Government directs PEs to hold talks with unions

By K. P. Sharma

Never have public enterprises (PE) shown such unity in recent years in putting forward their cause. Beginning with a pen down strike for an hour on Monday, all work at the PEs and corporations literally came to a standstill on Thursday and Friday as part of their tactic to coerce the government into submitting to their demands.

Since the government announced salary increments for civil servants in the recent budget, PEs and corporations have been demanding that their salaries be increased propotionately without reductions in the facilities and perks that they have been enjoying.

Apparently buckling to union pressure, a Finance Ministry circular late Friday evening directed the heads of PEs and corporations to reach an agreement with the employees to chart out a new pay scale that will not be less than what they are drawing now.

The unions in the corporations had threatened to continue with their programme of protests, to grow only harsher by the day, until the government agreed to their demands.

At present, a worker in a profit-making public enterprise draws more than double the salary of his counterpart in a government office. For example, a peon working at Nepal Rastra Bank, the country’s central bank, draws anywhere between Rs. 5500 to 5750 a month, while his counterpart in the government takes home only Rs. 2300.

Government employees receive their first revised salary as announced in the budget this Thursday. Employees of corporations are as excited to know about their new salary scale as are the government employees. They are equally anxious about the grades and perks they will receive.

But Ram Chandra Man Singh, joint secretary of the Corporation Coordination Section at the Ministry of Finance, said that corporations that run on government subsidy have been told not to increase salaries above that fixed by the government.

"And we have also asked other profit making corporations not to fix their salaries above that of the government employees," he told Sunday Despatch.

The protest in the corporations is being spearheaded by the Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) affiliated to the ruling Nepali Congress party.

But Singh said that NTUC’s demands had no logic and were, thus, unlikely to be fulfilled.

The Unionists are also demanding that

• the process of privatising corporations be stopped immediately

• abolition of income tax on employees’ gratuities and pensions

• permanent status to temporary workers in corporations

With just days to go before employees draw their salary, the Ministry of Finance is working on a war footing to work out the monthly salaries of the employees.

According to an official at the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry is also working out the grade and salary scale of non-gazetted assistant first and second level employees who have been receiving additional benefits. According to a source, the new salary of a non-gazetted assistant first level employee who receives additional benefit will be Rs. 5850.

"The government is not in a position to offer grades that amount to a day’s salary anymore. It has, therefore, amended clause 3 of article 27 of the Civil Service Act-2049 so that it could fix the grade," he said. Meanwhile, His Majesty the King on Friday gave royal assent to the bill designed to amend some Nepal Acts which includes the ability to amend the provisions of grades.

Under the new regulation, the grade will be somewhere between the old and new salary scales of a day.

To meet the new salaries of the government employees, the government has set aside Rs. 10.5 billion out of the total budget of 92 billion. Last year, the government spent Rs. 8 billion in salaries.

"If the grades are distributed as per last year’s regime, the government needs an additional billion rupees," the source said.

Meanwhile, the government is not going to follow the grade system as recommended by the pay commission.

As to how the government will work out the salary of the prime minister and the chief secretary, spokesman of the Ministry of Finance Balananda Poudel only said that the government was working on this.

According to a Finance Ministry source, the salary of the Prime Minister, ministers, heads of constitutional bodies, Chief Justice and judges, MPs and others who are not addressed by the Civil Service Act-2049, will be increased by 100 per cent.

Presently, the Prime Minister currently receives Rs. 11,000 a month, while the revised salary of the Chief Secretary has touched Rs. 15,000

Girl Traffickers Take Business Elsewhere

By B. M. Dahal

Each year, 5,000-7,000 women are believed to be trafficked to India. And an estimated 200,000 Nepalese commercial sex workers (CSWs), including minors, are reported to be involved in the world’s oldest profession in various Indian brothels alone. But only about 140 cases have been reported so far since very few victims file lawsuits against the traffickers.

As many social organisations and government bodies have launched campaigns against trafficking in women in the most affected districts like Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Makawanpur, traffickers seem to have started their activities for the lucrative yet detestable trade in new areas adjoining the Indian border.

"After the police and NGOs initiated the awareness and income generating programmes in affected districts, traffickers have shifted their activities to other districts, especially those bordering India," says Parbati Thapa, chief of Women Cell at the headquarters of Nepal Police.

At present, districts like Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Bara, Parsa and Rautahat have also become the new hunting grounds for the women traffickers. At present, it is said that traffickers are active in about 35 districts of the country. The rising number of districts affected by the scourge indicates that the traffickers have found it a lucrative trade.

Thapa said that with the development of new technology and approaches to controlling girl trafficking, the traffickers have come up with newer means to continue their business.

In the past, Nepalese girls were taken to Bombay to be sold to brothels. But now they are also being trafficked to many other Indian cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Pune. Besides, they are also supplied to destinations like Hong Kong, Arabian countries, Thailand, among others.

Many victims or their relatives withdraw the cases even after filing them due to pressure from the traffickers themselves.

"This type of tendency often creates difficulties for forwarding the cases for legal action against the traffickers and their accomplices," Thapa said.

Women’s Cell, in coordination with UNICEF, has launched awareness programmes in various districts of the country to control trafficking in girls and sexual exploitation. The UNICEF-funded project has also components such as capacity building of the police officers and developing database system to maintain records about the heinous crime.

To fight trafficking in women, an advisory committee has been formed at the central level. Committees have also been formed at the district and village levels in order to check trafficking. The committees include local body representatives, local police officers and the representatives of local NGOs.

Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are considered to be the main causes the increasing number of women as well as the girl child being trafficking from Nepal. Different forms of violence against women have also helped the traffickers in finding their prey.

"When women are the victims of violence at homes and in the society, the criminals can easily lure them. The property rights and social security can alone help save the women from falling prey to the traffickers," she said.

According to the prevalent law, traffickers are liable to a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment. The legal provision is strong but most of the traffickers escape the noose just because of the fact that they get political protection. Despite slogans of different political parties to discourage women trafficking, they have not been able to implement that into practice because traffickers are said to play an important role during elections.

Rehabilitation of the victims is another major problem. Some NGOs have set up rehabilitation centres for the returnees, especially those who have been infected with HIV/AIDS. But this is not enough. There also exists the possibility of spreading HIV and AIDS to others as most of the victims return home through the open border with India.

Shanta Sapkota, chairman of Shanti Rehabilitation Centre, informed that her NGO has already rehabilitated around 100 women. The figure incorporates both the trafficked women and minors.

"Now we have launched non-formal education and sewing training for both the victims and those who are at risk of being trafficked. But our efforts alone will be insufficient unless the health workers, police and other sections of the society change their attitude towards the victims," Sapkota said.

To fight girl trafficking, two networks that comprise several NGOs have been working in the country. Their efforts have been helpful to some extent. However, they have not been wholly successful in their mission as the traffickers are always a step ahead of them.

Dr. Madhavi Singh, executive member and coordinator of National Network Against Girl Trafficking (NNAGT), said programmes such as women empowerment, public awareness, counseling can be instrumental in controlling the crime of girl trafficking.

Dr. Singh also said that there should be bilateral talks between Nepal and India and the issue of trafficking has to be taken as a national one to control the crime. She said NNAGT has been running different training programmes to make women stand on their feet and also increase awareness in them about the heinous crime.

In the entire South Asian region, India is the major destination of the trafficked women.

Sandhya Shrestha, coordinator of another network—Alliance Against Trafficking in Women in Nepal (AATWIN)—is of the opinion that the existing problem of girl trafficking will not be solved unless the different political parties express commitment to extend their helping hand to uproot it.

Shrestha also said that a regional level court and its branches have to be formed to look into the cases related to women trafficking.

Considering girl trafficking as a regional problem, SAARC Secretariat has prepared a SAARC draft convention on girl trafficking. But it has drawn criticism from the NGOs and woman activists as it cannot ensure the rights of the victims.

"The draft convention needs to be amended so as to safeguard the rights of the countries of origin. The receiving countries have to give compensation and rehabilitation facilities for the victims," she said..

Khadka Sacked
PM To Reshuffle Cabinet, CWC

By Our Correspondent

Just four months back, Khum Bahadur Khadka staged a successful coup against then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai by walking out of his cabinet and crossing over to Girija Prasad Koirala’s camp. Last week, a similar tactic to coerce Koirala to give up either the prime ministerial post or party presidentship proved a disaster. Khadka, to his utter dismay, found out that he had been most unceremoniously dumped from the government. "Why, Koirala did not even tell me I was being removed," he told parliament.

Khadka has been spearheading a campaign all along demanding that the party leadership be transferred to the young generation that he belongs to. Koirala had barely returned from his India visit when Khadka confronted him with a list of rebel candidates, threatening to bring a no-confidence motion against the prime minister in the party’s parliamentary committee. The Nepali Congress has 114 seats in the 205-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament.

Khadka’s dismissal has generated a row within the ruling party with Bhattarai severely criticizing Koirala’s move. In a move to pacify the rebels, Koirala called a central working committee (CWC) consultative meeting on Thursday and Friday to iron out the differences. At the meeting, he agreed to reshuffle the cabinet and CWC. But was Koirala making a fool of the rebels? News about a reshuffle of the government and the CWC after the Indian visit had been in the cards.

The CWC on Friday had rallied strongly behind Koirala saying it was the prerogative of the Prime Minister and the Party President to decide how he wanted to restructure the cabinet and the CWC. The CWC also said that it was upto Koirala to decide whether he wanted to relinquish one of the two posts he was holding and whether to run in the forthcoming party convention.

The decision is a big blow to Khadka. Bhattarai’s refusal to attend the two CWC meetings on Thursday and Friday only weakened Khadka’s case. This political swing by Khadka could result in a nasty fall for him.

Khadka, who has hardly missed a ministerial post in a government involving the Nepali Congress in the last 10 years, had been showing utter disappointment throughout for not being appointed the Home Minister, although he was sitting on two important portfolios -- that of the Minister of Water Resources, Physical Planning and Works.

Through the media, Khadka supporters have been portraying a grim picture of the law and order situation in the country and slamming Minister for Home Govinda Raj Joshi for his lackluster performance. Papers supporting Khadka have been portraying him as an able Home Minister, a post he held for quite a few years in earlier times.

Before taking on Koirala, however, Khadka would have done better to learn a lesson from the dismissal of a sitting minister, Mohammad Aftab Alam - a Khadka supporter - over an abduction case of an opposition member in the District Development Committee of Rauthat.

Tussles within the Nepali Congress party involving Koirala and a group opposing his leadership, known as the rebels, are nothing new. But these bickerings arising out of an individual’s ambitions have often cost the country dear, politically and economically.

Way back in 1993, Koirala had dissolved parliament after a group of 36 rebels refused to endorse the government’s programme (budget) for the year. No thought was ever given to what this rash decision would have on the country’s political scene and the country’s economy, in terms of the costs that went to hold the general elections.

Even with the CWC’s decision the problem has not subsided completely. It may only be a matter of time before it erupts again. Congress watchers are eagerly awaiting the forthcoming national convention of the party when the flame of discontent is certain to glow again. The convention could decide the political fate of many Congress stalwarts, including Koirala and Bhattarai.

Nepalese Peacekeeper Killed In East Timor

By Our Correspondent

Devi Ram Jaisi, 25, Royal Nepal Army jawan working with the U.N. peacekeeping mission, was killed by a bullet fired by a suspected anti-independence militia group in East Timor.

Jaishi, 25, a member of Kebal Jung Battalion, was the second U.N. peacekeeper to die in fighting in East Timor, following the death of a New Zealand soldier who was shot in the head July 24 during a clash with the militia who oppose East Timor’s independence from Indonesia. Jaishi, a permanent resident of Raniban VDC-5 of Dailekh district, is survived by his wife.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at the military hospital in Dili late Thursday, said the spokesman for the peacekeepers in Dili, Norwegian Col. Brynjar Nymo.

Jaishi died from wounds to the chest. A second Nepalese soldier was in the military hospital in the capital in serious condition.

The Nepalese peacekeepers were patrolling an area 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border of West Timor, which is still part of Indonesia, when they were fired on by the suspected militia group they had been tracking.

Two other Nepali jawans —Dilliraman Kafle and Man Kumar Karki — were injured in clash with the rebels and are presently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dili, Indonesia.

The United Nations moved into East Timor to administer its transition to independence after Indonesian military-backed militias went on a rampage of killing and destruction 11 months ago to oppose a vote by East Timorese for independence from Indonesia.

The Royal Nepalese Army company comprising of 12 officers and 143 of other ranks had left East Timor on April 26, 2000 on a sixth month assignment at the call of the United Nations.

The territory was invaded by Indonesia 25 years ago as colonial power Portugal retreated.

Bleak Picture Of Mortality Rate

By Our Correspondent

At least a woman dies in childbirth every two hours on average in Nepal. Nepal had the highest mortality rate during childbirth of anywhere in the world.

It was disclosed at a day-long seminar jointly organised by the Kaski District Development Committee (DDC) Pokhara, and UNICEF.

The seminar further states that while other countries' women tend to live longer than men, in Nepal the situation is quite reverse.

Meanwhile, child mortality rate is 118 per 1,000 children below the age of five. Fifty two children out of every 1,000 die within a month of their birth and 27.2 percent of those who survive are underweight and suffer from malnutrition.