Prince Gyanendra to chair interaction workshop

By a staff reporter

Prince Gyanendra, Chairman of King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) is scheduled to chair a one-day workshop entitled Partnership for Conservation, at Soaltee Crowne Plaza today (May 24). Later the same day the Prince is also scheduled to grace the closing function and reception.

The interaction workshop organized by KMTNC aims to bring together for open discussion all agencies including government institution that work closely on environment, conservation and gender related issues. The workshop will also focus on the projects, work and efforts being carried out here by KMTNC in these areas. It is hoped that the frank and open discussion will lead to further strengthening of the future agenda and its effective implementation points out a KMTNC official.

All Kathmandu based foreign ambassadors, HMG related institutions, donor agencies, INGOs/NGO’s and local journalists that work closely with environment, conservation and gender issues are participating. Also participating in the workshop is Mammologist John Seidensticker from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (USA), who is currently here to study the tiger conservation project carried out by KMTNC at the Royal Chitwan National Park.

Declaration of assets: Dirty money ?

By Dhana Thapa

The show of “honesty” of the ministers in the present government was publicly unfurled last week. According to the regulations set by the government, it has become a tradition for ministers to publicly declare the property they own.

The ministers in the UML government did it, the ministers belonging to the ML did it and even the present ministers, who were ministers before also, have done it. They have told the world, in written form, what they and their immediate family members own.

However, like pointed out by some media people, all the ministers seem to be very rich and own landed property, houses, cars, gold and cash, much more than any average Nepali can ever dream of. And it is an average working Nepali, we are talking of, not some villagers who can hardly make ends meet on a day to day basis.

How were these political leaders, who for the most part of their life were fighting for democracy, able to earn so much?

For example, the present Home Minister Govind Raj Joshi, who was a mere teacher in a village school in Tanahun, now has land at several places, a huge three storey house at Damuli, 25 tolas of gold, a Toyota jeep and Rs. 1.5 million in cash! This is his “declared” wealth, there could be more in his family’s name.

Similarly, Minister for Communications, who was a part time journalist before democracy, now has   23 bighas of land at Pritamdhur of Saptari district. Jointly owned house and plotted land at Kanchanpur, Fattehpur and Dharampur at Saptari, jointly owned house and plotted land at Biratnagar, a house at Sinamangal in Kathmandu. 75 tolas of gold, Rs. 700 thousand in three banks, shares worth Rs. 200 thousand at Agriculture Development Bank,   a poultry farm and at the Kathmandu Offset Press. He also owns a Nissan diesel car, jeep, tractor and two motorcycles.

Now let us look at the property of Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola. He has 11 bighas of land at Budhabare, Jhapa district. One house and one bigha of plotted land at the same place. Another 2 kathas of land and a house at Birtamod. More than one ropani of land at Battisputali, Kathmandu. More than two ropanis of land at Khumaltar in the name of his wife Mrs. Kusum Bastola, another house and four katha of land in her name at Budhabare. Another 18 kathas of land at the same place. More than two kathas of land at Ward 6 and 7 of Budhabare and 9 kathas of land at Chandragadhi, Jhapa. 5 tolas of gold and 300 tolas of silver. 8 thousand US dollars at the Indo-Suez Bank in Kathmandu. A Toyota Prado car and some shares in daughter’s name.

These are three known names we have taken from the present list of ministers, but the declaration of all looks the same with some ministers owning more money and even kilos of silver.

But what the government and authorities cannot explain, is not only how such wealth was earned. It is also quiet on why no statement is taken when a minister leaves office and whether a person is not hiding any of his assets. Also, what if a person is a pauper when he has been appointed minister and then he or she goes on to earn the “declared” wealth while in office?

The government’s promise to fight corruption will be nothing but making a mockery of the people, if such things are not explained and honesty does not begin right at the top.

 Minister Joshi the Purna Bhadur way

By a staff reporter

Even two months after taking up office, the present government led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has not been able to show much in terms of achievements. When he was in the process of coming to power by ousting his own party’s incumbent Prime Minister, Koirala had made noises as if things would start happening the next day he took up office. But sadly this has not been so.

The biggest challenge for the government was in improving the law and order situation of the country. The charge of this challenging task was given to “experienced” Govinda Raj Joshi. But again unfortunately for the nation, Home Minister Joshi has not been able to make even a dent in dealing with this issue.

In fact, Minister Joshi has been accused of only trying to amass further wealth, by opting to buy more arms and ammunition for the security forces. He has not been able to deny such charges that have come up in the media.

Besides this, Home Minister Joshi has also not been able to come up with any concrete plans to deal with the insurgents, either through talks or through the strong arm tactics of the police.

What difference is there in the situation when another bad Home Minister, Purna Bahadur Khadka was there and now when Govind Raj Joshi is there? Nothing, neither the people in the insurgency hit areas, nor the morale wise down and out police have felt any relief.

Political analysts blame Home Minister Joshi and also IGP Achyut Krishna Kharel for the failure in properly maintaining law and order in the country. They have also been accused of opting for only a hardline stance in dealing with what could be a political and socio-economic problem. These two do not utter even one word that may hint that the Maoist problem could be dealt with through talks, rather than brute force. If Prime Minister Koirala does not do something to change the situation, not only him, but the whole nation could suffer from the mistakes of these two powerful decision makers in the present government.

 Acharya must take risks to9 balance budget

By a staff reporter

What the forthcoming budget will look like? There are suggestions galore to the Finance Minister and his team about the structure of the new budget. The budget is expected to be presented by early next week.

Finance Minister Acharya

One of the main suggestions of the economists is that the budget must not be populist and it must not scatter and spread funds, but go for some solid programmes for priority areas like poverty alleviation and creating of job opportunities.

In the past, budget tend to encompass as many programmes and projects as it can, mainly under political pressures, and this had left hundreds of projects lying idle for years languishing for want of funds.

Eminent economists like Himalaya SJB Rana say the government should make economic policies with the consensus of all the political parties to make it sustainable and long-lasting. “Otherwise,” he said, “the economic policies brought about by a single party alone does not last long.”

This is exactly what has happened. In the last five years, there have been frequent changes in the government and each government had its own idea about the country’s economic policies.

Many economists have pointed out that the forthcoming budget will be of crucial importance because the country’s economic growth rate has not been encouraging and the country may soon join the global economic bandwagon.

Meanwhile, spending more money on security means taking funds away from development programmes. According to estimates, the formation of the armed police force will cost a couple of billion rupees.  This indicates the development programmes may face severe shortage of funds unless the government finds means to raise money internally. This has been the most difficult job for successive governments in the past.

 Revenue collection has been the weakest spot of every Nepalese government. The government has not been able to generate enough resources to fund the development programmes. It is not because there are no areas, but the government has simply failed to tap them. Nepal’s revenue collection has been only about 12 per cent of the GDP - one of the lowest in the world.

Prof. Dr. Bishwambhar Pyaukuryal sees three distinct challenges for the new budget.  They are: identification of the priority sectors, generating resources and solving the Maoist problem.

He says, our failure to address the priority sector in view of resource mobilisation has led to the failure of the development programmes.

Secondly, Dr. Pyakuryal says, by 2002 most of our loans are going to be matured. And the government must start addressing the debt servicing.

“And regarding the Maoist problem, the expenditure to be made to control this problem must not come at the cost of development expenditure.”

For that generating more resources is imperative.

Till now, all the governments have been depending mainly in indirect taxes to collect revenue. But increasing the rate of indirect taxes will only mean putting more burden on the heads of the common people.

If Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya is contemplating a raise in the indirect taxes, it will be the most unpopular step of the government with a strong political repercussion.

According to sources, this years budget may increase by about 20 per cent over the last year’s budget of about Rs. 70 billion. With more money likely to be spent on security, the government must find ways to collect more money. And, economists say, the only option left is to collect it through effective implementation of VAT and by imposing direct taxes.

A source at the Finance Ministry said experts have even proposed taxing big landlords and the agriculture-based industries. “It is now time to collect tax from big agriculturists,” they say. For example,  one hectare of tea estate makes a net profit of Rs. 100,000 in a year. But imposing tax on agriculture could become a big political issue.

Property and house rent tax could be other areas for generating more revenue. But collecting taxes from these and other direct means need a strong political will and commitment. Thus, the question is, whether the Finance Minister is ready to take the risk? And the answer should be, he must if he wants to end some of the inherent defects of the Nepal’s economy such as high dependency on external resources and low revenue collection.

 Govt.'s policies, programmes
Fulfilling promises will be difficult

By a staff reporter

Amidst lukewarm responses to its policies and programmes from the opposition parties and outside, the Koirala government will be presenting its budget for the coming fiscal year soon. The budget is likely to be presented by early next week.   

With the government giving as top a priority to internal security, mainly fighting the Maoist insurgency, as to poverty alleviation, there are wide speculations that the budget for internal security will be increased significantly.

The government’s policies and programmes for the coming fiscal year were announced through a Royal Address to the joint session of the parliament on Friday. In its policies and programmes, the government has pledged to maintain a credible law and order situation, especially by controlling the violent activities noticed in the country in the past several years. For that the government has said it would increase the morale of the police and the National Investigation Department and appropriate resources will be allocated to them. In other words, it is a clear sign that the government will set aside considerable budget for internal security and to raise the paramilitary force, as recommended by the Regmi Commission several months ago. Although the structure of the force is yet to be decided there is little doubt the work will start in the coming fiscal year.

The other focus of the government’s policy is the poverty alleviation- the mainstay of the 9th five-year plan. One good aspect of the government’s programme is the pledge to forge ahead in fighting corruption and other malpractices through amendment of the existing laws, enactment of news laws as well as policy and structural reforms. This can be taken as the government may introduce a bill in the parliament to strengthen the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the country’s main organ to fight corruption and misuse of power.

Meanwhile, the government’s policies and programmes have been criticised by the opposition parties as lacking vision and having nothing new. The five opposition parties have also registered a 148-point amendment to the government’s policy statement.

The discussion on the policies and programmes has begun on Monday and the voting on the same may take place early next week before the budget is presented. Unless the sky falls on him, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will have no problem in getting his government’s policies and programmes endorsed by the parliament. Passing of the policy and programmes from the parliament will not be much of a problem for Koirala and his government, but living up to it will be.

Save Bagmati appeal echoes once again

By a staff reporter

There were big hue and cry, unending speeches, sit-ins and long processions to save the Bagmati river. Hundreds of million rupees have even been spent. But the condition of Bagmati has not improved.

Bagmati, the very name evokes purity and sanctity. For the Hindus, especially those living in Kathmandu, its importance is as great to the living souls as to the dead ones. It is where the living ones aspire to take a dip with the belief that its water will wash away the sins and those who have passed away are taken for their last rites.

With its present condition, Bagmati can neither cleanse the living bodies nor is it an ideal gateway for the dead souls. Bagmati now is not a river, but a flow of drainage, dirt and slush. Aesthetically and physically it is an impure and biologically it is a dead river.

Despite frequent sound and fury, there has been hardly any effort to clean up Bagmati from the government and from outside. There is even an organisation to save the river and it has also failed to make any headway.

Recently, Binod Chaudhary, President of the Chaudhary Group made an appeal to the government. In an article, written while in mourning and published in the Kantipur daily, has appealed to the government to urgently take necessary actions towards saving Bagmati. He even said he is willing to do the job from his own resources if the government says it cannot do so.

Similarly, chairman of this weekly, Basant Chaudhary, in a separate article in the Gorkhapatra daily, has also made a request to take immediate steps for making Bagmati alive and clean once again.

This is the first time any individual has offered to undertake such a huge task. These pleas should not be taken as otherwise by the government or anybody else, but should be taken as an offer made for the good of all. It is also an earnest request to others, even the common people, to come forward for the benefit of the society. Observers point out that the issue is now on the government’s court.

High hopes on 9th round talks

By a staff reporter

The 9th ministerial-level meeting between Nepal and Bhutan on the Bhutanese refugees began in Thimpu, Bhutan yesterday (Tuesday). The Nepalese Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Banstola had left for the talks on Monday with high hopes that a breakthrough would be made in the verification process of the refugees.

“We will try to focus on the verification and its modality,” he had told the press before leaving for Bhutan.

More than than, he said, he would also seek political will and commitment from the Bhutanese government to resolve the problem.

Recently, there have been positive signs coming from the Druk Kingdom. During the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee, Ms. Sadako Ogata, Bhutan had told her that it was willing to solve the refugee problem and was willing to take back its all its people.

Similarly, the Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigme Thinley, during his recent visit to Bangladesh, was reported to have accepted the presence of about 90,000 Bhutanese living in refugee camps in Nepal. This is taken by the refugee leaders as Bhutan itself invalidating the categorization of the refugees.

Meanwhile, Nepal’s former Foreign Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, in an article in The Kathmandu Post, also said the United States, European parliament and also the Norwegian government have expressed their concerns for the speedy resolution of the problem.

One of the major issues of the problem is, Bhutan has been unwilling to accept that all the people living in the camps are its people.

But the refugee organisations and UN body such as the UNHCR and other relief organisations have said that almost all of them are Bhutanese citizens and they have subtantial documents to prove their claims.

Meanwhile, a Bhutanese human rights group, Association of Human Rights Activists (AHURA-Bhutan) in a statement has said that the verification process should be done impartially. It has also presented to Minister Banstola a digital database CD-ROM proving that 99.83 per cent of the refugees living in the camps in eastern Nepal are Bhutanese nationals. Minister Banstola is also carrying the database to Bhutan, and he said he would present it to the Bhutanese side during the talks.

 AIGP transfers raise queries

By a staff reporter

Much is being read into the transfer of three Additional General of Police. At a time when much criticism was being heaped on IGP Achyut Kharel, who has always been in a shaky position politically, the transfer has raised queries on whether preparation is being made to oust him.

According to the new posting, AIGP Ram Kaji Bantawa has been brought to the important Operations Department and media savvy AIGP Krishna Mohan Shrestha has been shunted to the little known CID wing. The senior most among the four AIGPs in the Nepal Police, Pramod Shumsher Rana has been transferred to the Administrative Department.

At present, political guesses are also being made on who will succeed Kharel and who will be made the IGP of the Armed Police, that the government is trying to establish to fight the Maoist insurgency.

Till now, government insiders say, two IGPs will be appointed very soon, one to head the Civil Police and the other to look after the Armed force. However, a top ranking government official also informed this reporter that Prime Minister Koirala is adamant that a Director General above the two IGPs should also be appointed.

The present IGP Kharel, is reportedly trying his best to stay on in power by filling in that post. Though, there are many ministers in the present cabinet, including influential Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka, who want him out from the police force.

However for now, it is little known AIGP Bantawa, who seems to have won the trust of the government and come to the forefront in this vital institution that looks after the law and order of the nation.