The four-day national conference of legal practitioners’ in the country kicked off in the capital, Kathmandu, Wednesday calling for constitutional supremacy and rule of law.
Justice at the Supreme Court, Anup Raj Sharma, inaugurated the conference– organized by Nepal Bar Association (NBA) on the occasion of golden jubilee of its establishment– amidst a ceremony organized at the Birendra International Conference Center (BIIC) this morning.
Sharma was a member of the five-member special bench of the apex court that declared last month the controversial Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) as ‘unconstitutional’ and held that the sovereignty and state power of the kingdom of Nepal vested in the Nepalis people, not elsewhere.
Addressing the conference — that has the main theme of “Human Rights, Rule of Law and Inclusive Democracy: (Means for) Resolving Conflict,” president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Bishnu Nisthuri lauded the role of the lawyers in restroing rule of law in the country. Alleging that a conspiracy was going on the at the bank of famous lakes and ponds in Nepal to sideline people’s sovereignty, Nisthuri said lawyers, journalists and other professionals would continue their fight until democracy, human rights and rule of law was established in the country.
Vice chairman of the NBA, Sher Bahadur KC, said NBA will not compromise with anybody on the issue of supremacy of the country’s constitution. He also called upon the king to give up his direct rule by honoring the recent verdict of the apex court.
Country director of the Action Aid Nepal, Dr. Shivesh Chandra Regmi—who also chairs the Association of International NGOs (AIN) in Nepal—expressed his solidarity and full support towards efforts aimed at restoration of rule of law and total democracy in Nepal. He said the situation in Nepal had turned into a terrible state, rights violations was rampant and perpetrators enjoyed impunity. Socially excluded and poorest of the poor have been most affected by the decade-old conflict, he said. He also lauded the role being played by NBA in defending and promoting human rights in the country.
Representatives of the Norwegian Bar Association and Delegation of the European Commission in Nepal also expressed their views on the occasion.
The four-day conference is to deliberate on various aspects related to constitutional democracy, human rights and the on-going conflict and is expected to come up with recommendations.
Two Maoists were killed during a clash with security forces at Galfai area near Khalanga, the district headquarters of Darchula district in far western region on Wednesday morning.
A press statement issued by the far western divisional headquarters of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) said four security personnel were injured when Maoists exploded a socket bomb targeting security forces.
The incident occurred when security forces encountered an armed group of Maoists who were laying landmines.
The dead were identified as Maoist platoon commander Bibash Kumar Bajanghi and section commander Surya Bahadur Saud alias “Sangram”.
The statement further said some explosives and Maoist documents were also recovered from the incident site.
Women rights activists have demanded that women should have equal rights in citizenship issues.
Addressing the first national conference on ‘Women’s equal right on Citizenship’ organized by the Civil Society Alliance for Women’s Equal Rights in Citizenship in the capital on Tuesday, former justice of Supreme Court Laxman Aryal stressed that women are barred from their right to citizenship against the provision of equality in the constitution.
Advocate Sapana Pradhan Malla, president of the Forum for Women Law and Development (FWLD), demanded that children should be issued citizenship in the name of mother. The state should accept descent from women, she added. She further said that the issue should be integrated with the agenda of political parties.
Asta Laxmi Shakya of CPN-UML said that discrimination against women were due to patriarchal social system and stressed the need to implement the commitments made by state, political parties and social organisations.
Maushami Sen and her team performed a drama depicting picture of children without citizenship born from raped women.
The conference was attended by women rights activists from 50 districts.
CPN-UML had recently adopted a resolution that children, whose father was not recognised or was dead, should be given citizenship in the name of mother. A few months earlier, the Supreme Court also ordered the government to arrange for citizenship to children whose father was not recognized. According to government statistics, over 1.1 million Nepalis have not received citizenship.
Maoists have disrupted the drinking water and irrigation project in Chaurjhari in Rukum for the last one month after the villagers disobeyed the rebels order.
More than 20 thousand farmers have been directly affected by the rebels’ act.
According to Kantipur daily, the rebels blocked the drinking and irrigation water supply project after the villagers refused to participate in the construction of a so called ‘martyr’s road’, being constructed by the rebels, in Rolpa.
The paper quoted a local resident, Rishi Sharma, as saying that the villagers had held two rounds of talks with the rebels to end the dispute but it was in vain and the rebels blocked water supply from January 29.
A drinking water supply project at Amala Takuri and an irrigation cannel at Kotjahari remain completely blocked. 87 water taps in the town have gone dry since the past one month.
Residents of Bijeshwori VDC ward no. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 have been forced to walk an hour’s distance to Bheri River to fetch drinking water. According to Sharma, the crops in the field have dried with no irrigation in Cahurjhari area.
The joint security base camp stationed to guard the airport has managed a separate pipeline for the supply of water necessary for the camp.
Dharma Kumari Bhattrai, mother of senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai passed away at the age of 80 at Koteswore in Kathmandu on Tuesday, reports said.
Late Bhattarai was suffering from heart and chest diseases and staying at the residence of her son Shiva Bhattarai, according to reports.
Shiva, brother of Dr Bhattrai, is an employee at the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)– a regulatory body.
Late Bhattarai was cremated at Pashupati Aryaghat Tuesday night.
She is survived by two sons and two daughters.
Dr. Bhattarai was last seen with his parents while taking them to the Manakamana temple in his home district Gorkha during the second round of peace talks between the government and the Maoists three years ago.
As part of his consultation with political personalities on the current political situation, His Majesty King Gyanendra on Wednesday granted audience to speaker Taranath Ranabhat at Ratna Mandir in Pokhara.
Reports from Pokhara said Ranabhat had an one-hour plus audience with the King from 10:00 a.m.
Talking to reporters after the audience, Ranabhat said the King expressed his readiness for dialogue with the opposition political parties. He said that during the audience, he ‘clearly stressed’ that the King should take initiative for dialogue with the parties.
“The beginning of dialogue between the parties and the King will open doors for activating the constitution and a new government necessary to address the current political stalemate,” reports quoted Ranabhat as saying.
He also revealed that he suggested for a new government comprising the parties for which reinstatement of the House of Representatives could be a positive step. The current government, according to him, has done nothing till date than to silently following the King’s agenda.
Prior to his consultation with Ranabhat, the monarch on Tuesday gave audience to vice-chairmen duo of the cabinet, Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Thapa) leader Ravindra Nath Sharma and head of the RPP (Nationalist) Rajeswhor Devkota.
The King is in Pokhara currently on a three-week long informal visit to the western region.
At least 29 people – 18 Maoists and 11 security men – were killed in a fierce clash between the Maoists and the security forces at Panena, a bordering area between western Arghakhanchi and Palpa districts on Tuesday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Wednesday.
18 bodies of rebels killed in the daylong gun-battle were recovered during a search today, a MoD statement said, confirming that 11 security personnel – 10 Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers and one policeman – lost their lives in the skirmish.
Meanwhile, issuing a statement today, the ‘Western Military Command’ of the CPN (Maoist) claimed that 20 security men were killed and arms and ammunitions were seized from the security forces during the clash. It admitted that eight Maoist fighters were killed in the incident.
Belated reports say at least five persons died in a bomb blast in Mangalsen, the district headquarters of Achham on Monday night.
The powerful blast occurred at around at around 9:15 p.m. at Nagtoli village in Mangalsen, killing five persons including Dharma Raj Rai, an assistant heath worker working at a local sub-health post, on the spot, news reports said.
A night curfew was still on when the blast took place. Four others killed in the incident were all local residents.
It was not immediately clear how the blast occurred but security sources in the district headquarters claimed that a bomb carried by the Maoists went off accidentally.
Details of the incidents are still awaited.
The government has nominated Harishankar Niraula of Solukhumbu and Mrs. Chanda Rana of Kathmandu to the vacant posts of the members of the Social Welfare Council (SWC), the Council said.
An environmental activist, Mrs. Rana is affiliated to Save the Environment Foundation (SEF). Niraula is a social worker.
SWC was recently in the news for issuing a controversial code of conduct for the NGOs. NGO Federation of Nepal has said it will defy the code and has alleged it of trying to control independence of the non-governmental organisations.
SWC officials, however, claimed that the code of conduct was meant to make the NGO sector more dignified.
Mahendra Police Club (MPC) blanked out the tournament’s ‘dark horse’ Knight Chess Club (KCC) 2-0 to enter the finals of the 4th Aaha Gold Cup Football Tournament at Pokhara Stadium today.
Excluded from the national camp – Ananta Thapa struck twice to take his team to the forth consecutive final. The match was opposite to expectations as both teams were sluggish. MPC created the first chance when stand-in captain Ananta Thapa nearly got a breakthrough in the 11th minute. Thapa’s powerful shot was brilliantly denied by Min Basnet with a full length dive to the left side.
Then MPC were prematurely celebrating a goal in the 33rd minute but assistant referee Rajesh Shrestha disallowed the goal as ‘off-side’. Finally, Ananta Thapa broke the deadlock scoring an excellent header in the 38th minute, capitalizing the cross off Parbat Pandey from right flank. MPC took the lemon break up 1-0.
After the re-start, MPC were more aggressive than the Jhapa based club and continued their relentless attacks. Thapa was brilliant on the field, and doubled the tally in the 57th minute capitalizing on the cross off Bhola Silwal. KCC played a somewhat lifeless second half despite having more than ten “A” Division players. Deepak Tamang, Binod Lama, Subash Rai, Sunil Subedi, Kamal Bista (NRT), Santosh Basnet, Raj Kumar KC, Raj Kumar Ghising (Sankata), Sachhindra Dhimal (BUC) and Bikash Subba (MFC) couldn’t even thwart the cops den.
Referee Binod KC flashed out two yellow cards each for KCC and MPC. Raj Kumar KC and Sachhindra Dhimal were booked from KCC while Dipak Poudel and Kunjan Shrestha from the MPC side.
“I am not fully satisfied with the boys performance, but we got the win,” MPC coach Yogambar Suwal told reporters. Coach of KCC Indra Bahadur Basnet said, “We are very upset with our boys hollow game in the mid-field”.
On Thursday, tournament favorites African United Club will meet League Champion Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) for the Cup.