Search Operations
One terrorist killed

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 2: The security forces, in their operation against the Maoist terrorists, killed a terrorist in a western hilly district of Baglung and seized weapons and explosives from various parts of the country on Friday.

Yam Bahadur Gharti was killed when a patrol team of the security forces exchanged fires with the terrorists at Dhamja area of Baglung district. The security forces also seized weapons, explosives and various kinds of bombs from the site of the incident, the Defence Ministry said in a statement issued today.

In the process of assisting the action of the security forces across the country, the public collected and submitted a total of 169 guns to the security personnel in varoius districts of the country: 73 in Makawanpur, 85 in Palpa and 11 in Baglung.

The bomb disposal teams of the security forces defused two bombs each at Kathmandu’s Samakhusi and and Lalitpur’s Dhobighat that were planted by the terrorists at the public places.

According to the Defence Ministry, the security forces have detained 55 suspects from various parts of the country: five from Baglung’s Amalachaur, 16 from various parts of Surkhet district, 15 from Arghakhanchi’s Pokharathok, five from Ramechhap’s Lakhanpur, 11 from Chitwan district, one each from Kapilbastu’s Chandrauta, Terhathu’s Jirikhimti, and Dadeldhura’s Chhela. The press statement said the security forces are interrogating the suspects.

The security personnel seized combat fatigues, and equipment used for making bombs and laying ambushes from various parts of Chitwan district. They also recovered the equipment used for making weapons and bombs from Lakhanpur of Ramechhap district.

India most viable market for power export: Mahat

Kathmandu, Feb. 2 (RSS):Participants, speaking at an interaction today, have spoken of the need to implement the Upper Tamakoshi (Rolwaling) Hydel Project since the studies carried out so far show that the project is feasible not only from the social, political and environmental viewpoints, but the cost involved also seems much lower than other projects.

According to preliminary studies, an estimated cost of US $ 277 million will be needed for the 250 MW hydel project based in Dolakha.

Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, who was inaugurating the interaction, said that though we can export electricity to any country in the world keeping in mind our national interest, India is the most potential market.

Attributing expensive power tariff to power purchase agreement in foreign currency and the weak administration, Dr Mahat observed that there is a possibility of attracting foreign investment in power generation since the monopoly being exercised by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) from power generation to distribution has been ended.

The NEA is required not to strike power purchase deals with everyone and issue licenses randomly, he said the government will extend full cooperation for preparing infrastructures for the Tamakoshi Hydro Power Project.

Minister of State for Water Resources Narayan Sharma Paudel said the government is willing to implement the Upper Tamakoshi Power Project to provide electricity to the people at cheaper rates.

The government has brought up a water resources strategy to effect radical economic changes by making most of the available water resources, he further said.

A host of other speakers including former water resources ministers Pradip Nepal, Pashupati Shamsher JB Rana and Laxman Ghimire, MPs Navaraj Subedi, Pashupati Chaulagain, Hiranyalal Shrestha and Ananda Prasad Pokhrel, and NEA Deputy Executive Director Pracharman Singh also spoke at the function.

Hits FM Music Awards
Sharmila rules the roost in women’s categories

By Arhan Sthapit

Kathmandu, Feb 2: Singer Sharmila Bardewa was showered with a stream of applauses when she was declared as the winner in the two female vocal performance categories (general and pop) of the fifth Hits FM Music Awards 2058 here Saturday evening.

In the contest that is often labeled as the Nepali equivalent to the Grammies, there were 11 different categories this year in the competition with five nominees each on the fray, and one non-competition based category of Life-time Achievement Award, which was bestowed upon veteran composer and singer Amber Gurung this year.

In the Close-up sponsored annual music contest of the recorded Nepali songs, Sharmila took many by surprise when she emerged victorious in the tough competition with her seniors in the Best Female Vocal Performance category. In the pop vocal performance category, the competition appeared less tough for Sharmila, who also boasts of winning the same award in the second Hits Music Awards three years ago. Her songs Phoolko jawaf and Anna jokhne won her these two awards.

Another young singer Karna Das sang Byarthai Pheri in his way to repeat Sharmila’s feat by outdoing his seniors in another much-talked about category of the Best Male Vocal Performance.

It was Sunil Bardewa who stopped Navin K. Bhattarai, a nominee in three categories, from making a history of winning the Best Male Vocal Performance (Pop) award for five consecutive years. His sentimental song Goreto Ani secured him an award in this category.

However, he lost the battle in the Record of the Year category to Khemraj Gurung who has dished out Ekadashi Bazaraima (Wari jamuna pari jamuna), one of the peppiest Nepali songs of our times.

The Record of the Year award came as a ‘surprise package’ to Hong Kong-based Nepali pop singer Nima Rumba for his peppy music album Huribatas.

In the category of the Best Song Originally recorded for a Motion Picture Soundtrack, the ‘busiest’ composer Shambhujit Baskota finally made it this year to the award for Meri Basanti. He never won a Hits Music Award though being nominated for the highest number of songs in this category for the four years.

The Bro-sis band bagged the award for China Company in the category of the Best Performance by Group or Duo with Vocal.

Tshiring Bhutia combined his voice with Sukmit Gurung’s in Naau najik mero, to walk away with the Best Vocal Collaboration Award.

Upcoming artiste Jagdish Samal was adjudged the winner in the Best New Artiste category while poetess Sindhu Rana outdid her male counterparts in the lyrical song category of the competition. She also notched up a niche by becoming the first female lyricist to have won the best Song (lyrics) of the Year Award in the Hits Music Awards history.

At the gala music show organized by Hits Nepal Pvt. Ltd., celebrities in Nepali music and film like Kumar Basnet, Chetan Karki, Kali Prasad Rijal Meera Rana, Deep Shrestha Prakash Shrestha, Ombikram Bista, Ram Thapa, Tara Thapa, Sunita Subba, and Amrit Gurung (Nepathya) as well as pop band 1974 AD also made their appearance in the show that ended with an idealistic note that "every one wins in music."

‘Ensure Air Safety’
Drop in air accidents signals safer sky

By B. M. Dahal

Kathmandu, Feb. 2:"How safe is the Nepalese sky?" was a question raised time and again as the number of air accidents was showing an upward trend from early to late 1990s in Nepal.

However, the air accidents seem to have gone down for the last two years. Three air crashes each took place in 2000 and 2001 but no casualty was recorded during that period.

Records indicate the number of such accidents have increased significantly following the government’s adoption of the open air policy in 1992. The country witnessed three such accidents each in 1992 and 1993, whereas four each occurred in 1996 and 1998. The number of air accidents increased to six in 1999. Air crashes in the domestic sector have claimed about 100 casualties since 1992.

Aviation experts point to bad weather, difficult topography and human errors as the major contributing factors to air accidents in Nepal. They, however, blame the private sector airlines, which have seen an unprecedented growth after the government’s new aviation policy, for ‘not paying proper attention’ to the air safety.

Besides, they are also of the opinion that the number of air accidents could be averted if the airlines become more conscious about and take air safety measures. They emphasise the need for the air operators to ‘strictly’ follow the aviation-related rules and guidelines so as to ward off any possible accident.

Moreover, it is also said that hiring of the foreign pilots, especially Indians, by the private airlines, could cause air accidents as they do not have enough knowledge about Nepal’s topography and the weather conditions.

"Lack of qualified and efficient instructor pilots and other technical manpower with the airlines are other reasons behind the growing number of air accidents," says an official, involved in the air traffic management, on condition of anonymity.

The official maintains that lack of regular maintenance and navigation aid both in air and ground also contribute to accidents. He also accuses the air operators of bringing in aging aircraft and flying overload.

Air operators, meanwhile, agree that adverse weather condition and ‘human error’ are responsible for many of the air accidents. They claim that the instrumental and technological failures have hardly caused to such accidents.

"As air operators, we are fully conscious about air safety and we try our best to ensure it," says Bikash J. B. Rana, President of Air Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN).

Rana, the Executive Chairman of Fishtail Air, rules out the argument that the pilots working with the private sector airlines are not well-trained. "The airlines have trained and efficient pilots. We never compromise with the air safety."

A pilot by profession, Rana says since the aviation technology is highly sophisticated, fatal air accident cannot take place because of technical problems.

Says he, "No such accidents have occurred so far in Nepal. Most of the accidents have taken place due to human error. Now we have to think on how to minimise such accidents."

He further says the airlines get the proficiency of their aircraft checked twice a year. "With the country having strict civil aviation regulations, everybody is bound to follow them," he says.

As per the call of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has set plans to replace the existing conventional navigation equipment with satellite-based Communication, Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management system (CNS/ATM) to facilitate the aviation sector.

The new system is expected to be helpful even in reducing the air accidents that have mostly taken place in Nepal due to lack of communication between pilots air traffic controllers during bad weather.

"Once the ground proximity warning system is introduced, it will definitely help in minimising the air accidents," Rana believes.

As an authority to guide the entire civil aviation sector of the country, CAAN is said to carry out the regular check-ups of the aircraft. Apart from such check-ups, it also conducts surprise inspections to find whether the aircraft are in a sound condition or not. However, CAAN is also often blamed for not carrying out its responsibilities.

But refuting the blame, Medini Prasad Sharma, Director General of CAAN, says that CAAN has been fulfilling its responsibilities regularly.

Sharma informs that CAAN conducts safety auditing to know whether the airlines are regularly following the instructions of the concerned aircraft manufacturers or not. "Our efforts alone will not be sufficient to ensure the air safety unless a sense of safety culture prevails among the airlines," he emphasises.

‘Nation united to fight terrorism’

Kathmandu, Feb. 2 (RSS): Minister for Water Resources Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar has said that the whole nation has become united to oppose terrorism in order to maintain law and order.

Speaking at a Face to Face programme organised by the Reporters Club Nepal here today, Minister Gachchhadar noted that the emergency rule was imposed in the country as per the constitution as the terrorist group increased its activities even when the government had shown utmost liberality to resolve the problems through talks in the interest of the nation and the people.

The government is mulling over devising special programmes for the next winter session with the all-party consensus in order to end evils and aberrations, and also over bringing about integrated programmes for social reforms, he said.

CPN-UML standing committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari noted that as the country is in crisis, the emergency might be extended if the government is not alert in time and called on the government to bring about relief programmes.

We should be prepared to form women and Dalit Commissions, control corruption, provide good governance and amend the constitution, he said and pointed out the need for the government to make the upcoming winter session more result-oriented and fruitful.

Ex-minister and RPP general secretary Pashupati Shumsher Rana said the interests of the downtrodden communities should be given attention and corruption and dilly-dallying should be eradicated.

CPN-ML standing committee member CP Mainali said the Maoists committed a blunder by trying to change the society through violence.

The present situation is such that the army can be mobilised until the truce is declared by the terrorists, he added.

Tourism sector struggles to overcome hurdles

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 2: Badly hit by the biggest slump in tourist-arrivals last year, tourism industry showed no sign of improvement in the first month of this year as it recorded around 48 per cent decline in incoming tourists by air compared to last year’s January figure.

Tourist arriving from countries other than India in January 2002 totalled 9,559 whereas it was 20,611 last year, a press statement of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) stated. "The Indian tourist component alone has decreased by 24.12%. Besides, arrivals from U.S.A., U.K. and Japan have come down by 60.2%, 45.4% and 62.8% respectively."

The press statement further stated: Though Nepal has always remained a safe destination for tourists, the current false perception of travel safety in Nepal has mainly caused this sharp decline. The easing out of travel advisory by US State Department recently and the successful conclusion of 11th SAARC Summit will greatly contribute towards boosting the destination image of Nepal in the immediate future and in the long run.

After a record 20 per cent decline in tourist-arrival last year dealt a severe blow to the national travel trade, the government last month announced Destination Nepal Campaign (DNC) to reinvigorate the country’s image as a travel destination. Earlier named as Destination Nepal Year 2002, the tourism promotional bonanza was later rechristened as DNC and would coincide with the golden jubilee celebration of the first human-ascent on Mountain Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) this year.

This year also marks two international events — the International Year of Mountains and the International Eco-Tourism Year — both declared by the United Nations. Since both the events are directly related with the Nepalese tourism industry, travel experts believe the country can cash in on them.

The national tourism industry has fared very badly in recent years due to adversely-affecting series of incidents inside and outside the country in the last two years. The biggest tourist-arrival figure the national tourism business notched up was in 1998 when it ushered in more than 500,000 tourists — recording around 10 per cent growth in the 1997 figure. That was the year the country marked the Visit Nepal Year, a tourism extravaganza aimed at strongly promoting Nepal as visitors’ paradise.

In the years that followed, things began to go wrong. In 1999, only six per cent of annual growth in the by-air tourist-arrival was recorded. In the year that followed, the arrival figure declined by around six per cent.

Right activists condemn killings by terrorists

By a Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 2: Journalists, legislators and human right activists today strongly condemned the brutal acts of Maoist terrorists who have been killing the simple and innocent people across the country.

At a condolence meeting organised to pay tributes to late Muktinath Adhikari, who was killed by the Maoists about two weeks ago in Lamjung, participants also condemned the execution-style killing of Adhikari, an acting headmaster of Sanskrit Secondary School of Lamjung district and the district convenor for the AI.

Pursottam Dahal, a noted journalist said, "This kind of terrorist activities have not endured anywhere in the world; neither will they endure in our country."

Hikmat Thapa, Secretary of AI said, "We all have been distressed by the brutal activities of the Maoist terrorists." He said that the AI had lost a devoted human right activist in the death of Adhikari, adding he was actively involved in the activities of the organisation. "We all condemn the barbarous act of the Maoist terrorists."

"The cruel acts of the Maoist terrorists have overwhelmed the revolutionary organisations worldwide," National Human Rights Commission member Sushil Pyakurel said. "Personally, I will always condemn such acts."

"The random killing of the innocent people by the Maoists has posed a challenge to the philanthropic people of the country," said Pyakurel. "We should be united to foil their activity. Our campaign for peace, justice and freedom for the people won’t be thwarted by the terrorists."

Suman Adhikari, son of victim Muktinath Adhikari said, "My father was killed because he denied to give donations to the Maoist terrorists."

Ram Bahadur Gurung, Member of Parliament said the country was passing through a serious situation and urged everybody to rid the country of the crisis.

Lawmaker Hari Bhakta Adhikari showed concern over the uncertain and insecure state the country was facing.

From the chair Raju Sarkar said, "Muktinath was killed in his mission for justice and freedom. We esteem his contributions to the human right campaign of the AI."

He called for joint efforts of all to foil the terrorist activities.