Activise Nepal-India border journalists committee!

I don’t know as to how this piece would be taken up by those for it has been written, however, as a professional journalist, I consider it as a part of my bounden duty to tell the things that had happened in the not too distant past.

The fact is that around 1998, the Kathmandu based Nepal-SAARC Journalists Forum had supported the Indian Embassy in enhancing Nepal-India bilateral ties and the said embassy in turn under the captainship of the then Indian Ambassador K.V.Rajan was very supportive of the idea. In the process, the NSJF in collaboration with the Indian embassy had conducted several seminars that ultimately had contributed to the betterment of the bilateral ties at least in the Terai plains of this Kingdom.

In the process, a Nepal-India Border Journalist seminar had been organized in Biratnagar which saw the presence of the entire members of the SAARC journalists forum and also of the Indian Ambassador Rajan and his Press Secretary, Mr. Akhilesh Mishra.

The media men from both the countries, from bordering Indian towns, had converged in Biratnagar on October 29 and came up with some concrete proposals to be taken note by both the governments in question. The seminar was a grand success in the sense that this seminar not only brought the media men together but also took up some issues that had been a concern for both.

Later a joint statement was issued upon the conclusion of the border seminar which touched upon the urgent problems and sought the government’s action to redress those issues of concern to both of the countries.

The seminar recognised the issues to be addressed as follows:

girl trafficking for flesh trade;

drug abuse/trafficking mostly by the teenagers;

criminal activities and official and political patronage to mafia dons and their association with special reference to economic offenders;

rampant sale of fake educational certificates and degrees of all levels/faculties;

to contain electoral violence on both the sides during local and national level elections with the help of money and muscle;

child labor problems and Human Rights violations;

stress on development of better communications facilities, easy conversion, development of NH57 and 31 etc and radial Rural roads and cheapest mode of Telecommunications.

The national governments of both the countries are hereby requested to give proper directives to their local administrators networks to contain the existing anomalies by developing interaction programs with the media persons and to have the feed back.

In order to proceed in this direction to achieve proper objectives of the seminar, a committee as suggested by the Nepal-SAARC Journalists Forum have been constituted which will come into operation with immediate effect.

The composition of the committee is as follows: President/Convenor Surendra Aryal; Vice presidents, Prof. Moti Lal Jain, India, Jiveshwar Lakhey, Nepal; General Secretary: Chandra Shekhar Dev, India,; Secretary: Ram Rijhan Yadab, Nepal. Members: Yagna Sharma, Nepal; Avadesh Kumar Bachhac, India, Indra Kafle, Nepal, Dibya Prakash, India; Stephen Das, India; Dr. Nityananda Lal Das, India.

Honored advisors: H.E. Shri K.V.Rajan ( had not accepted the request); Rajendra Sharma, GS, Nepal-SAARC Journalists Forum; Prof. D.N.Lal, Vice Chancellor, Purwanchal University; Press secretary, Indian Embassy( ex-officio member).

Now I would like to see the committee reactivated. It would not be out of place to request the Indian embassy to look into the matter seriously and reenergise the group which had vowed to work jointly for the bettermen of both the countries. I hope the group if properly guided can achieve the goals it had charted as back as in 1998.

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