Govt officials set to skip Geneva UN rights meet

4 THE KATHMANDU POST | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013
newsdigest
Unesco project on right to
information launched
KATHMANDU: Unesco launched
the European Union-funded project
“Empowering people to enjoy their
right to information for greater
accountability of Nepal’s power
holders” on Wednesday. The EU has
donated 290,000 euros for the
365,000 euro project. The project
will contribute to transparent and
inclusive decision-making processes
and democratic practices within
political institutions along with
their increased media-responsiveness,
Unesco said.
‘Banished’ schoolteacher
seeks justice
KHOTANG: A woman of Badahare
VDC-4 in the district sought help
from Chief District Officer Dipak
Raj Nepal on Thursday, claiming
that she had been kicked out of her
village. Kalpana Katuwal, 31, said
she was banished from the village
by locals, including Bhadra
Bahadur Basnet, Secretary of
Durchhim VDC, on January 30 on
‘moral grounds’. Kalpana, who is
now living in Ubu, Okhaldhunga
district, was dismissed as a reliefquota
teacher from a primary
school in Kalika Mahadevsthan.
Later, the District Education Office
deputed her at Laxmi Secondary
School in Khokseli. Kalpana, however,
has not assumed her duty,
saying that chairman of both
schools is Basnet.
Boy found murdered
RAUTAHAT: A seven-year-old boy
was found murdered in a sugarcane
field at Karkach Karmaiya-9 in the
district on Thursday evening.
Shivaji Raya, son of Binod Raya, was
found dead with his throat slit.
Meanwhile, police arrested two
persons in connection with the
incident.
Four extortionists held
BANKE: Police arrested four extortionists
with a pistol, its ammunitions
and sharp weapons from
Munnipur area in the district on
Wednesday. The arrestees—Hajarat
Ali Sai and Mohammad Harun
Khan of Bashudevpupr and Kadir
Sai and Najir Ali Sai of Belhari—
were made public in the District
Police Office on Thursday. Police
claimed they extorted businesspersons
and locals in the area. (PR)
weather watch
FORECAST: Partly cloudy with chances of brief
light rain at one or two places in the western
regions.Mainly fair in the rest of the country.
PLACES MAX MIN RAINFAL
TEMP ( 0 C) TEMP ( 0 C) (MM)
Dadeldhura 18.5 5.5 0.0
Dipayal 25.4 8.6 0.0
Dhangadi 23.7 10.6 0.0
Birendranagar 26.2 9.0 0.0
Nepalgunj 25.6 9.7 0.0
Jumla 17.0 -3.0 0.0
Dang 24.0 9.0 0.0
Pokhara 23.3 8.5 0.0
Bhairahawa 26.5 10.7 0.0
Simra 27.5 na 0.0
Kathmandu 24.5 5.2 0.0
Okhaldhunga 19.4 na 0.0
Taplejung 18.2 4.2 0.0
Dhankuta 23.2 7.5 0.0
Biratnagar 29.1 13.5 0.0
Jomsom 10.6 -0.5 0.0*
Dharan 27.8 14.1 0.0*
Source: Meteorological forecasting Division, Department of Hydrology and
Meteorology, Kathmandu
16 Sajha buses arrive
SAMIK KHAREL
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
WITH the arrival of 16
new buses in the
Capital, the eagerlyawaited
Sajha bus service will
soon be plying the streets of
Kathmandu. The green chassis
of the buses will be ornamented
with cream to match the
same look it had when the
Sajha Yatayat was first initiated
in 1964. The bus service will
come into operation in mid-
March, after route permits are
approved.
According to Kanak Mani
Dixit, chairman of Sajha
Cooperatives, the service will
restart on a modest scale. “We
hope to relieve traffic congestion
in the trunk routes of the
Kathmandu-Lalitpur sector
and also provide exemplary
transport services,” said Dixit
in a press statement.
The main goals of the service
are to increase the use of
public transport and reduce
pollution, he said.
The newly purchased buses
are complaint with Euro III
emission standards and boast
55 seats with 15 additional
strap-hangers for standing passengers.
The buses were manu-
Dalits’ hunger strike
for right to water
KHAGENDRA AWASTHI
BAITADI, FEB 21
A DALIT family at Sittad VDC-9
in Baitadi launched an indefinite
hunger strike in front of the
District Administration Office
(DAO) on Thursday, saying that
they were barred from using a
public water tap.
Hariram Sarki, his wife and
three children protested after
the family, along with 10 other
Dalit families, was reportedly
denied access to the facility.
Hariram said non-Dalit
members, including Tekraj
Bhatta of neighbouring
Bhachera, had been using the
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
INSPECTOR General of Nepal
Police (IGP) Kuber Singh Rana and
US Ambassador to Nepal Peter W
Bodde jointly inaugurated four
buildings for Nepal Police in
Biratnagar on Thursday.
The new buildings—a cafeteria,
a block of classrooms, a women’s
barracks at the Nepal Police
Regional Training Centre and the
Rani border station—were all
funded by the US government
through its Department of Justice,
said a statement issued by the US
Embassy in Kathmandu.
POST PHOTO
tap solely, depriving them of
water. “The local administration
had instructed us to use the tap.
However, we were threatened in
the village,” he said.
Hariram added that they do
not let them use the tap as there
is only one tank. The water supply
system was constructed with
Rs 135,000 from Sittad VDC.
Bhatta lodged a complaint
with the local administration
last year, saying that Dalits were
using the tap they had been
using. Dattaram Badu of the
DAO said his office has asked
the Dalits to file a case in the
court after it failed to resolve the
problem.
US aid for Nepal Police
These facilities will help
train a new generation of police
in a well-equipped and professional
environment, the statement
said.
The US Department of Justice
spent approximately $750,000 on
building and equipping the three
Regional Training Centre buildings
and the border station.
“The United States has been a
strong supporter of the Nepal
Police and we’ve long recognised
the professionalism and dedication
of the Nepali men and women who
serve in law enforcement,” said
Ambassador Bodde at the inaugural
programme.
factured by Tata motors in
India and travelled to
Kathmandu from Goa. The
buses also have
automated doors for entrance
and exit with two CCTV cameras
and display screens for
advertisements, public notices
and entertainment.
The cooperative has been
outsourcing for drivers and
conductors via the Subidha
Sewa Pvt Ltd and has been pri-
SHIVA PURI
RAUTAHAT, FEB 21
THE Rautahat District Development
Committee (DDC) has been charged
with illegally releasing millions of
rupees for development projects.
Joint-secretary at the Ministry of
Local Development Dinesh Thapaliya
said that although the ministry had
delegated only the District Technical
Office (DTO) to carry out project
works, the Rautahat DDC had flouted
CJ FROM PG 1
In the meeting with the
parties, Regmi asked leaders
to make clear their
position on the deadline to
hold Constituent Assembly
polls, unanimous backing
amid dissenting voices in
the Nepali Congress and
the CPN-UML regarding
his leadership and the idea
of controlling the poll government
through a highlevel
political mechanism.
An aide to Prime
oritising women for these
positions.
Sajha buses will operate
along two routes—Harihar
Bhawan-Tripureshwor-
Ranipokhari-Kamalpokhari-
Gaushala-Koteshwor-
Satdobato-Lagankhel (16.5km)
and Satdobato-Lagankhel-
Jawalakhel-Tripureshwor-
Teku-Kalimati-Kalanki
(16.4km). The buses will charge
government-assigned fares for
public transport.
Sajha Yatayat, the Valley’s
pioneering bus service, halted
services in 2002 due to
politicisation and overstaffing.
The company is now under
new management and was
established as a cooperative in
2011 with an executive board
elected from the general
body members.
the regulation. Local Development
Officer (LDO) Narayan Prasad
Sapkota, in collusion with some DTO
employees, released around Rs 25
million to Sah Construction Sewa for
the construction of two bridges and
six road stretches, according to
Thapaliya.
The projects are part of the Rural
Access Improvement and
Decentralisation Project supported
by the World Bank. “Only the DTO
should have been authorised to
Minister Baburam
Bhattarai said Regmi is
concerned about a writ
petition subjudice in the
Supreme Court that has
challenged his appointment
as executive head
and sought a court order to
appoint a poll government
under either an ex-chief
justice or an independent
candidate. A hearing on
the writ is scheduled for
Friday. “CJ Regmi wanted
to hold consultations on
the implications of the
Sanghiya Loktantrik Morcha cadres take out an
anti-government rally in Birgunj on Thursday.
POST PHOTO: SHANKAR ACHARYA
Rautahat DDC faces graft charges
Regmi seeks parties’ unanimous support
‘Officials may be
grilled in Geneva’
GENEVA FROM PG 1
However, Poudel also refused and instructed Foreign
Secretary Bhattarai to lead the Nepali team. Later,
Bhattarai was also advised against attending the meet
and the baton was passed on to Ambassador Bairagi, an
official privy to the developments told the Post.
“There is no difference between sending a foreign
secretary or assigning an ambassador to lead the delegation,”
DPM Shrestha told the Post.
According to multiple
sources, besides the imple-
mentation of Nepal’s human
rights commitments and compensation
to victims, the
Nepali delegation will be
grilled over issues like the failure
to set up a transitional justice
mechanism, statelessness,
investigations into the murder
of Dailekh-based journalist
Dekendra Thapa, growing
cases of violence against
women and the government’s
failure to address the situation.
Authorities say
failure to send
officials could
mean that govt
is not ready to
defend its
rights record
Some 30,000 documents on serious violations of
international law during the 10-year Maoist conflict,
released last October by the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and
the arrest of Nepal Army Col Kumar Lama by British
authorities are also likely to feature in the discussions.
“All preparations were ready, but all of a sudden,
officials refused to attend the meeting,” said a MoFA
official. Nepal’s failure to field a team of political leaders
or high-level bureaucrats in the meeting could mean that
the country is not ready when it comes to defending
rights issues that will be raised, officials said.
“We will definitely face an embarrassing situation in
Geneva,” said another official.
writ,” said an aide to the
PM. He said that even the
government was awaiting
the development on the
petition and would take
further decisions accordingly.
After separate consultations
with the CJ and
legal experts, parties have
made up their mind to face
any situation that may
arise after appointing the
CJ as the executive head.
“As the legislature parliament,
the only peoples’
elected institution, has
PASSPORT FROM PG 1
“We have confirmed
that two individuals have
entered Saudi with the
lost passports processed
by our agency,” Pushpa
Bhandari, the owner of
World Wide
International, told the
Post over telephone from
Dhaka. According to him,
trans-national human
traffickers may have got
hold of the passports and
that they used them to
smuggle Bangladeshis to
Saudi Arabia.
The other lost passports
were processed by
Memorial Overseas
Services, Nabil Overseas,
Meridian Overseas,
Oxford Management
System Pvt Ltd,
Friendship Manpower
Cosultancy, Equator
International and
Al-Summit Manpower.
Manpower agencies
claim the human traffickers
pay around Rs 150,000
for a Nepali passport.
They said they have often
found that those passports
with visas had been
sold to Bangladeshi
nationals for 600,000 taka
(over Rs 600,000).
Nepal police have
arrested over 100
Bangladeshi nationals in
the past few months
for misusing Nepali
passports.
According to the
police, foreign nationals
with criminal records
tend to steal passports of
different nations and
different routes.
Aryal has not
informed the Nepali mis-
release the budget as per the decision
of the ministry,” Thapaliya said. Raj
Kishore Sah of the DTO also confirmed
that the budget had been
released unlawfully.
LDO Sapkota, however, argued
that the authority to release the budget
had been given to the DDC and he
had acted accordingly. According to
the DDC, altogether eight development
projects worth around Rs 167
million are currently under way in the
district.
already been dissolved, no
force can hinder us from
filling up such a vacuum by
seeking the peoples’ mandate,”
said Gautam.
Meanwhile, PM
Bhattarai said the interaction
with legal experts was
useful. “The doctrine of
necessity must be adopted
to solve current problems.
The CJ must be assured,”
Bhattarai tweeted after
holding consultations with
legal experts at his official
residence on Thursday.
‘Human traffickers
may get hold of
lost passports’
sion in Saudi Arabia, the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the
Department of Foreign
Employment of the lost
passports.
“I have informed only
the Nepal Association of
Foreign Employment
Agencies (NAFEA) of the
matter. I will inform all
the offices concerned by
Sunday,” said Aryal.
NAFEA Chairman Bal
Bahadur Tamang said the
passports could have
been misused, mainly by
Bangladeshi nationals.
“During my recent
visit to Bangladesh, I
found it very insecure
carrying passports with
me, as there have been
incidents when people
have been robbed of the
documents while the
passports have later
found to be misused.
“Nepal’s foreign
employment industry
could land in deep trouble
if Nepali passports are
misused,” Tamang said.
He added that he has
informed senior police
officials and secretaries of
the dangers of such a
thing happening.
Acting chief of the
passport division at the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Yadav Khanal,
said they usually receive
complaints of a few passports
getting lost.
“So far, we have not
heard of
anyone losing so many
passports at one go.
There might be some
bad intention here. We
will look into the matter,”
he said.