House rejects oppn bid against two Ordinances

BY RITU RAJ SUBEDI

Kathmandu, August 7: The House of Representatives today rejected with a majority vote two opposition lawmakers’ proposals for the denial of the introduction of the two ordinances amidst boycotting and shouting, thus paving the way for the discussions on them in the Parliament.

All the ruling Nepali Congress MPs joined their voices to reject the proposal of Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s MP Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani for the disapproval of the Armed Police Force Ordinance-2057 and the proposal of MP of United People’s Front, Lila Mani Pokharel for the denial of introduction of the Local Administration (Fourth Amendment) 2057 in the Parliament for the discussion over it. However, MP Pokharel, did not put his proposal of denial and did not take part in the discussion.

With the refusal of proposals of the opposition MPs, the government has to introduce the ordinances in the form of Bills and get them passed through the Parliament to give a permanent legal status to the ordinances.

The ordinances, which the government had introduced just two days ago of the 19th session of the Parliament, could not be passed since the whole procedure of the 19th session of the House remained stalled after all opposition parties boycotted and blocked the House meet then. .

The government had introduced the Ordinances to maintain law and order situation in the country, which was under deterioration after the inception of the Maoist insurgency six years ago.

The main Opposition party CPN-UML, however, walked out today’s meeting citing that the ordinances were against the spirit of the Constitution and the parliamentary system.

MPs of National People’s Front Nepal, United People’s Front-Nepal and Nepal Peasant and Workers Party went to the well and shouted the slogans against the ordinances about more than half an hour hampering the proceedings of the meeting. However, they were stopped from going to the rostrum by the marshals.

Afterwards, the MPs of the Rastriya Pajatantra Party also joined the lawmakers from the Opposition bench in chanting anti-ordinance slogans. Meanwhile, the Nepal Sadbhawana Party remained seated despite their strong protest against the ordinances.

Before leaving the House meet, UML MP Subash Nemwang said that the Ordinaces were brought only in the exceptional cases to solve problem of temporary nature. However, the present ordinances are introduced to resolve the problem of security, which has become completely constant problem of the country.

"They could not solve the present deteriorating condition of law and order," Nemwang said, adding, "The ordinances have attacked the spirit of the Parliamentary Democracy and the Constitution."

RPP MP Prakash Chandra Lohani said that the government has brought the ordinances in a undemocratic way. He said it was due to the rampant corruption and injustices that provided a fertile land for Maoist insurgency in the country.

MP Hridayash Tripathi said that the ordinances were brought by bypassing the parliament. Lilamani Pokharel said that the ordinances would push the country to the direction of civil war. "They will further distance the the possibility of talks with Maoists."

Chitra Bahadur KC and Narayan Man Bijukuchhe said that the ordinances were brought to suppress the people and they violated the rights of the people.

RNAC's flight suspension to Europe, S'pore flayed

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, August 7: Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO) today raised its voice against Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation’s (RNAC) recent decision to pull out of its five destinations including the European sector and Singapore beginning next month.

"NATO raises its voice against RNAC’s decision to suspend its flights from Europe and Singapore beginning September," the association said in its press release today. "Instead of strengthening the national flag carrier, the recently made decision on curtailment of flights to Europe by abrogating the lease agreement with China Southwest Airlines has taken everybody by surprise. NATO strongly appeals to the government to immediately stop making RNAC a hub for high level corruption and take stern action against defaulters and resume the flight as usual to the international sector."

Tourism entrepreneurs, stated NATO, feel that RNAC chose the wrong time to pull out from the European sector. "On one hand tourist arrival has sharply decreased while on the other RNAC has decided to suspend its flights to Europe. At this juncture of low tourist arrival, withdrawal of service from European sector will not only affect Nepalese tourism but the Nepalese economy as a whole."

Referring to its plan to organize a high level international level meet of major tour operators from around the world in January next year, NATO said that the effort will be futile without RNAC flying to Europe. "NATO on behalf of entire tourism industry appeals the government to strengthen RNAC taking drastic action instead of pulling out its service from international sectors."

RNAC last week decided to pull out from London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai and Singapore routes citing these markets as financially non-viable and also due to its inadequate fleet. The national flag carrier had been flying to the Europe since mid 80’s when RNAC brought in two Boeing 757 aircraft – the only fleet left with the national airline today. Europe accounts to around 30 per cent of the total inbound tourists – recorded at a little less than 500,000 last year.

Ordinances not to hamper peace talks with Maoists: PM

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, August 7: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today said that the Ordinances, which are lying at the Parliament for the passage, would not hamper the government’s much awaited talks for peace with Maoists.

Addressing today’s meeting of the House of Representative, the Prime Minister said the introduction of the Ordinances at the Parliament is the compulsion of the government and requested legislators to take this objectively.

So far the Ordinance for the Armed Police is concerned, Deuba said that since the Armed Police Force has already formed and the government has allocated the budget, it was necessary to get the ordinance passed.

"As desired by the people, the government will leave no stone unturned to bring peace through the dialogue with the Maoists, " the Prime Minister noted.

He further said if the House fails to endorse the Ordinance within sixteen days of its introduction, the ordinance gets automatically cancelled. " The ordinance has to be introduced due to unavoidable circumstances."

"I have fully understood the feelings of the Oppositions, and will take advice from the political parties to further refine the Ordinance," he added. Deuba said that the same procedure like the present one is followed while introducing any ordinance in the Parliament.

He assured the MPs that the Ordinance will not be misused and appealed to them for cooperation with the government.

The Prime Minister also appealed to the Maoists to come forward for the dialogues with the government.

Insurgency victimising women, children: Book

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, August 7: Women and children are the most serious sufferers of the Maoist insurgency going on in some districts of the mid-western region and the economic and social disparity lies at the base of the Maoist problem, which has hit several districts of the mid-western development region the most.

This was the finding of a team, including four women journalists, who had visited three of the most severely affected districts – Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot. Their findings have been compiled in a book called ‘Women and Children in the Periphery of People’s War’.

The book, written by Shova Gautam and published by Institute of Human Rights Communication Nepal (IHRICON,) was released by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Daman Nath Dhungana at a function at the British Embassy Hall on Monday. The book contains reports of on the site visits, interviews with common people, Maoists and others. The gist of the book may be summarized as: "So, this is not only a political problem, rather politics is only the icicle on the decades and even centuries old economic and social disparities and deprivation,"

The contents of the book reveal that the people were being victimized by both the police and the Maoists. One of the villagers is even quoted in the book as saying that one cheek is for the police to slap on and the other is for the Maoists.

Meanwhile, the more than 5 years old long has taken its severest toll on the women and children. Many women are widowed and children orphaned. The book says many women are forced by the Maoists to take part in their rallies and programmes and even many of them carry gun as vengeance against the killings of their husbands, sons and fathers. And many children are orphaned and they live a desperate life with a bleak future.

The absence of men from the villages in the districts - they have either fled the Maoists, have ran away from the police or remained underground, has put a heavy burden on women. They have to look after their homes, fields and earn their living.

But the report says presently most of the outlying areas of the districts are devoid of police there are less conflict – means an uneasy peace prevails.

Speaking at the launching of the book, Charge D’Affairs at the British Embassy Andrew Mitchell said that the women and children are often ignored while talking about the Maoists problem. But they are the biggest victims of the conflict.

Other speakers who also spoke at the function were Tanka Pant and Shobha Gautam, two of the journalists who had visited the districts, human rights activists Sushil Pyakurel, Kapil Shrestha, Dr. Bhogendra Sharma and Chief Guest Daman Nath Dhungana.

'Better close distilleries than ban alcohol'

Butwal, Aug. 7 (RSS): Hoteliers and restaurant owners favour controlling alcoholic beverage rather than imposing a total ban in its trade throughout the country.

In an interaction programme held by All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary) here the other day, they said even though the move taken by the association to impose a total ban on alcoholic beverage throughout the country from August 17 is a laudable step, any decision taken in haste will not be result-oriented.

President of the Liquor Association Ananda Raj Bajracharya said it is better to close down distilleries than to impose a total ban on alcoholic beverages all of a sudden.

President of the Hotel and Restaurants Entrepreneurs’ Association Dhruba Tulachan criticised the government for issuing licence indiscriminately to the distilleries and suggested that limited industries and retail outlets be permitted to deal in alcoholic beverages.

President of Rupendehi district Federation of Nepalese Journalists Binod Pahadi commended the ANWO's campaign and demanded that an alternative be provided to entrepreneurs involved in this sector.

About 300 restaurants, 60 hotels and 10 dealers will be affected if alcoholic beverage is banned in the town.

The sale of alcoholic beverage in the town is estimated to be around Rs. 500,000 a day.

An appeal issued by the hotelier and restaurant owners at the programme, states that the announcement of ban on alcoholic beverage within a short span of time without any notification in advance has caused great problems to the entrepreneurs.

They also called for taking a proper decision under which they can provide soft drinks to the tourists for their convenience and satisfaction.

SAARC experts meet
'Diseases crossing border with people'

Bhaktapur, Aug. 7 (RSS): Experts of the SAARC region are of the view that the spread of contagious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS as well as other problems have been created because of movement of people taking place along the uncontrolled open border between the SAARC member countries.

These views were expressed by the SAARC experts at the two-day meeting organised SAARC Tuberculosis Centre here today with the objective of preparing new guidlines for controlling tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS that has been increasing as a result of the open border between member countries in the SAARC region.

At the meeting attended by the experts from SAARC member countries Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives, SAARC secretariat and JICA, director of the SAARC Tuberculosis Centre and National Tuberculosis Centre Dr. Dirgha Singh Bam said that the open border has posed a great problem in controlling tuberculosis in SAARC member countries.

Dr. Bam said that even though the SAARC member countries have implemented the national tuberculosis control programmes by giving it top priority, difficulties have been faced in achieving success in controlling the diseases because of the movement of people taking place along the open borders.

Director of the SAARC secretariat Dr. Thinley Dorje, chairman of the SAARC Tuberculosis Centre Ibrahim Rahim and deputy director of SAARC Tuberculosis Centre Dr. Pralad Kumar expressed the view that the new guidelines to be prepared by the meeting would contribute to solving the problem to some extent.

At the meeting, it was informed that about 38 per cent of the tuberculosis patients in the world are in the SAARC region.

Likewise, of the 2.5 million tuberculosis patients increasing every year, 1.4 million patients suffer from tuberculosis which can be transmitted to other people.

NOC-IOC Meet
Nepal for oil pipeline extension

Kathmandu, Aug. 7 (RSS): The joint meeting of the members of the Board of Directors of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) concluded in New Delhi recently.

The Nepalese delegation led by chairman of the NOC Ramkrishna Amatya met Indian minister for petroleum Ramnayak and Indian minister of state for petroleum S. Gangabar and discussed matters relating to supply of petroleum products, setting up of a gas bottling plant at Janakpur through joint investment and extending the oil pipeline from Raxaul to Amalekhgunj for supplying petroleum products to Nepal.

The proposed gas bottling plant with a capacity of storing 3,000 metric tons of gas is estimated to cost about Rs 300 million on completion. It will have the capacity of storing one month’s supply of gas.

As India has plans of extending the Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur oil pipeline upto Patna and then to Raxaul, the Nepalese delegation has requested the Indian side to further extend the oil pipeline from Raxaul to Amalekhgunj to facilitate the supply of petroleum products to Nepal.

Extention of the oil pipeline will ensure regular supply of petroleum (POL) products, check adulteration and smuggling of POL products and save about 65 per cent of the transportation cost, according to NOC.

During the talks it was agreed that new arrangements would be made for supplying POL products to Nepal after the all transactions relating POL products in Indian market will be opened to the private sector in April, 2002.

At present, NOC purchases processed POL products from third countries and supplies it to IOC and IOC supplies POL products to NOC through various points.

After the Indian POL product market is opened to the private sector in April, 2002, NOC can supply crude oil to IOC and receive processed POL products in return.

A task force comprising five members each from NOC and IOC has been constituted to discuss matters relating to the purchase of crude oil.

The meeting of the task force is scheduled to be held in Kathmandu in the last week of this month.

Nepal cheated in treaties, says lawmaker

Kathmandu, Aug. 7 (RSS): Tilkumar Mewangbo of the CPN-UML, speaking during special hour of the House of Representatives today, said that Hepal is being cheated by India in all the treaties and agreements being signed between the two countries.

Stating that hundred of bighas of land have been inundated in Rupandehi district as a result of the construction of the dam by India near Marchawar, he said that the dam should be demolished immediately and India made to pay compensation for the damages caused in the Lumbini region.

The CPN-UML MP said that the government should see that India does not build dams by violating international law and regulations.

Mewangbo said that the self-respect of the Nepalese people have been hurt by India’s claim over Mt. Kanchenjunga mentioned in an Indian book.

Brijesh Kumar Mishra of the RPP said that more than 40 per cent of the voters had not been able to take photographs for voters identity cards while in many cases the voters protograph does not match with his name in the identity cards.

Stressing the need to change the government’s decision of not allowing voters without identity cards to cast their votes in places where identity cards have been issued, Mishra demanded that the voters identity cards been issued through the district election offices rather than citizenship teams.

Mrigendra Kumar Singh of NSP drew the attention of the widespread corruption taking place at the district development committee, district education office and other government offices.

Jagannath Khatiwada of the CPN-UML said that the judges were making speeches for speedy dispensation of justice but in reality it was not being done.

Referring to the delays being caused in giving verdicts on cases, Mr Khatiwada said that as a result of this, the people’s faith in justice has been declining.

'No plan of converting Phungling VDC into municipality'

Kathmandu, Aug. 7 (RSS): Minister for Home and Local Development Khum Bahadur Khadka has said that the government envisions to set up ilaka administration offices and police posts in various districts keeping in view the geographical conditions, peace and security and the convenience of the local people.

Responding to MPs during question-answer hour at the House of Representatives today, Mr Khadka said although there is no plan of re-establishing ilaka administration offices at Kapilakot in Sindhuli, Sinja in Jumla and at Tellok in Taplejung as well as of re-establishing police posts at Dhungeswar, Dharampokhara, Naumule, Bestada, Kusapani, Thantikandha in Dailekh immediately, the government is working for the re-establishment of such posts at these places.

The government has no plan of converting Phungling VDC of Taplejung into a municipality and the district headquarters of Bhojpur but will consider the issues, he added.

He further said the construction of the Harewa-Gwadha-Pheksing road has not been incorporated in the programmes set for current fiscal year but the Ministry for Local Development will extend all possible cooperation for it.

MPs Chandra Mani Kharel, Ganga Prasad Nepal, Nara Bahadur Hamal, Devi Lal Thapa, Til Kumar Menyanwo, Phatik Bahadur Thapa and Sherdhan Rai had asked the minister questions.

Mahakali river control work on: Gachchhadar

Kathmandu, Aug. 7 (RSS): Minister for Water Resources Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar has said that Nepal has been receiving 70 million units of electricity free of cost from the Tanakpur Hydro-electricity Project.

Responding to verbal queries from MPs during question hour at the National Assembly today, Minister Gachchhadar said His Majesty’s Government has been doing everything possible within the available means and resources to construct an embankment along the East-West Bank of Mahakali river in order to check the river flooding.

Mahakali river control work is also being carried out in Dodhara and Chandani VDCs of Kanchanpur district, he added.

He was replying to queries from Bisheswara Dahal and Urbadutta Pant of the CPN-UML.

Likewise, replying to queries concerning his Ministry, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bal Bahadur K.C. disclosed that the six million rupees appropriated for the National Talent Memorial Trust has been provided as donations to 79 foundations and institutions set up in the name of individuals of talent.

K.C. said the government has also been thinking positively towards making the pilgrimage road to Mansarovar of China via Dhangadi, Mahendranagar, Dadeldhura, Baitedi and Darchula better organised.

He replied to queries from Beduram Bhusal who was speaking on behalf of CPN-UML's Biswasera Dahal and Devraj Ghimire.