Govt not to infringe on press freedom

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LALITPUR, Dec. 8: Minister for Information and Communications Ramesh Nath Pandey has said that the rumours over the past few days that the government was planning to infringe on press freedom through an ordinance are misleading.

Speaking at a talk programme on the topic 'Media and democracy, challenges of the present' organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Minister Pandey said the Nepalese Press had become stronger like the press the world over.

The ordinance on Royal Palace expenditures had been forwarded for the royal seal by the Sher Bahadur Deuba government headed by the Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader on the recommendation of the cabinet, he said. He added the ordinance had not touched upon the powers of the cabinet to formulate the budget nor on parliament's powers to pass it. Both these powers were intact.

The ordinance has not even conceded the power to alter the amount specified for the Royal Palace, Pandey said, adding that it has only made arrangements for using as per need the amount specified by the budget.

Minister Pandey said the government will solicit suggestions by forming a task force of senior media experts within a week to formulate a Working Journalist Act, and expressed commitment to implementing the act as per suggestions made by the task force.

He further said the state and media should forge solidarity to safeguard multi-party press freedom through adherence to a certain discipline and that no policy has been forwarded to infringe press freedom.

FNJ president Taranath Dahal said there are suspicions about press freedom following imposition of the state of emergency, and added that the government should wipe out such suspicion by bringing in an ordinance on the right to information.

He said all the journalists detained should be released unconditionally and a high level probe committee formed to investigate the realities of journalists engaged in wrong activities.

School decide to play safe over strike call

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec. 8: Many of the educational institutions in the Kathmandu Valley today issued informal notices to the students and parents about their decision to shut down the schools and colleges for five days due to "unavoidable circumstances" prevailing in the country. In their notices, they hinted at the call made by the student wing of the underground CPN-Maoists to shut down all educational institutions for having to take such a drastic step.

The All Nepal Free Students' Union-Revolutionary had called on the schools and colleges to shut them down for an indefinite period from December 9 if their 13-point demands were not fulfilled by the government.

Since both the parties were unable to sit for talks within the stipulated timeframe, the Private And Boarding School Organisation Nepal (PABSON), the country's largest organisation that encompasses most of the private schools, decided to play safe and shut down all educational institutions.

In what was seen as a positive gesture on the part of the government, the Ministry of Education last week had introduced an education reform package that included some of the demands made by the ANNFSU-Revolutionary. It also promised to gradually fulfill the other demands, provided that they do not interfere and create chaos in the educational institutes.

"But after the student wing of the CPN-Maoists started demanding that the government stop labelling the student body as terrorists, a conducive atmosphere for the talks could not be created," said a school headmaster who wanted the problem solved through dialogue.

At an interaction programme today, Minister for Education and Sports Devi Prasad Ojha said that the government was ready to drop the label if the student wing of the Maoists could assure the government and the civil society that they would not involve in terrorist and destructive activities.
Nearly 68 per cent of the 9.4 million children of school-going age who attend school are now directly affected and will be sitting idle at home due to the strike called by the ANNFSU.

At the Face-to Face programme organised by the Reporter's Club today, representatives of various political parties slammed the Maoists for shutting down schools and colleges, saying this would destroy the future of the new generation.

Protest against closure of schools

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec 8: The academia, human rights activists and students are launching a sit-in programme on Tuesday to protest the closure of educational institutions called by the Maoists.
According to Hari Govind Luintel, a member of the protest group, the sit-in-programme will be staged at Tripureshwor for one hour. "It is a symbolic protest in order to draw the attention of the Maoists. The protest programme will disseminate the message that closure of education institutions and terror do not help anybody in the country."

Teams call on PM

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KATHMANDU, Dec. 8: A seven-member delegation led by Madan Gurung, president of the Small Farmer Tea Producers Association Jhapa, met Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar today and apprised him of the problems facing the small tea producers.

The delegation apprised the Prime Minister of various problems like non-categorisation of farmers, lack of encouragement towards forming cooperatives, lack of a policy regarding a separate package for small farmers and lack of coordination in agriculture and tea production.

The delegation demanded that apart from the seed money provided to the small farmers for tea cultivating, provisions should be made for granting additional amounts, a well defined criteria should be set for fixing the price of green orthodox tea, an environment should be created in which green tea produced by the farmers would be purchased easily by the factories and the interest on loans given to small farmers should be waived.

Also today, a delegation from Lamjung district led by Assistant Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Jagat Bahadur Gurung called on Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand at his residence in Baluwatar and apprised him of problems related to development and the law and order situation in the district and requested him for necessary initiatives for their resolution.

Similarly, a seven-member delegation led by Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Bhojpur district working committee president Sangram Singh Rai met Prime Minister Chand at his residence in Baluwatar today and apprised him of the current problems facing the district.

The delegation apprised the prime minister of the need for reconstruction of the Bhojpur Power House, renovation and repair of the Bhojpur Airstrip, beefing up of security in Dingla area, restoration of communications in Tewari Bhanjyang area and starting telephone service in Bhojpur Bazar, etc..

Five killed in terrorists' ambush

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec. 8: Five people were killed and 14 others injured when a passenger bus ran over an ambush set up by the Maoist insurgents in Karkare of Sindhuli district to the east of Kathmandu Sunday.

Those killed in the explosion that took place at 7:30 in the morning include two armymen and three civilians. The night bus was heading towards Sindhuli from Kathmandu.The 14 injured in the incident are undergoing treatment in Kathmandu hospitals. This is the second time that a passenger bus has been targetted by the Maoists. Earlier, a bus in Dolakha in north central Nepal blew up when it stepped over a hidden ambush, killing and maiming passengers bound for Kathmandu.

Action against corrupt to continue, says DPM

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BIRGUNJ, Dec. 8: Deputy Prime Minister Badri Prasad Mandal while giving directives to chiefs of district level government offices and organisations this evening said that the government has established a vigilance centre and made arrangements for monitoring to make the administrative mechanism more efficient. He said the present government will not touch the administrative mechanism out of political interests.

The programme was presided over by CDO of Parsa district Bishnu Raj Kusum. Likewise, Deputy Prime Minister Badri Prasad Mandal has said that the political parties are spreading a rumour about retrogressive steps to cover up their mistakes, weaknesses, misdeeds and corruption during the last eleven years.

Stating that only two to four among those indulging in plundering under the pretext of democracy have been arrested to date, Deputy Prime Minister Mandal said, "the action against the corrupt will not be given up."

Inaugurating the first ever national convention at Birgunj today of institutions and organisations assisting in the role of the Marwadi community in social services, he said that this community has been playing a remarkable role in the social, economic and business sectors.

Juddha Barun Yantra to see better days soon

By Schuman Sourav

KATHMANDU, Dec 4: Juddha Barun Yantra (JBY), the fire brigade situated at Dharmapath, New Road, is likely to see better days soon.

A high ranking official at the Ministry of Home said that it was well aware of the problems facing the JBY. "We are, therefore, keen to improve the situation and streamline its operations, management and recruitment."

For this to happen, the source said it was working to hand over the fire brigade to the Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation through the Ministry of Local Development.

Chairman and executive officer of the KMC Shiva Bhakta Sharma acknowledged that it had received such an offer. "We are ready to handle the fire brigade, but then the government should provide us not only the outdated engines, but also space, manpower and adequate budget," he said.

The KMC has forwarded a letter to the Home Ministry to see if these demands can be fulfilled or not. The ministry has so far not responded.

Spokesman at the Ministry of Local Development Hari Prasad Rimal agreed that they had been informed about the Home Ministry's intent to hand over the JBY to the KMC.

"Our job is merely to coordinate," he said. The KMC is ready to take over the JBY with all its assets including the building, but the Home Ministry wants to keep the building and space for itself. So a meeting is to be arranged by the Ministry of Local Development in the near future for an easy handover. "But any transfer process should be acceptable to the future elected members of the KMC, too," said Rimal.

This fire brigade was established way back in 1937, and was then managed by the army. During the partyless Panchayat days, it was administered by the Office of the Zonal Commissioner. However, after the collapse of the Panchayat era and with the advent of multi-party democracy in 1990, there has been no department to look after it. Only four of its fire engines are in good condition. Others are museum pieces.

Mere handing over of the JBY to the KMC is not likely to solve the multiple problems facing Kathmandu, though. Bikram Bahadur Chand, Police Inspector and in-charge of the ward police station at Janasewa, New Road, suggests it might be better to create at least three new points for the fire brigade rather than have one big one stationed at New Road in order to provide prompt service. This, he believes, would considerably reduce the problems posed by traffic to the fire brigade.

All the 54 firefighters seem quite happy to come under the KMC's jurisdiction. "This office falls under the Ministry of Home, but we firefighters belong to the Ministry of Defence. So the handover should at least tell us where we belong," they said.

The problems facing the fire brigade are numerous. The firefighters complain that they don't even have a proper workshop to repair the engines. "No life insurance policy, no commander, no proper security measures, no formal training…nothing at all."

"We have four fire engines, and we are just 22 firefighters. As one engine needs nine personnel, there is a lack of manpower to man all the four engines at a given time," said the firemen.

They hope that the ministries and the KMC will settle their misunderstanding amicably. Four years back, they had heard rumours that the JBY was being transferred to the Department of Immigration, visa information unit." But the unit did nothing to improve the situation of the JBY. It merely hung a signboard.

SAARC enters 17th year

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec 8: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - the common forum of the seven nations of South Asia, today observed its 17th anniversary.

The SAARC came into existence after the Heads of State or Government signed its Charter on December 8, 1985 in Dhaka and adopted the Dhaka declaration. Established with the objective of accelerating economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance in those areas, the member countries of the SAARC have, however, yet to realise how far they have been successful in achieving their prime goal. Though the period of 16 years is not long for a regional organization like SAARC, its tardy move towards fulfillment of the basic objectives has sparked doubt over the perennial existence of the regional club of poor nations of South Asia.

However, diplomats and foreign relation experts say that immediate outcome cannot be expected in 10-15 years. Even the Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) that was established in 1967 and the European Commission (now European Union) established in 1956 took long years to be strong regional organizations.

"The SAARC is a reality. There is no alternative to it," says Dr. Yadav Kant Silwal, former SAARC Secretary General.

However, it is said that the SAARC has failed to move towards its objectives due to the lackadaisical attitude of its two big members - India and Pakistan.

India, an economically sound member, accords priority to other regional groupings like ASEAN. SAARC is not India's priority, said a former foreign minister at a programme here recently. "But small countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka should convince the big nations," he said.

Despite hurdles, all the seven members of the SAARC are ready to join hands on common issues like poverty alleviation. Besides, coalition among the member states to fight terrorism, girl trafficking and other issues has been successful, said Silwal.

Talking to The Rising Nepal, Dr. Silwal said that the move towards the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) should be taken positively.

The SAARC as a common forum has encouraged cooperative relations among the member countries in the region, said Hiranya Lal Shrestha, a foreign relations expert and politician. It has provided a forum for the member nations to move towards globalization. Keeping Indo-Pakistan relations aside, the SAARC is moving towards the fulfillment of its objectives.

Instead of making it more 'official', it should focus on people-to people relations, he said. SAARC trade fair, SAARC cultural exchange and other activities have encouraged the galvanisation of relations between the peoples of this region, Shrestha said.

Even though SAARC has been a common forum for countries like Nepal, India, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, experts comment it has always been overshadowed by India and Pakistan. The voice of small nations has not been heard and they seem to have failed to reap any benefit from the preferential trade.