Statement of public importance
Govt to solve citizenship issue first, says Deuba

BY RITU RAJ SUBEDI

Kathmandu, Sept. 2: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told the Parliament today that the government would first solve the problem of the citizenship certificate prior to distributing land, thereby resolving both the problems - landlessness and the issue of citizenship.

Giving a statement of public importance at the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Deuba said that the objectives of the proposed land reform programme were to provide land to the landless, poor and the economically backward people to reinforce the campaign for development and for building an equitable society. "The programme aims to utilize the landlord’s labour, skill and capital in productive works," the Prime Minister added.

Linking land reform with the citizenship issue, Deuba said the government has the policy that no Nepali citizen would be deprived of the advantage of land distribution due to lack of citizenship papers.

For several days, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Nepal Sadhvabana Party (NSP) have been obstructing the House proceeding against the proposed land reform programme. One of the issues they have raised was that programme could not be implemented without solving the citizenship issue. Lawmakers of the two parties continued shouting, albeit sporadically even today while the PM was speaking from the rostrum.

In his speech, Prime Minister Deuba pledged that the government, under the parliamentary tradition, would chalk out a concrete legal provision by hammering out a consensus among the political parties for granting citizenship to genuine Nepalis who are deprived of the same so far.

Prime Minister Deuba said that the government has decided to immediately implement the radical land reform programme by realising the new necessities and rationale of putting a ceiling on the land.

The Prime Minister observed that the government has proposed land reform package by accepting the spirit of the Article 26 (5) of the Constitution of the Kingdom, which states that the State would create the conditions that uplift the economic standard of the majority of people depending on agriculture, by increasing the productivity of the agriculture sector and to develop the agriculture as the industry by implementing the land reform programme.

"There is a need of fundamental change in our concept of development to bring the utterly impoverished citizens into the mainstream of national development," Premier Deuba noted.

He said that the government would adopt the policy to give priority to local landless downtrodden, ethnic and nationalities while implementing this programme in the country.

"Hundreds of thousands of landless and impoverished people living in utter pains and hardships would obtain housing and kitchen gardens from this programme," said Deuba.

"All Nepalese citizens will get rid of the life of landlessness after the implementation of this programme that aims overall social, political and economic upliftment of people in the country," he added.

He said the distribution would be carried out by remaining within the ceiling fixed by law.

"I am confident that the Parliament would accept this programme as a starting point in the direction of providing humanitarian requirements to the Nepalese people who are deprived of the basic needs such as food, housing, clothes, education and health," Premier Deuba said.

He also informed that the government would implement the package by keeping transparently the record of land distributed to the families of the landless in the past times and by rectifying the deficiencies of the past.

He said that the government would obtain land from two sources. First, the government would take back land, which was under the ownership of the State but has been illegally used by individuals. Likewise, the government would acquire land that has remained unused, those damaged by the river or those not cultivated due to the various reasons.

However, that land would not be sufficient for the proposed land distribution programme. "That is why, the government has registered the Bill on Land to amend the Bill on Land-2021 in the Parliament by realising that there are people who are holding excess land in an unproductive manner." This, he said, was against the concept of justifiable distribution of land.

For the successful implementation of the new provision of ceiling on the ownership of land and to make improvement in agriculture, the proposed Bill consist of the provision to set up a computer based integrated geo-information system, he said.

The bill also contains provision for people who land in more than one place should declare their total ownership in any one district.

Deuba said that it was the duty of the government to make optimal use of land to benefit the landless and to gradually reduce poverty by inspiring the concept of a broader national interest.

That is why, the government, under the spirit of the Constitution, would justifiably compensate those people who have more land than the proposed ceiling, he told the House of the Representatives.

He stressed that the land reform is a part of a total land management programme and not to put a ceiling on the land ownership only.

Talking about the recent government-Maoist talks, Prime Minister Deuba said that when the Maoists have already agreed to the government’s request not to disrupt the atmosphere of talks and to desist from forcibly collecting donations, using private and public vehicles by intimidation and frightening the business people. Saying that the government has taken the start of talks seriously, he asked the Maoist to stop all those activities.

Petroleum dealers' meet opens

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Biratnagar, Sept. 2: Morang Chief District Officer Dolakh Bahadur Gurung inaugurated a two-day gathering of petroleum dealers from Mechi, Koshi and Sagarmatha zones here today.

The meeting set up a regional level Petroleum Dealers’ Association in the co-ordination of Shiva Prasad Ghimire and made other 13 important decisions. The meeting demanded that the government and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) should see the authorised dealers of petroleum positively.

Shiva Prasad Ghimire, co-ordinator of newly formed regional committee informed that the meeting decided with the NOC to increase the rate of commission. They demanded that the commission rate in diesel should be five per cent and that in petrol six per cent. Now, the commission rates are three per cent in diesel and four per cent in petrol.

The meeting also demanded for the amendment of Sellers Regulation of NOC. The other decisions made by the regional gathering are addition of bank facility and refund of interest of deposited amount to the dealers.

"If the concerned authorities are not ready to make necessary efforts to fulfil our demands, we will be compelled to go for strike," regional co-ordinator Ghimire told The Rising Nepal.

UN meet from Sept 18
Dr. Mahat likely to lead Nepalese team to UN

BY KRISHNA SHARMA

Kathmandu, Sept. 2: After Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba decided to stay at home for resolving the Maoist problem, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat is expected to lead the Nepalese delegation in the upcoming 56th General Assembly of the United Nations, which starts from September 18 in New York, USA.

According to a high level official at the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister Deuba was scheduled to lead the country's delegation in the upcoming General Assembly earlier but because of the favourable atmosphere being created for the peaceful solution to the Maoist insurgency that has raged the country for the past six years, he quit the idea of visiting to the world's largest assembly.

However, the Council of Ministers is yet to finalize regarding the nomination of personalities that form the Nepalese contingent to attend the General Assembly.

Since Finance Minister Dr. Mahat is scheduled to participate in the annual meeting of the World Bank (WB) which commences from September 28, there is every possibility that the Cabinet would designate him to head the Nepalese delegation in the UN Assembly, says the Ministry official requesting anonymity.

"There are chances that I may be asked to head the Nepalese team in the upcoming 56th General Assembly but it is too early to say anything about this," Dr. Mahat also seconded the possibility talking to The Rising Nepal.

Meanwhile, he confirmed that he would be participating in the WB's Washington meet. "I will be raising the issues of bilateral cooperation between Nepal and the WB, one of the leading multilateral donor agencies in the world," Dr. Mahat said.

The General Assembly of the world's apex body for maintaining peace and development begins from the third Tuesday of September every year where the delegates from all the member countries take part and put forth their opinions on the agendas.

If nominated, Finance Minister Dr. Mahat will be leading the 10-member delegation, which comprises four lawmakers, one university professor, a woman representative and three officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Mahat will address the UN Assembly after he takes part in the World Bank's annual meeting.

The Foreign Ministry is preparing the final arrangement of the Nepalese contingent. But the final list of the Nepalese delegation is yet to be made public.

The Ministry sources say that there will be Foreign Secretary, a Joint Secretary and a section officer from among the Foreign Ministry officials. Professor Surya Prasad Subedi is expected to fill the seat for a university professor's quota.

The reason behind selecting Professor Subedi from among the university professors is his candidacy for the membership on behalf of the Himalayan Kingdom in the UN's International Law Commission. Professor Subedi is contesting for Nepal's membership in the election slated to be held early October this year.

Meanwhile, with only 15 days to the UN Assembly, the Foreign Ministry has not yet received the name of the woman represent active and the four lawmakers to be included in the Nepalese team.

'Transparency must to monitor dev aid'

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Lalitpur, Sept. 2: Where does the development aid come from and where it goes to? Has it served the national interest or vanished somewhere before it reaches to the needy area? If not, why is the country bugging down in the morass of poverty? These were the questions raised by the participants during a workshop here in the capital today.

At the workshop first of its kind economists, planners, social activists and representatives of international donor agencies extensively discussed as to why the huge amount of development aid has failed to accelerate the development process in the country.

The participants strongly pointed out the need for strengthening transparency while receiving development aid. They also said there should be a strong provision to create sense of accountability among donors and recipients.

In a statement Minister of Environment and Development Cooperation of Finland Ms. Satu Hassi has stressed the need for transparency for effective mobilisation of resources. Outlining the examples of Finland, Ms Hassi who is currently visiting Nepal also said that sense of accountability should be created among people.

Earlier addressing the workshop member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr. Shanker Sharma said that transparency is a vital aspect to create sense of accountability among both the donor agencies and the recipients. Dr. Sharma further said that only a strong government can enforce regulatory mechanism. Citing examples of China, Singapore he spoke about the essence developing culture to check anomalies and irregularities.

Former Minister and President of the TI Nepal, Dr. Devendra Raj Pandey said that transparency has a significant role to control irregularities, anomalies and corruption. It creates sense of accountability. Transparency is about creating a condition where the principals, that is the people, have a say in the decision rules that affect the use of their resources as stated and in monitoring the way they are executed, he said. 'We have to bring up the concept of transparency in this context mainly to establish premises and conditions whereby the authorities will be required to behave in accordance with the provisions of the constitutions as far as their accountability to the people is concerned,' Dr. Pandey noted.

He also urged the government to develop mechanism so as to promote transparency in each transactions.

Dr. Harka Gurung while presenting a working paper spoke about transparency in Nepal. While commenting the existing situation he said the government has to take firm step to monitor corruption. Corruption has been prevalent in most societies and continues as an issue of public debate. But it remained 'taboo theme' in development discussion until very recently, he said adding that a change in the people's attitude is vital to combat corruption.

Bishnu Bahadur K.C, Auditor General while presenting a brief picture of Nepal's foreign aid regime, emphasised the dire need for transparency to monitor development aid that Nepal has been receiving. 'I feel that more transparency is required regarding the use of grant money. In a democratic set up we cannot deprive the people of their right to information,' he said.

Joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance Madhav P. Ghimire while commenting the papers said that the government is in process of bringing out foreign aid policy which would help promote transparency to a great extent. The government has taken various measures to promote transparency in development aid, he added.

Dr. Meena Acharya, an economist raised question upon the effectiveness of foreign aid and donors' attitude. Straightforward Dr. Acharya noted that agenda for development aid is not determined in Nepal's interest. It is often donor driven, she said. She also pointed out the need to understand the donors' attitude.

Stephen Sharples, Senior Governance Advisor, DFID Nepal stressed the importance of transparency in order to generate sense of accountability among people.

Similarly Richard Vokes, Resident Representative of ADB also spoke about the essence of transparency for effective mobilisation of resources.

Chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), while commenting the papers said that a country cannot make any progress in the absence of transparency.

Dr. Sudhindra Sharma asserted that people at the grass-root level have to have a feeling of accountability and sense of ownership. Legal expert Bishwo Kant Mainali urged donors to review their policies while granting loans and aid. He was also of the view that donors have to develop one window policy making the optimum utilisation of their aids.

While speaking on the occasion Prof Bihar K Shrestha pointed out the need to reduce donor driven aid or grants. Prof. Bishwo Keshar Maskey said that the government has to develop regulatory mechanism in order to promote transparency.

Deepak Gyanwali, also pointed out the essence of regulatory mechanism.

Vice president of TI Nepal R N Dhungel extended vote of thanks.

MPs to study Bill
Land Act (Fifth Amendment) Bill-2056 in pigeonoholes

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept. 2: The government today put the much-talked Land Act (Fifth Amendment) Bill-2056 in the pigeonholes for the study of the lawmakers before it will be discussed in the Parliament.

The Bill contains a provision for the constitution of a Land Utilisation Commission led by the National Planning Commission Vice Chairman in order to devise a policy for the judicious use of land. The Commission will include Defence Secretary, Forest and Soil Conservation Secretary, Agriculture and Co-operatives Secretary, Work and Physical Planning Secretary and an expert on land utilisation as its members while Land Reforms and Management Secretary will be the Member Secretary.

The Bill also has a provision according to which the government can launch land utilisation schemes in any part of the country after publishing a notice in the gazette. The land utilisation schemes will be managed according to the policy devised by the Land Utilisation Commission. The land selected for one purpose cannot be used for another without getting a prior permission from the concerned authority.

The Bill says that the State will provide special facilities to the farmers willing to run co-operative farming. It says that the government will supply agricultural tools and technology, fertilisers, seeds, irrigation facility and electricity to a group of 10 or more farmers who will farm as prescribed by the concerned authority.

The Bill has set the same limits of ceiling for land holding as decided by the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee meeting on Thursday. According to the Bill, one family can hold 11 bighas (6.9 hectares) in the Terai, 30 ropanies (1.1 hectares) in the Kathmandu Valley and 75 ropanies (3.4) in the hills. They include one bigha in the Terai and five ropanies in case of Kathmandu Valley and in hills for homestead.

Community police's role highlighted

Kathmandu, Sept. 2 (RSS): The workshop on community police service organised jointly by the National Police Training Academy and Department of International Development, United Kingdom began here today.

Inaugurating the workshop, Inspector General of Police Pradip Shumshere J.B. Rana said that the community police had played a significant role in checking and investigating crimes, and removing aberrations taking place in the society.

Stressing the need for the people to extend cooperation to the police in checking criminal activities, Rana said that the Nepal Police is committed to making its services more people-oriented.

Additional Inspector Generals of Police (AIGP) Tirtha Kumar Pradhan, Anantaram Bhattarai, Shyambhakta Thapa and Govinda Prasad Thapa expressed their views on the importance and necessity of community police.

At present the community police service is being run at 26 places of 12 district of the Kingdom of Nepal.

The workshop of community police service is being attended by about 80 persons including the representatives of the community police service, the non-governmental organisations and the journalists.

Women's access to justice emphasised

Kathmandu, Sept. 2 (RSS): Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya has spoken of the need for special laws, mechanism and procedures to increase women’s access to justice which has been hampered by the country's social, economic and educational conditions.

The Chief Justice made the observation while inaugurating a day-long interaction programme on "Criminal justice system and women's access to justice" organised by the Secretariat of the Judicial Council and the Mainstreaming Gender Equity Programme of the United Nations Development Programme under the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare here today.

The Chief Justice said that in the present context when crime against women is being viewed not as constituting a crime in the traditional sense of the word but as a human rights violation and crime against women's dignity, there is a need for more sensitivity in the research, prosecution, defence, decision and execution procedures on issues concerning crime against women.

There is a need for a conducive environment for the access of the victims to bodies under the legal system as well as the commitment on the part of the victimized person to get the criminal punished, Upadhyaya said, adding that the civil society and the local bodies had an important role to play to this regard.

He expressed confidence that the draft report presented by the high-level task force constituted by His Majesty's Government would help in the institutionalisation of a reliable and effective criminal justice system and justice administration procedures.

From the chair, Supreme Court judge Laxman Prasad Aryal said it is a shame that male-dominance still exists in our laws and the judicial administration system, adding that easy access of women to justice is their fundamental right.

Another Supreme Court judge Kedarnath Upadhyaya stressed consciousness on the part of the police, physicians, specialists, facilitators and legal professionals when it comes to questions regarding women's access to justice.

Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki underlined the need for such an institution in the country to study the causes of crimes, the modes of such crimes and its overall impact on society.

Karki disclosed that the criminal justice administration report follow-up committee constituted under his chairmanship was organising such seminars at the regional level and collecting suggestions.

Judicial Council secretary Kashiraj Dahal said that an interaction was held with the objective of sensitising the physicians involved in the judicial process, police, public prosecutors and legal practitioners and to prepare for their coordinated roles in order to help promote women's access to justice.

Director of the Shree Panch Indra Rajyalaxmi Devi Maternity Home Dr Saraswati Padhye, national programme manager of the Mainstreaming Gender Equity Programme Indu Pant Ghimire and senior superintendent of police Surendra Bahadur Pal pointed out the need for reforms in the physical examination system of the body in cases concerning women, provisions for closed-door hearing in courts and the need for the state to take initiatives for immediate redress of crimes against women.

During the second session of the interaction programme, Dr. Harihar Wasti from the TU Teaching Hospital presented a working paper on "Autopsy and physical examination from medico-legal perspective" and judge at the Kavrepalanchowk district court Thakur Prasad Sharma a working paper entitled "Legal importance of autopsy and physical examination".

Peace talks will succeed, says Bhattarai

Kathmandu, Sept. 2 (RSS): Ex-prime minister and Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has expressed confidence that the Government-Maoist talks that began on Aug. 30 will end in success.

Talking briefly to RSS at parliament premises today, ex-prime minister Bhattarai said as peace talks are already under way and the people are in favour of peace the Maoists should understand the people's desire.

He expressed confidence that the Maoists will indeed understand the people's desire.

At a time when the government is listening to them and people are hopeful about the restoration of peace in the country, the Maoists should not organise any programme with the intention of terrorising the people, he observed.

He therefore urged the Maoists in view of the present circumstances not to organise the programme that is said to be scheduled for September 21 at the local Open Air Theatre

The Nepali Congress and its government are committed to resolving the Maoist problem through peaceful means, he said adding, the Maoists for their part should not resort to excesses and terrorise the country by defying the popular desire.

Ex-prime minister Bhattarai urged the rebels to renounce violence and join the national mainstream.

It would not be reasonable on the part of the Maoists to hamper the peace talks by making the irreversible provisions in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 their agenda for talks, Bhattarai said.