Tourist police ill-equipped but dutiful, active

By Indra Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Oct. 22: Mathew Camirelli of Malta came to Nepal on 15 July 2002 as a tourist. During his stay he came in contact with an Indian gems trader having a small shop at Thamel. The shopkeeper, Deepak Kumar convinced Mathew to take few gems to his country to help boost the trade of Nepalese gems in Malta. He agreed and took one as a sample.

Deepak did not asked money in return but asked for a credit card. When Mathew reached Malta, he came to know that the Indian shopkeeper has drawn NRs. 50, 000 through the card. He also came to know from the specialists of his country that the stone he had taken was poor in quality.

After being duped, he filed the case to the Tourist Police in Nepal, through e-mail. The Police called Deepak but he denied the allegation. But the details given by the tourist compelled him to accept that he had cheated the Maltese. With the Tourist Police pressure mounting, the gem trader agreed to return the money.

This is how the Tourist Police, established in 1979 assist the tourists who come to Nepal. The police is solely responsible for looking after the complaints of tourists coming to Nepal. The number of tourists visiting the Tourist Police with their complaints is increasing daily, according to the statistics provided by the Tourist Police.

Apart from registering the complaints, the Police also do patrolling at different tourist sites in the Valley to provide spot services. The Tourist Police is responsible to after the welfare of all tourist who are in Nepal. They advise and assist them for their safe and secure stay and provide information in travel security. They are also responsible to ensure the hassle free trip from hawkers, beggars and street children. Tourists can complain after returning to their country as well Interestingly, most of the Travel and Tour agents operating in Kathmandu have not known the existence of the Tourist Police. The lack of co-ordination between these two, Tourist Police has not been successful in providing effective service to the tourists.

The Tourist Police have their daily routine for the patrolling. Monday to Friday they do patrolling at different tourist sites such as Boudha, Pashupati, Airport, Patan, Thamel Swayambhu, Basantapur, Dakshinkali, Changunarayan, Bhaktapur and Nagarkot.

But due to poor facilities, the Tourist Police face problem while moving from one site to another during their patrol. There are many tourist sites to be visited but they have only one vehicle. The strength of the Police is also small. 'We have to go for patrolling at different places the whole day, look at the complaints of the tourists, search the accused persons, bring the both side to a compromise. All these work cannot be done by a small number of staff,' Inspector of Tourist Police, Rajendra Bista said.

It has a small one-room office at the Department of Tourism Industry. "We don't have a separate room to talk with the tourists when they come with their problems," Bista said.

There are only seven members attacked to the Tourist Police today; one Inspector and six Sub Inspectors. But in special request the Central Police Department provides other eight to help in their work. "We have requested several times to increase the number to 225 as the industry has grown to a bigger level but so far the request has fallen on dear ears" said the Tourist Police Inspector Rajendra Bista.

Information Director of the Nepal Tourism Board Aditya Baral said that the Tourist Police must come under NTB's authority. "As we are at the fore point of the tourism sector of the nation, the tourist police should solely be under us," he said.

Baral said that at least a beat of tourist police should be at the major tourist points of the country. He said that he himself had to engage in rescuing the tourist in lack of Tourist Police.

Baral said that there should be extra training to the Tourist Police staff. "We have been facing the problem of language to look at the causes of tourists, especially of those who do not have the knowledge of English," Inspector Bista said.

President of TAAN Suman Pandey said that the Tourist Police is existing "symbolically". "There is the need of more staff of the Tourist Police to ensure the secure stay of the tourists coming to Nepal," Pandey said.

Neema Sherpa of NMA said that Tourist Police are concentrated to cities only. "Major tourist sites are in villages. So, the Tourist Police need to be expanded to these areas," Sherpa said. The police should also be given the right to take action to the illegal tourist agents, he said.

Tourism Industry is one of largest forex earning of Nepal. During 60s merely 1000 tourists used to come to Nepal per annum but by the end of 70s the number of tourists rose to 100 thousands. With these increase in the number tourists arrivals the problems of tourist robbery theft, begging and other similar hassle have also increased.

Poor results hit schools in Ramechhap

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RAMECHHAP, Oct. 22: Higher Secondary Schools in Ramechhap district have been facing crisis owing to the local schools' poor results in SLC exams.

Majority of the Higher Secondary Schools in the district that were opened in rural areas during the past few years are in loss due to poor number of the students enrolled this year too, as last year, says section officer at district education office Hemanta Budhathoki.

The poor results must have been caused by the changed curriculum and texts of secondary grades accompanied by the new and improved examination systems emphasising on quality education, he says.

The number of students in Mahendrodaya Higher Secondary School Manthali, the district headquarters has not exceeded 100 this year whereas the number used to be more than 250 in previous years.

The school is likely to face crisis as its main financial source which depends on the students' enrolment has drastically declined, says head teacher Gunja Bahadur Shrestha.

Six different Higher Secondary Schools in the district have been running classes in education, arts and management streams.

There are two campuses in the district where classes up to bachelor' level have been running. They too are confronting the same problem.

About 36 per cent people in the district are literate and the number of people receiving higher education is still meagre, a statistics in the education office shows.

CIAA orders to remand in custody further

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KATHMANDU, Oct. 22: The Special Court has permitted the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to extend by 30 days the time period to keep under custody and investigate 18 of the 22 civil servants who residences were raided on suspicion of corruption.

The order to extend the time period was handed down by the bench of chairperson of the Special Court Tap Bahadur Magar and members Damodar Prasad Sharma and Bhupdwaj Adhikari.

Pleading on behalf of His Majesty's Government and the CIAA respectively, Co-Attorney Generals Yubaraj Subedi and Prem Raj Karki argued that additional investigation was required as evidence was being collected and investigation accelerated in the case which is of serious public concern and involved an offence against the state.

The 18 employees working under the revenue division of the Finance Ministry were arrested following raids carried out by the CIAA at their residences. Four other civil servants are still at large.

Himal Cement employees submit application to DPM

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KATHMANDU, Oct. 22: Employees of Himal Cement Company Ltd. have submitted an application to the Deputy Prime Minister requesting that they be provided remuneration, allowances and other facilities.

They have not received their remuneration since the past 10 months, it is learnt.

The application submitted on behalf of five employees of the company states that all employees of the company were unable to celebrate the great festival of Bada Dashain and they hoped that they will not have to undergo the same fate in the upcoming Tihar festival.

Maoists will never succeed

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ITAHARI, Oct. 22: CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that his party is now more sensitive over running the affairs of state in line with Constitutional Monarchy, multi-party democracy and the aspirations of the people.

At a programme organised by the CPN-UML at Dharan today, he objected to the assault on the spirit of the Constitution by recent political developments and to ministers making a serious mistake by treating the Constitution as a mere piece of paper.

He said that the activities of the Maoists, which defame the Communist movement, will never succeed.

Party standing committee member and former minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari said that all Nepalese hold the belief that under Constitutional Monarchy the King can do no wrong.

Ex-mayor of Dharan and convenor of the CPN-UML constituency No. 1 committee of the district Manoj Kumar Meyangbo presided over the programme.

Karcher meets PM

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KATHMANDU, Oct 22 : Resident Representative of the United Nations Developmet Programme Dr. Henning Karcher congratulated Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand on the latter's appointment as Prime Minister of Nepal, during a courtesy call on the Prime Minister at the latter's office at Singh Durbar today.During the meeting, the resident representative also assured the Prime Minister of UNDP's continued support and assistnace to His Majesty's Government's development efforts. At the request of the Resident Representative, the Prime Minister declared his commitment to bear personally all the expenses to be incurred in the educatiuon of a girl child from the Dalit community for a period of five years .During the meeting they also discussed matters of development in Nepal.