NC CWC meeting continues, focus on party organisation

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, June 29: Nepali Congress Central Working Committee meeting, which was expected to wind up today continued discussions on the organisational activities of the party and the preparations to be done for the party’s tenth General Convention scheduled to be held in October in Pokhara.

"Nine CWC members today opened discussions on the report related with the party’s organisational structure, the challenges before the party and the preparations for the upcoming General Convention," NC spokesman Narahari Acharya said.

Party General Secretary Sushil Koirala prepared the report.

The seventh day of the 36th meeting, which had started at 8:25 a.m. today ended at eleven a.m.

Acharya said that the discussions also focused on the amendment of the party statute.

Those who expressed their views today were former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chiranjibi Wagle, Narahari Acharya, Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Yog Prasad Upadhyaya, Arjun Narsingh K.C. and Nona Koirala.

The speakers voiced their concern about increasing the number of elected members in the party’s CWC. All of them pointed the necessity to constitute a statue amendment committee, Acharya said.

The existing provision is such that the General Convention elects five members including the party President to the CWC from five different development regions.

Respect of judiciary urged

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, June 29: Lawmakers at the House of Representatives today drew the government’s attention towards ensuring the respect of the judiciary and accused the state mechanism of violating the court verdict favouring human rights.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party Parliamentary leader Surya Bahadur Thapa said that the parliamentary system had failed to function as expected due to political parties’ behaviour, adding that drastic changes in the system was needed for the improvement.

Thapa accused the Main Opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of creating terror by vandalising vehicles and abusing the judges after the Special Election Court declared RPP’s Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani elected from Nuwakot-1.

Dr Lohani who lost to UML’s Rajendra Prasad Lohani in the last year’s general election had appealed to the court for recounting the ballots.

"How can the system work when the responsible parties obstruct in this way?" he questioned.

He said that the Main Opposition party’s act was regrettable in the present context when all parties had to work together to improve the country’s deteriorating situation. "Today’s need is not to vandalise but to jointly work towards consolidating democracy and protecting the constitutional values," he said.

UML’s Subash Nemwang, while stating that the party leader had clarified the party’s opinion about the Special Election Court verdict, said that the decision would have no legal validity until the case was finalised by the Appeal Court. "The legal war will continue till then."

He said that UML would remain at the forefront to safeguard the Constitution against any attack from any corner, adding that his party would continue to raise voice for the consolidation of judiciary.

Nemwang accused the police of unlawfully arresting Tara Bhusal in Butwal and lawyer Som Raj Timilsina in Hetauda immediately after the court released them. He demanded the Home Minister to explain the legal provision under which they were arrested and inform the House on their whereabouts.

Pari Thapa of Rastriya Janamorcha (National People’s Front) and Lila Mani Pokharel of Samyukta Janamorcha (United People’s Front) also demanded the government’s clarification on the cases.

Rajendra Mahato of Nepal Sadbhawana Party raised the issue of citizenship problem in the Terai districts and said that some 34 thousand people were deprived of the document.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Gopal Prasad Koirala demanded the government to form a committees to probe the irregularities in the relief fund for political victims and to examine property of politicians and bureaucrats.

NBL image not declining : Official

By Rajkumar K.C

Kathmanud, June 29 - Deposit withdrawals by major clients like the Kathmandu based offices of the United Nations Organizations from Nepal Bank Ltd. have left other parties wondering whether Nepal’s largest bank is losing its image as safe for deposits.

But top officials at the Bank do not take the UN’s recent withdrawal of 220 million rupees as any serious indication to the Bank’s declining image.

"There has been no difference in the total deposits and minor fluctuations of 1-2 per cent in the deposits is a normal phenomenon for any financial institutes," says Bhavanath Upadhya, Acting General Manager of the Bank. "The UN’s withdrawal does not at all affect the total deposits in the bank."

The UN Offices here transferred their deposits to Himlayan Bank amid rumours that both institutional and individual parties had started withdrawing their deposits from NBL and Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB).

The UN’s decision came apparently following a yet-to-be published report by an international audit firm, KPMG Barnet which portrays a pathetic picture of NBL and RBB.

Officials at the two banks say the volume of deposits have actually been rising steadily.

Punya Prasad Dahal, Executive Chairman of RBB, claimed that deposits of the state bank had increased to 39 billion rupees from 36 billion in the current fiscal year.

The deposits at NBL are more than 34 billion, said a senior employee at the Bank. "The deposits are expected to rise this year."

"Rumour has no effect on RBB," says Dahal. "As a government bank, RBB continues to provide effective banking services in every nook and corner of the country."

The overall trend of deposits in these banks show a huge number of depositors still have unwavering faith on RBB and NBL.

Independent analysts, however, caution NBL and RBB not to take the withdrawals lightly because that is a major indication to the decline in the credibility of the banks.

Krishna Mohan Palikhe, manager of RBB Bishal Bazar Branch affirms that his branch has not experienced any decline in the deposit.

Despite all the rumours, these banking institutions still have a significant role in the country’s macro economy.

The parties may still have their faith on these two banking giants, but the losses incurred ever year due to poor management do instill doubts in the minds of potential clients.

However, economists and experts in banking sector are of the view that RBB and Nepal Bank (owned 41% by the government) are urgently in need of massive changes in the operational strategies.

They rule out collapse of these banks since they cover more than 85 per cent of the total banking transaction in the country.

The failure of these banks is in fact the failure of total national economy, says Prof. (Dr.) Guna Nidhi Sharma. "A serious conspiracy is being hatched to debilitate RBB and NBL so as to gain undue benefits. The situation of these banks are not so gloomy as it is made out to be."

Though Nepal’s banking system has witnessed some competitive atmosphere with the emergence of few joint venture banks in the eighties, they are still at incipient stage.

Heavy amount of unused assets, bad loans, corruption and over expenditure in case of these government owned banks, according to the KPMG report, are the major factors behind their perennial problems.

NRB should do justice to banking institutions whether they are public or private. On the one hand joint venture banks are reaping huge amounts of profits by investing in the lucrative areas in cities, whereas NBL and RBB have been providing services to the people in the rural areas bearing a heavy amount of loss.

Nine commercial joint venture banks which are mostly confined in the urban areas hardly cover 15 per cent of the banking transaction across the country. But there arises a question as to why these commercial banks do not go to remote areas like these two banks.

Out of 475 branches of different commercial banks, 153 are in the urban areas and 322 in the rural. Among 322 branches in the rural areas more than 95 per cent belong to NBL and RBB.

Out of 145 billion rupees of total deposits in 13 commercial banks these two banks have more than fifty five per cent share.

Similarly, out of 91 billion rupees of total credit, the contribution of these two banks is more than 55 per cent, according to a bank source. Automatically the loan component of RBB and NBL is much higher than that of private banks.

Experts say if anything goes wrong with these two commercial banks country’s economy will be in serious trouble.

NEWS ANALYSIS
Tourism’s fate looms large on wings and a prayer

BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Kathmandu, June 29: Akin to air crash investigation reports around the world, most of the probes on fatal air accidents in the country have pointed fingers at pilot’s error. Months, if not years, of investigation on such crashes, draw the same "time-and-again-occurring" bottom line: Human error.

The latest two reports on Necon Air and Luftahnsa’s cargo jet crashes – are no exceptions, like all above 30 air accidents in the country since 1975 that killed more than 380 people.

Right or wrong, the conclusion – human error — may still remain debatable. But the cliche has no remedy for one woe – the toll the air-crash news takes on the nation’s air safety that boils down to the tourism industry.

In the aftermath of the crash, the concerned airline’s reputation may be at stake. Equally hit hard, however, will also be the place where the accident took place, especially when it has terrain like Kathmandu Valley does. The dent becomes even more evident if the place is a tourism destination, once again like Kathmandu – international visitors’ gateway to Nepal. Informed would-be visitors would think twice before flying in to such places where crashes are frequent, no matter what the reason.

In such a setting, wrapping up the crash issue with a "human error" conclusion and forgetting the chapter is certainly a suicidal move. What is wise, for instance, is clearly visible in the logo of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. It has the abbreviation CAAN inscribed with the help of four items – an aircraft flying above mountains just taken off from a runway beside which stands a control tower.

Clearly, the logo assures flight-safety even in the mountainous region thanks to the control tower standing erect distinctly. Which means air traffic controllers have vital and instrumental role to play in aviation safety. But are actions speaking louder than words?

If the latest report of the Lufthansa air crash is any indication, there are rooms for doubt. Even if terse, the report has underlined one fact: The Control Tower could have alerted the pilot of the Boeing 727 when it did not follow the standard departure procedure to get out of the capital valley’s mountain rim in the south west. In other words the tower did not do what it could to avert the crash. Here in lies the billion-dollar question – why?

It was for the alerting (aircraft flying in and out) purpose, the terminal Radar System was installed at the Tribhuvan International Airport with the Japanese assistance of US Dollars 34.53 million in 1997. It has been two years since the system became fully operational covering 50 nautical miles under what is known as Terminal Control Area (TMA) in aviation language.

Strangely enough, the Lufthansa jet was only a little above four nautical miles away from the TIA when it crashed atop Mountain Talku Dondechour in the southwest of Kathmandu on July 7 last year. Yet, the Air Traffic Controller failed to alert the pilot who had deviated his aircraft from the specified route.

The two-in-one Radar system including the Primary and Secondary surveillance radar at TIA does show the location of in coming and out-going aircraft and their altitude in the radar scobe for air traffic controllers. That way the control tower is supposed to provide navigational safety to all aircraft flying in and out.

Two biggest air crashes – Thai and PIA (Pakistan International Airways) – in and around Kathmandu in 1992 led to the need of such a facility. More than eight years down the line, it is a dream come true but with the resource still underutilized.

Necon Air crash in Ramkot Village in the west of Kathmandu last year further established this fact. True the incoming Avro was in a VFR flight (meaning the flight was conducted by the pilot’s visibility). But, those monitoring the Radar scobe – that must have shown Necon’s Avro maintaining dangerous altitude – could have alerted the pilot. At least, to make Nepalese skies safe.

The serious lapses, inside sources say, have to do with hitches ranging from obsolete communication system (used between ATCs and pilots in flight) to inadequate manpower to poor working environment for the ATCs.

But, can a tourism destination like Nepal afford to pull on like that in the long run? More so, when 90 per cent of its inbound tourists (half a million recorded in 1999) arrive here by air? When it has signed Air Service Agreements with 30 countries while half that number are yet to begin their incoming flights? And, when it still aspires to bring in more and more international flights to usher increased number of tourists?

The message is loud and clear: Tourism’s fate can’t hang long just on wings and on a prayer.

Nepal’s HDI situation shows no improvement

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, June 29: Human Development Report 2000 (HDR 2000), commissioned by United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP), reveals that Nepal’s human development situation is bleak. Although the country has achieved a slight improvement in its Human Development Index (HDI) value, calculated on basis of people’s access to health, education and life expectancy, it retains its previous position at 144 out of 174 countries studied by the report.

Nepal’s achievements in human development sector lags behind even in comparison to other South Asian neighbours. According to the HDR 2000, Nepal has the lowest life expectancy in the region. Life expectancy at birth in Nepal is 57.8 years in average, which is 4.2 years lower than the average for South Asian Countries.

The report observes glaring disparities in the life expectancy between advantaged and disadvantaged communities. The report calculates the life expectancy at birth for people from disadvantaged groups and castes to stand at 46 years that is 15 years less than that of "upper castes".

Nepal’s Human Poverty Index (HPI) stands at 51.3 per cent, making it one of the only eight countries in the world where more than half of the population suffers from human poverty. When measured by HPI Nepal ranks 80 out of 85 countries for which data is available. The government also recognises poverty as a "major obstacle" in enjoying human rights in the country. It claims that 42 per cent of the citizen are under the absolute poverty line, and classifies 17 per cent of them as ultra poor.

Income inequalities are also vast in Nepal. HDR 2000 observes that the poorest 20 per cent of population earn less than 8 per cent of national income, while the richest 20 per cent earn nearly 50 per cent. The income disparities have badly affected the average income of Nepalese. Nepal’s GDP per capita income is lowest in the South Asian region. Yet, the planner and policy makers seem to overlook the necessity to increase life chances for the poor section of the population. Almost 50 per cent of the spending on education is directed to the richest 20 per cent while a little over 10 per cent goes to the bottom 20 per cent.

Gender discrimination is also observed in Nepal. Presently Nepali is the single country in the world where life expectancy of women is less than that of their male counterparts. Life expectancy for female is calculated to be 57.6 years as against 58.1 years for male. Deprivation from care benefits and low social status is blamed for low life expectancy for women. Biologically, females are expected to live longer than males. Gender based discrimination has also limited human development chances for women. Only 28 per cent of women were literate in Nepal in 1999, which is world’s one of the lowest female literacy rate.

In the recent years, the report observes, attempts have been made towards restructuring of nation’s annual budget to provide non-discriminatory expenditures. Social sector as a percentage of public spending increased from 15.8 per cent in 1985/86 to 29.2 per cent in 1996/97. Although public spending as percentage of GDP fell by 3.2 per cent between the same years, social sector spending allocated to primary health and education, water supply and local development increased towards the international standard. However, the report points out the areas where more improvements are required in budgetary structure. The international benchmark for spending on priority social sector is 5 per cent of the GNP, whereas Nepal spends only 3.4 per cent of GNP in priority social sector.

HRD 2000 proposes bold new approaches to political and economic governance for social justice. It advocates for stronger international action for disadvantaged peoples and countries and to offset global inequalities. At the national level, it calls for inclusive democracy that protects minorities and extension of the state-centred model of accountability to include non-state actors.

Clashing views on recounting verdict

Kathmandu, June 29 (RSS): The Reporters’ Club Nepal organised a face to face programme here today on the verdict regarding the recounting of votes of the Nuwakot district constituency No. 1 handed down by the Special Election Court on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajendra Prakash Lohani of the CPN-UML labelled the Special Election Court decision as manipulated adding that the recounting was done in an utterly irresponsible manner without giving prior information to the concerned candidate violating the correct procedure.

Vice chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani on the other hand said the decision is historical and judicial adding that those who can’t accept the verdict of the court are anarchic and not democratic.

Advocate Shushil Kumar Pant and Niranjan Thapa said the recounting was done as provided by the Special Election Court as per the law, adding that it is an immoral act to call it a bad intent of the court when the decision doesn’t go in one’s favour.

Advocates Hari Krishna Karki and Tika Ram Bhattarai said the decision of the Special Election Court is against the principles and norms established by the Supreme Court.

The programme was presided over by club president Rishi Dhamala.

Sindhuligadhi palace to be renovated

Kathmandu, June 29 (RSS): Minister for Culture, Tourism, Civil Aviation Tarini Datta Chataut has said that the renovation of the Sindhulgadhi palace considered to be of historic and archaeological importance will commence from the forthcoming fiscal year.

Responding to oral questions asked by MPs at the meeting of the House of Representatives today, Minister Chataut said that as the report of the technical team which made a field visit of the palace had already been received, the design in this connection would be prepared in the next fiscal year.

He said at present there was no programme for the development and reconstruction of the historic and religious places of Salyan district such as Kubhinde, Khairabang, Chhayachhetra and Laxmipur Devsthal.

Mr Chataut said "as the proposal for developing Rautapokhari, Sukepokhari and Mainaranithan of Udayapur district as tourist centres had been received by the ministry only recently, schemes for its development would be formulated and implemented soon."

Ganga Prasad Nepal, Prakash Jwala and Suresh Kumar Karki of the CPN-UML had posed questions to Minister Chataut.

Meanwhile, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar has said that taking into consideration the food crisis in the hilly districts of the country, HMG has made provision for additional 50 per cent more foodgrains as compared to that of last year in those districts.

Minister Tamrakar was responding to question posed by Prakash Jwala of the CPN-UML, who had asked what programmes were being introduced to solve the foodgrain problem in the hilly districts, during question hour at the meeting of the House of Representatives today.

Likewise, in response to query of Anand Prasad Pokharel of the CPN-UML, who had asked what was going on for running a slate mine at Bigu, Alambu and Chilamkha of Dolakha district, Minister Tamrakar said at present there was no programme.

When Til Kumar Meyangbo (Limbu) of the CPN-UML asked whether there was any programme to set up a food depot at Khebang and Sadeba of Taplejung district, Mr Tamrakar replied that there was no programme to set such depots at present.