Crucial Round

IT is well past the high time that the Nepal-Bhutan talks reach somewhere. Nine rounds of talks in the past have reached, in effect, nowhere. The tenth round of talks that started Monday has to be made a decisive round, if these talks are to lead the long-festering problem of the Bhutanese refugees in eastern Nepal towards some kind of a solution. Bhutanese human rights activists and refugees, Nepalese politicians of all political parties, intellectuals, foreign policy experts and the general public have strongly urged that this tenth round of joint ministerial level talks somehow break the deadlock. The way out of the imbroglio lies in Bhutan agreeing to advance the process of verifying refugees. Unless there is some movement towards setting in motion the verification process, the latest round of talks can well be consigned to the scrap heap of barren talks that have preceded it. Hence, it is with much interest and hope that the current round of talks is being looked at.

To be watched is whether Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigmi Thinley, in town and talking, will heed the proposal floated by the US government recently which suggested the validation of 100,000 Bhutanese refugees before actually verifying them. This proposal is closer to Nepal's stand which maintains that the refugees should be verified on the basis of family units. For fairness in verification process, naturally all refugees must be verified and identified through the heads of the family. How Bhutan responds to this proposal and whether it agrees to constitute a verification committee fairly soon will demonstrate the degree of its seriousness in solving the refugee problem. Once a fair and speedy verification process starts, whether the refugees in the camps are so or not should be settled fairly quickly as most of them are in possession of some kind of valid Bhutanese document that establishes their nationality as Bhutanese. Then what would remain to be done would be a dignified repatriation of the refugees. Only if the tenth round of talks yields in the formation of a verification committee and a date for starting the verification process, will it be considered to have been any fruitful. Mere announcement towards these ends would not do. The ninth round of talks in Thimpu early this year had agreed to name the verification team and start the verification process soon. But nothing transpired later. The results of the current talks should be much more precise. Nothing less would be acceptable.

Micro Hydro Plants

A NEWS story has it that local people in Lapilang Village Development Committee in Dolkha district celebrated with joy when electricity was supplied to their village first time. Bhadrawati Khola Micro Hydel Project started generating electricity recently and provided power to the local people, giving joy to the villagers who had long been waiting for electricity. This incident speaks of the fact that, despite having potentials of generating more than 83,000 megawatt hydro power, majority of the people in Nepal do not have access to electricity. So far only 369 megawatt electricity has been generated in Nepal, which is far short of the total demands of the country. Statistics show that less than 15 per cent people have access to electricity. This situation demands generation of more electricity and more investment in the power sector. With net tremendous potentials of hydro power the country can benefit a lot if its water resource is harnessed at the optimum level. His Majesty's Government has accorded high priority to harnessing country's immense water resources and hydro electricity development. However, progress has not been achieved to a desired extent owing to lack of adequate capital to invest in this sector. As a result majority of the people are deprived of electricity. Hydro power sector requires heavy investment and the government, with its limited resources, cannot invest for the optimum utilisation of water resources of the country. The government, thus, has invited private sector, both from within and outside the country, to invest in Nepal's power sector. The government has brought about new policies and legal measures to create an investment friendly environment so that more foreign investment would come into Nepal's hydro power sector. As a result, private investment is slowly coming to Nepal's electricity sector. Nepal has the potentials of developing different types of hydro plants-- micro, small, medium and large. The government's policy is to develop all types of hydro plants. Large projects require large investment which is not possible without foreign investment. In the context of Nepal, micro and small hydro plants need to be promoted because micro and small plants require less investment which Nepalese people also can invest. Thus, emphasis need to be given to micro and small hydro plants for the electrification of the country. Medium and big plants need to be developed in order to supply power to industrial sector and to export power to other countries, which is also the policy of the present government.