SENIOR NC LEADER OPPOSES MASS RECRUITMENT OF 3,000 MADESHI YOUTH IN NA

SENIOR NC LEADER OPPOSES RECRUITMENT OF 3,000
MADESHI YOUTH IN NA
Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: A senior main opposition NC leader has opposed the planned recruitment drive of 3,000 Madeshi youth in Nepal Army (NA).
“We’re clear there should be more recruitment in the army from the Madeshi community. But under the rules and law, there can’t be recruitment only from one community. There should be open competition,” sad NC leader Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat.
“All citizens should be allowed to fill in vacancies. Nowhere in the world are vacancies set aside only for one community,” he added.
‘Only a cabinet decision isn’t sufficient. The military act has to be
amended for filling in vacancies.”
Maoists have given in to demands of the Madeshbadi parties in the government to implement a 4-point agreement y agreeing to mass integration in one unit of the state army.
The 4-point agreement pushing regional demands of the terai is
opposed by the Mohan Baidya faction of the ruling UCPN Maoist).
The front of Madeshbadi parties is also pushing drive to distribute naturalized citizenship certificates in the terai now closed after a two-year drive in which several million non-citizens acquired citizenships.
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Kathmand 21 Dec.: Tika Jung Thapa has resigned as managing director of Foreign Affairs Study Academy under the foreign nstry.
He submitted his resignation to Foreign Minister Narayan Kazi Shrestha,
Thapa was associated with the panchayat regime.
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13 NEPALIS INJURED IN QATAR
Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: Thirteen Nepali migrant workers were injured when the manager of the company they had been working for allegedly attacked them
in Sanaya, Qatar, Dinesh Regmi reports from Qatar in The Kathmandu Post..
According to the injured workers, the manager at Sanaya Industrial Area severely beat them up when they demanded basic facilities in the company.
According to the victims, they have demanded that the company allow them to cook themselves, as the food provided by the company was not hygienic enough.
“We demanded that we be able to cook our own food as the company kitchen is very dirty, but the company turned down our request. The manager attacked us when we refused to work until our demands were met,” said Purna Chandra Bhandari of Sindhupalchok, an injured. He claimed that the inebriated manager and his hired men thrashed them mercilessly.
The victims came to the Nepali Embassy in Qatar seeking help on Monday. A source at the embassy said they have formally informed the Qatari authorities of the incident. According to the injured workers, the company manager also sustained injuries in the clash. The local ad
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INTERVIEW IN THE RISING NEPAL


Balananda Paudel is the Secretary at the Ministry of Energy. Paudel also is the Chairman of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) management committee. Power is the fundamental element to develop any sector. Despite having an unlimited hydropower potential in Nepal, the country has been suffering from perennial load-shedding pushing the country far behind in its progress and development, and there seems no immediate respite from this.
Yogesh Pokharel and CK Khanal of The Rising Nepal talked to Paudel on various issues concerning the Nepalese hydropower sector, including its problems, challenges and way outs to contain the increasing load-shedding hours. Excerpts:
The country has already started facing an acute shortage power. What are the government’s plans to contain load-shedding hours as lower as possible?
With the start of the winter, NEA has begun to lengthen load-shedding hours. NEA has projected that power-cut hours will be from 17-19 hours a day this winter. The projection was made analyzing the existing demand and supply situation.
The government’s priority is to manage both demand and supply sides of power. On demand side, it should be managed carefully through creating an environment for big industries to operate at low energy demand time. Similarly, the government is serious about controlling power leakage. For this, we have started cutting power extra hours in high leakage areas.
On the supply side, we have tried our best to increase the power by using capacitors and replacing other old equipments. We have saved the water level of Kulekhani for this winter. There is possibility for this project to operate in its full capacity during the peak power demand period this winter.
One of the main problems is that we could not add more power to our power generation system. Merely 10-12 MW power has been produced this year. However, the demand is expected to increase as much as 150 MW this year. Therefore, the load-shedding hours will go up day by day as the gap between the demand and supply is widening. Thus, we are forced to import power from India to address such a widening demand-supply gap for the time being. That is why, we had raised the issue of power trading with India during the recent visit of the Prime Minister. India is also ready to provide us with power. Both the parties discussed the issue of power exchange at a recent meeting in New Delhi.
We are speeding up the maintenance work on our part to improve and maintain our infrastructure. We hope it will start very soon on their part too. Now, we are importing 130 to 132 MW electricity from India. With the expansion and maintenance of the existing power grids and other infrastructures, we are planning to import 225 to 230 MW from India.
You mean the work on the expansion and maintenance of the transmission line is underway.
Yes, for the import of additional power from India, we are working on improvement, maintenance, and system upgrading of the existing transmission line. When we import 230 MW power from India, it is certainly provide us with some relief. Besides, the full-swing operation of Kulekhani will also help us contain load-shedding to some extent. In the same way, we are going to bring thermal plants, diesel plants into operation during the peak time in order to check load-shedding.
Does the government have any special plan or programme to bring thermal plants or diesel plants into operation?
First of all, we are going to use the thermal plants available here by making them workable through maintenance and repairs. We have already instructed the concerned authority to proceed ahead. We have even asked the Finish government to support in this programme. I met with the Finish Ambassador to Nepal and talked with him about bringing the thermal plants into operation. The Government of Nepal has allocated additional budget for this.
However, it has been delayed due a higher per unit power production cost. So, the difference between production cost and selling price is very high. It is about Rs. 17-18 per unit. The main question is who is going to pay for this loss. I have initiated talks with the Ministry of Finance, which is positive towards bearing this cost. We are hopeful that the thermal plants will come into operation very soon.
The ministry is open to bring additional diesel plants. If any one agrees to bear the difference in cost of production and selling, we are ready to bring in addition diesel plants. But it will not be possible to produce 150 MW this year from thermal and diesel plants. It will take time.
Then when will this load-shedding go off from the country?
Our power system is totally dominated by hydro and run-of-the-river projects. There is no alternative to power generation in the country. Given the present scenario of the country, load-shedding will continue for some more years. We only focused on run-of-the-river type projects, where there is high seasonality constraint. We could not focus on storage-type projects. So, there is high seasonality in q-40 projects. There is less power generation during the peak demand period and more power generation during low demand season. We have failed here. We should have concentrated our efforts on large and storage-type projects and started generating power. It has already been too late. So, until and unless we construct large storage-type projects, we cannot form up power situation from the domestic production.
Therefore, there is a compulsion for us to import electricity from India. We will buy an additional 100 MW this year. Next year, we will add 145 MW. A total of 369 MW can be imported from India with just repairing and maintenance of the existing infrastructure. In the third year, with the construction of the Dhalkebar-Mujaffarpur transmission line, we can import up to 1200 MW power from India.
We have 28 projects under construction. We are effortful in brining these projects into operation within the stipulated timeframe. However, even after the completion of some major projects such as the Upper Tamakoshi and Chameliya four-five years later too, there will be load-shedding in the country. Even these ongoing projects have very high seasonality. At that time too, we will have power spilling in the rainy season and power shortage in winter. As per the present power tariff structure, if all the ongoing projects get completed within the stipulated time and the situation of demand exists, we will spill electricity of around Rs. 20-21 billion in rainy season and will have 9-10 hours daily load-shedding in winter.
Then, what will be the solution to this imbalance of power?
As I said earlier, the long-term solution is to go for storage-type projects. Now, the government has decided to accord priority to such projects. So, we are focusing on the storage-type projects such as Budhi Gandaki, West Seti, Nurshingghat, Aadhikhola, Uttarganga, Dudhkoshi, among others. Similarly, the government is thinking of making electricity as a tradable commodity. We have prepared a bill and that is in the pipeline in the Parliament.
But for the short-term, there is no alternative to going for power trade agreement with India. That is why, during the secretary-level meeting of the two countries, we have proposed for the second cross-border transmission line.
NEA is incurring a huge loss. The cumulative loss has reached as much as Rs. 28 billion and it is increasing. What has the government thought of rescuing this institution from being collapsed?
We have been working on improving the financial health of NEA. We have prepared a work plan for improving its financial health. The Finance Ministry has also agreed on this. We hope this will certainly help improve the financial condition of NEA.
Similarly, the Tariff Fixation Committee has suggested increasing the tariff rates of electricity. The financial status of NEA will be further improved through increasing tariff and prioritizing internal reforms. We are working to on it. The reform plan includes improving organizational management, increasing morale of the staffs, making them serious about the work and managing other problems of NEA. The Ministry of Finance has given a green signal for us to move ahead. The implementation of these programmes will certainly help change the environment in NEA.
Hydropower development in Nepal could not take desired pace. Where do you think we lacked?
I think, we have failed to analyze the situation. When the government opened up the hydropower sector for private producers, it lifted its hand with the hope that the private sector will come to invest in such a potential sector. But, the private sector also did not emerge as expected. However, now we are again focusing on this sector and increasing the role of the government in hydropower generation. We have also formed a company with an aim to facilitate investments in the hydropower development sector. We have encouraged institutional investment in this sector. I think, we are on the right track. Still, the main problem is its proper implementation.
How do you see the future of hydropower sector in Nepal?
Definitely, the future of hydropower sector in Nepal is very bright. There is no point to worry. We should be a bit clear on some of the policy issues
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