VP JHA WARNS PRESIDENT MAY ACT

VP JHA WARNS PRESIDENT MAY HAVE TO ACT

Kathmandu, 7 April: Vice-president Paramananda Jha in another
controversial statement Thursday said explicitly President Dr.. Ram Baran Yadav may have to act as patron of the constitution is parties don’t fulfill their responsibilities to
promulgate a basic law by 28 May,
He was talking to reporters at his official residence.
Somebody has to come forward, he said.
The vice-president said categorically a constitution won’t be promulgated by the second deadline.
Jha said a constitution can be promulgated by a two-third majority in parliament even as the president called for a consensus on the document.
A constitutional provision says articles in the constitution can be approved by two-third majority of parliament.
The ceremonial president has been dragged into controversy with
his statement.
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PRACHANDA SAYS PEOPLE KNOW WHO ARE BEHIND RECENT TERAI BOMBINGS

Kathmandu, 7 April Maoist Chairman Prachanda told a Kathmadu rally
Thursday people know who are behind the recent serial bombings that
killed some passengers and injured others without naming any country.
Prachanda condemned the bus bombings even as Maoists haven’t
compensated victims of a bus bombing that killed several dozen people
in Chitwan during the insurgency.
The Maoist chief said a group attempted to set off bombs at 15 locations in
the capital quoting Thursday’s media reports.
He said elements against federalism and a republic were against constitution promulgation.
Prachanda said ’nobody can split the party’ admitting internal differences
on an anniversary .to mark a successful launch of a movement against
royal rule.
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FINANCE MINISTRY CONVENES 27-PARTY MEET TO DISCUSS BUDGET (UPDATE)

Kathmandu, 7 April: Finance ministry has convened a meeting of 27 political parties Friday to discuss an annual budget that is being presented for the first time
3 May..
The annual budget is normally presented in parliament in June for
execution mid-July.
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QUAKE HITS SINDUPALCHOWK

Kathmandu, 7 April: An earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale
with an epicenter at a village in Sindhulipalchowk was recorded at 3.54 in the afternoon Thursday.
A quake this week hit far-West districts causing minor damage.
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GOVT. EFFORT TO ADDRESS CHRISTIAN COMMUNTY DEMAND

Kathmandu, 7 April; A government Thursday formed a committee headed by Joint Secretary Rishikesh Niraula to address Christian demand to bury their dead at a
forest in near the Pashupatinath temple, Nepal’s holiest Hindu shrine.
Government asked Christian community to call off protests demanding such right.
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NEPAL BEATS AFGHANISTAN (UPDATE)

Kathmandu, 7 April: Nepal beat Afghanistan 1-0 in the AFC Group D
Challenge Cup qualifying match in the capital Thursday and will play
North Korea Saturday.
North Korea beat Sri Lanka 4-0 in another qualifying match.
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OPINION



VP JHA AGAIN IN DOCK

Kathmandu, 7 April: Vice President Parmananda Jha believes that ninety percent of the news published in our newspapers these days is simply not true,
Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook.
.Now, why he chose to make that claim, of all places, while inaugurating the second general convention of Nepal Health Workers’ Union is anyone’s guess. Something he read that morning may have ticked him off. Or probably it was a restive thought that could wait no longer to ooze out.
Maila Baje, to be sure, wouldn’t have expected Jha to make such a bold assertion in front of a union of pen pushers. But there could have been a more appropriate forum, perhaps even one known to share his sentiments. Still, the venue should not diminish our quest to probe deeper into the Veep’s observation.
In fairness to Jha, few people in the world today believe everything they read in the papers. In many developing societies – including those we still consider paragons of a free press – the media enjoy some of the lowest public approval ratings of major national institutions.
Objectivity was always a false quest, given that human beings are by definition subjective. Read different news accounts of the same incident and event and you’re more likely to come to wildly different conclusions. What should belong to the opinion pages seeps in to flood that innocuous-sounding preserve called news analysis.
Despite all that hobbles news hunters and gathers these days, surely more than 10 percent of what appears in the papers must be true. Jha may be forgiven for his own prejudice here. The media have not been fair to him.
For instance, he took much heat for his insistence on taking the oath in Hindi. But some of the same critics, according to Jha’s subsequent revelation, had insisted that he hold firm. Few bothered to cover, much less contemplate, that angle.
If Jha seems to feel more aggrieved than the rest of his peers in the political sphere, well, he represents that segment of the Nepalese population that has long felt discriminated against. Part of the problem must be the nature of his office. At a time when President Ram Baran Yadav doesn’t seem to know what he is supposed to do, can you really blame the deputy for being so flummoxed?
Still, one cannot escape the imperative of stacking the Veep up against his standard. During his tenure, he has voiced pessimism at the possibility of the emergence of a new constitution on time, only to become more sanguine in subsequent pronouncements. (In his recent speech, he urged health care workers to put pressure on everyone to bring out the statute on schedule). There is little predictability in the man, although he is not the only one carrying that trait.
At times, it becomes impossible not to view Jha’s comments within the wider context of his prevailing relationship with President Yadav. In other instances, he does appear too beholden to the parochial politics of the force that nominated him to the office.
Jha may be no better or worse than the rest of the political class that has sought to benefit from plausible deniability afforded by an imaginative press. By seeking to confer strict mathematical precision on the veracity of the coverage, he may have exacerbated his own credibility issues.
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The mess by educated 'illiterate'


Kathmandu, 7 April: Time is approaching fast for the top shots at the country's first and by far the largest university, Tribhuvan University, to hand over the charge as vice-chairman, rector and registrar. The business of appointing the new guards got intensified after Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal was able to allocate his UML party comrade the portfolio of minister of education, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s
Weekly.
Our education sector has always been politicized, worsening, strangely, with each major political change. All senior office bearers have been the results of political patronage at TU, no matter who appointed whom and when. When a university loses ground in terms of management and quality control, its more than half a century of existence loses the luster and deteriorates in the overall standards that one expects from an institution having completed such a milestone.

Many individuals in the TU service unmasked their faces as "long time" NC and UML sympathizers or members after the restoration of multiparty political system in 1990. Some of them were able to grab major posts. Many more satisfied themselves with posts such as campus chiefs and assistant campus chiefs. CNAS and CEDA were similarly affected. The scores of departments under various institutes were also not exceptions.

A "new", but by no means a better, Nepal was born. More than academic line, the focus of a sizeable section of the TU fraternity veered toward party activism. There was a time when Kapil Shrestha, of the department of political science, was reported to have pelted bricks at the windows of the vice-chancellor's office at Kirtipur to press for the resignation of Kamal Krishna Joshi, an UML appointee.

Pro-NC leaders, who go by the self-claimed title of "democrats", either lauded or preferred to make no comments on the misdeed. Predictably, "progressive" thinkers of the "Intellectual Council" condemned the misdemeanor not befitting anyone from the academic sector.

Joshi was in no mood to oblige his rivals by leaving the post he obtained through years of nursing UML. He managed to complete his full term. Shrestha, with "democratic" contacts, some years later was rewarded with a placement as a member of the National Human Rights Commission. A woman staff raised the issue of her own basic rights that dragged Shrestha into a court of law and linger doubts continue over the issue.

It is purely a matter of political equation that determines the appointments to the top slots at TU or Purbanchal University or Pokhara University or the renamed Sanskrit University. The ruling party appoints its activists to the top academic positions. If it a coalition government, the posts are "proportionately" distributed among the front-runners eyeing the positions of privilege.

UML's "Intellectual Council" has been hyperactive in coming up with suggestions for various appointments at state-financed "autonomous" university. A group of its members could also be seen making rounds for ambassadorial appointments. Comments are made over the appointments to the National Planning Commission whose previous set of members led by NC nominee Jagdish Pokharel the vice-chairman took six weeks to resign. Pokharel's team even held a press meet to announce their resignations, which was ridiculous, to say the least. Hence NPC members treat their appointments as a reward for their loyalty even if they try to give an impression of possessing a high level of experience and expertise.

With such trend and practices, what much can be expected from a university that has the largest number of students, faculties and campuses, and yet its quality of service is ever declining? TU products need to undergo "foundation" course in most reputed overseas universities, i.e. they have to study for two to three semesters at the very level they are supposed to have successfully passed under TU. If someone obtains a Master's degree from TU, he, or she, will have to complete a couple of extra semesters at the Master's level for the same course in, say, the United States.

Most of the senior teachers at various TU faculties are notorious for missing their classes. The teachers' organizations never seek to address this perennial problem that adds to the rot in the TU administration. The big names associated with various departments and faculties swagger about, brandishing their "professorship" but with very little to show by way of legitimately intelligent works of research, studies and publications.

Quality has been the casualty. A large number of university teachers are actively involved in political party affairs, arguing that it is their "basic right" to do so. Everything is measured in terms of party gains and losses.

As for the other several universities financed by the state (Sanskrit University, Purbanchal University and Pokhara University), the less said the better it is. Sanskrit University is a huge burden on the state exchequer while the other two are functioning purely as rent-seekers. They extract hefty sums from campuses affiliated to them. Awarding affiliation has been a big business. Medical and engineering campuses are a big and regular source of income.

These universities have been extremely reluctant to set up their own faculties and related departments for regular classes. But they are busy issuing affiliations.

If pass percentage among students enrolled in campuses affiliated with Pokhara or Purbanchal universities are an indication, they have a runaway success over their TU campus counterparts. The campuses, sadly, have become merely certificate guaranteeing institutions. Such is the power of regular fees. It is a different matter that TU students whose mark sheets give them less performance grading than students from campuses affiliated to the other two universities are generally accorded higher respect.

In the name of inspection teams, all sorts of fees and facilities are extorted. The financial burden ultimately falls on students' parents. While TU has been constantly struggling to meet its expenses, partly created by an over bloated staff structure, other universities are fleecing students white. At the school level, the "English-medium" schools in the private sector are engaged in outright profiteering. Many schools are happy to provide "donations" to politicians in exchange for the latter's support.

Public schools also suffer from many anomalies. A look at the Temporary Teachers Protest Committee's demand for making all temporary teachers permanent. At present there are about 25,000 temporary teachers working at schools all over the country.

The near foreseeable future is clear: the education sector is heading for more chaos.
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