Pokhara, Jan. 14: Minister for Home, and Information and Communications Purna Bahadur Khadka has said that a real journalist should never pat on the back of terrorists who are killing innocent peoples.
Minister Khadka, who was speaking at a reception and get together with journalists organised by Nepal Press Union, Kaski here today, said the journalists should rather use their pens to point the mistakes of the government and awaken it to its weaknesses.
The ministry is considering providing advertisements to all newspapers, he said, adding the government is making efforts to resolve the problems of working journalists.
He also pledged his efforts towards providing advertisements equivalent to Rs. 1 million to newspapers outside Kathmandu Valley.
Nepal Press Union Kaski district president Gangadhar Parajuli and secretary Rabindra Bastola spoke about the problems facing the newspapers and journalists outside Kathmandu Valley.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14 : His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina have established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level on January 12, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Narendra Bikram Shah, permanent representative of the Kingdom of Nepal to the United Nations and Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey, permanent representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations signed a joint communique to this effect at New York.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the 113th country having diplomatic relations with Nepal.
Bosnia and Herzegovina declared sovereignty on October 15, 1991 and a referendum for independence was passed on February 29, 1992.
A country having an area of 19,781 square miles, Bosnia and Herzegovina has multi ethnic population of 3,365,727 comprising Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
It is situated on Balkan peninsula in south-east Europe.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14: The high level committeee constituted under the convenorship of Nepali Congress leader and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba held formal talks regarding the resolution of the Maoist problem with representatives of the RPP here today.
Committee convenor Mr Deuba, members ex-speaker Ram Chandra Poudel, Minister for Works and Transport Khum Bahadur Khadka and member-secretary Dr. Prakashsharan Mahat were present during the talks.
The RPP was represented by party vice-president Prakash Chandra Lohani, general secretary Pashupati Shumsher J. B. Rana, spokesman Kamal Thapa and central member Buddhiman Tamang.
Talking to reporters, committee convenor Mr Deuba said the present Nepali Congress government is very concerned over the Maoist problem and it is also matter of concern for all the political parties. The problem should be solved through collective efforts, he added.
RPP representative Pashupati Shumsher J. B. Rana made it clear that the Maoist activity is a terrorist act and one cannot say that there is no political intention in it.
Prior to this, the committee had held similar talks with representatives of CPN-UML.
The committee will hold talks with other national parties the CPN-ML and Nepal Sadvawana Party.
The committee has also been holding talks with representatives of various human rights organisations.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14: Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek said he would raise the issue of Bhutanese refugees during his Bhutan visit that began today after he departed from here this morning completing his three-day official visit.
“Since I have discussed with the Nepalese Government about the refugee issue, it will also be natural for me to ask the Bhutanese Government how they assess the situation and see that the problem can be solved,” the Norwegian Minister told The Rising Nepal before boarding the Bhutan bound Druk Air’s aircraft this morning. “This is a serious problem and we will have to see how it can be solved.”
Vollebaek’s departure to the Dragon Kingdom, originally scheduled for yesterday afternoon, was delayed till this morning due to the late arrival of the aircraft yesterday evening. Flight KB 108 of the Bhutanese national flag carrier could not fly back with the high level Norwegian delegation yesterday evening since Paro Airport in Bhutan does not operate after dusk.
Vollebaek said that the Norwegian business delegation he had brought with him was very impressed by the discussion they held with Nepalese business community. “They feel that the economic and business relations between Nepal and Norway has been strengthened considerably during this visit.”
“We are also looking at other areas specially apart from the hydropower sector. We also discussed telecommunication as an area of possible co-operation. We will now pursue all these developments. One of the heads of the Norwegian Trade Council was also in my delegation. The Norwegian business community will work as a follow up of this visit. And now with our Embassy opened in Kathmandu, our officials here also can handle the matter.”
Arild H. Blixrud, Director of Norwegian Trade Council, who headed the business delegation that had come with Vollebaek, said that Norwegian will have the good experience to work with Nepal within hydropower and this will also establish a very good relation for Nepal in the Norwegian business community. “This is the first time we are here with such an impressive delegation and I think we will consider now how to explore the possibility in other areas apart from hydropower,” he told this daily.
Blixurd further said we that the Norian wanna-be investors in Nepal would concentrate on infrastructure projects. “Of course, hydropower tops the list among our priorities in the infrastructure sector but we are also interested in other areas like telecommunication, transport system, and so on.”
He also said that the Norwegian businessmen who were in the business delegation will discuss with the companies that already have the experience of working in Nepal. “They are the best ambassadors.”
The Norwegian Foreign Minister was seen off at the Tribhuvan International Airport by Foreign Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Arjun Jung Bahadur Singh and Norwegian Charge d’Affaires.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14:To what extent the press freedom in the post-democracy period has been used in a judicious manner was the subject of debate at a seminar on “Press Freedom and its Utilisation” organised by the Department of Information today.
]Former Speaker and senior advocate Daman Nath Dhungana presented a paper on “Press Freedom and its Utilisation in the Present Context”.
“Press primarily bears a social responsibility and should be focussed on the goals of human rights and social justice, Dhungana said. “Press should take up issues and follow the stories up to a logical end,” he added.
“Solutions to problem of democracy lie only in greater democracy and the solutions of the problems in press lie in greater press freedom alone,” he added.
“In the context of press freedom and making the government accountable to public by keeping them informed forms the spine of a democratic system. And keeping this in view, our Constitution has incorporated the Right to information as a Fundamental right,” he said.
He pointed out anomalies in the present state of media including partisan press, lack of responsible journalism, especially among the weeklies and counted Self realisation and introspection as the most important measures to combat the problems.
“Although not strictly in the category of an industry, media more or less has already become one with investment of crores of rupees by the private sector and newspapers are gradually becoming a part of the life style of the masses,” said journalist and Member of Parliament Raghuji Pant.
Citing that the notion of absolute press freedom is a myth everywhere in the world, he added, “interests of the big media houses now have begun to influence editorial policies. The political leaders still carry the legacy of single party system and the politicians still cannot accept criticism in a normal manner and are responsible for partisan press, he said.
Commenting on the paper, Kishor Nepal, press advisor to the Prime Minister called the paper very convincing and theoretical and said, “The expectations from the press are too high and unrealistic to some extent while it still has to gain maturity. Mentioning the report on the salaries of the journalists, he said there are many practical areas where problems exist.
Advisor at the Ministry of Information and Communications, Purusottam Dahal and general secretary of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Tara Dahal also commented on the paper.
Homnath Dahal, stressing that the press should follow stories in the quest of truth and not leave them half way, said Corruption should be treated as a mission by the press.
President of Sancharika, Bandana Rana, stressing that the government should fulfil the commitments made at Beijing said, “as long as women’s voices are not heard in the mainstream, press freedom is meaningless.”
Director of the department of Information, Yuba Raj Pandey delivered the welcome address.
Participated in by journalists from different media, government officials and advisors, the first session of the one-day seminar was chaired by senior journalist Gobinda Biyogi and the second session by Raghuji Pant.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14:His Majesty’s Government has fixed the minimum wage for agricultural workers throughout the country at Rs. 60/- per day and Rs. 7/50 per hour.
According to the Ministry of Labour, the ddcs will fix the minimum wage at local level in line with the minimum wage rate fixed by the government. However, if the wages in some places is higher than what the government has fixed it should not be reduced.
Likewise, the ddcs, vdcs and municipalities will implement and monitor the wages, and will look into the complaints filed with them regarding the wages.
In the event of any problem arising from the implementation or non implementation of the minimum wages, the district administration and labour offices concerned should cooperate with the ddcs, municipalities and vdcs in resolving the problems.
The Ministry has also made it clear that the men and women are entitled to the same wage rate for same kinds of works and the daily working hour has been fixed at eight hours.
Employment of children under the age of 14 has been prohibited, while arrangements have been made to prohibit the employment of children from 14 to 16 years of age in risky jobs.
Likewise, the working hour for children from 14 to 16 years of age has been fixed at six hours a day and 36 hours a week.
If the children from 16 to 18 years of age are to be employed for some work before 6 a.m. and after 6 p.m. It should be done through mutual consent between the workers and the farmers.
A high level committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of the Ministry of Labour for regular monitoring of the implementation of minimum wages.
The committee comprises National Planning Commission members looking after matters concerning agriculture and labour, the secretaries at the ministries of home, local development, law and justice, industry, commerce, and land reforms and labour, the presidents of trade union federations, the president of farmers associations, the presidents of fncci and employers’ council, the chairmen of association of ddcs, municipality association and vdc association.
Meanwhile, His Majesty’s Government has formed a committee to fix the minimum wage rate for tea estate workers.
The committee headed by the director general of the Department of Labour comprises representatives from the Labour Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture, Nepal Trade Union Congress, Tea Estate Trade Union, Democratic Confederation of Trade Unions, Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions and FNCCI.
Kathmandu, Jan. 14: Convenor of the task force formed to refine and improve the laws for eradication of corruption and secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat Vidyutraj Chalishe, and convenor of the task force concerning the proposed corruption eradication and investigation department and secretary at the Ministry of General Administration Ramananda Mishra presented their reports to Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai at the Prime Minister’s Office today.
Similarly, convenor of the task force concerning organisation improvement and enhancement of effectiveness of the National Investigation Department and secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Rameshwor Shaha also presented his report to the Prime Minister today.
All these task forces were formed in the month of Asoj (Sept-Oct) last year.
The six-member task force headed by Mr. Chalishe was formed for submitting a report along with recommendations within two months on setting up a corruption eradication and Investigation Department by merging the Revenue Investigation Department and the special police department and on bringing the special police department under the Prime Minister’s Office.
The five-member task force headed by Mr. Mishra was constituted with a view to submitting a report within two months on the organisational pattern of the proposed corruption eradication and Investigation Department, while the five-member task force headed by Mr. Shaha was formed with the purpose of submitting a report within two months bringing the National Investigation Department under the Prime Minister’s Office.
Chief secretary Tirthaman Shakya had coordinated work of all these three task forces.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Bhattarai thanked the convenors and members of task forces and gave assurances that the recommendations will be implemented gradually. Chief advisor to the Prime Minister Dr. Narayan Khadka, press advisor Kishore Nepal and chief secretary Tirthaman Shakya were also present on the occasion.
Kathmandu, Jan. 13: The retired British Gurkha soldiers who are campaigning in Nepal for equality in pensions and other welfare facilities at par their British counterparts today said that they are now ready to go international.
The Gurkha Army Ex-Soldier Organisation (GAESO) announced that it is going to take the issue to World Human Rights Conference to be held in March in Geneva.
“We will organise a peaceful demonstration in Pokhara prior to our departure for Geneva,” GAESO President Padam Bahadur Gurung said. He also informed that his organisation would hold a consultative meeting with lawyers from United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, India and Nepal after the Geneva conference to discuss about strategies to take the issue to international courts.
GAESO also expressed its dissatisfaction against the government for “failing to accord due concern to Gurkha issue and channelise diplomatic strengths to solve it”. The organisation also flayed the British government for “cheating the Gurkha soldiers” with announcement of hundred per cent increase in Gurkha pensions.
On December 24 of 1999, the British government announced a new pension arrangement for Gurkha soldiers according to “Indian Government Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendations”. Under the new arrangements, the pension and gratuities rates will range from Rs. 7,043.55 per month for rank below Corporal and Rs. 23,612.80 for a Major. The revised pension package also makes one-rank-one-pension arrangements as against the four different rates earlier that paid least to the Gurkha soldiers retiring before 1969.
Earlier in 1999 the British government had formed a ministerial working group under the chairmanship of British Arm Force Minister John Spellar to examine and report on Gurkha pensions by end of the year.
“Our campaigning is about status not money,” a statement issued by GAESO said adding, “British government’s latest decision is only an attempt to down play our campaign”.
Kathmandu, Jan. 13: United Nations Development Programme (undp) has agreed to provide a technical assistance of U.S. $ 1.2 million (approximately Rs 82.08 million) for the implementation of Sustainable Community Development Programme (scdp) phase II.
The first phase of scdp launched in 45 village development committees (VDCs) of Dang, Surkhet and Kailali districts is considered as one of the successful community development programmes supported by undp.
The first phase scdp supported sustainable poverty alleviation and environmental management through community mobilisation. It helped to build capacities to integrete gender sensitive socio-economic development and environment management at the community level in 650 Community Based Organisations (cbos).
The second phase of scdp will be expanded to Humla, Myagdi and Okhaldhunga districts. It will build on the experience gained during the first phase by expanding the programme to the more national scope and developing national capacities for adopting the scdp approach.
The scdp will coordinate closely with the activities of the concerned local bodies helping them better understand their potential roles in supporting and contributing to sustainable community development.
The National Planning Commission (npc) will be the implementing agency of the two year programme begining from January, 2000.
The project document to this effect was signed by Mr Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Ms. Laxmi Maskey, joint secretary at the npc and national project director of scdp on behalf of His Majesty’s Government while Mr Henning Karcher, undp resident representative signed on behalf of undp.
His Majesty’s Government has expressed its appreciation and gratitude to undp for its continued support and assistance towards meeting the poverty alleviation target of the government particularly through support to social sector programmes of Nepal.
Kathmandu, Jan. 13: A two-day seminar organised by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture for participants of the youth mobilisation programme for rural and community development began in Lalitpur today.
Inaugurating the seminar, Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture Sharat Singh Bhandari said that this programme implemented by the government since last year in keeping with the policy of tapping youth in the campaign of national development has turned out to be fruitful and result-oriented.
He also observed that rural and community development workers have to play an important role to uplift the living standards of the rural people who are deprived of basic needs including education.
Secretary at the Ministry Shreeman Shrestha said that His Majesty’s Government has put forth a variety of result-oriented programmes in line with its youth self-employment programme.
Joint secretaries at the Ministry Dilaya Kumar Bista and Dr. Saphalya Amatya spoke of the importance of the programme for enhancing the capabilities and skills of youths.
Under the youth mobilisation programme for rural and community development, some 350 jobless graduates will be sent out on observation tours to 40 different districts of the country for one month this year.
The youths will identify the problems faced by rural people, share experience with people from different walks of life, participate in developmental programmes, foster local awareness against evil practices like early marriage, polygamy and girl trafficking and encourage people in creative work.
Within one month after completion of their assignments, they will submit reports on the problems of the locations where they were deployed and possible remedial measures.
Meanwhile, our staff reporter adds, at the seminar paper on Nepalese Rural Economy was presented by Dr Chiranjibi Nepal and Deepak Subedi while papers on the Objective of the Programme was presented by Bishnu Nath Sharma and Nirmal Raj Kafle. Other papers presented at the seminar today were on The Role of Youth in Social Development by Dileep Bista and Chitra Bahadur Karki and a paper on Population, Reproduction, Health and Environment by Ajit Pradhan and Harischandra Rai. During the past year Youth Ministry signed up 249 University graduates to go to different VDCs of nineteen districts and work for rural and community development.
Students up to the age of twenty nine years with a bachelor’s degree are eligible for this program. The Ministry aims to mobilise twenty thousand youth in a period of five years and is mobilising three hundred fifty students this year.