PM Rejects Mobilising Army

-By Our Correspondent

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has ruled out the use of army against the Maoist insurgency. Saying that he would rather go for armed police to tackle the issue, the Prime Minister said that he would not go for the last option of security.

The Prime Minister was speaking at a programme organised in his honour by the Editors’ Society of Nepal.

Speculations about the use of army to fight the Maoists had grown with the police force largely failing to control the violent activities perpetrated by the Maoists, and the Prime Minister sometimes back talking about the activating the National Security Council, the highest body related to the security issue.

The topic of the use of army has also been a subject of much controversy with different people surmising their ideas about the pros and cons. The matter became much confused when persons at responsible positions, too, started expressing their opinions.

With the Prime Minister saying in clear words against engaging the army, in what is largely considered as a grave law and order situation, any conjectures about the issue should now be put to rest.

Koirala also staved off that his announcement to activate the National Security Council has anything to do with the deployment of the army to fight the Maoists. It is only to make the army ready to deal with situations like the natural calamities.

He also refused the government’s decision to station the army in all the 75 districts is directed towards mobilisation of army against the Maoists. It was only the implementation of a decision pending since he was prime minister in the early nineties.

Already the army has its presence in 54 districts and this year the army will make its presence in three districts – Salyan, Jajarkot and Kalikot. Incidently, these three districts are Maoist-affected districts.

Instead, the Prime Minister has clearly said that he would use the armed police force to control the Maoists.

The formation of an armed police force, outside the present police structure, has been recommended by a task force. Although the modality and the composition of such a force is still not clear, but what is clear that such a specialised force has been deemed as necessary both by experts and others to deal with problems such as serious breach of law and order like the Maoists insurgency and any religious, ethnic or communal violence if they ever happen.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also talked about the unresponsiveness of the opposition parties, especially the CPN-UML the main opposition party in the parliament, in forging consensus on how to deal with the Maoists.

I have made efforts to consult the general secretary of the UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal, but I have not got desired response (from him), he told the gathering of journalists.

This may make dealing with the Maoists a difficult task mainly in the political front. It has become clear that fighting the problem out requires a concerted effort of both the ruling and the opposition parties both in the political and practical field. If the opposition parties think it is only the ruling party’s problem and remain indifferent it will be the country that will have to bear the brunt of it. Similarly, the ruling party must also make sincere efforts to take all the political parties and the people into confidence.

9th Round Of Talks From May 22

-By Our Correspondent

The Foreign Ministers of Nepal and Bhutan are scheduled to meet for the ninth level talks from May 22 to find a solution to the Bhutanese refugee issue.

The ninth-level meeting has raised some hopes regarding the agreement on the modality for the categorization of the refugees. The start of the categorization is seen by Nepal as an important step towards resolving the decade-long refugee problem.

The meeting may be important to gauze the change of attitude of the Bhutanese government.

Recently, the UN Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata had said that the Bhutanese government was eager to solve the refugee problem. She had also said that Bhutan was willing to take back its citizen. There are about 100,000 Bhutanese living in the camps in eastern Nepal after they were forcefully evicted by the Bhutanese government in the early nineties.

The five rounds of talks after both sides had agreed on categorizing the refugees, have failed to make significant breakthrough.

Nepal has been saying that the Bhutanese side was most of the time disinclined towards making any progress.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese Foreign Minister who will be heading the Nepalese side, has said that he was optimistic about the outcome of the forthcoming talks.

Parliamentary Session Starts Tomorrow
Deal Between NC, UML On Alam Case

-By Our Correspondent

The understanding between the government and the main opposition party in the parliament, CPN-UML, has at least assured that the parliamentary session will have a smooth take off.

The 18th session of the parliament is starting tomorrow (Monday).

The government and the CPN-UML reached an understanding on Thursday to form a judicial committee to probe into the incidence related to arsoning and vandalising of the house of State Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam in Rautahat and the alleged kidnapping of a DDC member of the district, a UML activist, about two months back.

State Minister Alam was accused by the UML of being behind the abduction of the DDC member. Raising the issue during the last session, the UML had demanded the resignation of Alam.

When the session was unexpectedly prorogued, the UML had warned that it would raise the issue in the next session too.

Now, the truce has defused the issue for now. A three-member committee under a judge will be formed within a week, and the committee will give a report in one month.

Today, there will also be an all-party meeting at the deputy Prime Minister’s office regarding the law and order situation, price rise, corruption and other issues. Deputy Prime Minister Ramchandra Poudel had also led the government in the talks with the UML.

Apart from the budget, the coming parliamentary session is expected to deal on several bills, some of which are important ones.

According to reports, the cabinet on Thursday made some important decisions which include the implementation of the suggestions of the joint parliamentary committee on revenue leakage. The cabinet has also decided to make the report of a probe commission on the misuse of the Red (diplomatic) passport public.

The government has also decided to withdraw the bill regarding the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority and reintroduce it by incorporating the suggestions made by the Corruption Control Recommendation Committee. The bill is currently under consideration at the State Affairs Committee of the parliament.

Meanwhile, the ruling Nepali Congress has formed nine subject committees in the Lower House and two in the Upper House to enable its MPs to show a better performance in the parliament.

NC lawmaker Binaya Dhoj Chand said that formation of the subject committees would help activate the MPs to raise the issues in an efective manner.

According to Chand, analysing the goverment’s policies and programmes and budget and the issue of good governance would be the major focus of the Nepali Congress.

Similarly, the UML will be raising the issues like corruption, price hike, law and order situation, policies of the government, budget and others in the parlaiment.

Parshuram Meghi Gurung, a UML MP, said that his party has been doing necessary homework to be present effectively to raise all all types of problem in the parlaiment.

We will force the government to pay attention towards giving autonomy to the local bodies and generating employment opportunities, he said.

RNAC Back To Square One

-By Our Correspondent

It was a strange twist of fate for the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation. Babcock & Brown, which has won the tender to lease supply a Boeing 767 300 ER, has now backed out of from the deal, saying it was supplying the aircraft to another company. RNAC may be back to the square again.

Now, RNAC will be holding talks with the Australian agency— Annset Worldwide Aviation Company— the second lowest bidder to supply a wide-bodied Boeing 767. The representatives of the company are arriving in Kathmandu this week after the RNAC invited them regarding the leasing of an aircraft for 18 months.

It was probably the first time RNAC had decided to lease a plane through open tender, and also it had got a very attractive deal. But the bid failed, not because of RNAC's fault.

Now, RNAC will have to lease plane at a comparatively expensive rate. Of the two Annset bids, it has offered a four-year-old aircraft at US$ 4300 per flight hour and another eight-year-old aircraft at US$ 4,100 per flight hour.

The question is why B&B backed out of the deal after the decision was made. Some people are again seeing some kind of conspiracy. But according to a source, Babcock backed off after it found a better deal with some other airlines. Meanwhile, B & B’s local agent ICTC has remained quiet so far.

Now, it looks likely that RNAC may be compelled to go for the second lowest bidder at a relatively expensive price as there is not enough time to go for a second global tender.

However, a high level official with the national flag carrier told Sunday Despatch that the RNAC may not be compelled to lease the aircraft from the second bidder.

It will lease the aircraft only if the bidder supplies the aircraft at the market price. Otherwise, RNAC can seek any option.

The financial regulations of the corporation have no specific provisions of calling tenders to lease an aircraft. It can also directly make deals with any company it likes.

The B&B's refusal to enter into the deal is also seen as the RNAC having little credibility in the international aviation sector.

The official also said that the B &B's decision to give the plane to another airline could be because RNAC has no simplified procedure for leasing aircraft and aircraft suppliers do not want to wait for a long time.

However, Mohan Prasad Khanal, director at External Public Affairs Department with RNAC, said that the lack of clear provisions in the regulations of the corporation regarding the leasing of planes has often made the lease deals disputable.

Regarding the corporation’s action against B & B for not providing an aircraft as promised in the bid, Khanal said that only the deposit amount of US$ 25,000 would be forfeited. He also accepts that the delays made while leasing or buying planes will compel RNAC to lease planes for short term again in future. Meanwhile, the RNAC management has formed a sub-committee headed by board member Rameshwar Khanal. The sub-committee will study all the plane leasing and procurement related documents and to submit a report to the board within a month for taking a brand new aircraft on a lease-purchase basis.

The sub-committee’s report is expected to be instrumental in drawing a future vision of RNAC for the next 15 years. Again, RNAC has been in a difficult situation.

92 MW Power To Be Added This Year

-By Our Correspondent

Around 92-megawatt additional hydropower will be generated in the country by the end of the current fiscal year (July/August).

The new projects coming into operation within the current fiscal year include Khimti Hydropower Project (60 megawatt), Modikhola hydropower Project 14 megawatt) and Puwakhola Hydropower Project (6.2 megawatt).

Of the three projects, the Khimti Hydropower Project, the largest one, will start generating electricity from the third week of May.

The Modikhola Project and Puwakhola project will be complete by July 15.

Despite the addition of about 92 MW of electricity, the problem of loadshedding is unlikely to be removed.

We could be able to do away with loadshedding after the Khimti project starts generating electricity. The loadshedding can be removed only after we are able to repair the Duhabi-based Multi-fuel Plant, said an official at Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The plant was damaged by fire recently

The Multi-fuel Plant had a capacity to generate 39-megawatt electricity but now it has been generating only 13 megawatt. It may take about a year to complete the maintenance works of the project.

The country's present demand of electricity is about 380 megawatt, but the supply is about 340 megawatt only. So, there is a deficit of about 40 MW leading to load shedding.

Apart from these projects, the 144-megawatt Kaligandaki ‘A’, 36-megawatt Upper Bhotekoshi, Chilime (20 megawatt) and Indrawati (five megawatt) are under construction.

The NEA officials say that the country will still have to go through loadshedding even after the completion of these projects, as the demand of hydropower will go up in the same proportion. Now about 15 per cent people of the country have received electricity. In the Ninth Plan, the government has plans to provide electricity facility to 20 per cent of the population.