HM inaugurates Pokhara Tourism Training Centre

Pokhara, Feb. 28 (RSS): His Majesty the King inaugurated the Pokhara Tourism Training Centre building newly constructed under the Council of Technical Education and Vocational Training (ctevt) at ward No. 12 phulbari in pokhara sub-metropolitan city amidst vedic recitals here today.

His Majesty also inspected various facilities like review hall, hotel, restaurant, administration section, cooking and baking facilities, bar, lab and class rooms in the building.

On the occasion, His Majesty was apprised by principal of the Centre Ramhari lamichhane of the objectives, activities and future programmes of the centre.

Upon arrival at the building site, His Majesty the King was greeted by Minister for youth, sports and culture Sharat Singh Bhandari, ctevt vice-chairman Saroj Devkota, member-secretary Jivan Raj Adhikari, principal of the centre Ramhari lamichhane, Kaski DDC chairman punya Prasad poudel, mayor of pokhara Krishna thapa and cdo shyam Sundar Sharma.

The training Centre building was constructed by His Majesty’s Government with the loan assistance of the Asian Development Bank and opec, and the grant assistance of Swiss Development Cooperation. The total construction cost was Rs. 42.5 million.

The centre’s primary objective is to generate more employment opportunities for Nepalese than foreigners in Nepal tourism business by providing them appropriate training, and producing skilled manpower much needed for tourism business.

The centre, which is making efforts to provide quality service to tourism business and generate employment and self-employment opportunities for the unemployed youth, is providing training in waiter/waitress service, front office operation, cooking and baking, house keeping, hotel accountancy, travel agency operation, air ticketing, tour guide, city tour guide and trekking guide. It is also offering courses in the English, French and Japanese languages.

The centre is equipped with state of the art equipment and facilities.

The centre which operates short courses ranging from one week to two months and long course for two months and more is equipped with laboratories and classrooms enough for 200 trainees. Native and foreign nationals trained at home and abroad provide training in different subjects.

Once the trainees receive theoretical and practical knowledge, they are sent to work in or out of pokhara at standard hotels, restaurants and travel agencies as part of on-the-job training.

Eighty-seven of those who have already received such training have taken up jobs at home and abroad.

Chitwan and makwanpur of narayani zone, kaski, syangja, tanahun and gorkha of gandaki zone, and Palpa, Rupandehi, Gulmi and Kapilvastu of Lumbini zone are the target areas of the centre. Besides, the centre also operates training on demand from any part of the country.

The centre has so far launched mobile, short and long courses. Of 200 trainees enlisted for long course for fiscal year 2056/57 bs, 185 are men and the rest are women.

A total of 1,092 men and 314 women have already received short course training.

Besides, 70 trainees including 67 men are also taking other long-course training and 22 persons including 15 men short-course training.

In the training, women’s participation is very low as compared to that of men. However, demand for women workers in tourism business is increasing.

Minimum eligibility for receiving training at the centre is the knowledge to read and write, slc pass, certificate level and diploma level depending on the nature of training.

Seven technicians, 15 administrators and one British volunteer are now at work at the centre.

Foreign trade expanding: Ministry

Kathmandu, Feb. 28 (RSS): Though Nepal has trade agreement with 18 countries, it has been conducting trade with 82 countries, it is learnt from the Ministry of Commerce.

Nepal’s trade was only with Tibet and India fifty years back.

Minister for Commerce Ram Krishna Tamrakar, looking back at the situation of the past, exudes confidence that the foreign trade of the country will go on increasing.

Nepal’s export to India after the restoration of democracy has been found to be increasing as compared to the earlier years.

The minister attributes this growth to the trade treaty signed with India in 2053.

The treaty has provided easy access of the Nepalese products to markets in India. According to the data of 1995-96, 19.6 per cent of the total export of Nepal was to  India and this has increased to 36 per cent in 1997-98.

Thirty per cent of the import trade was with India, according to the data of the previous years.

Nepal has a big trade deficit with India. The data show that Nepal has significant trade with the neighbouring countries of India and China.

As there is open border, it is not unnatural that India has big impact on the trade of Nepal, according to under secretary at the Ministry of Commerce Jeevaraj Koirala.

Being a landlocked country, Nepal has to depend on India for many things. As Nepal does not have direct access to seas,  the structure of foreign trade of the country has been affected to a great extent.

In 1988-99, the trade deficit of Nepal was Rs. 10.0587 billion and it increased to 61.1806 billion in 1997-98. This does not show any significant increase in the export trade.

In 1988-89, the percentage of export was 27.7 in the overall trade. Though the percentage reached 33.4 in 1992-93, the data statistics of 1997-98 shows that the foreign trade of Nepal is not favourable to the country.

It is matter of concern for a developing country such as ours that the export sector is weak and the trade is unbalanced as a result of high pressure of import, former finance minister Mahesh Acharya says during a meet with rss reporter. As the income from the services sector is small and of temporary nature, the deficit in the current account of the country is increasing and the trade weakening.

According to him,  the only option for improving the economy of the country is the promotion and diversification of the export trade.

When the deficit of current account went on decreasing, Nepal should have increased domestic production and consolidated the export trade. But attempts were made to compensate for the deficit in the current  account through short-term foreign loan and investment.

Because of this wrong tendency, Nepal will be facing severe economic crisis one day. This is the reason for the foreign donor agencies and pointing fingers at our economic policy, leader of the Nepali Congress Sujata Koirala says.

The niger seed grown in Nepal is in demand in the usa, europe and Japan. Dairy products, tangerines, oranges, lemons, cardamoms, gingers and vegetables  are also in great demand in Bangladesh.

Statistics show that Nepal has been exporting niger seeds to these countries since the 70s. Rs 134.6 worth of the seed was exported to these countries in 1997-98.

In Nepal, about 500,000 ropanis of land are suitable for growing tea. If a 20-year masterplan is formulated for the cultivation of tea in a scientific manner, there is a possibility of exporting tea worth us dollar 2 billion in the next twenty years at the present prices.

National Planning Commission (npc) member Jagadish Chandra Pokharel says that private sector should be encouraged, banking sector and cooperatives motivated, and development of agriculture carried out in the form of a campaign.

Water is the main source of internal energy in Nepal. If this sector with a potential of 83,000 mw is harnessed, there is a possibility for the country to export power to India and Bangladesh and derive much benefit.

Likewise, handmade carpets, ready-made garments, hides and skins, oil, medicinal herbs, pulses, rice, handicrafts, wood and bamboo products, handmade paper and leather goods are some of the main exportable items of Nepal.

Need  of int’l airport  felt in Pokhara

Pokhara, Feb. 28 (RSS):The need of an international airport is increasingly felt in the bustling sub-metropolis and tourism haven, Pokhara, these day.

There has been unexpected spurt in tourist flow and number of standard hotels in the valley while the urbanisation process is also gaining momentum here. In the face of growing demand for more modern facilities, the existing airport is now unable to cope with the increasing number of tourists.

With the advent of open air policy and private sector participation in aviation sector, cargo handling activity has increased sharply but the airport is still without night service facilities. These are one of the main reason why the need of an international airport, in the form of an alternative to the existing one though, is gaining support here.

Development taking place in education, health, industrial sectors, establishment of regional office govt. and ngos’ offices here also calls for development of Pokhra from the standpoint of transport.

In this context, it may be noted that over the last twenty-five years, about 158 hectares of land has been acquired in several phases for the construction of a new airport at Chhinedanda in the valley. The place is four kilometres from the down town Pokhara.

As the place was thought appropriate from technical point of view, an engineering survey to that effect was conducted there and an airport master plan  was prepared in 1969.

A German engineering consultancy firm completed a detailed design for the purpose in 1971. Thereafter, jica made a fresh study about it and submitted a master plan suggesting more extensive runway.

It is possible to build there a runway of 2500 metre length which will enable a medium range aircraft like B-757 to land there, according to the knowledgeable sources.

The proposed airport will enable Pokhra to have direct link at least with Asian countries. However, it does not have enough space for developing physical infrastructures  commensurate with any prospective international airport.

The existing airport with its north-south orientation has some technical snags that limit its runway extention to only 1447 and the proximity of mountains also poses some problems of direct plane landing and take-off, thereby making it difficult to provide night flight services.

The old airport earns about Rs. 20 million annually from air flight services but  precludes the possibility of adding various facilities needed to tackle the growing passenger flow.

For many orphanages, children are objects of profit

BY HEMLATA RAI

Kathmandu, Feb. 28: Orphanages and homes are made into a profit making business by many in Kathmandu. And, the gullible children seeking shelter in those institutions are used, by foreigners and Nepalese, only as means for attracting funds, a recent investigation unfolded.

A group of twenty children in last one and half months were juggled into the hands of three different guardians and were “rescued” twice by police from pitiable conditions. Children Act 1992 strongly forbids the transfer of guardianship of children between homes, between persons or from a home to person and vice versa. The Act clearly states transfer of guardianship could be obtained only with a legal permission from government appointed Child Welfare Officer under the circumstances of death or lose of mental balance or bankruptcy or for legally proved involvement of previously appointed legal guardian in criminal activities. A legal guardian can also retire from guardianship if the person is unable to meet his legal obligations of bringing up the child. In case of the twenty children, guardianship was transferred between two homes without completing legal proceedings.

“I suspect monitory transactions between the homes, because the children made good profit for the orphanage administrators. At the cost of the children, the administrators bought luxuries for themselves,” says Hari Shivakoti, the house-owner, at whose place at Gongabu the twenty children were kept for about four and half months on rent under the banner of Nepal Orphan, Handicapped and Disabled Service Improvement Association (NOHDSIA). The organisation is registered with Social Welfare Council.

The NOHDSIA Chairman Nar Bahadur Raut, representing unanimous consent of the organisation’s executive body members, entered an agreement with Nanda Kumari Kulu of Yatkha to transfer the guardianship of all the twenty children under the home’s shelter. The agreement paper, drafted on a plain A4 size paper was signed between the two parties on December 31, 1999. The agreement paper ends the claim of NOHDSIA over the children but allows to maintain contact with them and shifts the full responsibility of their guardianship to Kulu. 

“A paper signed like that has no legal meaning, it is illegal to transfer guardianship that way,” says advocate Sharda Subba. 

“Now I realise it was a mistake. My intention was only to help the children find a better home,” Kulu says with a claim that before entering such agreement she did not consult a professional lawyer. However, the children did not stay with Kulu instead they were transferred to Helping Hand home situated at Sanepa (the place was previously run as Hotel Lalitpur, but later it was rented to the two foreigners on monthly rent of Rs. 100,000 for running a hotel with a new name) that is run by Evelyn Dunn, an Indian and Edwin Gill, an Australian. Helping Hand is an unregistered institution therefore not allowed to carry out any activities within Nepal. Nevertheless, the organisation has despatched appeals for monetary help through newspapers and Internet and has collected funds from individual donors as well as through sale of paintings and sculptures at its art gallery at Thamel. (A registered social organisation by the same name is also operative in Nepal.)

“Since the agreement paper was prepared in Nepali, the foreigners refused to sign it,” says one of the executive members of NOHDSIA asking for anonymity. Kulu also claims that the three parties “orally” agreed to the arrangement that Kulu would sign the agreement but the children will be transferred to Helping Hand, which will bear responsibility of guardianship.

The children’s stay there did not last long. On January 20, 2000 police intervened to return the children back to their previous home as a complaint registered against Nanda Kulu by Evelyn Dunn that the former made claim over the children without any legal standings. Nevertheless, the police intervention failed to return the children back to their previous home, they remained with Helping Hand.

Kulu, who also chairs a registered social organisation to work with children, agrees that she demanded the children back when the foreigners threatened to return to their respective countries leaving the children “homeless once again”. Later, a former NOHDSIA executive member who was involved in both the first and second agreement signed by NOHDSIA, also demanded the twenty children to shelter at her newly registered home. In spite of those demands and police order to return the children to their previous home, they were kept with Helping Hand till the Women Cell at Kathmandu Valley Police Office “re-rescued” the children last Friday.

“Unless the government develops proper mechanism to check on conducts of these homes, children are always at risk,” says Inspector Gita Uprety with the Women Cell. The police sources charge that both the homes were mistreating the children and abusing them as “objects to advertise” to attract funds from within and outside the country. It is reported that the girl children were sexually molested by NOHDSIA Chairman Nar Bahadur Raut, beaten by Sushil Dutt, an Indian who also carries a business card that identifies himself as chairman of the organisation, and were maltreated by General Secretary Bed Prasad Adhikari.

“Sir used to make us beg for vegetables and collect donation from shops,” says nine-year-old Lyangma Tamang. But, she complained, the vegetables thus collected were never served to them. “Sir and his friends used to consume all.”

The children also relate their bad experiences living at Helping Hand home. Pradip Shrestha, 11, and Man Bahadur Lama, 10, complain that home failed to  provide medical help when they felt acute pain  and Krishna Thapa was not taken to doctor when he sustained deep wound that resulted in loss of blood and serious infection. Pilot Lama, 13, complains of being locked away for blowing a balloon. While, Raj Kumar Raut complains of being underfed.

American Reverend Joseph Richard, former co-worker of Dunn and Gill and a psychological counsellor, claims of having observed “violent behaviour, mental instability and sexual problems” and expresses concern about “improper threats to children” from both.

Eddie Gill was not available to defend allegations made against him, Evelyn Dunn refused to be quoted, while Nar Bahadur Raut is under police investigation.

UML to launch protests from next week

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Feb. 28:The Main Opposition Communist Party of Nepal. United Marxist Leninist has announced to launch a movement next week demanding the government to control corruption and ensure peace and security in the country.

The seven week long movement that would begin from March 3  would basically create public awareness about the rampant corruption in government offices and carry out “people’s action,”  if need be, against the offenders, said UML leader Khadga Prasad Oli who is coordinating the movement.  

Oli accused the government of paying least attention to the issues of public good. “The movement is not our desire but a compulsion since the government, that should be accountable to people, is indifferent to the burning issues, including corruption, violence, unemployment and poverty,” he said. “These problems have not only adversely affected the ordinary citizens and deprived them of their fundamental rights but also posed a great threat to the system.”

Responding to a query, Oli said that his party would invite all the opposition parties, if they show interest, to participate in the movement. “We are having consultations with them.”

United Left Front of nine communist parties have also announced to launch a similar type of movement.

In response to another query, Oli said that the Maoist problems should be solved through dialogue. “The government should create a favourable environment for peace talks with the rebels.”

The underground Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist that began “people’s war”  in early 1996 has formally shown a positive response for dialogue to end the insurgency that has claimed more than 1100 lives so far.

New home for one-horned rhinos

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Feb.28: In wake of its growing population entailing ecological disturbance and increasing human-confrontations at the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP), one horned rhinos are being translocated to the Royal Bardia National Park (RBNP), a WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) press release stated here today.

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), with technical assistance from the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation and financial assistance from the World Wide Fund for Nature, Nepal Programme, started the translocation of ten rhinos from the RCNP to the RBNP yesterday.

“This initiative has been taken in a bid to provide a second home for the one horned rhinos to protect it from the natural and other disasters and also to minimize the incidence of human-rhino interactions in the RCNP,” read the press release. “Of the targeted 10 rhinos, two have already been translocated yesterday. The relocation of all ten rhinos is expected to take about seven to 10 days.”

The DNPWC has already translocated 42 rhinos between 1986 and 1999. “More than 50 rhinos roaming in the Bardia Park today are part of the two viable populations — one in RCNP and the other in RBNP — of the species in the country,” added the press statement. 

Once on the verge of extinction in the early 50’s, the conservation of the then endangered species that began in the late 60’s, has today resulted into more than 400 rhinos in the RCNP alone.

But, together with the number growth of the protected species came other problems like its inadequate habitat, death of the rhinos as a result of fighting against each other, hostile meeting with neighbouring human in the park’s buffer zone, among others.

The RCNP, according to WWF, has only some pockets of habitat for rhinos. “Due to natural succession of the Khair, Sisso, Simal and other trees, the grassland habitat is shrinking.”

As a result, high population densities of the rhino have been found in the border areas of the park that has high diversities of habitat types, said the international fund for nature. And it is the same bordering areas where the buffer zone is located.

Which means the risk of confrontation between human and  rhinos has doubled. “Crop raiding by the rhinos in the adjoining crop fields as well as occasional rhino related human casualties have already occurred in the park,” the press release confirmed.

Rhinos invading the human settlements in the neighbouring areas of the park has been one of the burning problems in national park management in the Terai. That is yet another reason, the protected species faces threat from dissatisfied locals in the buffer zone. Cashing in on the situation of the local hatred are poachers engaged in killing of rhinos for their horns.

The one horned rhino is the prime attraction of the RCNP — the most visited natural site in the country. Included in the World Natural Sites of UNESCO, RCNP attracts more than 100,000 tourists every year.