His Majesty felicitates

Kathmandu, July 17 (RSS): His Majesty the King has felicitated President Saddam Hussain of the Republic of Iraq on the occasion of the Republic Day of Iraq.

In a message of felicitations, His Majesty has extended best wishes for the President’s personal health and happiness and for the progress and prosperity of the people of Iraq.

DDC helping poor villagers: Majgaiya

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 16: The total transaction of Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) during the Fiscal Year 1998/99 amounted to 1.4 billion rupees out of which over 989 million went to the milk selling farmers, 2.7 million rupees daily.

The Corporation collected over 57 million litres of milk and processed over 67 million litres during the FY 1998/99 while the total sale amounted to over 54 million litres.

Established in 1969, the Corporation now collects milk from 39 districts of the nation ranging from eastern hilly district of Panchthar to mid-western district of Surkhet.

The Corporation produced over 161 thousand kgs. of cheese, 1.32 million kgs. of butter, 972 thousand litres of curd and 804 thousand kgs. of ghee, 541 thousand kgs. of skimmed milk powder, 36,293 litres of ice cream and 29,421 kgs. of paneer during the same period.

The Corporation presently has 43 chilling centres and seven dairy development projects located at various towns of the country.

"DDC has served as a key to generate income of the poor villagers and supplies quality products to the city dwellers," State Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives Baldev Sharma Majgaiya said.

"The interests of the Corporation and its employees will be taken care of in case any of its projects is selected for privatisation," Majgaiya said addressing the 32nd anniversary of the Corporation here this afternoon.

"The Corporation has been playing a crucial role to boost the rural economy," Corporation Chairman Bishnu Prasad Mainali said. "It has encouraged the farmers to produce more milk to raise their income."

Corporation General Manager Krishna Praasd Sharma said the limited capacity of the Corporation had left it at a disadvantage against the private sector dairies. Sharma said that the government’s decision to levy Value Added Tax on agro-based products had hampered its business.

The employees however had a different say about the poor performance of the Corporation.

"The Corporation has been hobbled by corruption," DDC union representative Dayaram Rajoura said. "Political interference and the inefficient and irresponsible management are responsible for its present woes."

Calling for probes into corruption cases, Rajoura also appealed to the employees to stay away from politics and work for the growth of the Corporation.

"The Corporation won’t revive unless the web of corruption is torn away," function organising committee member Hariram Poudel said.

On the occasion, State Minister Majgaiya gave away medals to 20 employees who had been serving the Corporation for 25 years. He also gave away prizes to the selected farmers, booth-men and co-operatives.

Seminar on human rights

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 16:"If we can fulfill the basic needs of the people, we can achieve a large portion of the human rights of the people," said Mrs. Kamala Pant, Minister of State for Social Welfare, Women and Children at an international seminar on human rights, Sunday.

The seminar was organised by South Asia Watch Nepal Chapter.

Emphasising on the right to have a full belly as the most important human rights in the South Asian perspective, Minister of State Pant said the government has launched several programmes for this.

The other aspects of human rights, she said, are legal rights, nobody should die because of lack of medicine or medical treatment and freedom of speech.

However, she said in the last ten years we have spoken too much and in the name of freedom of expression we have infringed on the rights of others. "That is a negative attitude," she added.

Calling the present constitution as the most progressive document, the Minister of State said the only thing that is lacking is the effective implementation of the constitutional provisions.

Regarding the Maoist problem, Minister of State Pant said the government is pursuing peaceful means for its solution. But, she said, it is not yet certain when the Maoists will come for talks.

Speaking at the conference, Secretary General of the South Asia Watch Shihidul Islam Talukdar said the people of South Asia should have the right to food, shelter and education.

South Asia Watch is a New York-based organisation with network in many countries also outside South Asia. Saying the UN has failed to solve the problems of the poor people of South Asia, he said it is the South Asians themselves who should work together.

Another speaker, Jahir Siddhiqui, a researcher on international development management said human rights is often confused as political right only and its dimension often limited to the politicians and the political activists. But, he said, human rights is separable from human dignity and is needed to lift human life to a dignified level.

Speaking from the Chair Madhu Acharya said it is a paradox that people have to live in a discriminated environment just because they were born through different wombs, in different caste and as different gender.

Despite the abolition of all forms of discrimination by the country’s constitution, there still are 47 Acts that profess gender discrimination, he said. Lawyer Dinesh Tripathy was also among the others who at the seminar.

Meanwhile, in Bhaktapur, Minister of State Mrs. Pant has said the government has been trying to uplift the social and economic status of the low-income women through the programmes such as bp with the poor and women’s awareness programme.

Mrs. Pant, addressing the sixth general assembly meeting of Nepal Social Service Centre Bhaktapur today, noted that women’s significant contribution to improving the country’s economy by working day in and day out has not been accounted for in the national economy.

She also distributed letters of appreciation to Krishna Prajapati and Surendra Hada for their contribution to local development and certificates to trainees of the micro-credit project basic training.

Various other speakers including DDC vice chairman Ramesh Shrestha also expressed their views at the function chaired by centre’s vice president Janakilal Pradhan.

Foreign aid policy to end dependency: Acharya

Kathmandu, July 16 (RSS): The Finance Ministry organised a programme here today to collect inputs from various sectors in connection with giving a final shape to the draft foreign aid policy made public by the government on July 14.

The participants at the programme stressed the need to include social justice also as one of the objectives of the policy, ensure auditing of the accounts of international non-governmental organisations, decentralize foreign aid, give priority to social mobilisation, activate diplomatic missions abroad to mobilise foreign aid, receive loan only after general survey, stop political interference in development projects, make clear the role of foreign aid in the maintenance of projects after their conclusion and invest foreign aid in the private sector also.

They also spoke of the need to make foreign aid policy more substantial, make the objectives, strategy and mechanism of the foreign aid policy clearer, ensure coordination in implementation and monitoring, make the roles of the Finance Ministry, National Planning Commission and other agencies clearer and improve the process of dialogue with donor community.

At the programme, Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya said the objective of the foreign aid policy should be to ultimately stop depending on foreign aid by ensuring optimum and effective utilization of foreign aid.

Stressing the need to familiarize the donor community with Nepal’s priority, needs and problems, he said discussions will be held with them also in this regard.

Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission Prithvi Raj Ligal emphasized the need to clarify the role of the Finance Ministry, National Planning Commission and other bodies in foreign aid related matters.

Finance secretary Dr Bimal Prasad Koirala expressed confidence that the foreign aid policy will help further enhance cordiality with donor community.

Dr Tika Prasad Pokharel, Dr Jayaraj Acharya, Dr Bal Gopal Vaidya, Dr Arju Deuba, Dr Raghab Dhoj Pant, Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar, Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, Dr Mohan Man Sainju, Dr Bishwambhar Pyakuryal, Dr Mukti Narayan Shrestha, Karna Dhoj Adhikari, Padma Jyoti, Shanta Lal Mulmi, Pratibha Subedi, Srikrishna Upadhyaya, Bishwokeshar Maskey, Surya Subedi, Basudev Lamichhane and Pradip Kumar Shrestha also provided their inputs at the programme.

Environmental activities for preservation of Godavari area

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 16:Environmental activists, local people of Godavari and social workers have strongly demanded the government for immediate removal the Godavari Marble quarry.

If the government fails to listen the voice of the people in connection to this issue, they said a strong protest would be launched.

Social activists blamed the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies of ignoring the sensitive issues. And they pointed out the need mount intense pressure to the government and political parties to resolve the problem.

While speaking at a function, senior journalist Bhairav Risal informed that a memorandum would be handed over to the Prime Minister to preserve the Godavari area.

Archana Karki, an environmental activist who is closely associated with the awareness campaign spoke about the need to generate awareness among the local people.

According to the local people, the Godavari Marble quarry has not only spoiled the atmosphere, but also trigger several problems. The blasting and excavation around the quarry have spoiled the source of water and reduced the productivity of land.

Though the industry occupies the area of nine hectares, it has been given permission to occupy 384 hectares of land at cost of Rs. 16,750 per year. The Godavari area stretches in the area 128.94 Sq. Km and is considered as an important from the point of view of culture and geography.

In 1972, the government had given permission to run the marble industry for the period of 25 years. The contract period came to an end in 2048 BS. But the then government had extended the contract period till 2058 BS (2001). Environmentalists warn that the atmosphere will further worsen if the marble factory is not removed from the area. This area is botanically fragile which is in dire need of preservation, they say.

Tourism policies for protected areas in the making

BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Royal Bardiya National Park, Bardiya, July 16:For the first time since they were established, this national park and four other protected areas — Kanchanjunga, Chitwan, Sagarmatha and Dolpa — are all set to have site-specific tourism policies in the near future.

Tourism experts have already made their field visits here and drafted a policy for this national park. So have they for Kanchanjunga Conservation Area. Studies for Royal Chitwan National Park, Sagarmatha National Park, and Dolpa Protected Area are still ongoing.

None of the 15 protected areas throughout the Kingdom have had any tourism policy ever since they were set up dating back as early as 1972 (Royal Chitwan National Park). Records show above 50 per cent of inbound-tourists visit one or the other conservation area in the country — visited by around 500,000 tourists last year.

The focus of the policies-in-the-making, according to a source involved in drafting the document, is on tourism management and development. "The policies have been prepared considering the questions like what type of tourism management we have and wh nizations, will be handed over to DNPWC that in turn will authorize the protected areas’ wardens with executive powers.

"The theme of such policies will be alternative employment for biodiversity conservation," says Dr. Chandra Prakash Gurung, Country Director of World Wildlife Fund, Nepal Program, that has funded the policy-drafting for Royal Bardiya National Park and Kanchanjunga Conservation Area and also together with SNV for Dolpa Protected Area.

"The policies will talk about community-based tourism with environmental considerations," says Gurung. "The effort is to establish tourism and conservation for each other."

Broadly, the policies will be covering two areas: Tourism management and its development, according to an expert involved in the draft-preparation. The first one comes in the wake of increasing adverse-impact of tourism in places like Royal Chitwan National Park. The spawning lodge and resort operators in its eastern part have already begun to tell on RCNP — renowned for its successful conservation of one horned rhinos and tigers.

"Chitwan is in the state of emergency," says Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, Director General of DNPWC. "That’s why we would first like to implement the policy there."

Almost 100,000 tourists visit the park every year making it the most visited protected area throughout the Kingdom. Areas like this, where human pressure is in the mercurial climb, tourism management is already overdue, says the expert.

Far from the Taraian plain like RCNP, the alarm bell has also sounded in the Himalayan region. One such example is Upper Mustang.

After remaining prohibited for outsiders till the early 90’s, the walled capital of Mustang — Lo Manthang — was opened for visitors since 1992. What started as a protected tourist-destination visited by only 200 visitors in the early months of 1992 soon began to see double the number of tourists that too with decreased permit fee — from US $ 1000 to US $ 700 per person.

The later part of the same year, the number of tourists allowed to visit the Upper Mustang was raised to 1000 in a year. As a result, tourism induced-blotches are already evident in this medieval bastion. "Revenue generation, as opposed to sustainable rural development, was the dominant motivation for opening Mustang," reads a report on Mustang prepared by Dr. Gurung of WWF and Maureen A. DeCoursey.

"Short term profit is overriding long term security, community cohesiveness is breaking down and the environment continues to be degraded."

With such disturbing signals center-staged, the policy has also floored the idea of closing down the national parks during the monsoon season when regeneration and animal-mating take place. But local tour-operators, are already opposing the idea.

Unlike places like Lo Manthang and Chitwan, there are other protected areas with promising tourism potentials yet to be tapped. It is for places like these, the new tourism policy for protected areas will spell development activities.

Existing rules have it that between 30 and 50 per cent of the revenue made by the conservation areas should be ploughed back in the local community.