Bandh shuts Tarai

A shutdown called by the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF) affected normal life in districts of the Tarai today. In Nawalparasi, six vehicles were vandalised at Harkatta along Mahendra Highway. MJF cadres vandalised the three trucks and three buses when they were being escorted by the police. Police arrested 11 persons in this connection.

The MJF had called the one-day bandh to demand the safe release of its Kathmandu valley in-charge Jeetendra Shah abducted by the Young Communist League (YCL).

Most educational institutions and industries in Kalaiya and adjoining areas remained closed, while vehicles did not ply on the Birgunj-Pathlaiya road section, Mahendra Highway and Pathlaiya-Hetauda section of Tribhuvan Highway.

The effects of the bandh were also felt in Mahottari, Bardiya, Nepalgunj, Birgunj, Rautahat, Saptari, Siraha, Biratnagar, Dhanusha, Sarlahi and Kapilvastu. Kapilvastu district MJF chairperson Prakash Pandey said no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the region.
The bandh, however, had no effect in Jhapa.
 

Move to ban arms on planes

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is drafting a bill that will ban air passengers carrying arms while travelling. CAAN deputy director general Bharat Dhakal said this at a programme organised by the CAAN here today. He also said that all airports in Nepal are unsafe.
Weapons carried by security guards of the Prime Minister, ministers and other VIPs will be allowed inside the plane only after the ammunition has been taken out, Dhakal said. Currently, security guards of VIPs carry loaded weapons while boarding the plane.
The bill will require everyone to remove ammunition from weapons before boarding the aircraft. The ammunition will be stored in a safe place.
Those attending the programme underscored the need to come up with a code of conduct for air travelling. Suggestions were offered by participants on whether to allow inebriated passengers to board a plane.

$1.69 lakh WWF grant for hydel project

The WWF Nepal will provide a grant assistance of $1.69 lakh to the Kanchanjunga Conservation Area Management Council (KCAMC) for the execution of a 35-KW micro-hydro project.

Tseten Dandu Sherpa, chairperson of the KCAMC, and Anil Manandhar, country representative of the WWF Nepal, signed an agreement here today to fund the 'Micro-hydro Project for the People and Biodiversity in the Kanchanjanga Conservation Area'.

The local community will also contribute nearly $16,000 through labour and local transportation. Once executed, the project will light up 77 households in Ghunsa and Phale.Work on the project will start from July and end by June.According to officials at the WWF Nepal, the micro-hydro project aims to promote sources of renewable energy in order to enhance technical and managerial capacities of local institutions.

They said the community will assume ownership of the project. The project will generate income from enterprises that will raise the living standards of the locals and help in the conservation of the area. On September 22, 2006, the government had decided to hand over the management of the KCA to the KCAMC.

China’s Everest road plan draws experts’ flak

China's plan to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest today drew sharp criticism from experts in Nepal and India.Country representative of WWF Nepal Anil Manandhar said in Kathmandu that China's plan to construct the highway is the result of the country's total disregard to the world's tallest mountain and its environmental and cultural values.

China's state media on Wednesday said that the country plans to build a highway on the side of Mt Everest to pave way for the Olympic torch's journey to the peak of the world's tallest mountain. "China's idea of reaching the mountain top by road is a foolish one and driven by a total disregard to world environment," Manandhar said. He added that road at the sacred and serene area would usher in human activities that will cause an irreparable damage to the atmosphere on the mountains, which is already suffering from pollution.

"I cannot believe it. I don't know whether it was a government policy or some enthusiastic development worker just wanted to see the world react to the idea." Spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology Khumraj Punjali said it is too early to comment on the plan. In New Delhi, experts and analysts voiced serious concern about the highway plan. They said the proposed road would invite pollution and result in the collapse of the eco-system.

Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr SD Muni, said Nepal should worry more about the adverse effects the road would have on the country. Secretary of the Indian Mountaineering Federation PC Rautila said rare and endangered flora and fauna are already under threat in the fragile eco-system and the road would make matters worse.

A senior official of India's Centre for Policy Research said all countries should protest the move. Meanwhile, sources in the Indian capital said Chinese authorities in charge of the project are likely to hold talks with Nepal on the project.

YCL blocks highway traffic

Seeking the release of their leader, cadres of the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League today blocked traffic for three hours in Sarlahi's Nawalpur along the Mahendra Highway. They warned that a decisive agitation will be launched tomorrow if their leader, Thagaram Chamar, is not freed.

YCL's Sarlahi's coordinator Keshar Karki said the highway was disrupted seeking the release of CPN (Maoist)'s Sarlahi area no 5 in-charge Thagaram Chamar. Over 200 Maoists staged a demonstration and shouted slogans against the police administration. Hundreds of travellers were affected due to the disruption in vehicular movement on the highway.

Personnel of the APF had arrested the Maoists' in-charge at the APF base camp at Sundarpur Chuadawa today. Police inspector KP Sharma said a home-made pistol and seven bullets were confiscated from him. Sharma said Chamar will be sued for possessing illegal arms.

Pavlovian response to abdicate-soon remark

Himalayan News Service
PM downplays it; royalists tight-lipped

Kathmandu, June 18:

 

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's widely-reported comment that if king Gyanendra and his son, crown prince Paras, abdicated, the ruling establishment could think of a minor as the monarch, triggered a knee-jerk reaction today, and Koirala, according to reports received by the newsdesk, downplayed the import of his remarks.
Reacting to Koirala's reported "suggestion" to the king and his son, Maoist generallisimo Prachanda said Koirala was trying to protect the monarchy by going against the decisions of the eight-party alliance.

"This indicates that the Nepali Congress is against the eight-party unity and it wants to see
the monarchy continue," Prachanda told reporters after addressing Maoist MPs in Singha Durbar.
His remarks undermine the second amendment of the Interim Constitution and also intimidate the importance of the decision the parliament has taken," Prachanda said.
Prachanda said his party does not want monarchy in any form.

Prachanda also accused the government of not showing eagerness to hold a Constituent Assembly election.
"Our leader (Prachanda) called upon us to prepare for Jana Andolan-III as Jana Andolan-II could not meet our demands in reality," Maoist MP Khim Lal Devkota said.
Prachanda said that the 12-point agreement between the seven-party alliance
and the Maoists was very clear on bringing in a republican set-up.

His deputy Baburam Bhattarai called upon the MPs to create an environment that would be favourable for state restructuring.
But Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala claimed that the remarks were "misreported by the media due to low English comprehension level."
He said this while talking to a group of reporters who had gone to Koirala's residence to cover the Nepali Congress (NC) Parliamentary Party (PP) meeting.
"I was misquoted. May be the problem was I had spoken in English and the mediapersons who disseminated my views had low English comprehension level," Koirala said, whenreporters asked him about his remarks reported in THT and other dailies.

Members of a delegation which had accompanied visiting Pakistani journalists to the PM's residence yesterday had said that Koirala had told them that he had told King Gyanendra and his son Paras "to abdicate before the elections, if they were keen to see that monarchy continued in Nepal." Koirala was also reported to have said that since Gyanendra and his son Paras were unpopular among the masses, they should leave the country before the elections, or stay on as businessmen, pure and simple.

Koirala also denied having said that a minor could be picked up as the monarch if king Gyanendra and his son abdicated. Meanwhile, talking to representatives of the striking teachers, Koirala said that he was committed to holding elections by mid-December and that the nation and the people could come under a worse scenario if the elections were not held. "I have taken the responsibility of my lifetime. I will see to it that elections take place."
AFP reported UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal as saying: "The PM's attempt to save the monarchy is unacceptable. Our party has always been in favour of abolition of the monarchy and will not review our decision in the future," he said.

A thorough scanning of the Internet and news agencies failed to provide any response by the royalists or yesterday's royalists to the PM's widely-reported 'abdicate-soon' suggestion.