Royal property be made public: Koirala

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KATHMANDU, May 17 : Girija Prasad Koirala, President of Nepali Congress (NC) and former Prime Minister, has demanded that the property owned by the royal palace should be made public before taking "politically motivated" actions against the leaders of the political parties. He was reacting to the action taken by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) that has summoned Koirala, among others, for interrogation.

Koirala said that he had demanded immediate release of the report of Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property (JICP) during his latest audience with the king. "At that moment I had also requested the king that the royal property had to be made public since the power had transferred from one family to the other," he added.

The royal wealth, he said, has increased significantly as the properties of late King Birendra and late Prince Dhirendra also went to King Gyanendra.

The defiant leader did not give much importance to his summoning by CIAA. "It’s simply a game to assassin my character, but it won’t affect me as I have faced many such incidents in my long political career," he said.

While terming the CIAA’s summoning act as politically biased and ill intended against the people’s movement, he said that such a move would not weaken the joint movement of political parties. "Instead, it would further strengthen our fight for the democracy."

The CIAA is taking actions in the recommendations of the JICP report. In the first phase, the commission has enlisted names of 40 persons, who are to be interrogated about their personal property and the sources of earnings.

A constitutional body like CIAA, Koirala said, "should not be politicised." He also said that the establishment of a special CIAA cell within the Ministry of Law and Justice was behind-the-curtain game against the political parties.

Koirala, replying to a question, said that he had not decided whether he would appear before CIAA for interrogation. "I will take the decision only on the date," he said. He has been called to be present on May 19 at the CIAA cell in Singha Durbar.

Koirala also gave a copy of his property statement to the media persons. In the statement, Koirala has mentioned that he owns a little more than two ropanis of land in Biratnagar and a Toyota Land Cruiser station wagon. The total worth of his property is claimed as Rs 1.5 million for the vehicle and Rs 15,000 for the land.

Meanwhile, Shailaja Acharya, a central committee member of NC has warned the government that taking action against Koirala could further deepen the quagmire that the country is already in. "CIAA’s action smacks of political bias, which would raise doubts on the institutions’ credibility," she said.

Nepal Students’ Union, NC’s student wing, has also condemned the CIAA action against the "commander" of the on-going movement against the king’s "regressive move." The strong- worded press statement by the students has also demanded that the king’s properties should also be made public.

Free Student Union Council, also close to NC, in a statement said that the King would be popular if the property of the royal palace is made public from the time of King Tribhuvan, the grandfather of King Gyanendra. "The action taken by CIAA against the pro-democratic political leaders is ill intended, " the release said.

The JICP report has recommended thousands of names to be interrogated in relation to the source of their earning. The CIAA has said that it is initiating the process with 40 people who top the JICP list of recommendations.

According CIAA sources, in the current list there are 30 politicians, six police officers and four bureaucrats. Among the politicians 22 are from Nepali Congress, four from CPN (UML) and three from Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

Meanwhile, Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the CPN-UML said that the government is merely trying to foil the joint movement through CIAA. "We also are against corruption and wish to see a corruption free society. But the intention behind this action is filled with conspiracy," Nepal said.

He, however, asserted that the government would not be successful in its mission.

Similarly, Amik Sherchan, president of the Peoples’ Front Nepal said that the latest move by the Commission was politically motivated. "This is going to further strengthen the movement launched by the political parties," Sherchan said.

He also urged that everybody including the King should be transparent in property. "Who is going to probe the King’s property. If King wants the leaders of political parties to be transparent, he also should be ready to be transparent," Sherchan said. "No one is above the law."

Meanwhile, Prakash Chandra Lohani, senior leader of Rastriya Prajantra Party (RPP), said that he was surprised to see his name implicated in the current action by CIAA. "I have not received any letter from the CIAA."

In fact, I would be quite happy if the government publishes my property submitted to the Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property (JICP) a year ago for the knowledge of the people, he said.

CIAA’s unexplained ‘rush’

KATHMANDU, May 17 (PR)- The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) took control of all the files and the documents of the Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property (JICP) on the day it submitted its report to King Gyanendra and not two weeks ago.

According to reliable sources, a 13-member team from the CIAA led by a joint secretary, rushed to the JICP office and took possession of all the files and the documents. In fact, the CIAA had already obtained all relevant documents from the JICP six weeks before the anti-corruption body was handed over the report by the government on April 1.

The JICP chief, Justice Bhairab Prasad Lamsal, submitted the report to the king on March 18 and it was promptly handed to the Prime Minister for necessary action. However, the government took about six weeks to formally refer the report to the CIAA.

‘Action not based on JICP report’

By Balkrishna Basnet

KATHMANDU, May 17 : The decision of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to summon Girija Prasad Koirala including other party leaders is not based on the recommendations of the Judicial Inquiry Commission on Property (JICP) report, claimed an official of the JICP.

The official said that the JICP, during its investigation, had not found Koirala guilty of amassing property through illegal means. "His name was not on the hit list," said the official. "May be, CIAA summoned Koirala based on its own information and fact."

However, he disclosed that Koirala’s daughter, Sujata Koirala, was found to have been holding "illegal" property during investigation.

Even in Sujata’s case, the JICP report had recommended for further investigation on her property before any action was taken against her, said the official.

He also expressed surprise that CIAA has summoned people who were not included in the JICP list. "If the CIAA has summoned these people based on its own information, I have nothing to react on it; but this, certainly, is not based on JICP report."

He has also requested the CIAA to base its actions on the JICP report. "If the actions are taken beyond the recommendations of the JICP report, it will only help settle the political vendetta."

Squatter settlements adding more to blackening of waters

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, May 17:The hot summer has arrived, and water flow in the Bagmati river has dropped to its lowest. Near the temple of Pashupatinath, one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines perched atop a mound on the holy banks, whatever little water that’s flowing is black in colour.

The discharge is so low because the river has been dammed - and diverted. Near its source at Sundarijal the river was dammed to meet the drinking water requirements of the denizens of the metro of over one million people. Over 16.4 million litres of water input - the liquid waste discharged by residents of the eastern parts of the city - has been diverted through a nearly 400-metre-long tunnel, bypassing the ‘sacred’ Pashupati Kshetra.

The domestic and industrial effluent is treated at a treatment plant near Guheshwori. And the tunnel spanning the Sleshmantak forest has its outlet on the Bagmati banks at Tilganga. And it is where the problem restarts, becoming even more chronic as the river enters the densest pockets of the city.

Past that five-metre Tilganga barrage, constructed nearly two decades ago to, among others things, conserve the riverbed near the crematoriums of Aryaghat, the Bagmati begins to take in it both the biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes. Solid waste generated mainly by the slum dwellers as well as the domestic and industrial sewage dominates the landscape.

So thick and densely populated are the settlements and slums that even the steep edges of the riverbanks have not been spared. Past the spacious facilities of the Tilanga Eye Hospital and the newly constructed Maharaja Hotel - both drain their storm-water pipes into the river - as you begin to walk downstream, shanties that belong to South Asia’s poorest of the poor welcome you.

The squatters’ settlement here is among biggest such settlements in the capital valley that has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants from around the country and beyond in recent decades. "Until last year this settlement was on that side of the border," says Saradi Giri, 35, as she munches her afternoon meal inside her small hut made of up plastic sheets and bamboos.

"But the government (Pashupati Area Development Trust officials) drove us away. So we have our new homes here on this side." The 100-odd squatter families originally hail from

Andrapradesh in neighbouring India, and they migrated here from Bihar ten years ago.

Almost every hut in this settlement of about 100 families here boasts a toilet that’s apparently drained into the river that is black and gives off an awful odour. While most of the male folks work as astrologers, or the roadside palm readers, the women guard the huts and look after the kids, most of whom start working as scavengers as they grow up.

Ask Sarada Giri, or her close relative and neighbour, 65-year-old Laxmi Giri, what would they do if the government officials came there to chase them away or whiplash them, and you will be surprised at how quickly and bluntly they can react. "We are paying our landlord Rs 300 every month, he can’t drive us away from here," the senior Giri, clad in thin green and white sari and blouse, says.

"If the government officials come and tell us to leave this place, then we will go away from here," adds Sarada, as she calls her toddler inside her hut to eat. "We don’t know where. Maybe we will go back to our own Andrapradesh."

From Pashupati area, the black Bagmati waters meander southwards and at times cascade down the steep check-dams constructed not less than ten years ago to conserve the riverbeds that have become hotspots for sand mining or quarrying. Training of the river by constructing stonewalls on both sides seems to have helped check landslide or erosion. "But what’s the use of such walls as long as there is no clean water in the Bagmati, the mother of our civilization, and as long as the city dwellers and the government do nothing but sleep," says Sugarat Thakur, 71, a sadhu with tangled hair from Janakpurdham, as he watches the city’s filth flowing down the sacred river.

Sounds true. That stonewalls have come up on both side of the river is no big feat given that the holy river continues to collect the filth discharged by the city.

From under the Bagmati bridge at Bhimsengola, Baneshwor, one can watch a huge gutter draining the domestic liquid waste discharged by the city-dwellers. A study commissioned recently by the U.N. Park Development Committee says that this is the biggest sewer in this part of the city, discharging not less than 100 litres of liquid per minute.

The population of the city has increased by several folds - the National Census 2001 puts the valley’s population growth at a whopping 62 percent - yet the infrastructures that are necessary to sustain aren’t there. According to the U.N. Park study, the city continues to rely heavily on the storm water drainages that were constructed more than 60 years ago.

While a few sanitary sewers have been added to some areas of ‘Greater Kathmandu’, there are about 25,979 sewer connections serving only about 30 percent of the population, the study says, adding, "The rest discharge the effluent ultimately to the holy Bagmati."

Parties confer with rights organisations

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KATHMANDU, May 17 : Political parties today told human rights organisations to play the role of observers in the ongoing agitation to restore the political and constitutional process.

At a function organised by NGO Federation of Nepal, the politicians also assured the human rights activists that they were committed to restore the political process.

Nepali Congress (NC) President, Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN-UML General Secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal attended the interaction session. Others who attended were Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party (NWPP) President Narayan Man Bijukchhe, People’s Front Nepal leader Amik Sherchan and Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) leader Sarita Giri and Bharat Kumar Bimal.

Human rights activists Sindhunath Pyakurel, Padma Ratna Tuladhar and central level leaders of the NC and CPN-UML also took part in the interaction session amid growing tension on the political front in the wake of the commencement of the movement for the restoration of the constitutional process.

While leaders of the political parties, which have joined the agitation, reiterated the fact that their agitation was not induced by the desire to ride to power, human rights activists expressed the commitment that they would not remain silent spectators just in the event there is gross violation of human rights on the part of either sides.

They also highlighted the need to take seriously the instances of human rights violations, which have already taken place since the commencement of the movement for the restoration of constitutional and political process on May 9.

Meanwhile, human rights activists were also of the view that peace should be the ultimate goal whether that comes at the end of the talks or the movement, even as they further said that the eventual aim of all should be to consolidate democracy and rights of the people.

Refugees reiterate demand for citizenship

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KATHMANDU, May 17 : Just two days before the 14th Nepal-Bhutan foreign minister levels talks in Kathmandu, Bhutanese refugees here have again demanded for Druk citizenship before they are repatriated to their homeland.

They said that they would not go to Bhutan to stay as refugees again in the camps there. According to reports, Bhutan government was setting some camps as transitional shelter to keep the refugees before the refugees are resettled.

They voiced this concern at a programme organised today in the capital by Bhutanese Refugee Representative Repatriation Committee (BRRRC).

The 14th Ministerial Joint Committee (MJC) is expected to receive and endorse the report of the Joint Verification Team (JVT) on categorisation of over 12,000 refugees of the Khudunabari camp in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal.

S B Subba, president of the BRRRC said that they have accepted the Druk king and have also abandoned their political demands.

The refugees have expressed the concern, Subba said, over the fact that without citizenship, they would not be able to get their children admitted in schools in the Dragon Kingdom, get treatment in the hospitals there and also would not be able to move from one place to another.

Peer pressures, sibling bonding lead children to fall prey to drugs

By Suvecha Pant

KATHMANDU, May 17 : A small group of youngsters gather in a small corner, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd in Dillibazar. They pass a packet and a bottle among themselves. All of them pop in a small tablet and gulp it down with alcohol.

Suddenly the appearance of a boy hushes the group. The boy comes straight to his brother and asks him to come home. Instead, the elder one persuades his sibling to join the group and imitate the seniors.

"My brother told it was fun to have the tablet so I tried it out," said 13-year-old Sanjiv Ghimire, after taking a tablet. When he talked to The Sunday Post he was already under the influence of the drug, and was having a "kind of weird feeling"

The case of Ghimire brothers’ is just an example of how a druggist in a family influences other members, especially his own siblings. A major reason for the ever-increasing number of druggists is linked with the transfer of habit from elder siblings and same age cousins. Experts warn that parents who have a druggist in the family need to take utmost care to save the younger ones from falling into the trap.

Ivana Lohar of Richmond Fellowship Nepal - a rehabilitation centre - says that the children are at risk in their own homes, if anyone of their cousins or siblings gets hooked on to drugs.

"When a brother or sister catches a druggist sibling, generally the user is successful in convincing the younger one to be a part of it, and not to expose the secret," she sad.

Ghimire is an example of how the elder sibling can impress the youngsters. "I know it is bad to take drugs but if my brother is taking it then it shouldn’t be that bad," says Sanjiv Ghimire. "I gave him the tablets so that he would not reveal my secrets to our parents," said elder Ghimire defiantly, but requested not to reveal his name.

When a kid starts spending more time outside; remains aloof; and sulks for minor issues, the parents should keep a close watch eyes on him. Sometimes parents can even know the secret from the younger kids who are not as careful in keeping it.

For instance, Druba Shahi (name changed on request) found out about his son’s habit when a strip of antibiotic tablets fell from his younger son’s school bag. "I was shocked at first," he said. Later, Shahi discovered that his elder son was also into drugs.

"From my experience, I think parents need to be aware that their children can begin taking drugs from anywhere," he said. He also added that to avoid children getting hooked to drugs, parents need to provide a homely and happy environment.

"You need to maintain understanding with your children so that they do not even think about drugs as a way to become free," he adds.

"Chances are high that there is more than one drug user in the family,’ said Jagdish Lohani of Youth Vision, a rehabilitation centre. "In a family where there are lot of cousins of the same age, generally it is seen they take the drugs together."

Experts working with drug users say that this tendency is seen because siblings of the same age are more like friends. However, the sad part is that once two members of the same family take drugs, they unite instead of helping each other to get rid of the habit.

Lohani attributes the drug problems with the changed social structure, nuclear family and working parents. "Due to the busy working schedule of the parents, the kids’ changed habits pass unnoticed and later it becomes too late for correction," he said.