Finally, Agreement

THAT the Nepal-India Trade Treaty has been renewed by another five years has come as a relief to both the countries despite some reservations remaining related to the quota system and the value addition. The agreement between the delegations of both the countries broke the ice in the four-day long seventh round of talks at the secretarial level in a span of about eight months. Herein it may be worthwhile remembering that the trade treaty had expired three months back on December 5, 2002 but had been extended by another three months. The treaty will be effective from March 6, 2002. In fact, the secretaries of both the countries have to be appreciated for their patience in finally coming to an agreement with some new provisions included. The trade treaty between Nepal and India, for the first time, includes provisions under which four items that include vegetable ghee, acrylic yarn, copper wire and zinc oxide are allowed duty free entry into India but a quantitative ceiling has been imposed on each. In the meantime, a value addition on other articles is 25 per cent for the first year and 30 per cent in the years following. Besides this, an extra four per cent has been imposed as additional duty on the items for which quotas have been fixed, according to the new trade treaty.

Looking at the way and the duration for which the trade treaty talks had proceeded, it had not been an easy task. So many things had to be sorted out including India’s complaints that some of the items exported from Nepal had had a negative effect on businessmen in India. Maybe this is the reason why some items have been slapped with a fixed quota on export to be made to Nepal. On the overall, Nepal, at the time, is suffering from a huge imbalance in trade with India. There may be a cause of concern among the businesspeople here that the new regime is bound to affect Nepal’s export trade with India. Whatever that may be, there is reason to be complacent on the score that success has been achieved in the renewal of the Nepal-India Trade Treaty despite the fact that compromises had to be made.

Training For Inmates

WITH an aim to bring about positive changes among the prisoners, a week-long noodles preparation training was organised for the Rajbiraj Prison’s inmates by the Saptari district-based Cottage and Small Industry office the other day. If prisons are universally accepted as correction houses for those who have committed one or the other crime, then the inmates of such correction houses are generally viewed by the public as those who in need of correcting their behaviour and attitude vis-a-vis the rest of society. In other words, inmates—excluding those given life sentences—are kept in such correction houses until they have served their terms handed down by the august judges. In almost all such cases, the terms are in commensurate with the seriousness and gravity of the sentenced citizens’ crimes. But, by no means are the terms or sentences solely meant to incarcerate the wayward citizens behind the four massive walls. The more so in this modern age which is, among others, characterised by global movements to protect the rights of all humans, be they upright or otherwise. Rather, the terms that inmates spent in correction houses are specifically meant to give them ample opportunity to mull over their wayward behaviour and attitude. And, having done so, to mend their unsociable ways.

Nevertheless, for this to materialise, the concerned authorities too need to play their part. First, by treating the inmates at par with other citizens. Secondly, by coming up with requisite initiatives to enable the inmates to stand on their own feet as and when they leave their correction houses. As such, assorted trade-oriented or skill-enhancing trainings should be provided so that they too could go on to become responsible citizens by contributing their share to the development efforts of the society at large. In fact, in the absence of such initiatives would, if we are to go by the correctional experts’ erudite studies and findings, ultimately be doing more harm than good to the inmates. For, without such initiatives, they could be afflicted with a sense of ennui, if not loss. Since inmates, regardless of their terms, are confined together in correction houses, such aimless inmates could be easily influenced by more hardened inmates. Hence, if correction houses were to realise their main objective—to enable the inmates to become upright and useful citizens—then it behooves upon them to impart trade or skill-enhancing trainings to their inmates.