FRONT PAGERS
Monday June 07th, 1999 / Jestha 24, 2056 B.S.

Congress had a hand in Dasdhunga: Madhav Nepal

General Secretary of the CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal, has said it is now being proved that the Nepali Congress had a hand in the Dasdhunga incident.

Speaking at an election meeting in Kathmandu’s constituency No. 1 he said the Nepali Congress instigating Amar Lama against the UML has proved that it had a hand in the ‘murder’.

The elections of Kathmandu’s constituency No. 1 and 3 are being held on Tuesday.

"Our suspicion (of the Congress’s involvement) is not coming out true," he said.

(Amar Lama was the driver of the vehicle which fell into the Trishuli river killing two UML leaders, the then General Secretary Madan Bhandari and Jeev Raj Ashrit in 1993. But Lama had miraculously survived.)

The UML has called it a murder, rather than an accident and has accused Lama of being involved in the murder. (On the other hand, Lama has accused UML leaders, especially Khadga Oli, of conspiring the accident.)

Nepal said the price is sky-rocking along with the formation of Congress government. He also said the congress workers are creating terror in districts, and warned if such activities are not stopped UML will not remain quiet.

Similarly, speaking at a campaign meeting in Kathmandu’s constituency No. 3, UML candidate Ishwor Pokharel called Lama one of the murderers of Madan Bhandari and said if people want to punish him, the UML is ready to assist. (Lama last year completed five years in jail. He was found guilty by the court of negligent driving and involuntary manslaughter.

At the same meeting, UML leader K.P. Oli said when the UML was in power there were some achievements in the Mahakali Treaty, but now there are doubts about the implementation of the Pancheshwore Project (because the UML is not in power).

He also accused Prime Minister Bhattarai as light-weight.

(Aajako Samacharpatra, June 6, Sunday)

ML to start street protest

President of the CPN-ML has blamed the conspiracy against her party for its electoral defeat. Speaking at a election rally in Kathmandu’s No. 1 constituency, she said everybody was surprised at the ML’s defeat.

ML’s General Secretary Bamdev Gautam called the recent election as the defeat of the nationalist forces and the victory of the India-biased elements. Gautam is contesting in the constituency No. 1 of Kathmandu.

Gautam said no matter whether he wins or loses, the ML will start street protests. But he said if he wins, he will raise issues in the parliament which no one can do.

He said his party’s presence in the parliament is imperative not to let the national issues fall in the backdrop.

(Deshantar, June 6, Sunday)

No. of ministers and ministries not to be reduced

Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, other leaders and even bureaucrats do not agree with the suggestion of the Administrative Reform Commisson to have a small and efficient cabinet. Prime Minister Bhattarai has even indicated that his government will be of a bloated size contrary to the suggestion and the people’s wish.

The Commission formed in 1991 had suggested to have a lean, efficient and austere bureaucracy. It had also suggested to reduce the ministries from the then 21 to 18. But no government ever heeded that suggestion. During his coalition government Prime Minister Deuba even increased the ministries to 26. The succeeding governments followed the same pattern.

Now, Prime Minister Bhattarai has even said his government would be larger than expected. After his swearing in, he said he would expand his cabinet in three phases and he would add 5/6 cabinet level ministers, 8/10 state ministers and 8/10 assistant ministers. If that happens the size of the cabinet will reach to almost 40. Bhattarai may do so to please as many of the partymen as he can.

What is the financial burden of a large cabinet? The cost of one minister is almost 6 times more than that of a member of the parliament. The cost of one minister is almost Rs. 1.8 million a year. Similarly, the cost of one state and assistant minister is almost Rs. 1 million.

Everybody wants a small and efficient cabinet. According to a member of the Congress central working committee, Bhattarai does not have a compulsion, like the coalition governments, to please others (by making them ministers) to remain in power.

(Deshantar, June 6, Sunday)

How much a minister’s monthly expense can do?

*Every month about 77,250 women become new mothers. Many of them and the new born babies die of tetanus. If clean delivery system is adopted many of them can be saved. If the country saves the direct and indirect expenses on one minister,10,000 such women can be saved.

*Many children of under 5 suffer and die of diarrhea. Many of them can be saved by the cheap Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT). A ministers one month’s salary and perks can save 25,000 such children from diarrheal death.

*It costs Rs. 15 to provide iodized salt to one person for one year. A minister’s one month’s salary is enough to provide iodized salt to 10,500 persons.

*Thirty percent of the children under 5 in Nepal suffer from pneumonia. The expense the country makes on one minister is enough to save 7,500 children from pneumonia.

*Hundreds of thousand children under five are suffering from night blindness. A minister’s one month’s salary and other perks are enough to provide Vitamin ‘A’ capsules to 30,000 children to prevent night blindness.

(Deshantar, June 6, Sunday)

Koirala to reorganise party, looking at the formation of the government

Former Prime Minister and President of the Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala has said that he would reorganise the party, but only after looking at the shape and form of the government.

Talking to the press in Biratnagar, his home town, he said he would now start working to make the party efficient and strong. When asked to comment on the formation of the new government, he said: "No comment. I don’t have any reaction to whether it is good or bad."

On the issue of some second generation leaders expressing their dissatisfactions on the formation of the government, he told to ask them and not him.

He said he would speak only about the party and nothing about the government. He said he would now devote all his might to strengthen the party.

(Himalaya Times, June 5, Saturday)

Melamchi will come, but after 7 years

There are indications that the government will give more priority to Melamchi drinking water project than others. This was also the main point of discussion in the third cabinet meeting on Thursday.

At the cabinet meeting, several ministers, however, pointed out that it would not be appropriate to say Melamchi will provide water in three yearsz without conducting the complete feasibility studies.

The government will hold talks with the 28 donor agencies, including the World Bank, about Melamchi on Friday. this is the third such meeting about Melamchi, still there is very little possibility of reaching to a concrete decision.

According to a top source involved in the feasibility studies of Melamchi, there is little possibility of the government reaching to a decision by agreeing to all the conditions put forward by the World Bank. World Bank is the major donor of the project.

The major conditions of the WB include, overhauling the legal structure of the Drinking Water Supply Corporation, price hike of the drinking water and compulsory implementation of the Value Added Tax. The World Bank is pressing for those conditions for its involvement in the improvement of the distribution network. However, according to the source, the other donor agencies think the Bank should rethink about its conditions or they may have to cooperate in the project from outside.

Meanwhile, technicians at the Melamchi Development Committee say the cost of the project, which was estimated earlier to be Rs. 18 billion, may rise to Rs. 26 billion by the time the project is completed. In such a condition the government could even shelve the project and seek an alternative. However, a source at the Finance Ministry said the government may still go for Melamchi because it is directly related to the prestige of Prime Minister Bhattarai.

However, the project agreement has still not being done, and it will take at least 7 years for the water from Melamchi to reach the taps. Again, looking at the uncertainties due to the conditions of the donors, topographical problems and rise in the cost, experts doubt on the smooth completion of the project.

(Deshantar, June 6, Sunday)

Maoists rob bank

A group of Maoists have robbed the a bank in Manthali, Ramechhap district of eastern Nepal on Friday evening. According to the manager of the bank, a group of about 150 Maoists, barged in the bank and got away with Rs. 1.64 million cash, Rs. 1.84 million worth of gold and silver. They also looted the three rifles and about 250 rounds of bullets. The Maoists also burned several important documents of the bank. According to the local people about 50 of them were women.

The Maoists had even ambushed the path to the bank to prevent the people and the police from coming. Later, local people say, they removed the ambush. They also shouted Maoist slogans while fleeing.

(Himalaya Times, June 6, Sunday)

Bhattarai’s ‘friend’ Miss Kapali to be minister?

Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the saint like leader of the Nepali Congress, is going about in trying to make his very close friend, Miss Amita Kapali the Minister of Women and Social Welfare. Miss Kapali was one of the people who accompanied the PM on his way to the Royal Palace to take the oath of office, after he was made the PM. It is mentionable that the PM takes only a limited circle of people while going to take the oath of office so it can be said that he has included Miss Kapali in his limited group.

It is said that The PM’s plan is to make Kapali a member of the Rastriya Sabha (Upper House) and make her the Minister. Now, we have to see whether the plans of this saintly PM, who has shown a generous and charitable character by trying to make Miss Kapali a Minister, will be successful or not. But the leaves don’t move unless the wind shakes them. And in this case it looks like most of the Congress are not on his side. Concerning religion he follows the Gita while in politics he follows Gandhism. What a coincidence that the two wives of Mahatma Gandhi, Abha and Nibha, were with him till his end.

(Nepalipatra weekly, Friday, June 4)

Indian police create terror inside Nepal

Within a week of the formation of a majority government of the Nepali Congress there are reports of the Indian police entering Nepal. According to a report, on Saturday a group of Indian policemen suddenly came in a village in Nawalparasi district by the bank of Narayani river and fired several rounds. They had come to arrest an Indian criminal, but when they did not find him they took away several of the criminal’s men. The Nepalese police instead of preventing the Indians who had entered without permission, assisted them.

Meanwhile, the police here is taking no action against several Indian criminals. They were brought by Khum Bahadur Khadka during the election, and they are openly saying that they are under the protection of Khadka.

(Chalphal, June 6, Sunday)

Chataut to be new Speaker of the House

Nepali Congress is to propose the name of Tarini Dutt Chataut for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Chataut had won in the recent election from constituency No: 2 in Kanchanpur district. The House will start its session on June 20th.

Though party president Girija Prasad Koirala has said not said anything publicly about this, but he wishes to see Chatuat, who is also the party’s Central Committee member, as the new Speaker, a source close to Koirala said.

Now Chataut’s name has come to the forefront because the three other contenders for the post of Speaker, Chirinjibi Wagle, Taranath Ranabhatt and Mahanta Thakur have all been made ministers by Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the source indicated.

Though party president Koirala has not made any public statement regarding the new cabinet of ministers, it is believed that he is not fully satisfied with its formation. The source hinted that, that was why Koirala had gone to his hometown of Biratnagar without informing Bhattarai. Those close to Koirala indicate that he will remain quiet about this problem for some more time.

But to make Chataut the new Speaker, he will come back to Kathmandu on June 9 and hold a meeting with PM Bhattarai before making a formal announcement. This announcement could be made public by the end of June.

Still, the powerful second generation leader of the party and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his supporters still look undecided about making Chataut the Speaker. But in the last couple of days, it can be seen that Chataut has been making statements supporting Deuba.

In the past Chataut had been chosen as an alternative to Deuba to fill the post of party Central Committee member from the Far Western region, but when Chataut saw that he may lose the election if he went against Deuba, he changed camps.

(Aajako Samacharpatra, Sunday, June 6)

 Koirala unhappy with new cabinet

Nepali Congress president and former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has said that he would like to see the commitments he made in front of the people before elections to be fulfilled. He was speaking at a function organised in Sijuwa of Morang constituency No: 1 to thank the voters.

He expressed the opinion that to make Nepali Congress better, the organisation has to be strong and for that he will travel all over the country, he said.

He also expressed dissatisfaction at the way the new cabinet had been formed and Koirala revealed that he was going to by looking at this he was going to restructure the party’s Central Working Committee.

Koirala also opined that in a multi-party democracy, the party has to be stronger than the government and in the future the party was going to control the government.

(Aajako Samacharpatra, Sunday, June 6)

Police say budget to fight Maoists not enough

The armed rebellion started by the NCP Maoists from Falgun 1st, 2052 to establish a republican state has been an easy medium to earn money for government and police agencies.

About Rs. 80 million has been sent to Rukum, Rolpa, Sindhuli, Gorkha, Ramechhap, Jajarkot and Salyan districts in the past year for the physical, social and communal upliftment in these Maoist influence areas. But this huge amount of fund has not been utilised. Even the people of the three areas in Sindhuli, which is considered heavily influenced by the insurgents, don’t know how or where the funds have been utilised. The district chairman of Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal Ram Kumar Poudel says, "The special programme of His Majesty’s Government is meant for the police and for the government itself". Meanwhile in the name of ending the Maoists problem through brutal force, the Finance Ministry has set aside Rs. 230 million for the police to use. The funds sent to the police last year has already been utilised, but the funds sent to the districts have not been spent.

According to a high level source in the Finance Ministry, Rs. 140 million has been given to pay the salary and perks of police personnel on duty in the districts, Rs. 70 million to pay for the cost of air travel of those wounded and Rs. 20 million as insurance for those killed, but still the police is saying that the fund is not enough.

Meanwhile the government also fears that if it gives much funds only to the seven districts which have been identified as Maoist influenced, then the other districts might protest and in they may also become Maoist prone. So special programmes and packages like rural roads, rural irrigation and small hydro-power are being introduced in 25 other districts.

For such programme only Rs. 80 million has been set aside, but for security purpose, Rs. 230 million has been set aside.

Meanwhile after Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has become the Prime Minister, almost four dozen police posts have been burnt to the ground by the Maoists in districts like Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan and Jajarkot.

(Nepali Patra weekly, Friday, June 4)