UML for govt-Maoist talks to end crisis: Nepal

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct 14: The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) is looking forward to initiate efforts towards bringing the Maoists, who have been conducting armed insurgency in the name of the so-called "peoples’ war" to come to the negotiating table.

"We have been approached by the left parties along with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and the Nepal Sadbhawana Party to direct efforts towards pressing the Maoists to hold talks with the government and put an end to violence," CPN (UML) General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said.

Nepal however said that the CPN (UML) would not play the role of a mediator between the government and the Maoists.

"We had a meeting with the eight left parties on October 10 and the left leaders called upon the CPN (UML) to take the initiative to address the Maoist problem," Nepal told a tea reception organised at the party’s central office on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami.

He said that the CPN (UML) had not received an official notification of the demands of the Maoists.

"We look forward to call upon the Maoist leaders to spell out their demands officially so that we can take the initiative to bring them to terms with the government," Nepal said.

He said that the party would also ask the government about the demands of the Maoists.

The CPN (UML) has volunteered to take the initiative to address the Maoist problem in the capacity of the main opposition party in the parliament for the first time.

"It is unfortunate that the government has decided to mobilise the army at the instruction and supervision of the Chief district officers in some districts recently," Nepal said.

The killings in Dunai by the Maoists before the Dahain festival seemed to be an indication to the government that it should make efforts to call the Maoists leaders for talks, he said.

Nepal said since the three demands of the Maoists aren’t too rigid, the Nepali Congress must invite the Maoists for talks ensuring that the achievements of the popular movement of 1990 are safeguarded.

"The ruling party must be ready to make a sacrifice in order to protect democratic culture in the country by inviting the Maoists for talks."

He said the government instead of attempting to crush the Maoists should adopt a flexible strategy and find a way out of the problem through the holding of dialogue.

On the recent price hike of POL products Nepal said the decision was very unfortunate and the CPN (UML) was planning to launch a nationwide movement against the price hike.

"The government must take back the decision to hike the price of POL products," he said.

Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, former Prime Ministers Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba, leaders of different political parties, heads of Constitutional Bodies, representatives of the diplomatic missions and general public were present at the tea reception.

Price hike draws flak

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 14: The Nepal Oil Corporation’s decision on Friday to increase prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and the liquified petroleum gas with immediate effect has surprised many. The announcement for the increment was an unexpected one as the Corporation had just one day before said that it would not increase the price so soon.

Secretary at the Ministry of Supplies, Mohan Dev Pant said it might have been done to deter hoarding.

But the hike in the price of POL product has received severe criticism from the political parties and others. CPN-UML, the main opposition party in the parliament, in a press statement today has demanded the withdrawal of the price rise to the previous level. Otherwise, the party said, it would launch a nation-wide movement against saying the hike will escalate the cost of goods and services affecting the common people the most.

Similarly, the CPN (ML) has said the second price rise within a year will make the lives of the common people more austere. It has also demanded the withdrawal of the price rise saying the logic behind the recent hike as false and unjustifiable. The party has also warned of starting movement against the price rise.

The Consumers’ Forum Nepal has also said it would protest against the price hike. Harendra Bahadur Shrestha, President of Consumers’ Forum Nepal, said the Corporation has failed to fully justify the increment and the proportion of increment. The increase in the prices will severely affect the consumers resulting in the increment of the cost of transportation and of other goods, he said.

Petrol now costs Rs. 47 per litre up from Rs. 40. Similarly, the price of diesel has increased from Rs. 23 to Rs. 27.50, kerosene from Rs. 13 to Rs. 26 per litre and LPG from Rs. 465 to Rs. 550 per cylinder. But, in an attempt to give some relief to the people, Corporation will sell three litres of kerosene at Rs. 15.50 per litre per family per month on coupon system.

Secretary Pant said the Home Ministry has already made circulation to all the CDO offices to introduce the coupon system and until it is done, people can buy subsidised kerosene on the recommendation of the CDO offices.

Shrestha of the Consumers’ Forum, Nepal said the dual pricing of kerosene under the coupon system and in open market was a good thing.

The government should have arranged this system long before, he said. He, however, said the distribution of the coupons to all the consumers may take several months forcing them buy at the higher price. He also doubted the unscrupulous ones may take advantage of the system if it is not monitored properly.

In its justification, Nepal Oil Corporation has said the recent increase of price of the petroleum products in the international market and the continued devaluation of Nepalese currency against the US dollar forced it to adjust the price of these goods. The Corporation says it is still suffers a loss in selling kerosene at Rs. 15.50 per litre. The Corporation also said if the prices had not been increased, it would have suffered a loss of Rs. 3.5 billion.

Hikmat Bahadur Mali, President of the Petroleum Dealers Association also said the Corporation was forced to increase the price after a similar hike in India and the increase of price in the international market. The change of price of these products in India affects the price in Nepal because we bring these goods under ‘product-exchange procedure’ with India, he said. Adjustment of price is also necessary because of the open border, he added.

He, however, said the Corporation has acted a little too soon. "The price of petroleum products in the international market is yet be stabilised and there still are lots of speculations about the price." The present rise in the international market could be a temporary phenomenon and in this regard, the NOC has made a mistake, Mali said. Another mistake, he said, was the fixation of three litres of kerosene per month per family. "It is too little," he said.

Regarding the 100 per cent increase of the price of kerosene, Mali said, the NOC may be trying to make the price of kerosene at par with that of diesel because many of the industries had been using kerosene instead of diesel and heating oil because of the price difference.

Meanwhile, one of the complaints against the NOC is that the Corporation always acts fast when there is an increase of price internationally but it closes its eyes to the fall of price in the international market.

Pant, however, said this time the government is committed that the prices will be reduced if they come down in the international market.

Every year Nepal consumes Rs. 12 to 14 billion worth of petroleum products and this is increasing at a rate of 12 to 14 per cent annually which is the highest in South Asia.

RSS adds: The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has opposed the price hikes in petroleum products and demanded that prices should be reversed.

A press release issued by party spokesman Kamal Thapa today stated that increase in international oil prices are always taken as an excuse by the government for increasing the price of petro-products in Nepal, but there is no record of reducing the prices of the products when the prices in international markets have gone down.

Noting that the present hike cannot be justified in any way, the party observed that the price hikes will make the life even harder.

Similarly, protesting against the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products the nine communist party group has demanded that His Majesty’s Government withdraw the price hike immediately.

In a joint statement here today, the group has said that the hike in prices of petroleum products will increase the prices of other commodities also and will ultimately have a negative affect on every aspect of public life.

The statement has been signed by Mohan Bikram Singh of CPN-Masal, Lok Narayan Subedi of CPN-Marxist, Rajendra Shrestha of CPN-ML, Sitaram Tamang of CPN-Malema, Hemant Bahadur B.C. of CPN-United, Narayanman Bijukche of NWPP, Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha of National People’s Movement Coordination Committee, Amik Sherchan of Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal and Nar Bahadur Karmacharya of CPN-United Centre.

Bird menace at TIA goes unabated

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct 14: Even as the bird hunters are reported to be putting their bird scaring act together at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Lauda Air’s Boeing 767 was hit by a bird while landing on the tarmac today.

"As the Lauda Air’s Boeing 767 with 203 passengers was landing at the airport around 11 A.M today, its left wing was hit by a bird", said Bharat Basnet, the M.D of Explore Nepal, Lauda Air’s G.S.A in Nepal.

Fortunately, no serious damage was done and the Vienna-originated Boeing 767 of the Lauda Air took off again after taking in Europe-bound passengers in the afternoon.

With today’s bird hit, it will be the fourth such an incident at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Or, rather the fifth. A Thai International’s Boeing was also hit by a bird while landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport at 12:55 P.M. yesterday (Friday), sources said. But when the Thai Airlines office was contacted, the officials there said that no such an incident happened on that day.

Whether it is the fourth or the fifth bird hit incident, the fact is that there are birds flying all over the TIA area. And to mitigate the bird menace, hunters from Shivapuri are said to blasting them out of the sky during the early morning hours of the day. "Since today, the hunters have killed over 15 birds", confided a guard to this scribe and his fellow journalists on a tour of the TIA area organised by Explore Nepal.

Birds, most of them Brahminy kites, could be seen hovering above the TIA area even as domestic and international planes were landing and taking off for their destinations.

Brahminy kites are scavengers by nature. Hence, the sudden appearance of these birds in and around the TIA area has been attributed by some people, especially by the conservationists and tourism-related personnel, to the indiscriminate dumping of garbage and carcasses in the areas adjoining the TIA vicinity.

It may be recalled that a meeting was held on Friday under the chairmanship of the Minister of State for Local Development Suresh Malla to extensively discuss ways and means to lessen the bird menace at the TIA area as well as to take precautionary measures. While the people living in the vicinity have been urged not to dump garbage and carcasses in the areas adjoining the airport by declaring them sensitive areas to reduce the bird hazard, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is reported to have come up with its own measures to control and reduce bird activities in and around the airport. Similarly, the concerned agency is reported to have given the understanding that, with immediate effect, the city garbage will no longer be used for the construction of the Guheshwori-Gorkarna road which lies in the northern side of the TIA.

That these measures may need some time before they could show result could be seen from the rubbish indiscriminately strewn around some parts of the TIA area. In a gully of an area adjoining the airport, bleached bones of an animal could be seen. Similarly, in an area opposite the domestic terminal and where a police beat is located, grounded plastic bottles with other jetsam like paper cartons for packed food were lying around. When one of the cops was queried as to who were the possible culprits, he answered "It’s the airline people".

It may be recalled that such measures came about after BARN (Board of Airline Representatives in Nepal) had issued a strong warning to the CAAN to control the bird hit menace earlier and had asked for a written commitment that it would take immediate action to alleviate the problem. Also, NATA (Nepal Association of Travel Agents) had called for immediate and drastic action such as removal of the dumping site, cleaning of the area and removal of the meat and other shops around the TIA area.

Human settlements and farming activities could be another reason for the appearance of scavenger birds. It may be noted that according to the CATA’s (Canadian Air Transportation Administration) recommendation concerning land use in the vicinity of airports, there should be no farming activities within 3 km radius of the airport area. According to CATA, birds occur on airport property for a variety of reasons; however, they are usually attracted by such essentials to life as food, water and shelter, often to be found in the vicinity of an airport. Similarly, there should be no human activities such as drive in restaurants, food processing plants and municipal utilities like food garbage disposal within 3 km radius of the airport. Concerning the food garbage disposal, it should not even be within 8 km radius of the airport area.

Update data about Buddhist community

Kirtipur, Oct. l4 (RSS): A central regional Buddhist seminar on census awareness started here today under the joint auspices of the Youth Buddhist Group Kathmandu and Sri Kirti Buddhist Center.

Participating in the seminar which continues till tomorrow are l26 representatives of various Buddhist organisations and entities in the l9 districts of the central region.

The participants divided into three groups to discuss the Buddhist religion, mother tongue and ethnic communities and suggested that the Buddhist community should show alertness and make necessary preparations so that factual statistics are collected during the census and published.

On the occasion, Bhikchu Sudarsan Mahasthvir said in order to reflect the plurality of religions and communities that exist in Nepal the government is trying to include the Kirat, Jain and Christian religions as well as the Hindus and Buddhists in the census format.

He called for alertness against those carrying out misleading publicity to the effect that statistics on religon, language and community are not needed, that these only invite communal divisons and disintegration and that these also go counter to the spirit of the constitution.

Dr Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan said the intention of the census is to bring about representation of all the communities in the political sphere, carry out development and construction work in a balanced manner and present the people of the country not only in terms of population numbers but also in terms of their economic and social conditions.

He said our development plans have been futile as they are not based on factual statistics, and urged that publicity about the census should be carried out in mother tongues other than Nepali also.

Advisor to the group Harsha Muni Shakya said the seminar aims to familiarise the indigenous peoples of the country with their real identity.

Chairman of the Dharmodaya Sabha Lok Darshan Bajracharya said local leadership should be developed and women made better informed so that the coming census will bring out correct statistics on the ethnic communities and the Buddhist community.

Vice chairman of the group Tri Ratna Manandhar said every census has tried to bring out statistics that tend to the interests of only one class.

Nepal Tamang Dhedung and Lama Committee Chairman Karma Siddhi Lama also spoke on the occasion.