Nepal’s Under-16 National Team left for Malaysia Wednesday to take part in the ACC U-16 Elite Cup scheduled to be held there from May 4-13.

Office-bearers of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) bade farewell to the 16-member squad led by CAN member Sanjeev Kumar Pandey amidst a programme at Nepal Sports Council (NSC) office, Tripureshwor.

Nepal has been placed in Group ‘B’ alongside Malaysia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iran while Group ‘A’ comprises Singapore, Hong Kong, Oman and Thailand.

According to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), Nepal is set to take on Kuwait in the first match of the tournament on May 4 at Bayuemas Ground.

Similarly, Nepal will take on Bahrain on May 6, Iran on May 8 and Malaysia on May 9. nepalnews.com

In what appears to be a significant development, three major parties – NC, UML and UCPN (Maoist)- and United Democratic Madheshi Front (UDMF) Wednesday night agreed to form a new national unity government to replace the current government to ensure constitution by the May 27 deadline.

Emerging from the meeting, CPN (UML) chairperson Jhala Nath Khanal said that there has been an agreement between the political parties to form a new national unity government possibly by Thursday after dissolving the current Baburam Bhattarai-led government.

He said there is a strong possibility of formation of national unity government by Thursday.

Khanal said the meeting (which began Wednesday afternoon and went on till late in the night) however decided to let Baburam Bhattarai continue as the prime minister until May 27.

“Thereafter, Bhattarai-led government will be replaced by a Nepali Congress- led government,” Khanal informed, adding that the NC-led government (to be led by NC vice president Ram Chandra Poudel)will promulgate the new constituton.

The major political parties are due to meet again on Thursday to discuss the composition of the Bhattarai-led consensus government including agendas related to constitution drafting. nepalnews.com

Pavitra Banjade Shoes Industries Pvt. Ltd has launched its new shoe brand – “Shoe Land – Comfort & Style” – for ladies amidst a function in capital on Thursday.

On the occasion, the company appointed former Miss Nepal 2002 Malvika Subba as its brand ambassador for the period of one year.

The shoes manufactured by the company are attractive and available at reasonable price, said the company during the function.

Currently, the company has been distributing its products from the outlets situated in New Road and Maha Boudha in Kathmandu and Pokhara and Butwal outside the valley.

The company said it has the capacity of producing around 700 pairs of shoes a day while it has aimed to build up its capacity to 15,000 pairs a day in the near future, said chairman of the company Suraj Banjade.

The company is also providing direct employment to 110 people, he informed.

The company aims to extend the market of its product to other South Asian nations in its second phase after a successful promotion in Nepal. Nepalnews.com

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Dec. 10:   The Royal Nepalese Army soldiers killed at least 11 Maoist terrorists in about 5-hour-long gun battle with the terrorists at Kapurkot of Salyan district Sunday night, according to a press release of Defense Ministry issued today.

The fighting had occurred after a huge number of Maoist terrorists had come to destroy the repeater station of the Nepal Telecommunication Station at Kapurkot. Two army personnel lost their lives in the successful defense of the telecommunication tower.

The casualty on the Maoist side is said to be much higher. The bodies of the 11 dead Maoists were found around the station while the Maoists carried away the bodies of other dead terrorists.

Likewise, the army’s firing at Durgamandau of Baitadi district killed five terrorists and caught two others today morning. The incident happened when, on its ongoing cordon and search operation, the army confronted a group of terrorists and they defied the army’s order to surrender. Several others Maoists fled after the army took the action said the press release.

Similarly, an army patrol of Khara of Rukum district is investigating on the 26 persons caught with parts of weapons and ammunitions loaded on 9 mules. They are suspected to be involved in the attack at the NTC’s repeater station at Ratmate of Rolpa Saturday night.

The security forces, during their search operation in Baglung, have come upon a domestic factory used for making impoverished weapons and bombs and arrested three persons suspected to be terrorists. The soldiers also found a huge quantity of home-made weapons, pistols made in the factory, bullets used in different types of weapons, various chemicals used in making bombs.

There were also equipment used for making weapons and bombs, combat dresses, medicines and food from the factory. The security forces are investigating on those arrested.

In another incident on Sunday, the security forces in their search at Dhanapokhara of Lamjung district have found a .303 rifle, one telescope-mounted rifle, bullets of different weapons, binocular and documents and audiocassettes from the house of Khagendrajung Gurung. The security forces also arrested five suspected Maoist terrorists from the house.

The Ministry has also lauded the bravery of the soldiers, who had foiled the Maoists attack at the NTC’s repeater station at Kapurkot and prayed the Almighty for the peace of those who died while serving the country and condoled their families.

By Anand Gurung

The other day I saw a man almost hit by a bus. If he had been even an inch closer, he would’ve surely been mowed down by the bus. He was walking, keeping to the side edges of one of many streets in the city where pavements and pedestrian crossings are almost non-existent. Maybe it was not as close as I imagined, but the packed public bus coming from behind seemed to have narrowly missed him while speeding past. The irony was that it all happened too quickly for the guy to even notice it.

But it’s no big deal. One always hear stories about some biker or a pedestrian being run over by a bus or large vehicle in road mishaps (And in some cases, if they are still alive and struggling, the vehicle coming back in reverse gear to make sure they are not).

Then again one night, a big supply truck, just fined by the traffic police at a check-point for some minor offence, swerved past a temple built in the middle of the road from the wrong side in great speed. The truck driver was clearly expressing his frustration in a chilly winter’s night, but it could have been a matter of life and death for a car or a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction.

And indeed, deaths from motorcycle accidents have increased sharply in the country over the last ten years. Hardly a day goes without news of someone or other (or sometimes your own) killed or injured in motorcycle accidents. But despite the higher fatality rate, motorcycles are and has always been the most preferred ride for many people in Kathmandu and other towns in the country. And despite taking exorbitant registration taxes for motorbikes, the government does very little to check the rise in motorcycle accidents in the cities and highways.

Likewise, every year, especially during the Dashain and Tihar festivals, we are used to reading or hearing about number of injuries and deaths in highway accidents, the cause often being drunk driving or poorly-maintained, over-loaded buses. Then again there are the recurring domestic airline accidents in which countless individuals, Nepali as well as foreigners, have lost their lives. And they happen without fail every year.

I got the grasp of how many of our countrymen play hide and seek with death while travelling in the hilly terrain when my housemaid narrated her narrow escape from death while coming to Kathmandu from her remote village in Kavre. She said the rickety old bus she was travelling in was so overloaded with passengers, inside as well as on the roof – and, coupled with that, the driver being young and seemingly inexperienced – that while negotiating a difficult turn, it almost veered off the road to plunge hundreds of meters down into the fast-flowing river. She said she had the fright of her life. But despite the perils of the hilly road, she travels to her village every year to celebrate Dashain with her family.

Returning to Kathmandu, I will draw two examples to better illustrate the riding experience in the city.

The Japanese teach us some road sense during a Japan Fair held in the capital recently.
The Japanese teach us some road sense during a Japan Fair held in the capital recently.
The first was when I was heading towards the city from the north side of the valley after a day’s hike in the Shivapuri hills. As it was already late evening and there were no other vehicles on sight, we had no option but to board a packed microbus. The driver was a thin young man, looked still to be in his teens while his assistant (or the “conductor”, as we call them) was a boy of 12 or 13. The vehicle soon took up speed in the tiny strip of road, zooming past vehicles, negotiating pot holes recklessly, even almost hitting an oncoming vehicle. Only when the passengers complained, he slowed down a little. I was sure that he had recently received his driving license, or maybe was not even properly licensed or trained as a driver.

Then as we approached ring road, the microbus stopped in front of a hospital where an elderly couple was waiting. The old man seemed to have just been discharged from the hospital as he looked frail and dazed, while his devoted wife helped him get on the vehicle. The elderly couple was lucky enough to find a seat. Only good thing about travelling in a public transport in Kathmandu (or in fact any city in the world) is that you see life in its full spectrum.

However, the microbus was not going all the way to the final stop because “it was very late”. The driver said he was heading to his garage and we were dropped halfway. Nobody protested because that’s what everybody was told when they boarded the vehicle. It was sad to see the elderly couple already starting to walk in a slow, tender pace. They didn’t hope to find another public vehicle at this time of the night.

We found a cab after walking a while. The driver seemed to be straight out of Martin Scorsese movie Taxi Driver as he started complaining about bad traffic, the filth and dirt in the city, and how the corrupt politicians and officials are ruining the country.

I enjoyed listening to the cabby. But when we reached our destination and I looked at the taxi meter while reaching for my purse, my heart sank: The meter was tampered with to charge higher fares. He was no better than those very corrupt politicians he hated so passionately.

The next time I was coming to the city from the outskirts on a car driven by a friend. It was Saturday and the road was pretty much empty. We discussed how when we were kids there were very few houses on either the side of the road and how the sight of paddy and mustard fields made the drive to the town enjoyable.

But the nostalgia was short-lived when the friend had to slam the brakes hard to prevent a crash with a motorcycle that suddenly cut in front of us.

“Is he a Hindi film hero or something,” my friend stared at the motorcyclist fuming with rage as the latter dropped his girlfriend, and drove on, simply caring less for what had just happened.

And then just as we were about to reach the city, we were stuck in a traffic jam. We could understand this happening on weekdays, but not on a Saturday afternoon. Frustrated waiting for the jam to clear, one friend asked the traffic police what was causing the jam. He said they are stopping the vehicles for a while to let the President’s convoy pass through. There was a kilometer long jam on either side of the road. We just looked at each other out of sheer helplessness.

But we could take heart from the fact that a minister’s car was also stuck in the jam behind us. So, having nothing to do but wait, we came up with some interesting remedies for the growing traffic problem in the city. One friend suggested that the government needs to invest more in upgrading the city’s infrastructures to make it a vibrant metropolis. He said the government must start to build wider roads, flyovers, subways, and better, more efficient means of transportation including fleet of public buses and underground railway system that run till late in the night.

“With the volume of vehicles in the city increasing every year, in ten years time even walking in these narrow, congested roads will be difficult, let alone driving anything,” he said.

While he was saying that I thought about the poorly regulated public transport run by syndicates and “transport mafias” that doesn’t follow scheduled timetable (One reason why Kathmandu comes to a grinding halt after 8 pm). And those of yore that did – government run Sajha bus and China gifted trolley – are already in the scrap yard.

Then another friend said that even if the government finally builds these infrastructures and improve the condition of the roads in the city and highway – of course with the help of some donor or friendly country (we Nepalis hardly seem to be able to do anything on our own) – the problem of long traffic jams and reckless driving will still not be solved.

“This is because in Nepal, people still lack a general civic sense,” she said.

She was right. People blow their cars or motorcycles horns ceaselessly, park their vehicles anywhere they want, drive recklessly (and with the headlights switched to full beam instead of dip while driving in the night, dazzling other road users), and don’t yield the right of way to pedestrians. And despite the risks, the locals are somewhat used to jay walking and thus account for majority of traffic fatalities in Kathmandu.

Then the first one argued that people should not be blamed, it is the government’s responsibility to lay the foundation for a modern, vibrant city and implement the rules and regulations, even forcibly if need be, to ensure that everything functions well.

“The concept of urban planning and development was never really understood by the city planners here,” he said. “Just imagine, what would happen if a big earthquake strikes Kathmandu. Experts say it is imminent. This ancient city would turn into a huge mass of concrete rubble. It would be a calamity.”

Then as we turned left to a side road to avoid the traffic jam, I saw a young couple walking down the street. A public bus was racing at great speed from behind. There was no sidewalk. The man, as if knowing by instinct that a bus was behind, grabbed his partner’s hand and pulled her close to him.

And I thought such love and care could be found only in fairy tales.

The government said Thursday it has been exercising various options to introduce fresh wage system in the country keeping in view the alarming concerns raised by trade unions and employees.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, it has been conducting a series of parleys with all stakeholders including the the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry for introducing new wage system.

A joint meeting held at the ministry on Thursday informally agreed to introduce new minimum wage system, but no concrete decision was taken.

Joint secretary Deepak Subedi told reporters that the meeting decided to prepare a new package to resolve all the existing problems and introduce new wage system. nepalnews.com

Transparency International Nepal urged Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal to immediately bring tax evaders to book.

Dispatching an alert letter to the PM on Thursday, the watchdog mentioned the need of immediately publicising the names of those involved in evading various taxes including VAT (Value Added Tax).

“The government should immediately make public the names of those tax cheaters to check alarming impunity in the nation,” reads the letter.

The letter issued by chairman Bishnu Bahadur K.C also highlighted the rise in impunity in many sectors, adding that in such a situation the government’s failure to penalise tax evaders will ultimately encourage impunity in revenue collection, the backbone of country’s economy. nepalnews.com

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee has endorsed Udaya Raj Pandey as Nepal’s new Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Based on the recent proposal of the Council of Ministers, the House committee endorsed Pandey’s appointment, Thursday.

The diplomatic post had been lying vacant from the time the government decided to recall its previous ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari in January alleging him of illegally amassing the insurance money issued to compensate the Nepali migrant workers who died in Saudi Arabia during the course of their work.

The government is yet to send a formal letter of Pandey’s appointment, as President Ram Baran Yadav needs to formalise this before dispatching the notification abroad. nepalnews.com

Normal life across many parts of the country has been partially affected due to a Nepal Bandh, or general strike, called by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), Friday.

Vehicular movement comes at a halt in Kathmandu due to the nationwide bandh (general strike) called by Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) in Kathmandu, Friday, 13 May 2011. nepalnews.com/rh

Vehicular movement comes at a halt in Kathmandu due to the nationwide bandh…
The strike has moderately affected capital Kathmandu with less traffic in the streets and the market partially open. Vehicles like ambulance, and those belonging to press and diplomatic mission have also been plying uninterrupted.

There were no reports of large rallies or protests as of filing this report (12:20 pm)

Educational institutions also remained mostly closed nationwide, but the last day of higher secondary (class 12) board examinations was held without any disruption.

Factories across the country also remained partially open while majority of employees went to their offices on foot as public transportation stayed off the road for fear of reprisal from protestors.

NEFIN imposed the bandh today demanding that republicanism, federalism and secularism should be guaranteed in the new constitution and that the proclamation of guarantee of the rights of the indigenous nationalities should be enshrined in the first draft of the constitution, among others.

Reports coming in say that police have arrested 35 people from Kalanki and Singha Durbar area of the capital today morning while they were staging protest and trying to enforce the bandh.

NEFIN has protested against police high-handedness during today’s strike, stating that 73 of its activists including Nepal Indigenous Students’ Federation vice-chairman Dozang Sherpa, secretary Arjun Yakkha and treasurer Dekendra Rai have been arrested while conducting peaceful protests.

Meanwhile, the strike seems to have little effect in the country’s terai belt. Vehicular movement is normal in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts with only long-route buses heading to hilly district off the road. Educational institutions, factories and main market places are also open as any other day in most of the Terai districts, reports said.

Similarly, the strike called by NEFIN, Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha, Khas Chhettri Samaj and Tharuhat Autonomous Province in far-western districts has entered day 2.

Life in the far-western districts like Mugu, Salyan, Kalikot has been paralysed due to the continuous strike by various ethnic grupos with the vehicular movement in East-West highway passing through these districts coming to a grinding halt and main market places, educational institutions closed.

Meanwhile, the British Department for International Development (DFID) on Tuesday notified the NEFIN of discontinuity of the regular funding, saying the Federation has been executing strike that paralyses life nationwide. nepalnews.com

Constitutional Committee (CC) Chairman Nilambar Acharya has called a meeting of the CC on Sunday morning.

Protest from four lawmakers belonging to fringe parties has rendered the statute drafting committee ineffectual since March. nepalnews.com