Posts Tagged ‘Kathmandu’
Written by admin on 20 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 20 – India and Nepal Friday kicked off water-sharing talks in the Himalayan republic that will finally give a push to the massive 6,000 MW Pancheswor Multipurpose Project more than 10 years after the two governments signed a treaty to develop the hydro-power project.
A 10-member delegation led by Indian Water Resources Secretary Umeshnath Panjiyar started the two-day talks with his Nepali counterpart, Energy Secretary Shankar Koirala, in the lake city of Pokhara.
Though the two sides will negotiate on nearly a dozen issues, the focus is on Panchewor, with the teams expected to draw up the terms and references for the Pancheswor Development Authority, the body that will oversee the ambitious project.
Pancheswor is the central piece of the Integrated Development of Mahakali Treaty that the two governments signed in 1996 to harness the Mahakali river, known as Sharda in India.
However, though the detailed project report was to have been completed in 2001, the project was put on the backburner due to the political turmoil in Nepal.
When Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal visited India in August, at a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, both sides agreed that the project would be expedited.
Currently, Nepal is going through a period of acute power scarcity with the power authorities slapping daily power outages on the country, including the capital.
Also on the agenda is the controversial high dam that India has been urging Nepal to build to tame the Kosi river that runs through both Nepal and India and causes havoc in India during monsoon floods.
The two sides will also discuss the problem of inundation caused by the Kosi as well as irrigation.
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Written by admin on 20 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 20 – Nepal’s historic peace pact, which ended a decade of violent communist insurgency, turned three years Friday under the threat of unravelling.
On this date in 2006, the shadowy leader of Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, emerged in the capital from underground to ink a comprehensive agreement with the major parties.
The pact pledged peace, a new constitution and general elections within six months of that.
The pact ended an uprising that killed over 16,000 people and displaced thousands. It also brought in a sea change in the conservative Hindu kingdom, transforming it into a secular republic.
However, since the election last year, that ended Nepal’s centuries-old monarchy without bloodshed, the peace process has run into a storm.
Though the Maoist guerrillas swept the election and came to power, their brief government failed to introduce the reforms it had pledged, partly due to opposition by the disgruntled parties and the army, and partly due to their own inadequacies.
Now, the Maoists are once more on the warpath against a coalition government of the major parties.
Though they have promised not to return to violence, the former rebels’ street protests paralysed the government earlier this month. In parliament, their lawmakers have kept up a steady siege on the house, not allowing the government to pass the budget and plunging it into a crippling financial crisis.
Last week, Prachanda gave a seven-day ultimatum to the government that ends Friday, the day the comprehensive peace agreement was signed three years ago.
‘If we don’t reach an understanding with the government, the central committee of our party will meet tomorrow to make our position clear,’ Prachanda told journalists Friday after a meeting with beleaguered Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Though Nepal said he was optimistic the talks – that revolved round the budget and reaching a compromise on the Maoist demands – were ‘positive’, the leaders have expressed the same optimism so many times earlier that the nation has no more faith in them.
A poll conducted by Nepal’s biggest private television station Kantipur has indicated that more than 60 percent of the respondents think the meetings are a dilatory tactic.
Interface, a Nepali organisation running a series of public campaigns, lists the promises the parties and the Maoists made but failed to keep.
People who lost their husbands, wives, daughters or sons during the ‘People’s War’ are still awaiting justice.
‘When the war ended, I thought I will finally get justice for my daughter,’ says an enraged Devi Sunuwar, whose teenaged daughter Maina was tortured to death by the army. ‘But now that we have peace, I have lost all hope.
‘The court ordered the government to arrest the army men involved. But police say they are helpless in the face of army obduracy.’
Three governments since the pact was signed failed to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that will punish the war crimes.
They have also failed to make public what happened to over 1,000 people who are still missing after being taken under control by either security forces or the Maoists.
There is also growing discord between the government and the UN that was asked to be a partner in the peace process.
The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) that supervises the Maoists’ guerrilla army and arms, will end its extended tenure in January 2010.
However, the government has failed to start the process to rehabilitate over 19,000 guerrilla combatants who are still languishing in primitive barracks.
There is also growing doubt whether Nepal will be able to keep its date with the new constitution that is to be enforced in May 2010.
This month, parliament was forced to revise the constitution-making schedule for the seventh time as the parliamentarian teams failed to complete their work within the stipulated time.
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Written by admin on 20 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 20 – Nepal’s coalition government has turned a deaf ear to urgent pleas by celebrated French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot to prevent the slaughter of thousands of birds and animals at a religious fair in the Terai plains next week.
The sex symbol of yesteryear, who left Hollywood in 1973, became a vegetarian and sold her jewellery to found the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals, has written to Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav, urging him to stop the wanton killings at the altar of Hindu goddess Gadhimai in Bara district.
‘I have dedicated my life to protecting animals and the best gift I could receive for this lifelong struggle would be the announcement of the stopping of ritual sacrifice of animals,’ wrote the 75-year-old who has in the past also condemned the mass slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of Eid.
The letter, made public by animal rights campaigners in Nepal who are also trying to stop the mass sacrifices, asks the Nepali president how he can tolerate traditions that are ‘violent, cruel and inhumane’.
‘I personally find it hard to imagine that your heart can withstand such cruelty, knowing that you, being the head of the country, are ultimately responsible,’ Bardot wrote to Nepal’s head of state.
She also mentions that last year, she sent a similar request to the prime minister but did not receive an answer.
Last month, renowned Indian animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi had also urged the prime minister to stop the axing of thousands of birds and animals in the cruellest conditions imaginable. But the government said it would not ban the festival for fear of hurting Hindu religious sentiments.
Now, with the government facing the expiry of a week-long ultimatum by the Maoists, the president, who is at the centre of the battle between the ruling parties and the former guerrillas, also chose to ignore the letter.
The foreign ministry told IANS it had not received any instructions from the president’s office.
The Gadhimai fair, described by animal lovers as the world’s largest killing field of animals, is held every five years in Bara.
In 2005, it flourished under the patronage of the king of Nepal, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, an avid believer in sacrifices himself.
However, with the former Hindu kingdom deciding to become a secular republic, animal rights organisations like Animal Welfare Network Nepal and Alliance Against Animal Sacrifices have been lobbying to put an end to the ‘barbaric tradition’, pointing out that Nepal has abolished other cruel traditions like sati – burning widows on the pyres of their husbands.
But the government, which faces fresh disruption from the Maoists from Saturday over the president, is unwilling to antagonise the Terai, though some ministers say personally they are against sacrifices.
The fair draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from Nepal as well as adjoining Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
This year, the temple authorities say 500,000 buffaloes, goats, chickens and pigeons will be sacrificed.
The fields turn into rivers of blood with the carcasses being ripped open by vultures amid unimaginable stench.
Maneka Gandhi says the fair is driven by commercial interests with leather industries in both countries bidding for the hides.
Many of the animals are smuggled in from India, avoiding quarantines and unleashing animal-borne diseases in Nepal.
About 15 years ago, a deadly cattle plague entered the republic through the fair and Nepal is still fighting to eradicate it.
This year, animal activists have warned that the mass killings could trigger outbreaks of bird flu and other animal-borne diseases that can affect humans as well.
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Written by admin on 19 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 19 – A man, who was arrested by Nepal Police for trying to extract money from deposed king Gyanendra Shah’s daughter Prerana Singh, is trying to mitigate his action saying he had treated the former princess with ‘respect’ throughout the extortion attempt.
Rajesh Hamal created a sensation in the former Himalayan kingdom after police disclosed he had sent three text messages to the personal cellphone of the former princess, asking her to pay NRS 10 million or face the killing of her husband and son.
Hamal, in his 30s, told police he needed the money to fund his wedding, which was scheduled for Jan 7.
According to his deposition before police, he used to trade in yarshagumba, a fungus that grows in the high mountains of northern Nepal and is in great demand due to the belief it has aphrodisiac and other medicinal qualities.
A sudden loss in business left him broke and unable to organise his wedding, Hamal said.
To raise money for the feast, he conceived the idea of extracting money from the former princess as he had her personal cell number, thanks to his fiancee Pratikshya Shah, who had been working as the ex-princess’ personal secretary.
The first SMS was sent Nov 10.
It was as polite as possible, addressing the ex-princess as ‘sarkar’, a deferential form of address for the royal family that however has been discarded since Nepal elected to become a republic last year.
Beginning with a respectful ‘Namaste’, the message said: ‘You should support our party. Give NRS 10 million to your secretary and send her to Godavari (a place outside Kathmandu). Else your husband Raj Bahadur Singh and son may be killed.’
The message created a stir in the former royal household that till last year used to be feared and revered by the nation.
The former princess has been one of the most low-key and non-controversial members of the former palace, leading a low-profile life as a wife and mother of a son.
Despite the former royals’ aversion to their affairs becoming public, her husband decided to go to police since they were not sure whether it was a hoax or a genuine extortion call by an armed underground organisation.
Two days later, the impatient Hamal sent a second message.
‘Your Highness’, it said, ‘Didn’t you get my message? Are you ignoring it? Don’t you love your husband and son?’
By that time, police had been able to trace the owner of the SIM card that was used to send the messages.
Then came the third message that led the cops to Nepalgunj town on the India-Nepal border.
‘You didn’t give a damn for the message,’ it said. ‘You don’t love your husband or son. The outcome of this is not going to be good.’
However, the man they hunted up – Dipak Hamal – said he had given the SIM card to his uncle for the latter’s use and knew nothing about the threats.
The posse then made him make a call to the uncle, Rajesh Hamal, who was living in a guesthouse in Kathmandu.
The policemen pretended to be businessmen interested in buying yarshagumba and the unsuspecting Hamal agreed to meet them in front of a cinema in the capital.
When he turned up there with his fiancee, police arrested both Tuesday and handed over the couple to the crime investigation department.
According to Deputy Superintendent Pradyumna Karki, they will be charged with attempted abduction and trafficking.
Though the fiancee claimed she was not aware of Hamal’s malafide intentions, she too is being charged with the same offences.
To add insult to the injury, Pratiksya Shah is said to be related to the former princess’ husband, who hired her about one and a half year ago.
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Written by admin on 18 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 18 – Nepal Police Wednesday said they have begun investigating the backgrounds of a pair of lovers who tried to extort former Nepal king Gyanendra’s daughter Prerana Singh.
‘We have handed over the couple to the crime investigations department,’ said Deputy Superintendent Pradyumna Karki. ‘They will remain in police custody for 25 days while investigations are completed.’
The capital was agog Wednesday after the news broke that the deposed king’s daughter, who was married to a commoner businessman, had been receiving threatening messages on her private cell phone, asking her to pay up NRS 10 million or face the abduction and killing of her husband and school-going son.
Karki said the sender of the messages, a man in his 30s, was arrested from Nepalgunj town on the India-Nepal border Tuesday after the former princess’ husband Raj Bahadur Singh lodged a formal complaint with police.
The arrested man, Rajesh Hamal, reportedly told police that he was a supplier of the wonder herb yarshagumba, known as Nepal’s Viagra, and had suffered a hefty loss in business recently.
Hamal also reportedly told police his girlfriend, Preksha Shah, was the former princess’ secretary and it was she who had provided the phone number to him.
Karki said Preksha had also been arrested and police would charge them both with attempted abduction and trafficking.
This is the first time that Nepal’s former royal family has featured in a police case.
However, Karki said that the former princess or her husband may not have to appear in court during the trial unless the judges specifically ask them to be present.
Till last year, when Nepal’s newly elected lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to abolish monarchy, Nepal’s royal family were regarded to be above law by the constitution.
Though Prerana’s brother and former crown prince Paras is alleged to have run over a popular singer, causing his death, no action could be taken against him.
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Written by admin on 18 November 2009
Kathmandu, Nov 18 – Close on the heels of the Indian election authorities recognising third gender voters, Nepal’s Election Commission has also begun a massive project to grant recognition to voters who are neither male or female but transsexuals and transgenders.
Shyam Sundar Sharma, joint secretary at the Nepal Election Commission, said the Himalayan republic had begun the process to upgrade the voters’ list almost eight months ago and was happy at the Indian decision but not influenced by it.
‘In Nepal, we read the Indian decision with interest,’ Sharma told IANS. ‘We are glad the Indian Election Commission decided to recognise third genders’ identities in the voters’ registration forms. However, we have noted that the decision came after an order to that effect from the court.
‘In Nepal, we took the decision to recognise the third gender voter without any court order. We are curious why it took India so long.’
Nepal last went to the elections in April 2008, which resulted in a sea change. The former Himalayan kingdom was transformed into a secular republic and its Maoist guerrillas, who had fought an armed insurrection for 10 years, came to power for a short period after emerging as the largest party.
The constituent assembly that was elected agreed to promulgate a new constitution by May 2010.
‘We are readying for the next general election on the premise that it will be held within six months of the new constitution coming into effect,’ Sharma said.
‘If things go as per schedule, Nepal will have its general election in November 2010.’
The next general election will see, for the first time in Nepal’s history, a voter being registered as either male or female or third gender.
Nepal’s population stands at about 27 million. There are about 17.6 million eligible voters so far.
Sharma estimates that the new change will not cause the number of voters to go up dramatically.
‘The constitution grants everyone the right to vote,’ he said. ‘And many third genders, who are above 18 years, are already enrolled as voters.
‘The new decision will simply establish their sexual identities.’
The official said the Election Commission intends to hold discussions with Nepal’s only openly gay member of parliament, Sunil Babu Pant, and the gay rights organisation he has founded, Blue Diamond Society.
‘We would like to discuss the technicalities,’ he said. ‘Whether the third gender would like to be identified as third gender or have a specific gender identity.’
Besides homosexuals and lesbians, Nepal’s sexual minorities also have metis, men who feel they are actually women trapped in a male body, and eunuchs.
Nepal’s Supreme Court issued a series of directives to the government in the past, making Nepal the most progressive country in South Asia.
Besides asking the government to end all discrimination against the community, the apex court has also given the go-ahead to same-sex marriages.
The April election also struck a blow for third genders, seeing members from the community contest for the first time and with the major political parties wooing them with promises to ensure their rights.
However, the security forces still remain homophobic, especially the army.
The BDS is fighting a case in court against the dismissal of two women who were sacked due to the allegation they were lesbians.
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