the SLC examination than the previous year. This year 284,042 students will appear in the SLC exams.

The number of students reaching the tenth grade rises annually by more than eight percent.

The office of the controller has announced 847 SLC exam centres for this year’s SLC. There were only 645 examination centres last year and many of them located at the district headquarters for security reasons.

Many students in remote districts last year faced hardships as they had to come to district headquarters to take their exams. Most of them had problems in finding rooms in the pricey headquarters. Thanks to the cease-fire which made the controller’s office easier to extend the number of exam centres.

"The declaration of cease-fire has enabled us to have examination centres in all the districts this year," said Dr Bhatta.

There are 25,781 public schools across the country and about 8,000 private- boarding schools.

The pass percentage over the past few years have remained stagnant and is hovering around 31 per cent with 31.64 per cent in 2001 and 31.22 per cent in 2002.

King grants audience to Deuba, Bijukchhe

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KATHMANDU, March 11 : His Majesty King Gyanendra today granted separate audiences to former Prime Minister and president of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) Sher Bahadur Deuba and chairman of the Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party, Narayan Man Bijukchhe.

During the meeting with the king, Deuba ruled out that he would not become obstacle if the country finds ways to resolve the Maoist insurgency while Bijukchhe demanded for a joint audience to the leaders of all major political parties.

However, Amik Sherchan, president of the Peoples’ Front Nepal (PFN) denied accepting royal audience today, citing the difference in the king’s word and action.

Nawaraj Subedi, general secretary of the PFN told The Kathmandu Post that there was no meaning of meeting the king separately, "as the monarch has denied the political parties’ demand of united audience".

"I asked the king to transform the government-Maoist cease-fire to a permanent peace as everybody has taken the cease-fire positively," Bijukchhe said after the audience. He said the king merely nodded to his demands, saying, "We will think, see, discuss..."

Speaking at a programme organised by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists in Pokhara, Deuba said he would not insist in restoring his government just if the resolution of the crisis demanded "something else". "I have been insisting to restore my government. But if all parties agree on some other solution, then I won’t be the obstacle," Deuba said, referring to his audience with the king.

He said he would come up with any conditions to back the peace process.

NC president Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal were granted audience at the royal palace yesterday.

Narrating what transpired during the half an hour audience, Deuba said that king asked about the general mood. "I said that people are expecting the restoration of peace. I also suggested that there should be no room for deception on the part of the rebels."

Reacting to the all party meeting called by Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Deuba said that he doesn’t want to attend a conference called by someone handpicked by the king.

Fear psychosis holds sway among Nepali natives

By Damakant Jayshi

DEHRADUN, India, March 11 ; The native Garhwals in the newly carved out north-western state of Uttaranchal in India seem increasingly inclined to settle the old scores against the Nepali natives living here since generations.

The Garhwals in the state see Nepalis as the conquerors, a prejudice lived by many of them since the Gorkhali army seized a large part of present Uttaranchal about 230 years ago. The trauma of the Gorkhali conquest is so deep that it is even captured in the Garhwali folklore.

The growing resentment against Nepalis, however, is not only a product of history. The tenuous competition for employment and limited local resources has given new meaning to the old grievances.

The local political leaders are openly protesting the Nepalis’ strong presence in the local job market; some are even calling for expulsion of Nepalis to secure jobs for native Garhwals.

Ramesh Benjwal, a youth leader affiliated with Samata Party was quoted in a local paper recently as saying, " Nepalis should be chased out of Uttranchal...only then the youth in the state would get employment."

Similarly, Ajendra Ajay, President of Uttaranchal Youth Agitation was quoted as saying, "No outsider, especially Nepalis, should be allowed to enter the state."

A section of the Indian press has also joined hands with the local political leaders in raising voice against the Nepalis. Punjab Kesari, a mass-circulated Hindi daily also recently carried a news titled "Uttaranchal government fails to make any concrete strategy for Nepalis."

The news alleged that the Nepalis have flooded the 13 districts of the state, with every village and the market containing no less than one-fourth Nepalis. The newspaper also alleged that some of them were indulging in murder, rape and looting.

Nepalis living here have watched this brewing anti-Nepali campaign with worry.

"We have been hearing this quite often now," said a worried Hanu Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana, grandson of Dev SJB Rana, a former Rana Prime Minister, who came to India in 1902. "And this makes us worry about our future."

Rana, a well-known personality in the capital city, says he has been trying hard to unite the Nepalis in the state to fight against it collectively but admits his failure to do so. "This is because the Nepalis are not aware of the dangers and are smug. Moreover, the political parties have been successful in keeping us from uniting and remember us only at the time of elections. This is what the Nepalis don’t seem to realise."

Rana adds that the local people who resent the Nepalis’ presence in the state have failed to realise the contribution of the Nepalis to Uttaranchal’s social and economic fabric. He wants to rewrite the history of the Nepalis of the Garhwal region, who he laments have been much maligned as conquerors. "We are not conquerors but were invited to protect the place and this needs to be highlighted."

He had also written to late King Birendra and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala drawing their attention to the fate of people of Nepali origin in India but he laments nothing was done.

Pahal Singh Chhetri, a retired teacher from the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped is exasperated at the Nepali government’s attitude towards Nepalis living in India. "If the Tamils of Sri Lanka are victimised or discriminated against, both the state and the central governments immediately decry the move. But the Nepal government remains a mute spectator. It never thinks about us."

However, all the Nepalis living here do not agree that there has been effort to evict Nepalis. Bhupendra Adhikari, Nepali member in the prestigious Sahitya Academy, says the fear of eviction has been blown out of proportion. "This is not going to happen in Dehradun."

Yet, people have reasons to fear: they have in their memory a fresh account of how Nepalis have been chased away from Myanmar, Assam and Bhutan.

Joint team to scale Mt Everest

KATHMANDU, March ll (RSS) - On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the first ascent of Mt Sagarmatha, a joint team of climbers from the Royal Nepal Army and the Indian Army is to climb the world’s highest peak and also Lhotse Himal starting this week. The joint climb, which is scheduled to conclude by the last week of April, will foster mutual relations between the two friendly countries and exchange of mountaineering technology will also take place, according to Royal Nepal Army headquarters. In the course of the climb, the team will also clean up the south face area of Sagarmatha.

The team will comprise 34 climbers from each army and the cost of the various materials, skilled manpower and other expenses will be borne by both countries, it is stated.

Squatters up in arms over UN park project

By Bikash Sangraula

KATHMANDU, March 11 ; Two weeks after the UN Park Development Committee (UNPDC) issued a public notice stating that all constructions on the 1,300 ropanies of land earmarked for the Park is to be demolished, various social organizations have reacted strongly against the step. The project that has suffered due to paucity of funds ever since its commencement in 1997, has found itself in the centre of a fiery debate, thus making its progress additionally difficult.

According to Lal Bahadur Karki, member of Nepal Housing and Settlement Conservation Society (NHSCS), there are 218 houses in the area separated for the Park, which extends from Sankhamul Ghat to Teku Dobhan, along a distance of three kilometres. While he agreed on the necessity to build a park in the city, he raised concerns over the humanitarian problems inherently associated with the UN Park project.

"The houses are sheltering 1,156 landless squatters, all of them genuine, as accepted by the Sher Bahadur Deuba government. Everybody seems to be fired up by the idea of constructing the Park, but no one has given a thought about what will happen of them," said Karki, speaking in an interaction programme organised by Martin Chautari today in the capital.

The idea to construct the UN Park was conceived to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. The committee was formed expressly for that purpose. The initial estimated cost of the project was Rs 340 millions, and this figure has shot up considerably due to the delay. So far, the government has disbursed only Rs 60 million, which has been used to build a by-pass road east of Kupondol, joining the juncture to Ring Road, and to widen the Bagmati Bridge joining Thapathali with Kupondole.

During the eleventh meet of the 15-member UNPDC held recently, it was decided that the illegal structures constructed in the area would be demolished. The meeting also decided to prohibit agricultural activities and sand extraction going on within the proposed park premises. A public notice to the effect was issued two weeks ago. The meeting was chaired by Minister for Population and Environment Kamal Prasad Chaulagain.

Sagar Rijal, a UNPDC member said that the committee has taken the issue of squatters seriously. "We will form a team to investigate into the matter. The team will segregate genuine squatters from the false ones. The former will be duly compensated," said Rijal.

On the other hand, Sama Vajra, an official at Lumanti, an organization that works for the indigenous people and the displaced, says that forceful eviction of squatters is wrong. "Settlements can be illegal, but settlers cannot. Everybody agrees that the UN Park is needed. But, it is equally important to provide an alternative to the squatters," she said.

According to Hukum Bahadur Lama, president of NHSCS, the settlers in the area have attained legal rights to the land. "The Landless Squatters Problem Resolution Commission has categorically declared that the 218 houses built in the area is legal. If force is applied to evict the squatters from the area without compensating them, there is going to be an unpleasant confrontation," threatened Lama.

The UN Park Master Plan has divided the project into six zones. Among other things, the proposed park will feature a UN memorial pillar, gardens, lawns, paved walk-ways, car parks, kiosks, suspension bridges and children’s parks.

Similarly, voices have been raised questioning the utility of the step, especially because the committee does not have funds to support the project. According to Ramesh Rayamajhi, managing director of the committee, the available funds amount to only Rs one million, while the project cost has gone up to as much as twice the initial estimated cost of Rs 340 millions. Therefore the step to demolish the shelters and displace the landless squatters is seen by many as a useless pastime.

However, Vajra of Lumanti is positive that with the open attitude of the committee, the problem can be sorted out. "For this, it is essential that the committee has a representative from one of the organizations working for the landless squatters. The method of compensation should be discussed with the squatters themselves," she said.

Exchange of weather data among Hindukush region nations soon

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KATHMANDU, March 11 : In the next four years or so, countries falling in the Hindukush region can expect to share information on weather conditions.

This will be possible once the project termed World Hydrological Cycle Observing System (WHYCOS) is implemented under donor assistance.

The institutionalisation of flood forecasting is based on the concept evolved by World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). This is expected to go a long way in ensuring preparedness to fight out risks issuing out of flash floods and precipitation resulting in mass inundation of the flatlands.

In fact, work on the project which would ensure sharing of data among countries of the Hindukush region goes back to 2001, when the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development organised a consultative meeting on the issue.

Meanwhile, the consultative meeting on WHYCOS saw experts from a number of countries give final shape to the project proposal on evolving a data sharing system among countries which fall in the Hindukush region.

The consultative meeting, which is underway since Monday, is ending on Thursday after finalising the proposal on WHYCOS. "We expect to draw up the project proposal by Thursday," said Dr J Gabriel Campbell, Director General of ICIMOD, which organised the consultative meeting in collaboration with WMO.

The ongoing consultative meeting is also discussing and arriving at agreements on technical, managerial and implementation aspects of the draft project document. The proposed proposal was prepared by WMO.

The proposal, once passed by the meeting, will be circulated among countries of the Hindukish region. In fact, this will be followed by a phase whereby countries of the region like Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar and China will be endorsing the project proposal concerning any river basin. The next phase will include presenting the proposals in front of donor agencies for funding.

Addressing the inaugural session on Tuesday, Deepak Gyawali, Minister of Water Resources expressed the view that serious institutional efforts were indeed the need of the hour since flash floods leave behind misery and devastation every year.

"In fact our problems comprise much more than flash floods. Equally burning is the need to accurately forecast weather conditions since agriculture depends heavily on monsoon rains," he said, citing instances, which saw nearly 540ml of rainfall in the course of nine hours, something, which left the authorities unprepared in 1993.