NEPAL CONCERNS WITH JAPAN DISASTERS

UML, MAOISTS AGREE TO TASK FORCE FOR MAOIST INTEGRATION

Kathmandu, 20 March; UML and Maoists agreed Sunday to form a separate task force of two parties for the integration of 19,000 Maoist former combatants in 28 cantonments and satellite camps, Radio Nepal said.
Should the report be confirmed, it’ll create a new controversy.
The task force will usurp the responsibility entrusted to a standing committee headed by the prime minister; major parties, including Maoists, are represented in the committee.
An agreement came at a meeting between team of two parties led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Prachanda.
They were assisted by aides
The two parties also discussed delayed government expansion ad sharing of ministerial responsibilities.
UML and Maoists agreed to negotiate a new agreement to
bring NC into government, Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kazi Shrestha said.
NC said it can’t join the government until a secret 7-point agreement between the two parties is revoked.
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PREPARATIONS FOR SLC EXAMS COMPLETE

Kathmandu, 20 March: Preparations have been completed for this year’s SLC examinations beginning Thursday.
Altogether 500,005 students are appearing for the examinations.
in 1,675 centers nationwide.
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TWO DEAD IN MAKKHAN FIRE

Kathmandu, 20 March: Two persons died in an overnight fire at Mahhhan in the capital.
Rajesh, 35, and Mahesh, 22, were children of Kedar Shestha,
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MADESH TRIO MEET TERAI REBELS IN NEW DELHI

Kathmandu, 20 March: Three Madeshbadi leaders didn’t meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for political discussions as expected in the Indian capital Saturday.
Reports said the premier had a busy schedule.
But MHF Chairman Bijata Kumar Gachedhar, TMLP Chairman
Mahanta Thakur and NSP Chairman Rajendra Mahoto held
a dialogue with main opposition BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani.
The three leaders jointly discussed held discussions in the
Indan capital with armed groups in the terai, Naya Patrika reports/
They discussed strategy on how to move if Madesh issues aren’t
addressed in a new constitution/
The Madshbadi leaders held discussions Saturday with leaders of three armed rebel, according to a source.
The three rebel groups had announced a popular revolt after the election of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
Jaya Krishna Mohit of Akhil Terai Mukti Morcha, Nagendra Paswan Jwala Singh of Janatantrik Mukti Morcha and Jagdish Adhikari Rajan of Madesh Mukti Tigers were in the Indian capital.
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CONCERN WITH JAPAN QUAKE AND AFTERFFECTS
Kathmandu, 20 March: As concerns about the radiation level continue to grow in Japan, the Nepali mission in Japan has asked its nationals staying in and around the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima to immediately leave the area and take precautions, The Kathmandu Post reports
In a public notice to local Nepali nationals, the embassy said, “You are advised not to stay within 30 km of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant or any other nuclear plant.”

The notice comes a day after the Nepali Embassy came under criticism for shifting from Tokyo to the perceived safety of Osaka, 550-km off the Capital.

The mission tried to reassure Nepalis that it hadn’t abandoned its duties and that relocating the mission was necessary to continue the operation of the embassy even in extreme circumstances. Nepalis living are not buying its line.

Many Nepali nationals have started fleeing Japan fearing of radiation poisoning. “Thousands of foreign nationals, including Nepalis are in queue at Japanese international airports to get stamps for re-entry visas,” Prakash Poudel, a Nepali scribe working in Japan told the Post.

The Nepali mission has asked Nepalis to make their own arrangements. “Those who want to return to Nepal are advised to arrange their re-entry visa and seek help if problems occur. Iinternational airports in Japan are providing the re-entry visas,” it said. Around 100 Nepali nationals are taking shelter in temporary camps in Japan.

Meanwhile, a meeting of Non Resident Nepalis and 25 active Nepali organizations in Japan on Friday decided to form a six-member technical committee headed by Dr. Ram Giri to tell the Nepali community about the effects of radiation. The meeting sought clarification from Nepali authorities why they shifted the mission.
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NET OTHER POLITICAL BIGWIGS
Kathmandu, 20 March: Former minister and Nepali Congress leader Chiranjibi Wagle is in jail on an 18-month jail for corruption, and the public waits with bated breath action against more such bigwigs. Tarring and feathering of swaggering ballyhoos is on the cards, legally, and all in pecking order, Bhadra Sharma wrtes in The Kathmandu Post.

Officials at the apex court said that it is gearing up to issue its verdict on corruption cases filed against former ministers Govinda Raj Joshi, Khum Bahadur Khadka, Rabindra Nath Sharma (sadly departed), Padma Sundar Lawati, JP Gupta and former police chief Moti Lal Bohara, among others. “The court has prioritised corruption cases filed against both political and non-political figures,” said SC Joint Registrar Shree Kant Poudel.

Officials at the court said though the verdict against Wagle did not establish any precedent, it was the first instance where a number of “principles”, which were explained earlier by the court, have been implemented practically in the ruling and the same principles will be applied in deciding cases of a similar nature.

After Wagle, the court is preparing to summon people involved in Joshi and Khadka’s cases before issuing its final verdict. “We will fix the

date within a month,” said Poudel. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), national-anti-graft body, had filed corruption cases at the Supreme Court against 137 politicians and bureaucrats for amassing property disproportionate to their known sources of income, after the restoration of democracy in 1990. Cases filed against Sharma, Joshi, Khadka and Bohara are noted as high-profile corruption cases in Nepal.

Though these cases were filed at the Special Court, they came to the apex court in appeals by the CIAAA after they all got clean chits.

In 2003, CIAA had filed cases against Sharma at the Special Court for illegally amassing Rs 39.55 million from unknown sources, including through gold smuggling.

Though Sharma passed away in 2008, his case is still pending at the court. The anti-graft-body had appealed to the Supreme Court after the Special Court gave Sharma a clean chit citing statute of limitation, which refers to the limitation that corruption cases must be filed within a year after the object of attention resigns his public position.

Khadka was accused of earning Rs 23.6 million illegally

while he assumed different ministerial posts in the post 1990 period. Khadka also was given a clean chit by the Special Court citing the same ‘statute of limitation’. Joshi was charged with amassing Rs 39.9 million illegally. Former Police chief Moti Lal Bohara was accused of amassing Rs 23.8 million.

CIAA officials are encouraged by the latest verdict of the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court’s latest decision has boosted our morale. Such a historic decision is a precedent for similar cases in days to come,” CIAA Spokesman Ishwori Paudyal said. Supreme Court Spokes-

person Hemant Rawal said, “The Court is set to take action against all the guilty regardless of their designation.”
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GET OTHER BIG FISH





Kathmandu, 20 March: Nepal’s experiment with multi-party democracy has been quite disappointing although it has ensured freedom of expression and other formal benefits of democracy, Ritu Raj Subedi writes in The Rising Nepal.
Political instability, rising corruption and uneven development patterns dealt a setback to the efforts of realising the promised goals of new political setup.
There was spontaneous growth of communication technology, media and financial sectors but the gap between the haves and haves not continued to grow in the absence structural change in socio-economic spheres, which, in turn, gave rise to new forms of social and political unrests. One of the ugliest sides of past political experiments was the entrenchment of corruption. It was politically, socially and culturally embedded with weak legal and constitutional instruments, and absence of political commitment to check it. This is the reason why the state could not punish a single top public post holder on corruption case during the last two decades. Their corruption record is known to the public. Yet, the anti-graft bodies looked helpless before them because of the latter’s poor institutional capacity and legal glitches.
It seems the inertia and helplessness of anti-corruption agencies are going to end after so many years of ruckus on rooting out corruption, a chronic socio-economic malady in the Nepalese society. The rays of hope have been raised after the Supreme Court took a bold decision to send former minister Chiranjibi Wagle to prison and impose heavy fines for illegally accumulating wealth while in public post. The SC slapped one-and-a-half years jail term and a fine of over Rs. 40 million to Wagle, who became minister for seven times following the restoration of multi-party system in 1990.
New precedents
The SC verdict on Wagle has set new precedents for proceeding legal suit in identical cases in the future. The Special Court had freed many politicians and top bureaucrats, who were implicated in corruption cases, showing technical causes involving the factors such as the method of evaluation of property, the period of public post s/he assumed and the deadline of court ruling and voluntary declaration of tax. The court order on Wagle case has expanded the legal boundary to take action on corrupt officials. It has made it clear that there could not be a fixed deadline for the investigation of corrupt persons. The individual under the ring of suspicion will be under investigation throughout his life. This premise has certainly given a sleepless night to those who used to think that the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the SC would shelve their files once the Special or upper courts gave them a clean chit.
Another important precedent is that the relatives of the persons in question must clarify the sources of their fixed and movable properties. Some corrupt politicians and bureaucrats hide their illegally amassed wealth by transforming its ownership to their relatives – son, spouse, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and so on. By doing this, they throw dust in the eyes of anti-corruption agencies. But such a smart yet cunning move will not help them to avert the legal action against them.
It also set a provision that one cannot make his/her black money white by just paying taxes of such amount. Some months back, the government brought a scheme of voluntary tax announcement. This offered an opportunity for some to make their black money white. However, the SC’s verdict on Wagle dismissed this claim. No matter how much one pays in tax to the state for one’s income, it is mandatory for all to produce the credible sources of the same. For example, Wagle’s son Devendra Wagle paid taxes of his Rs 30.5 million income in 2058 BS. But, the SC verdict did not consider tax payment as a legal basis to declare his income genuine.
Likewise, the SC verdict demanded reliable evidence for the legal status of property received from someone as bakas (gratuity). It refused to take land or house given to the individual under investigation as donation by someone as lawful asset. For example, Wagle insisted that he got some land as bakas from Hari Bahadur Thapa but the joint bench of Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha and senior justice Khil Raj Regmi turned down Wagle’s claim and saw corruption in the purchase of his land. Similarly, the verdict has recognised the valuation of land and houses at the time of its registration at the Land Revenue Office, not the value based on market price. The CIAA evaluated the land and property based on their transaction in the market while filing corruption charge-sheet against the individuals.
In the past, CIAA and other agencies always drew criticism for their inability to bring the top politicians, bureaucrats and business persons, involved in misappropriation of public coffers, to book. The CIAA files a suit against them at the Special Court but it let them go free in the absence of essential evidences. The corrupt were smart enough to exploit the loopholes of laws to avert the legal action. But the Wagle case has paved the way for anti-graft bodies to catch other big fishes too. Over three dozen corruption cases, which lay pending in the Apex Court might be affected by the precedent set by Wagle’s case.
Concerted efforts
Widespread corruption has put the political achievements under the shadow. It has bred poverty, inequality and conflict. According to The World Bank, corruption is a major obstacle to using Nepal’s assets more productively. It has contributed to misallocation of government resources, caused delays in project implementation, raised development costs, eroded the ethos of work culture and promoted materialistic and inhuman attitude based on money. A concerted effort is required to wipe this out from the country. The government, political parties, anti-graft bodies and civil society must not drag their feet when it comes to checking pervasive corruption.

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