HM opens Khimti hydel project

Kathmandu, Nov. 27 (RSS): His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev inaugurated the 60 Megawatt-Khimti-I Hydroelectricity Project by unveiling a copper plaque amidst vedic rituals at Kirne of Dolkha district today.

Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah was present on the occasion.

After the inauguration, Their Majesties the King and Queen inspected with keen interest the project control room and the underground power house.

At the inaugural function, Their Majesties were offered an idol of Jaldevi and the national dress of Norway by general manager of Himal Power Limited (HPL) Dr Harald O. Skar.

Upon arrival at the project site, Their Majesties the King and Queen were greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Ramchandra Poudel, Minister of State for Water Resources Ram Bahadur Gurung, HPL chairman Sverre Nygaard, the CDOs and DDC chairmen of Dolkha and Ramechhap districts.

At the inaugural function, Deputy Prime Minister Poudel said the present government has given emphasis to development process based on hydropower with a view to attaining economic growth and alleviating poverty by harnessing the country’s abundant water resources.

Thanks to the post-democracy government policy of encouraging the Nepalese as well as foreign private sectors to invest in Nepal’s water resources sector, various hydropower projects like the Khimti-I have come into being, he said, adding the government is considering a new hydroelectricity policy to attract more foreign investment in this sector.

Stating that less expensive, reliable and good electricity service is the need of the day, Deputy Prime Minister Poudel urged investors to implement power projects in such a manner that the Nepalese economy can sustain them.

Since very little has been achieved in the power sector despite tremendous potentials a majority of the population is still deprived of electricity, he said, stressing the need to give priority to the local people’s need in the districts where power projects have been implemented.

Norwegian Deputy Minister for International Development Sigrun Modegal said that the Khimti-I, the first and biggest power project implemented jointly by the public and private sectors of Nepal and Norway, has further strengthened the ties of friendship between Nepal and Norway.

The project will significantly contribute to Nepal’s economic development, he observed.

HPL chairman Sverre Nygaard said thanks to Nepal’s liberal water resources policy that this project has come into being.

He also indicated the Norwegian private sector’s willingness to make similar investment in Nepal’s hydropower sector in the days to come.

Dolkha DDC chairman Lal Kumar K.C. said the project has opened up new vistas of development in the district. He, however, complained that the people of the district have not received electricity services from the project.

The U.S. $ 140 million-power plant is owned and operated by HPL Dtatkraft (73 per cent), Butwal Power Company (15 per cent), Alstom Power and Ge Energy (6 per cent each) as shareholders.

Under the license of the project, 50 per cent of the ownership of the power plant will be transferred free of charge to His Majesty’s Government after 20 years and the remaining 50 per cent of the ownership will be transferred when the license expires after 50 years.

Khimti-I, which is a run-of-the-river type project located 170km east of Kathmandu, was linked to the national grid in March and by July 11, it began commercial operation. Annual generation is estimated to be 350 GWH.

The project’s underground power house contains five pelton turbines. The project utilizes a gross head of 684 meter in the Khimti River. Total length of the waterways including headrace and tailrace tunnel is 10 km.

The first agreement signed in 2050 B.S., under which Nepal Electricity Authority had agreed to buy all the electricity generated from the project, was revised in 2052 B.S.

As agreed upon the electricity generated from the project will be purchased on take up pay basis.

HPL has set up a management team for running a rural electrification and development programme of 3000 houses and upgrading a 500 kilowatt-mini hydro-plant. The project will gradually be handed over to the local community.

Likewise, with the financial assistance from the Norwegian Government Aid Agency (NORAD), schools and a small hospital have been constructed in the area in connection with the power plant.

Princess Anne inspects Maiti Nepal’s transit home

Bhadrapur, Nov. 27 (RSS): Her Royal Highness Princess Anne of the United Kingdom inspected Maiti Nepal’s transit home at Kakarvitta of Jhapa district and the Primary Health Care and rehabilitation centre at Satighatta today.

Upon arrival at the centre, Her Royal Highness the Princess was welcomed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola, Minister of State for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Narendra Bikram Nemwang, mayor of Mechinagar Municipality Sabin Koirala, Maiti Nepal chairperson Anuradha Koirala and other distinguished persons.

On the occasion HRH the Princess also inspected Maiti Nepal’s check post at Kakarvitta.

British Ambassador Ronald Nash was also present on the occasion.

Since 1997, about 808 Nepalese girls have been rescued at the initiative of Maiti Nepal, which has been actively working for the rescue and rehabilitation of Nepalese girls and women being trafficked outside the country.

Established in 2049 B.S. Maiti Nepal is working for the prevention of girl trafficking and providing training and employment to the women at risk.

It also runs rehabilitation programme for the rescued women, provides health check-up services to HIV carriers and legal assistance to the victims of domestic violence.

Objectivity in journalism helps correct anomalies: Gupta

Rajbiraj, Nov. 27 (RSS): Minister for Information and Communications Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta expressed the view that proper development of journalism will help control social anomalies and aberrations in the country.

Inaugurating the annual general meeting of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Saptari district unit here today, Minister Gupta said an able and efficient body linked with journalism can make an import contribution for the enhancement of public pressure and awareness in the society.

Transmission and publication bodies should receive full freedom, and there is no need for anyone to be afraid or panic from the freedom enjoyed by such bodies, he added.

Stating that journalism today is heading towards influencing the society on the basis of investment rather than reliability and honesty, Minister Gupta said though the state has not been able to play a major role in the journalism sector it has guaranteed freedom to the sector.

MPs Jagdish Prasad Shaha and Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav, FNJ central vice-president Kaushal Chemjong shed light on the role of journalism in the development of society and country.

At the function Minister Gupta felicitated senior journalists of the district Muktinath Mandal, Ram Prasad Khatiwada, Ram Narayan Dev, Anil Kumar Anal, Shivahari Prasad Bhattarai and Dhruva Kumar Malla Thakuri.

FNJ Saptari district vice-president Ganesh Lal Dev, treasurer Byas Shanker Upadhyaya, CDO Balkrishna Prasain and other speakers also expressed their views.

Meet discusses WTO agreements on agriculture

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Nov. 27: A 5-day sub-regional workshop on Uruguay Round Follow-up and Multilateral Trade Negotiations on Agriculture started in Lalitpur today.

Around 50 participants from nine Asian countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – are participating in the workshop being jointly organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The workshop is one of the 14th sub-regional capacity-building exercises covering approximately 160 countries being carried out by the FAO.

Inaugurating the workshop National Planning Commission (NPC) member Dr. Jagadish Pokharel said that the workshop was expected to discuss issues concerning the multilateral trade negotiations on agriculture, existing World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements regarding trade on agricultural goods, their operational aspects in the developing and least developed nations and the problems faced by such countries.

Thanking the organisers for selecting Nepal as venue for such a sub-regional meet Dr. Pokharel further said that this type of dialogue will help the participating nations to identify their problems and discuss on how they can be minimised. He also added that national negotiating capacity building could also get a boost from such dialogues.

The workshop aims at enhancing national capacity on WTO issues relating to agriculture and will cover the relevant Uruguay Round Agreements which had focused on agriculture, sanitary/phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.

The workshop also seeks to promote better understanding of emerging issues and topics relevant to the negotiations relating to agriculture, and special issues of regional and sub-regional concern in these areas.

Addressing the function co-ordinator of the workshop Dr. Purushottam Mudbhary said that the chief objective of the meet was to enable participants to understand fully the existing WTO agreements, the rights and obligations of countries under those agreements and particular problems that have risen in their implementation that may require further negotiations.

The other objectives, according to him, are to provide the participants the means to analyse new issues that are likely to arise in the negotiating process and the implications of various proposals as well as to take up and debate special issues of regional and sub-regional concern.

He further said that the workshop was also designed to contribute to building analytical and policy-making capacity at the national level.

The inaugural function was also addressed by FAO representative in Nepal Winston R. Ruddor, secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mohan Dev Pant, Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Dr. Mukti Narayan Shrestha.

There are 11 Nepalese professionals and experts from various ministries, policy-making offices and business organisations participating in the workshop.

Journalism should be imbued with social mission

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Nov. 27: General Secretary of CPN (UML) and leader of the main Opposition party in the House of Representatives Madhav Kumar Nepal today said that journalism could only be meaningful if it has a mission of bringing about changes in the society.

"Journalism must have a clear mission to lead the society to a right direction. This alone can contribute to the national development and social changes," Nepal said.

Nepal was expressing the views while speaking at a function organised by Abir Prakashan (P) Limited, publisher of Budhbar vernacular weekly, on the occasion of the paper’s sixth anniversary on Monday in Kathmandu.

He further said that journalism could also be instrumental in activating the people against all types of injustice and atrocity inherent in society.

"Journalism has to be dedicated towards the nation, people and democracy."

Commending the role of the weekly in disseminating information among the people, he said that the weekly has its own identity and existence among the readers.

Extending his best wishes to the weekly, Spokesman of the ruling Nepali Congress Narahari Acharya said that despite several emerging challenges, Budhabar has become successful in establishing itself as a popular newspaper among the readers.

Recalling the significant role of the weeklies in the restoration of democracy, Acharya also said that Nepalese journalism has currently witnessed diversification.

Member of Parliament and founder editor of the weekly Raghuji Pant observed that the investments of the publications are not the funds, but their readers.

Pant, who is the chairman of the Abir Prakashan (P) Limited and who also chaired the function, said that the journalists who have been affiliated with the weekly are efficient and professional.

President of Nepal Press Institute and senior journalist Gokul Pokhrel was of the opinion that the weekly has been able to fulfil the need of information dissemination.

Similarly, President of Editors Society Nepal and senior journalist Govind Biyogi said the country’s journalism sector has taken up a new momentum after the restoration of democracy as more investors have started investing resources in this sector.

Delivering his welcome speech, Editor of the weekly Kundan Aryal said that he was eager to know about the responses of the weekly’s readers.