Kathmandu, Jan. 29 : Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has said that he was shocked by the news of the murder of nc leader of kapilvastu and intellectual social worker dr iqbal ahmad khan by the so called maoists.

In a condolence message, prime Minister Bhattarai has strongly condemned the dastardly act of the maoists who are committing such a heinous crime with a view to spreading terror in the country.

Expressing heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members, he has prayed for eternal peace to the departed soul.

Butwal, jan 29: Twenty-five per cent of the kerosene sold here is being deflected because of differences in sale price.

The deflection is due to kerosene use for industrial purposes and by hotels instead of by the target group and also its use in place of diesel.

Participants in a discussion programme on sale and distribution of kerosene organised in siddarthanagar by the Nepal oil corporation western reginal office said that kerosene is mixed in diesel, when kerosene is imported only the relevent documents arrive here but not the kerosene tanker, the tankers when they do arrive do not contain the specified amount of kerosene, and the kerosene also tends to return to india in the tankers.

The oil corporation has been supplying kerosene at a subsidised price of rs l3 per litre for the benefit of low income consumers. But since the kerosene is being mostly used by other than the target group, a dual pricing system is necessary, the participants concluded.

They suggested that the VDCs, DDCs and municipalities should be empowered to issue ration cards for kerosene.

National trading ltd general manager and Nepal oil corporation board member promod upadhyaya said the corporation is thinking about introducing ration cards from next april.

Nawalparasi cdo lalit Bahadur thapa said introducing a ration card system would help maintain law and order.

Nawalparasi DDC chairman ishwari Prasad pandey, ramgram mayor govinda chaudhari and CPN-UML rupandehi office secretary bund rana also participated in the programme.

The participants were informed that a mobile van is being provided to ensure the quality of petroleum products.

Bhadrapur, Jan. 29 : the eastern region coal dealers’ association has protested the imposing of taxes by jhapa district development committee on coal imported from india at the rate of rs 20 on each ton, describing the move as against the local self governance act and regulations.

A press release issued by the association today stated that the tax is against the prevailing act and the DDC has been collecting taxes despite the ruling of ilam appellate court not to do so.

Responding to a letter of jhapa district administration office requesting not to collect the taxes, the DDC has said since the decision was taken at a DDC council meeting, this cannot be scraped immediately.

Association president bharat karki has warned that they will announce action programmes if steps are not taken immediately to stop tax collection.

Eighty thousand tons of coal worth some rs 400 million enter Nepal annually via kakarbhitta, sources said.

Kathmandu, Jan. 29 : Chairman of the Rajparishad standing committee dr kesharjung rayamajhi has said red cross has distanced itself from discriminations on the basis of caste, creed and communalism and translated into action the spirit of “service is the best of all religions”.

Dr rayamajhi, while inaugurating the 22nd general meeting of Nepal red cross society Kathmandu branch here today, observed that good deeds done by the society will remain recorded in history.

Advisor dr trailokyanath uprety said those who want to work for the nation and the people should dedicate themselves to red cross, while another advisor dr bishwokeshar maskey stressed the need to think of how best services can be provided for humanitarian and development work.

Various other speakers also expressed their views at the function chaired by branch chairman indira rana.

Pokhara, Jan. 29:If records are any indications, Nepalese nature-based tourism has witnessed regional imbalance posing threat to the rich national bio-diversities ranging from 100 to above 8,000 meters from the sea level.

Not one, not two, but all four types of nature-based tourism have concentrated themselves at certain areas thus beckoning environmental disorders. Whether it is mountaineering or trekking or rafting or jungle safari, all are tarred with the same brush.

It was with the help of these records, Dr. Harka Gurung proved his point home while delivering his key note speech today in the 12th Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) eco-tourism conference mart that began here yesterday.

Here are the figures he used: Eastern Nepal, that hosts 35 per cent of the 133 peaks across the Kingdom open for climbing, had above 80 per cent of total expeditions in 1998. “These were directed to 14 peaks of which Ama Dablam alone had 31 expeditions”, Gurung pointed out. Nepal has above 1,300 peaks exceeding 6,000 meters.

Trekking’s picture is no different either. Of the nearly 92,000 trekking permits issued in 1997, around 70 per cent was for the trekking routes in the central area. As if that was not enough, more than 54,000 trekkers were allowed to throng the Annapurna area alone.

Almost all the trekkers that visited the eastern part – around 20 per cent of them – were confined to the Everest Region. The western highland had a little above one per cent of the total trekkers. Equally concentrated were the Free Individual Trekkers (FITs) – nearly 80 per cent of them visited the central area while not even five per cent went to the west.

River rafting, though new, is yet another example how confined nature-based tourism has been over the years. “Nepal has so many rivers but only ten are open for rafting,” noted Dr. Gurung.

And even among the ten, rafts and canoes are mostly rowed only in two rivers – Trisuli and Kali Gandaki that accounted for 38 and 30 per cent respectively of the around 8,000 rafters in 1998.

So much so, even the low-lands with jungle safari have begun to emit the disturbing signals. Of all the visitors in the one dozen protected areas across the Kingdom, the Royal Chitwan National Park alone saw above 70 per cent visitors.

“Since another eight per cent visitors were directed to Langtang National Park, the central region, where both the Langtang and the Chitwan parks are situated, saw 80 per cent of the park visitors,” adds Gurung.

Going by the official record, the haphazard growth becomes more apparent. In 1997, the Royal Chitwan National Park saw around 70,000 tourists while its neighbouring Parsa Wildlife Reserve had a meager of two visitors.

“Since the concentration of visitors have been there, we are planning to promote places like Parsa, Bardiya, among others,” says Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, Director General of Department of National Parks and Wildlife conservation.

Unbalanced number of visitors has made many protected areas economically non-viable. Consider the figure, once again: Of the total budget expenditure of Rupees 44 million for conservation areas in 1998/99, only two – Chitwan and Sagarmatha — were in surplus. Chitwan had the revenue of 54 million against 7.9 million expenditure and Sagarmatha earned Rupees four million while Rupees 3.8 million stood as its expenditure.

“All other conservation areas had very high expenditure compared to their tourist revenue,” said Gurung.

Does the officialdom read the writing on the wall? “Only figures do not put a full stop to the issue. There was to be a wider discussion to set up standard and norms,” says Varun Prasad Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. “It is all a question of management”.

And to begin that, calculating the carrying capacity of tourist areas, particularly those ecologically sensitive, can be a good idea, tourist experts say. “Or else, there can never be limitation in the number of visitors,” said Mike Steel, Managing Director of Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who was one of those who presented papers on issues related eco-tourism here today.

Pokhara, Jan. 29:Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) is operating scheduled flights to south Indian city of Bangalore beginning March this year adding one more Indian destination in its already existing list of three.

The national flag carrier chose to declare its newly added scheduled flight in the presence of above 260 foreign and international tour operators gathered here to participate in the 12th Pacific Asia Travel Association’s (PATA) Eco-tourism conference and travel mart that kicked off in this tourist hub, yesterday.

“Since the Indian tourists comprise of 30 per cent of the total inbound tourists, we have decided to fly into one more Indian city”, Ananda Acharya, Schedule In-Charge with RNAC, told reporters her this evening. Of the little above 460,000 inbound tourists in 1998, above 143,000 were Indians topping the list of foreign tourists in Nepal.

The additional flight, scheduled to fly on Sundays and Wednesdays at four p.m., will take two and a half hours to directly reach Banglore from where it will fly back to Kathmandu at 7:15 p.m.

The national flag carrier will tentatively charge Rupees 10,000 Indian Currency for two-way ticket per-head. “The rate will be keep in test for two months,” said Acharya.

RNAC has a booth in the ongoing PATA mart here from where its employees will disseminate the new-route information to tourism professionals who have gathered here from around the globe.

It’s flight-operation to Banglore begins around the same time when RNAC’s leased Boeing 757 belonging to China Southwest Airlines will fly back upon the expiry of its lease-period.

Since it will be left with only two of it’s Boeing 757s once the leased aircraft goes back, the national airline has already called for global tender to lease a Boeing 767 300ER for at least two years. RNAC officials claim if all goes well, the type of air craft it has sought for will fly in timely.

“The presumption is the third aircraft will be here to begin its operations including the latest added route,” said Acharya.

The state-airline with three planes in its fleet-two of its own and the third one leased — has been covering 12 international destinations. Apart from the three Indian cities — New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta — it has been flying to, RNAC has been operating as far as London in the west and to Osaka, Japan in the east.

The new Indian-route in RNAC’s list comes at a time when Nepal is yet to make optimum utilisation of its 6,000 air seats (one-way) per week to India under the Air Service Agreement it signed with the southern neighbour some two years ago. Before that, when the country had only 4,000 air-seats per week to fly to and from India, travel trade grossly complained about the bottleneck of tourist arrivals from Indian cities, particularly New Delhi.

Kathmandu, Jan. 29 : CPN (UML) leader Jhalanath Khanal has said that the Maoist  movement is terrorist activity initiated by the ultraleft and the reactionaries to finish off democracy in Nepal.

He said this movement is an attack on the basic and human rights of the people.

Talking to rss, Mr Khanal said that apart from terrorism, politics has also entered the Maoist movement.

The problem has arisen also because the democratic governments formed after the change of 2046 to bring about economic, political, cultural and social balance and consolidation in the country have not been able to function properly, he said.

These governments have not been able to act in response to popular aspirations, the people have become despondent, and extremist and anti-democratic forces have taken advantage of this to confront the nation with this grave problem.

He urged the Maoists to understand that the country cannot be taken along the path of progress by killing off particular individuals or rural folks.

He stressed the need for national consensus among the responsible political parties of the country to resolve the Maoist problem.

He also called on the government to come up with an integrated and broad programme to bring this movement under control.

Pointing out that the Maoist problem cannot be tackled through administrative repression, he accused the present government of not being serious about it.

The country now feels the need for a political, economic, social and cultural package programme and widespread mobilisation is required to implement such a package effectively, he said.

The government should come up with a programme for the masses, the self confidence of the people  should be aroused, and any movement to counter the politics of violence should be based on popular mobilisation, he added.

He also said the government does not seem to be concerned about the suggestions of the cpn uml.

He said the government’s refusal to allow popularly elected local units to run programmes such as women’s awakening, Bishweshwar With the Poor and Ganesh Man Singh Peace Campaign shows its prejudice against the opposition parties.

He urged the present government not to harbor any prejudice against opponents over the question of democracy and matters of popular concern.

In Tribhuvan Nagar CPN-UML standing committee member and leader of the main opposition in the Upper House Yubraj Gyawali inaugurated the fourth district convention of the Democratic National Youth Federation (dnyf) Dang district committee here on Friday.

On the occasion, Mr. Gyawali said that the so-called “people’s war” launched by the Maoists was sheer terrorism and was a calculated ploy at undermining the multi-party system.

He said the CPN-UML did not approve of such terrorist acts and condemned it.

Deputy parliamentary opposition leader and CPN-UML standing committee member K.P. Sharma oli described as “directionless” the present political situation in the country.

Politics should have been for public welfare and it ought to have been transparent which is not the case at present, he said, adding that bureaucracy should be made impartial and corruption plugged in.

CPN-UML Rapti zonal in-charge and central member Shankar Pokharel, CPN-UML district secretary Mani Acharya, vice-chairman of Rukum District Development Committee (DDC) and central member of the dnyf Khagendra Prasad Puri also expressed their views on the occasion.

Dnyf Dang district president Shiva Kumar Thapa presided over the programme.

Kathmandu, Jan 27: A majority of people is clearly favour of making primary education compulsory, in addition to its being already free. A snap poll taken by the Media Services International ((MSI) between October 28 and November 3 in Chitwan recorded 93 per cent of the respondents voting for compulsory primary education in Nepal.

While only 6 per cent of those interviewed was not sure if the idea was a good one, 1 per cent did not express any opinion whatsoever.

The snap poll covered a total of 199 households in Bhandara (50), Meghauli (50), Gardi (23), Baghauda (15), Ayodhyapuri (12), all VDCs, and in Bharatpur sub Municipality (49). Male-female ratio of the respondents was 120-79.

Fielding the quesiton, “Do you know primary education is free in Nepal?”, 92 per cent said they did, whereas 6 per cent did not answer the query and 2 per cent said they did not know, according to MSI press release.

Asked about how much were they spending monthly on their children’s primary education excluding the tuition fee which is free, in the case of son 54 per cent said between Rs. 200 and 1000, 32.7 per cent said less than Rs. 200 and 5.5 per cent said above Rs. 1000. Seven per cent did not provide any informaiton, said press release.

Similarly, in the case of daughters 58.8 per cent said the monthly expenses for the same was between Rs. 200 and 1000, 26.6 per cent said less than Rs. 200 and 10.1 per cent said above 1000. Those in the “don’t know” bracket accounted for 7% of the respondents.

Expenses apart, happily 96 per cent of the respondents said that they were willing and could afford to send their daughters to the secondary level after completing the primary level education, stated it. Only 3 per cent of the interviewees said they could not afford secondary level educaiton for their daughters. An equal percentage said they did not know.

Other findings of the poll include housewives know less about free primary education, girls outnumber boys in primary schools, higher the level, greater the rate of girl drop-outs and male-female ratio in university enrollment is approximately 7-3.

The poll survey was undertaken with the cooperation of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, London.

Rajbiraj, Jan. 27: Chairman of Nepal Sadbhavana Party Gajendra Narayan Singh has expressed the confidence that as Nepal has political, social, economic and cultural relations with India the close ties of friendship subsisting between the two countries will continue for ever.

Chairman Singh made the remark at a symposium organised by Nepal-Bharat Maitri Sangh, Saptari, here Wednesday to mark the Republic Day of India.

“Nepal always wants to strengthen her natural bonds with India,” he said, expressing the belief that democracy would continue to exist in Nepal as long as India remained a republic.

“Nepali National Congress was established in India on this day to end the Rana Regime in Nepal,” he recalled, describing as impracticable some people’s view that Nepal’s border with indian should be sealed and passport system introduced for movement across the border.

“India has to play important role in the development and prosperity of Nepal and vice versa,” he said.

On the occasion, lecturer Hari Kant Lal Das described India’s contribution to ending British emperialism in Asia as exemplary and said India always opposed violence, which had its influence in Nepal also.

Senior Advocate Himmat Singh said Nepalese people took active role in Indian freedom movement because of Indian people’s support for democratic movement in Nepal.

At the programme presided over by chairman of the Sangh Dr Pitamber Jha, social worker Jaskaran Sharada, senior Advocate Kunj Bihari Prasad Singh, Vijayendra Jha and Yashodananda Mishra and others also expressed their views.

In Taulihawa meanwhile, MP Brijesh Kumar Gupta, while speaking at function held by Nepal-Bharat Maitri Sangh (Taulihawa) to mark the Republic Day of India, said that as some elements were trying to strain Indo-Nepalese relations the governments of both Nepal and india should be alert against such elements and do the needful to strengthen their relations.

MP Dan Bahadur Chaudhary said the two friendly countries should go on strengthening the bilateral relations on the basis of mutual agreement and understanding.

Legislator from Siddharthanagar District of India, Rabindra Pratap Chaudhary said both the governments should continue talks through diplomatic channels to further strengthen their bilateral relations.

Chairman of the Sangh Narasingh Chaudhary presided over the function.

Meanwhile in Malangwa, inaugurating the sixth district council of Sarlahi District Development Committee here Wednesday, MP Nagendra Raya said that as the government had earmarked necessary fund for construction of embankment on Lakhandehi River which was causing trouble to the people of the district the works in that connection would be initiated soon

Embankments were also to be built to take such rivers as Kalinjor, Phuljor, Harion, Banke and Bagmati which caused considerable damage, he said.

MP Mahendra Raya said the so-called maoist were spreading violence and vandalising people’ property against the very tenets of Maoism.

MP Ramchandra Raya stressed the need for the District Development Committee to focus on development of villages.

DDC Chairman Nanda Lal Raya presented a budget of Rs 92.31 million for the coming fiscal year.

Senior Chairman Shiva Prasad Dhungana presided over the district assembly.

Bhadrapur, Jan. 27: Nepal Red Cross Society, Jhapa Branch held a Jhapa district level co-ordination meeting on “AIDS prevention, Drinking Water and Sanitation” here Wednesday.

At the meeting, District Red Cross Branch president Bhakta Khawas disclosed that necessary training on AIDS prevention had been given to one teacher each from all secondary schools of Jhapa in view of formidable situation of AIDS in the district.

There was also a plan to give such training at garment factories, police and other camps, he added.

District Education Officer Laxman  Khanal suggested that there should be blood screening at border check points to prevent AIDS and sex education should be launched as a campaign at schools.

District Red Cross Branch Treasurer and Nepal Union Jhapa Unit president Lokraj Dhakal said the District Red Cross Branch had been running drinking water and sanitation and AIDS prevention programme at 112 schools.