Koirala To Be New Prime Minister

-By Our Correspondent

Girija Prasad Koirala will become the country's new prime minister. Sixty nine of the NC's 113 parliamentarians chose him to be the party's leader in the parliament in the election yesterday (Saturday).

His rival, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, got 43 votes. One vote was invalid. Koirala and Deuba were the only candidates for the election. Koirala's candidacy was proposed by Khum Bahadur Khadka and seconded by Tarini Dutt Chataut while Deuba's name was proposed by Homnath Dahal and seconded by Krishna Kishore Ghimire.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister-in-the-making has said that maintaining law and order, abolition of corruption, and giving a good governance will be his top priorities. About the size of the government, he said, it will be a moderate one.

This was the first ever election in the Nepali Congress to choose its parliamentary leader.

After the result, Koirala said that election is a natural process in democracy and that winning and losing are part of the procedure.

Deuba, the defeated candidate, however, expressed satisfaction over the result saying he had no regret over the loss, rather it was a matter of pride for him. "Because I was competing with my political guru," he said after the election. He also said that he would extend full cooperation to the new government.

The election had come after former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai announced, at the House of Representatives on Thursday, that he was resigning as Prime Minister. He tendered his resignation to His Majesty the King on Friday.

He had resigned after 69 MPs of the Nepali Congress registered a no-confidence motion against him at the party office.  The motion, second one in one month, was registered, after what the dissatisfied MPs call as Bhattarai’s failure to abide by the agreement to quit the office by March 14.

Instead of facing the no-confidence motion Bhattarai announced his decision to resign in his address to the parliament on Thursday, but not before some acerbic and even biting remarks over, what he called as, conspiracies and uncontrolled political ambition.

Although Bhattarai’s resignation saved the party from further embarrassment, his parting shots are glimpses of not-so-pleasant situation within the Nepali Congress.

He also called the efforts to remove him from power as conspiracies hatched to prompt instability and sabotages against his drive against corruption and towards the direction of good governance. He even called this as an attempt to malign his image as a true democrat and a nationalist. However, the change of leadership has come at a price. With his resignation, Bhattarai seems to be virtually retired from politics and the Nepali Congress politics has shifted towards solitary leadership of Koirala over both the party and the government. But Deuba’s candidacy for the leadership is being seen as a contest between the old and the young generations.

 Now, with Bhattarai's resignation and a change in the government, the political game within the Nepali Congress has been put to rest.

But with Koirala at the helm of power again, and as the leader who commands the most support within the party, he shoulders a big responsibility of taking the party out of the confusions. His success will depend on how he can encompass the whole party and garner the cooperation of all the partymen, especially those of the second generation leaders.

A Step Towards Verification Of Refugees

-By Our Correspondent

It may be a small but a meaningful breakthrough to the Bhutanese refugee problem after remaining stalled for several years.

The 4-day long second secretary-level talks between Nepal and Bhutan in Kathmandu last week, has prepared some common grounds for the verification of the refugees, which Nepal sees as crucial for any progress to find a solution to the problem, and an appeal mechanism.  This narrowing down of the difference, as called by a press release of the Nepalese Foreign Ministry, is the only achievement, if it so in the real sense, of the second official level talks. Nepal sees the start of the verification process as a key to open the door for further negotiations to repatriate the tempo of the stalled talks.

The press release issued after the end of the talks, says that the two sides have agreed to the joint examination of the documents, printing of the pro forma, sharing costs, outlining the work procedure of the verification team among others.

The verification process is likely to begin after the documents, prepared by the secretary-level meet, is approved and adopted by the next ministerial-level meet. After the  next round of the ministerial level meet, it is hoped that, on-the-spot verification of the refugees will begin. However, date of the ninth ministerial level meet is yet to be fixed.

But, there are tough roads ahead, and Nepal will have to do a lot of bargaining and negotiations if the refugee problem is to head towards a solution.

Meanwhile, the essense of the verification lies on whether the second category refugees will be allowed to join the first category.

In the third ministerial level meeting in 1993, both sides had agreed to categorise the refugees into four: genuine Bhutanese refugees, who were forcibly evicted by the Bhutanese government; refugees who voluntarily left Bhutan; Bhutanese with criminal record; and non-Bhutanese.

But the Bhutanese refugees have been rejecting the categoriziation of the refugees, saying they all are Bhutanese refugees and were forced to flee due to the atrocities of the Bhutanese government.

Bhutan had shown some inclination that it might be willing to take back only the first category refugees, which constitutes only a small, almost a negligible, fraction of about 100,000 refugees living in camps in eastern Nepal.

The bulk of the refugees constitute the second category refugees. Those are the ones, who were forced to flee their country because of torture, terror and intimidation.

Bhutanese refugees say they were forced to sign ‘voluntary migration forms’ while they were fleeing to escape the terror tactics and their documents and papers were also confiscated, in an attempt to shut down the door of Bhutan for them for ever.

But, according to a UNHCR report some years ago, many  refugees have some kind of documents to prove them as Bhutanese citizens.

Bhutan has been saying that it can not take back the second category refugees because of its Citizenship Act enacted in 1985. The Act says anyone who have 'voluntarily' left Bhutan are no longer the Bhutanese nationals and will not be allowed into Bhutan.

Refugees say it was after this Act, that the Bhutanese government systematically started its 'cleansing off' of the Bhutanese of Nepali-origin, called as Lhotsampas.

But in the eighth ministerial level meeting in September last year, Nepal officials say the Bhutanese side appeared to have softened up their stance regarding the second category refugees.

Meanwhile, during the last week's talks the Bhutanese refugees have staged a sit-in infront of the Foreign Ministry where the talks were being held.

They have now demanded that the categorization be scrapped and that they also be included in the talks.

The Bhutanese refugees fear with the adoption of the categorization and if Nepal misses even one step, thousands of Bhutanese could be stranded here as stateless.

Have Ticket, Pay More

-By K. P. Sharma

A staff at the District Education Office, Dolpa, one of the most outlying districts in the far western region, paid Rs. 4,200 for an RNAC ticket to Dolpa from Nepalgunj. The normal ticket costs only Rs. 750.

Had he not paid almost six times the normal fare the district’s School Leaving Certificate Test Examinations would have to be postponed. He was carrying printed question papers for the exams.

“He was compelled to buy the ticket on black from the RNAC office itself because there were no alternative left for him,” said Surendra Poudel, a teacher at the Saraswati High School, Dunai, Dolpa.

According to Poudel, who also was a fellow passenger in the same flight, there were only a few passengers who were travelling paying the normal fare. He said, the 19-seater Twin Otter carries about 16 passengers. But only five or six tickets are sold over the counter and the rest are always sold on black.

“After they sell a few tickets, they say the tickets are finished.” But if you are willing to pay exorbitant sums, like the DEO staff paid, the ticket is readily available.”

“I have been teaching in Dunai for nearly two decades and travel by air at least twice a year but I have never flown without paying extra charges,” he said.

According to him, one has to wait as long as a month to get the ticket on normal fare. But that means spending more than two thousands rupees on fooding and lodging. Many passengers find it cheaper to buy tickets on the black than to wait for a flight. Thus, this racket has been flourishing. “Even chartering the plane costs twice the normal fare,” he says.   He also accuses the situation is similar in almost all flights to the remote areas. The RNAC flies to eight different places of the far western region from Nepalgunj.  Every week it operates nearly 30 flights to Dolpa, Jumla, Simikot, Bajura, Bajhang, Chaurjhari, Rukum, Achham, and Surkhet.

But, RNAC has its own story to tell. Gobardhan Khadka, Acting Deputy Marketing Director of the Corporation, says, “The RNAC is suffering loss in almost all of its domestic service except in some of the tourist routes.”

Still, he says that the RNAC has been providing LPC, known as Local Passenger Charter to provide service to the people.

The cost of operating LPC is US$ 1028. Even with charging twice the normal fare, he says, the RA loses more than Rs. 40,000 in each such flight.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the country does not allow the airlines to operate extra flights in the domestic sector and thus the planes have to be chartered.

According to the civil aviation rules all the airlines should operation 40 per cent of their flights in the service areas. But none of the private airlines flies to remote and low yield routes. They operate only in the trunk and high profit-making tourist routes.

It is only the RNAC which flies to the remote and often loss-bearing routes. So, the whole burden of providing air services to the remote areas has fallen on the RNAC.

'We Will Take Loans To Buy Aircraft'

Bharat Bahadur Karki, the Executive Chairman of Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), says the RNAC management is working towards restoring the image of the national flag carrier by strengthening its capacity. The recently given ‘go ahead’ to Corporation by the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to buy a brand new B767-300 ER, Karki says, is the one of the step towards restructuring the airline. Karki says the management has already forwarded necessary processes for procuring the wide-bodied aircraft on lease-purchase basis for internationals schedules and two medium-range planes for its domestic sector.   However, the Corporation is looking forward towards leasing an aircraft for 18 months until it gets its own plane. Karki says that the management is all set to make RNAC a reliable and efficient national flag carrier. Last week, he talked to B. M. Dahal of the Sunday Despatch on issues ranging from the present condition of RNAC to its future programmes. Excerpts:

How are you improving the condition of the RNAC?

Although we do not have enough aircraft, we have to increase flights both in the international and domestic fronts. As per the market demand, we are trying to add flights to some destinations. Besides, we have also given priority to the career development of the RNAC staff. We are moving ahead with various programmes for the consolidation of the RNAC.

What are these programmes?

Firstly, we have to increase our capacity. For this, some additional planes are essential. Secondly, we have to launch effective and result-oriented marketing. That is impossible without raising the morale of the staff. Thirdly, we are making efforts to bring down the expenditure of the corporation and other costs. The available technology is helpful for us to cut the costs. Moreover, we have seriously thought of making our procurement system more competitive and transparent. We have to maintain financial and administrative disciplines. For that our efforts alone will not be sufficient. We are confident that we can bringing down our expenditure and cut costs to make RNAC an efficient airline.

RNAC has long been a synonym to mismanagement, commission and corruption. What do you say about it?

I have nothing to say if any one charges us without evidences. Now we have been trying to be more competitive and transparent in all the procurements and performances to discourage such anomalies. I have already told you that one of our biggest challenge at hand is to make ourselves competitive and transparent for bringing down the cost.

What is the management doing to make domestic flights more reliable?

All our eight planes have been in operation in the domestic front. One Avro, which we have been using for domestic routes, is an old aircraft. We need to replace that. So, we are buying two medium-rance aircraft for operating flights to the trunk routes like Bhairahawa, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. We have to provide service to the tourists even in domestic routes to make our international route strong. Besides, we will also operate mountain flights through which we can make money.

When will these medium range planes come?

Necessary process has been forwarded in this regard.

You are buying planes for both the international and domestic routes. How will you generat the funds?

We will have to take loans from international banks and financial institutions. There is no alternative to this.

It is said that there has been the shortage of manpower, mainly the crews and in the technical sector. Is it true?

That is true to some extent. We had 10 pilots working on contract basis. We have regularized them. Besides, we have taken in six more pilots through open competition. We also need some more pilots. So far as the shortage of air hostess and other crewmembers are concerned, we have forwarded necessary process for their recruitment. After fulfilling these vacancies, there will be no shortage of manpower for the time being. 

It has been felt that the RA flights have been more reliable and regular now. What have you done for this?

You can see some improvements in our performance. The engineering section and also other sections have been carrying out their duties efficiently. As we have paid attention to the career development of the staff, they have been motivated to fulfill their responsibilities. We have also given some incentives to the staff like the private airlines.

RNAC is having some more planes for international flights. Does it mean you will seek new destinations?

The available three planes will be just enough to strengthen the present schedules. We had planned to operate flights to Bangalore. But we had to postpone the flights as the tourism entrepreneurs asked us to add flights to Delhi route and start operating flights to Benaras. We have added five more flights per week to Delhi now. At present, we are having 18 flights to Delhi-every week.

What do you expect from the government and tourism sector?

The government has to be more practical while thinking about privatizing RNAC. The foreign international airlines do not come here if they cannot make profit. Although RNAC has been suffering losses in its flights, it has been promoting the country’s tourism sector. The losses RNAC have been suffering is not because of its own reasons only. For example, we are suffering a loss of Rs. 120 million annually operating flights to the remote areas of the country. So, RNAC has also been involved in social service by providing cheap service to those areas. Besides, we also cannot fix the fare.

Now, we have to learn a lesson to strengthen the national flag carrier from the suspension of the flights of the Indian Airlines. For this we need support and cooperation from all sectors.

You said the government needs to be more practical while dealing with RNAC, do you mean the RNAC should be made autonomous?

No, there is no any logic to ask for autonomy as the government has invested huge resources. RNAC should be strengthened as a national flag carrier. This will help consolidate our tourism business. Recently the government has given permission to buy a plane, but it would be better if the government also stays bank guarantee for it.