Tomorrow’s NC’ meet crucial, says Khadka

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 17:Former minister Khum Bahadur Khadka sees Tuesday’s meeting of the Central Working Committee of the Nepali Congress as being crucial to deciding how the ruling party will go ahead with its upcoming national convention.

"If the meeting cannot find a way of forging unity within the party, elections will decide the outcome of the convention, which will not be able to maintain harmony in the party," Khadka told the meet-the-press programme organised by Reporters’ Club today.

Khadka was expelled from the cabinet about four months back by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala over what, Khadka claimed, was disagreement over the list of active membership of the party for the upcoming national convention that will choose a new president.

Khadka said he was making several propositions at the CWC meeting for the unity of the party, but declined to elaborate. He said democracy would face grave consequences if there was disunity in the party.

"Against this backdrop, the party’s top two leaders — Koirala and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai - must bear the blame."

Though claiming to be close to the camp of Koirala’s rival Sher Bahadur Deuba, he said he would make his position clear only after Tuesday’s meeting.

He, however, denied reports that he was ushering in a no-confidence motion against the government.

Earlier in the morning, Khadka had met with Prime Minister Koirala, who is also the party president, and had discussed political issues.

He described the political, economic and the law and order situation of the country as confusing and crisis-ridden. "Unity within the Nepali Congress is a prerequisite to solving these problems. As Prime Minister and president of the party, Koirala should take the lead in this endeavour," he said.

He even warned that going to the local elections due next year with a divided mentality could prove disastrous to the party.

At the press meet, he called on Koirala and Bhattarai to retire from active politics. "I have asked the two leaders to assume the role of patrons and let the younger leaders compete, both in the government and the party," Khadka said.

Talking about the law and order situation, Khadka said the Home Minister, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, made a blunder by releasing Maoist Dinesh Sharma recently after holding a press conference.

"Had Sharma been handed over to Padma Ratna Tuladhar who was mediating between the government and the Maoists, then it would have been easy to ascertain if the Maoists were serious about holding talks with the government.

Despite his much publicised differences with Koirala, Khadka said the Koirala family was like an institution in the Nepali Congress.

He even went on to say that no member of the party thinks Koirala is bad. "Only he has been entangled himself in a net of problems."

Hotel row has left tourism reeling

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec.17: One week after hoteliers and hotel employees’ unions declared cease-fire on their 10 per cent service charge row, tourism industry continues to suffer from the significantly decreased number of tourist arrivals.

The dwindled turn out of tourists is the direct fallout of tour operators’ public notice (on the first week of this month) stating their inability to handle clients due to the earlier threatening of the hotel employees’ unions to close down hotels from December 11.

The unions had warned they would resort to shut down strike if their 10 per cent service charge demand – to be levied on every hotel clients – was not met. With hoteliers refusing to meet the demand, tour operators had started faxing to their clients explaining them the troublesome scenario here.

In return, what began to trickle in was cancellations of trips of wannabe Nepal-visitors. To add insult to injury, hoteliers decided to close down their hotels — even if for one day, on December 11 – after unions decided to postpone their strike for two months following their agreement with the government.

As a result, already hit by significant number of cancellations, tourist category hotels in the capital are still reeling under poor occupancy. Hotel Soaltee Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, for instance, today had around 40 per cent occupancy. According to the Sales Department of the hotel, it received around 800 room nights (meaning, one room would have remained occupied for 800 nights) cancellations after the strike threats.

Similarly, the new entrant in the upper category hotel, Taragaon Hyatt Regency today recorded around 40 per cent occupancy. With not even 30 per cent occupancy today, Hotel Sherpa did not have any good news either. "The groups, that we had to cancel due to the strike threats, could not be reinstated," said Sumita Rana, Sales Manager of the hotel.

During the corresponding period last year, Hotel Sherpa had recorded around 50 per cent occupancy.

More alarming has been the case with Hotel Annapurna. According to its Sales Department Officials, the hotel’s tour operators in the United Kingdom has cancelled 26 groups till March next year.

Within one week after the hoteliers and hotel employees’ threatened to close down the hotels, two conference groups cancelled their visits. An official with the Sales Department of the Hotel said clients are still sending their cancellations. "We are down by around 20 per cent."

Records maintained by Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) paint equally bleak picture. Hotel Everest, according to Madhav Om Shrestha, a senior official of HAN, received cancellations of 84 clients. The hotel has altogether 105 rooms. "At the moment they say they have no guests at all."

Another five star hotel — Radisson — had to bear with around 300 cancellations due to the unsettled dispute of the 10 per cent service charge during the second week of this month.

Moderate category hotels like Vaishali at Thamel saw 200 cancellations in the aftermath of the wrangling of hoteliers and their employees’ unions on the service charge issue. "The hotel is still saying it will take good number of days for compensation."

The fact that hotels are not having enough clients means even other tourism components are hit hard too. Travel agents are no exceptions. "After we had to cancel the bookings, we are having tough time to rope in our clients," said Shashi Ram Bhandari, General Secretary of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA).

"We have been pleading to international tour operators to send us our clients but it’s a tough nut to crack," said Bhandari whose clients were diverted to Turkey and Egypt after the cancellation here. "It will take at least one year to convince the international tour operators now."

Veteran tourism entrepreneur Tek Chandra Pokharel said the cancellations of the clients would have a long term impact in Nepalese tourism industry. "When our small organisation (Shangrila Tours) suffered the loss of around US Dollars 35,000 due to the cancellations, bigger travel agents must have had bigger loss."

At a time when it still remains unclear when would the national tourism industry return to normalcy, yet another threat looms large for the travel trade. And that is nothing else then the same unresolved 10 per cent charge issue.

The tug of war between hoteliers and the unions has ended for the time being after the government assured both the parties that the service charge issue would be resolved within two months. A high level committee – headed by National Planning Commission Vice Chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal – has already been formed to look into the matter.

Bastola, Kadirgamar discuss ties, SAARC issues

Kathmandu, Dec. 17 (RSS): Visiting Sri Lankan Minister for Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadirgamar met Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.

The foreign ministers of Nepal and Sri Lanka also held official talks at the Foreign Ministry this afternoon.

During the meeting, both the ministers discussed the possibility of holding the meetings of SAARC Charter bodies including the postponed 11th SAARC Summit in Nepal.

They also stressed the need to give continuity to the ongoing activities of SAARC. Matters of bilateral interests were also discussed during the meeting.

Talking briefly to reporters at the end of the meeting, Srilankan Foreign Minister Kadirgamar disclosed that India will be participating in a series of SAARC technical committee meetings scheduled to be held at Islamabad, Pakistan on January 5 and 7, 2001.

Foreign Minister Bastola told reporters that matters relating to SAARC as well as to Nepal-Sri Lanka bilateral relations were discussed during today’s meeting.

Sri Lankan Ambassador to Nepal Mrs. Pamela J. Deen, foreign secretary Narayan Shumsher Thapa and senior foreign ministry officials were also present at the meeting.

Earlier, the foreign minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was received by secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Nihal Rodrigo at the VIP bay of the Tribhuvan International Airport.

During a brief press meet at the airport, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister said, the objective of his visit is "to have consultation with the Nepalese Government over SAARC."

He aimed to hold the meetings of all the seven SAARC technical committees in the first four months of next year, he said.

He also expressed the confidence that the SAARC standing committee meeting could be held in the near future.

On the occasion, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Nepal, Pamela Deen Jayasekera, foreign secretary Narayan Shumsher Thapa and high officials of the SAARC Secretariat and the ministry of foreign affairs were also present.

'CAN lauds II policy as ‘milestone’

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 17: Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) has hailed the new information technology (IT) policy released recently.

Labelling the policy a milestone in Nepal’s IT scenario, CAN said that it had recognised the fourfold strategic issues of conducive environment for IT business, global framework for IT, internationalisation and Nepal’s computerisation.

The policy has addressed the concerns of infrastructure, institutional environment and education, stated a press release issued by CAN. The proposal to put Nepal in the global IT map in five years’ time is a good sign, the press release read.

CAN said that the state alone would not be able to do all the work adding the private sector also needed to work hand in hand with the government for successfully achieving the vision.

Now it is time that the industry and the government work together, the press release said.

Journalism dignified profession: Panta

Kathmandu, Dec. 17 (RSS): Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare Kamala Panta has said that since journalism is a challenging and dignified profession, those involved in this sector should work for the uplift of the society by maintaining objectivity and professional freedom.

Inaugurating a one-day interaction programme on "male participation in the development of women journalism" organised by the Women Journalists Association of Nepal (WOJAN) here today, Minister of State Panta said, "journalism sector has developed as a result of the freedom of the press guaranteed by the constitution following the restoration of democracy in the country."

She further said co-operation from all sectors was essential for women journalists in order to continue this process of development.

Women have the courage and honesty to work. But they have lagged behind because of the lack of opportunities, she said, pointing out the need to provide opportunity to the women, be they in journalism or other sectors, to encourage them for further progress.

Nepal Press Union president Kulchandra Wagle said that democracy was established for the survival of the society and a search for societal dignity.

But men have also become the victims of social, economic and intellectual discrimination as a result of the thrill in the process of all the classes of people and professions trying to fight for their rights and welfare immediately following the restoration of democracy, he observed.

General secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Taranath Dahal expressed the view that women, more than men, had been attracted towards journalism over the years and journalism training institutions were the testimony to this fact.

Programme director of Media Point Arjun Bista disclosed that 160 men and 38 women were enrolled for the sixth batch ten-month journalism training course to be conducted by the media point.

General secretary of the Mass Communications Academy Amrita Baskota said that the mass media should not hurt the sentiment of the women.

General-secretary of WOJAN Yashoda Timsina, executive director of Himalaya Times daily Kalyani Shaha and F.E.S. representative P Kharel also expressed their view at the programme.

Associate-editor of the Nepal Samacharpatra daily Tanka Panta had presented a working paper at the interaction programme.

Hamal opens Rugmark’s AGM

Kathmandu, Dec. 17 (RSS): Minister of State for Labour and Transport Management Surendra Hamal inaugurated the 4th annual general meeting of Nepal Rugmark Foundation here today.

Established five years ago with a view to eradicating child labour from carpet industries in Nepal, the Foundation has rehabilitated 402 child labourers, 159 of whom are lying under the care of the foundation at present, while the rest have returned home.

The foundation says steps are underway to rid 131 carpet industries of child labour through agreements.

The Foundation with its ramification in ten countries of the world is presently getting financial assistance from UNICEF and GTZ.

At the inaugural function, Minister of State Hamal said employing children in risky jobs would be against social justice and human rights, and such activities would not only retard their intellectual development but also stunt the country’s durable social and economic growth.

"The government is awake to promotion of child rights and is adopting policy to ban pernicious form of child labour by 2005 and all kinds of child labour by 2010" he said, adding that it was co-ordinating the efforts of national and international organisations for that end.

At the function, minister of state hamal awarded letters of commendation to three Nepalese and three foreign carpet companies exporting and importing largest amount of Rugmark-labelled carpet.

Nepal Rugmark Foundation chairman Buddhendra Raj Joshi presided.

General secretary of the Foundation Keshav Bhakta Mathema and UNICEF Nepal representative to Nepal Dattatreya Raya shed light on the activities of the Foundation.

‘Democracy can’t be preserved without rule of law’

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec.17 Democracy cannot be preserved without the rule of law. This view was expressed by participants at an international conference organised by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Centre at Missoula in Montana state in the United States.

The conference was attended by politicians and legal experts from Nepal, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Uzbekistan and the USA..

On the occasion, the participants said that since 1990, democracy has been deeply rooted in the whole world and that awareness about democracy in Asia had spread rapidly.

On behalf of South Asia, lecturer at Tribhuwan University and visiting Professor at the University of Montana Law School Upendra Dev Acharya had presented a working paper on the mobilization of natural and environmental resources in South Asia and the rule of law.

Presenting the working papers, Acharya said that sustainability through economic upliftment and balanced development of natural resources were important factors in eradicating poverty.

He further noted that an independent working procedure should be launched in the legislature, judiciary and executive bodies in order to conduct the rule of law based on development policies. He said democracy without development is not sustainable, just as democracy cannot be achievement-oriented without the rule of law.

US senator Max Baucus, commenting on his working paper, said such important concepts were relevant and added political and social stability cannot be maintained without the rule of law.