Saptari faces acute shortage of kerosene

Rajbiraj, Aug. 2 (RSS): Acute shortage of kerosene has taken place in Saptari district after some of the bus entrepreneurs have started running their buses with kerosene instead of diesel.

Bus entrepreneurs including R.D. Travels, Ram Coach, Nilkantha Travels, Krishna Kanhaiya are operating their buses along the Rajbiraj-Biratnagar route with a full tank of kerosene and a litre of mobil these days, employees associated with the bus services say.

As kerosene is 10 rupees cheaper than diesel, the use of kerosene in bus is much economical despite the fact that the fuel pump has to be repaired every six months, according to a bus entrepreneur.

As diesel is adulterated excessively with kerosene, why cant the buses be operated with kerosene, another bus entrepreneur argues.

The local people, employees and hoteliers who fall back upon kerosene to prepare meals are facing difficulties because of its scarcity.

Religious leaders flay women’s rights bill

Kathmandu, Aug. 2 (RSS): Representatives of various religious organisations are of the view that passage of the Women’s Inheritance Rights bill currently under consideration in Parliament will lead to erosion of religion and culture, while at the same time adversely affecting social values and giving rise to family feuds.

Speaker of the Nepali Dharma Sansad Jaya Prakash, Shree Shrestha of Sanatan Dharma Sewa Samiti, Hiranya Kumari Pathak of Women’s Awareness Forum, president of the Hindu Women’s Awareness Committee Mrs. Mina Subedi and representatives of various other religious organisations jointly organised a press conference here today to highlight their views on the bill in question.

They also expressed their determination to unitedly take to the streets to protest against the bill.

If the bill is enacted it will make the marriage of girls from economically weak families difficult as men would start looking for girls from rich families, polygamy will be on the rise, the religious practice of worshipping daughters in traditional religious festivals will come to an end, daughters might lose parental love, a lot of property from Nepalese families might go to India with Indian men getting encouraged to marry girls from the Madhesi community in the Terai out of greed for property and local men might not find anyone in the community to marry.

Stressing the need for better education and awareness for girls rather than a share of paternal property, they said a massive awareness campaign should be launched to promote girls’ education and awareness.

Citing some ill consequences that western countries are faced with because of laws enacted without analysing their likely consequences, they said it would be better if the entire responsibility of deciding on inheritence to paternal property was given to the parents themselves.

At the programme, women journalists from various daily newspapers voiced disagreement with the views expressed by the representatives of religious organisations and said that daughters should not be deprived of their right to paternal property simply on the basis of arguments such as they would forfeit parental love and affection if they claimed a right to such property.

With the women coming forward with very strong logic and the men trying to respond on an equal footing the press conference saw a heated exchange between the sexes.

5,622 hectares of govt forests handed over

Kathmandu, Aug. 2 (RSS): About 5,622 hectares of government forests lying in sub-watershed areas of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kabhrepalanchowk, Makwanpur and Sindhuli districts have been handed over to 85 community forest users’ groups through the initiative of Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Project during the last fiscal year.

About 27.160 hectares of forests in Kathmandu have been handed over to two community forests users’ groups, 88.160 hectares of forests in Bhaktapur to three community forest users’ groups, 862.580 hectares of forests in Lalitpur to 21 community forest users’ group, about 2436.895 hectares of forests in Kabhrepalachowk to 26 community forest users’ group, about 1404.270 hectares of forests in Makwanpur to 24 community forest users’ group and about 841.370 hectares of forests in Sindhuli to nine community forest users’ groups.

About 7,000 households have benefited from the transfer of government forests to such community forest users’ group, it is learnt.

The project has succeeded handing over 5,622 hectares of government forests to the community community forest users’ groups against its target of handing over 5,430 hectares of forest in the next five years.

The community forests users’ groups has 40 per cent women in its executive committee.

Cooperate in making talks successful: FNCCI

Kathmandu, Aug. 2 (RSS): Welcoming the effort made by the present government towards resolving the Maoist problem, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has emphasised the need to make the dialogue successful and develop a secure environment for national industries.

Speaking at a get-together organised between newly elected FNNCI office-bearers and journalists here today, FNNCI President Ravibhakta Shrestha said all political parties should cooperate in making the talks successful and the federation too would provide full support from its side.

Stating that the country has not received any foreign investment since the past three years due to the deteriorating state of law and order and the morale of existing investors is also on the decline, Mr Shrestha said the remaining investors would also return back if the condition does not improve.

As Nepal’s future is associated with the result of the talks with the Maoists the federation has set aside economic issues for the time being and has given special importance to peace and security in the country, he added.

Responding to a query, FNNCI President Shrestha said following announcement of a stop to respective aggressive action by the two sides the federation has not received any information of attacks on the industrial sector.

Other office-bearers of the federation expressed the view that as this is the first time in five years that an environment has been developed for the Maoist to come to the negotiating table it should be successful.

They also expressed fear that the country could face an economic crisis if the dialogue is not held even this time.

127,175 labourers working abroad, says Gurung

Kathmandu, Aug. 2 (RSS): Minister for Labour and Transport Management Palten Gurung has disclosed that official records at the department of labour show that the number of Nepali labourers working in 44 different countries worldwide individually or through employment organisations has now reached 127,175.

Statistics recorded since the past l0 years through June 15, 2001 show the highest number of Nepali labourers, 60,915, is in Saudi Arabia followed by 33,998 in Qatar, 16,633 in the U.A.E., 2,402 in Bahrain, 1,233 in Hong Kong, 5,280 in Malaysia, 25 in the U.S.A., 2,988 in South Korea, 28 in Kosovo, 51 in Brunei, 154 in the Maldives, 205 in Saipan, 28 in Indonesia, 19 in Uganda, 72 in Japan, 234 in Oman, 223 in Macau, 12 in Finland and 10 in Israel.

Responding to verbal questions from MPs at the meeting of the House of Representatives today, Minister Gurung clarified that His Majesty’s Government does not receive any quota for foreign employment but it is the government-licensed foreign employment companies which bring such quotas through their own initiative and contacts.

In cases of complaints received in connection with fraud by overseas employment brokers the individuals alleged to be at fault have been kept for a maximum of 30 days in police custody for investigation and recovery of the money, Mr. Gurung said adding that so far 89 cases of fraud have been filed at Kathmandu District Court, the licenses of 35 foreign employment agencies have been cancelled and Rs. 24,050,196 million recovered through the initiative of the department and handed over to the victims.

He replied to queries from CPN-UML MPs Bijaya Subba, Til Kumar Meyangbo and Ganga Prasad Nepal.

Media people oppose foreign investment in their field

Kathmandu, Aug. 2 (RSS): Media workers here have emphasised the need to not bring in foreign investment in the communications sector and make domestic investment in this sector also transparent.

At an interaction programme organised here today by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) to discuss the dominance of foreign and large scale investment in the Nepali journalism sectors, the media workers said as foreign investment in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government is not acceptable in any country, the journalism sector, which is the fourth estate closely linked with nationalism, should also be kept away from foreign investment.

FNJ president Suresh Acharya said while opposing foreign investment it is equally esserntial to make sure that our own investment in journalism is transparent.

President of the Press Council Harihar Birahi said that if investments made by foreigners in Nepali journalism by taking undue advantage of legal loopholes lead to foreign interference in the country, the investors themselves will face its negative consequences.

President of Editors Society Nepal Govinda Biyogi said not only foreign investment but even domestic investment, if it is by someone of dubious character, should not be accepted by the journalism sector.

Nepal Press Institute president Gokul Pokhrel asked the sectors concerned to remain alert as foreign investment in the media sector might have a negative effect on the country’s nationalism, culture and social values.

Media advisor to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung P. Kharel said as foreign investment in media is not acceptable even in developed countries nor in the South Asia Region, it is essential to see to it that foreigners do not get any opportunity to enjoy the facilities given by the law of the land to Nepalese people.

Nepal Bar Association President Sindhu Nath Pyakurel was of the view that at a time when Nepalese are being displaced by foreigners from the country’s labour market and the open border is further aggravating the problem, foreign investment in media does not auger well for national interests.

Participants at the programme also expressed concern over the occasional (MIS)use of newspapers by Nepal-based diplomatic missions, external influence on media organisations run with domestic investment, lack of clear policy on investment in media , unhealthy competition in the media sector and the poor condition of the news agency.

Even if Nepal obtained WTO membership, it will not proscribe any restriction on foreign investment in the media sector, they said.

Journalists Somnath Ghimire, Devendra Gautam, Shambhu Shrestha, Gopal Thapaliya, Tirtha Koirala, Kapil Kafle, Sriram Singh Basnet and Kedar Koirala, director general of the information department Yuva Raj Pandey and tourism entrepreneur Bharat Basnet also took part in the interaction.