By Nepal News Correspondent
Kathmandu, Feb 19:
His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev said that people’s faith and confidence in a democratic polity can be sustained only if their aspirations to live a life with dignity in an atmosphere of freedom is ensured through good governance and effective development of institutions.
In a message to the nation on the occasion of 50th Democracy Day, His Majesty the King paid tribute to His late Majesty King Tribhuvan and all those who laid down their lives for the cause of democracy.
Following is the full text of His Majesty the King’s message to the nation on the occasion of 50th Democracy Day:
Beloved countrymen,
On the occasion of the National Democracy Day, we would like to pay homage to our august grandfather, the late King Tribhuvan, and all those who laid down their lives for the cause of democracy.
Today, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ushering in of democracy in our country, we should not forget that the people’s faith and confidence in a democratic polity can be sustained only if their aspirations to live a life with dignity in an atmosphere of freedom is ensured through good governance and effective development of our institutions, while enhancing the glory of the nation.
It is, therefore, essential that institutions established under the constitution and all others carry out their responsibilities impartially and efficiently so that every Nepali gets the feel of good governance.
May this day inspire all Nepalese to forge ahead by consolidating democracy in the interest of the Nepalese people. May Lord Pashupatinath bless us all!
Kathmandu, Feb. 18:Shizuoka Keyaki Lions Club of Japan recently constructed a two-room building for Rudrayani High School, a public school at Khokana in Lalitpur district. The building was handed over to the school authority amid a function yesterday, the school stated in a press release.
The club officials Minoru Ishida, Elichi Sugiyama and Masahiko Kaneda also distributed sports materials to the school’s pupils and said that they would continue to help in the days ahead.
Kathmandu, Feb. 18: An Indonesian District Court sentenced on Thursday two Nepalese nationals to death for drug trafficking.
The two men sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court are identified as Til Bahadur Bhandari, 24, and Bahadur Gurung, 32. They were convicted of smuggling 1.764 kilograms of heroin in 204 capsules in their stomachs, AP sources said.
In the final hearing presided over by Judge Tufsani Djafri, it was stated that the men were arrested last July 30 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
“The airport’s customs and excise officials were suspicious of Bhandari and Gurung because they were anxious to leave immediately, while both were sweating profusely and appeared pale. The officials apprehended them for drug tests,” Tufsani said.
They were charged under Narcotics Law No. 22/1997 that carries maximum sentence of the death penalty or life imprisonment, and a fine of Indonesian Rupiah 1 billion (US$142,860).
“Although they have behaved well and shown remorse during the trial, there are no mitigating circumstances for the two defendants. They have violated the narcotics law. They contributed to a crime that is ruining a generation of the country,” Tufsani said.
The prosecutor earlier demanded 18-year prison terms for the men, who appeared shocked by the death sentence. They burst into tears and lowered their heads when translator Suherman told them the verdict.
Suherman immediately appealed the sentence.
“This is inhumane and we certainly are lodging an appeal,” he said. The defendants’ lawyer, John Kalangit, did not attend the final session.
The men were arrested shortly after their arrival on SQ-164 from Bangkok. They swallowed heroin packed in capsules of Immodium, an anti-diarrheal medicine.
Airport officials also found Immodium capsules in their bags, which the men said they were taking to treat headaches.
Laboratory tests of their urine samples revealed the presence of heroin.
They were later taken to Kramatjati Police Hospital where the rest of the drug was discharged.
Thursday’s death sentence was the second to be imposed on drug defendants this year. Tangerang District Court sentenced in January two Nepalese to death for a drug trafficking offense also committed in July last year.
Nar Bahadur Tamang, 59, and Bala Tamang, 30, were convicted of attempting to smuggle 554 grams of heroin into the country.
In the final hearing with Judge Satria Us Gumai presiding, it was asserted that the two defendants swallowed a total of 73 capsules of Immodium packed with heroin.
Kathmandu, Feb. 18:Following three day’s bilateral negotiations on development co-operation, Nepal and Germany today signed an agreement in which the European nation committed a total of DM 59 million (over 2 billion rupees) for 2000/2001 period.
Of the total funds, DM 33 million falls under financial co-operation while DM 26 million under technical co-operation.
Finance Secretary Ram Binod Bhattarai and Dr. Karl Kirchoff signed the minutes on behalf of the respective governments.
Of the funds committed, 70 per cent are is aside for projects and programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, the top priority area of Nepalese-German development co-operation.
The financial co-operation consists of meeting the funding gap for upgrading Malekhu-Dhading Besi road, developing small and medium size hydropower projects and assisting in urban development. Technical co-operation mainly constitutes support in the areas of urban development, rural development and agriculture, and strengthening of economic sector.
Health and family planning and the consolidation of the private sector have been identified as other areas of co-operation.
Besides its official bilateral assistance, Germany also supports Nepal through its contributions to non-governmental organisations and multilateral institutions.
Dr. Kirchoff said that Germany would continue assisting Nepal in her efforts to alleviate poverty.
Next annual bilateral consultation would be held at the end of 2000 or early 2001, Finance Ministry said.
Nepalgunj, Feb. 27:Nepali Congress general secretary and mp sushil Koirala has said that a lack of continuity, political stability and democratic exercise has hampered development initiated following the restoration of democracy in various important sectors like roads, communications, health and education.
Inaugurating the ninth district council meeting of Banke district here today, Mr. Koirala pointed out the need for the government of india to solve the problem that has arisen following construction of a dam along the border area which might lead to submerging of many vdcs in banke district.
Rajparishad member Mohammad Iqbal Iraqi, mps Kailashnath Gupta and Mrs. Gaura Koirala, Nepalgunj mayor Dhawal Shumsher Rana, cdo Shyam Prasad Mainali and other speakers also expressed their views at the meeting chaired by senior-most member of the council Abdul Majid Khan.
Banke ddc chairman Omprakash Jung Rana presented an estimated budget of Rs. 438,532,680/ for the fiscal year 1999/2000.
By Nepal News Correspondent
Kathmandu, Feb 18:
Eleven ministers of the present government headed by Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai resigned today following the registration of a no-confidence motion by 58 lawmakers of ruling Nepali Congress against the Prime Minister.
However, Prime Minister’s office did not confirm it.
They went to Prime Minister’s official residence and handed over their resignation letters to Prime Minister Bhattarai.
However, their resignations have not yet been accepted.
A source said eleven ministers handed over the resignation and walked away without waiting for Prime Minister’s comment.
After submitting resignation to Prime Minister, all seven ministers went to liaison office NC president Girija prasad Koirala at Maharajgung and informed journalists that they quit as they thought that it was not appropriate to stay in government that lost confidence of the majority members of the lawmakers.
The names of ministers who resigned today are:
Minister for Works and Transport Khum Bahadur Khadka
Minister for Water Resources Govinda Raj Joshi
Minister for Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Tarini Dutta Chataut
Minister for Health Dr Ram Baran Yadav
Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Mahanta Thakur
Minister of State for Science and Technology Surendra Chaudhari
Minister of State for Labour Ram Bahadur Gurung
Minister of State for Local Development Mohammad Aftab Alam
Assistant Minister for Commerce Narendra Bikram Nembang
Assistant Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Narayan Singh Pun
Assistant Minister for Land Reforms and Management Surendra Hamal
Fifty eight lawmakers of the ruling Nepali Congress party registered a no-confidence motion against prime Minister Bhattarai and demanded that leader of NC parliamentary party be changed.
Bhattarai is the leader of NC parliamentary party.
According to the Consittution of the Kingdom of Nepal, leader of parliamentary board of the majority party in parliament automatically becomes Prime Minister.
If NC parliamentary party changes its leader, Bhattarai would automatically lose his job as prime minister.
By Nepal News Correspondent
Kathmandu, Feb 18:
Despite mounting pressure, Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai refused to step down and said he would face the no-confidence motion registered in the party against him.
Prime Minister Bhattarai asked the secretary of NC parliamentary party to postpone the meeting scheduled for February 21 until 26th of this month.
Bhattarai informed this to party president Girija Prasad Koirala and NC parliamentary secretary Benup Raj Prasai today.
The NC parliamentary party meeting has been called on February 21 to discuss the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Bhattarai registered in the party by 58 lawmakers of the Nepali Congress.
Prime Minister’s press advisor Kishor Nepal informed the press today that Bhattarai would not be able to attend the meeting of NC parliamentary party on February 21 on health ground. According to Nepal Bhattarai wanted to be present and personally face the motion registered against him by 58 lawmakers of the party.
” Thus, he asked for one week’s time.
Prime Minister is recovering from backache and neurology related disease.
The meeting of NC parliamentary executive committeeended without any concrete decision as majority members of the committee walked out of the meeting refusing to postpone the meeting for another one week as demanded by the Prime Minister.
In the meeting, Prime Minister Bhattarai asked the secretary to postpone the meeting until February 26. However, secretary Prasai said that the constitution of the parliamentary party did not authorize him to postpone the meeting, said source close to party president Girija Prasad Koirala.
In a separate meeting with the party president Koirala, the Prime Minister asked to postpone the meeting. However, Koirala advised Bhattarai to step down as he already lost confidence of more than half of the total number of NC lawmakers.
Bhattarai then informed that he would face the no-confidence motion.
Kathmandu, Feb. 17: The joint executive committee meeting of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) agreed to work out suitable strategies for tourism promotion in Nepal by joining hands with the Nepal tourism board.
The meeting also agreed to form a joint cell for publicising positive things aimed at tourism promotion including media technicians.
The meeting also decided to launch promotional activity in India and international tourism markets.
Kathmandu, Feb. 17: Nepal’s insurance market may be small in terms of premium collection, but the country is trying to secure a place in the business that spreads beyond national boundaries, officials say.
“We are organising the 12th Insurance Congress of Developing Countries next month,” says Insurance Board’s Chairman Lava Prasad Sharma, who also heads an organising committee that comprises representatives of the insurance companies and other related business organisations. The 13th gathering will be held in Nigeria.
The Insurance Congress of Developing countries (ICDC), started first in the Philippines in the seventies, has come across a long journey and has a long way to go in the century that also marks the beginning of a new millennium. It has changed the name twice converting itself finally into ICDC from the Association of Insurers and Re-insurers of Developing Countries in 1998. The concept started originally as the Third World Insurance Congress in 1975.
“We take the upcoming Congress basically as a forum for discussion and exchanging experiences with insurers, re-insurers and surveyors of both developed and the developing countries,” says Sharma who expects at least 200 international representatives and 200 local participants during the three day event that kicks off on March 12.
“We have already received confirmation from 160 plus prospective participants,” adds Board’s Secretary Ramesh Raj Bhattarai.
“The Congress will be quite encouraging both in terms of the number of participation and the issue that is being discussed during the gathering that intends to discuss challenges facing the emerging insurance markets in this century,” he added.
“We will discuss our problems and ways to resolve them,” says Sharma. “By sharing with insurers, re-insurers and the surveyors of international repute, the local insurance companies will learn as to how they can survive in the business and how they can solve the problems.”
The Congress, participants and organisers believe-would be beneficial to the domestic insurance companies, the majority of which started in the nineties.
Nepal’s fairly small insurance market has over a dozen players and there are one or two others in the pipeline. Expanding the size of market and the coverage perhaps is the biggest challenge the insurance players face at the moment.
Annual growth
“The insurance business is growing by 20-25 per cent annually,” says Sharma who predicts premium collection this year will touch the 1.5 billion mark this year. “We expect the non-life part of insurance to raise 1.25 billion rupees and life insurance to recover 300 million rupees.”
Figures, however, cannot be predicted because Rastriya ‘Beema Sansthan, the state owned company which controlled over 50 per cent shares until around four years ago, has not had its auditing done for the last few years, according to the Board.
30% collection crosses border
The other problem lies in retaining the amount of money that goes out to the re-insuring companies around the world. “Net 30 per cent of the total collection crosses the border every year,” says Sharma. “This can be checked to a large extent if we could bring in a re-insurer here.”
There are efforts towards that end, he says. A Korean re-insurer company, ranked sixth in Asia, is interested in coming here, but the process is not progressing satisfactorily, partly because the insurance companies need time to convince their re-insurers as the share of premium collection that goes to them could drop by around 20 per cent.
Anyway, Nepal will have a re-insurer company sooner or later, adds Sharma. The arrival of any such re-insurer company would increase retention to 40 per cent from around 20 per cent at present, the Board hopes. That means only 10 per cent of the premium collection will fly out in dollar terms, according to Sharma.
Challenges
Besides, there are other challenges that need immediate attention as well. “We feel the act that governs the insurance companies and the Board itself needs to be re-amended,” says Sharma. And, there are priorities such as splitting life and non-life insurance services which two companies — Rastriya Beema Sansthan and National Life and General Insurance Company — have been running since the beginning.
The other challenges, the Board sees, is to bring the economically active areas along the border in to domestic insurance net. “Exchange of ideas during the upcoming summit could make a great leap forward in tackling Nepal’s insurance prospects that have been growing steadily over years,” Sharma hopes.
Kathmandu, Feb. 17: Necon Air is to float 896 thousand rights shares costing Rs. 100 each. The issue will remain open to the existing shareholders from March 3 to April 6, the airlines said.
The rights shares issued on the 1:1 basis, that is, th e shareholders owning one share can apply for one.
Keeping in view the convenience of the shareholders, the company has asked for only Rs. 30 per share in its first instalment. The remaining amount would be asked for later on as per the company’s requirements.
The company has chosen Citizen Investment Fund as the authorised manager of the issue and sales of the shares. Various branches of Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) in the Valley are authorised for the collection of registration forms and deposits, it is learnt.
Outside the Valley, the forms will be collected from Nepal Bank’s city offices in Dharan, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Hetauda, Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Bhadrapur, Rajbiraj, Narayanghad, Tansen, Siddharthanagar and Dhangadi as well as NBL branches in Butwal, Dang and Mahendranagar.
The pioneer of private airlines, Necon Air began its operations seven years ago and has extended its services to India also. The company at present has three Avros, one ATR and a Cessna cargo aircraft.