CABINET ORDERS LAUNCH OF STUDY TO PROVIDE VOTOING RIGHTS TO EXPATRIATE NEPALIS Kathmandu, 18 July: The cabinet Tuesday decided to launch a study to provide voting rights to expatriate Nepalis. Three teams from the election commission is being sent abroad to conduct a study. Teams are being sent to Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. Nnnn NTL GM RESIGNATION ACCEPTED Kathmandu, 18 July: The cabinet Tuesday accepted the resignation Tendered by National Trading Ltd (NTL). General Manager Mohan Man Swanr. nnnn . VERY LITTLE CHANGE IN LIFE ON BONDED KAMALIYAS Kathmandu, 18 July: Bonded laborers were freed from some 11 years ago. However, despite freedom from slavery they continue to live in abject penury, Rudra Khadka reports in Republica from Nepalgunj.. Dhaniram Chaudhari, a freed bonded laborer of Neulapur - 5, Bardiya says not much has changed in their lives after the government freed the bonded labors a decade ago. “I have no choice. I have to work hard to make ends meet,” says Dhaniram. “Had the government provided us the land it had promised us, things would have been different. There are several organizations that professedly have been working for our welfare. But we continue to live in misery,” he added. The Land Reform Office had given him five katthas of land seven years ago. But Dhaniram has been allowed to use only two katthas of land so far. “This is not enough to feed my two children and wife.” Dhaniram´s is not a one-off case. The freed-bonded laborers in the community feel that the government has not done enough to address their problems. Sushma Tharu, a former bonded laborer, said the government is yet to distribute land it had promised to the freed bonded laborers. “Many of the families are yet to get Rs 10,000 and 35 cubic feet wood for house construction that the government had promised.” According to Sushma, 1,743 families in Banke alone have not received wood from the government. Similarly, Fularam Tharu, another local, said around 400 freed bonded-laborers have not received Rs 10,000 that the government had promised them for house construction. “The government´s announcement of freeing us has least significance for us unless the government implements its commitments. In lack of meaningful support, freedom for us has no meaning,” Fularam said. “As such we do not even want the status of freed-bonded laborers,” he added. Then government in 2008 had declared Banke, Bardiya and Kanchanpur as “bonded laborer free districts”. Meanwhile, various political parties in Banke have also expressed concern over the status of Banke as bonded laborer free district. They have demanded that the 2,609 laborers in the district be granted their rights. nnnn ________________________________________ CLEAR POLICY NEEDED FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TOWNS ALONG MID-HILL HIGHWAYS Kathmandu, 18 July: The project office assigned to implement proposed development of ten settlements into town with urban facilities demanded concrete legal and policy framework on infrastructure development and arrangement of necessary human resources to speed up the implementation process, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Republica. . Amid slow progress in developing ten new towns along the Puspalal Mid-Hill Highway, Clustered Urban Development Coordination Office (CUDCO) has asked the Department of Urban Development and Building (DoUDB) to make new town development act which will facilitate integrated development of infrastructure in those settlements. The CUDCO also demanded the formation of four town development committees. “We suggested the government to amend the existing Town Development Committee Act that has failed to ensure integrated approach for physical infrastructure development in the urban areas,” Sunil Kumar Karna, chief of the CUDCO told Republica on Tuesday. Those short-listed for the purpose are Phidim of Ilam and Basantapur of Terhatum in Eastern Development Region, Kurkot of Sindhuli and Baireni of Dhading in Centra Development Region, Dumre-Bhansar of Tanahun and Burtibang of Baglung in Western Development Region, Chaurjahari of Rukum and Rakam of Salyan in Mid-Western Region and Sanfebagar of Achham and Patan of Baitadi in Far-western Region. In the beginning the government had selected 58 towns along the 1,775-km Mid-Hill Highway to study the potentiality for their development into bigger towns. Karna also said the CUDCO also demanded to set up town development committees in Burtibang, Galchhi (Bairani), Rakam Karnali (Dailekha) and Khurkot of Sindhuli to speed up the process of developing infrastructure in those towns. “We have also suggested activating existing town development committees in other selected settlements and immediately set up offices in all ten towns for infrastructure development works,” said Karna. Submitting a report on the progress in the development of the ten towns recently to DoUDB, the CUDCO also proposed additional human resources to ensure timely implementation of the infrastructure development works. “With the existing human resources, it is impossible to undertake the infrastructure development works in those towns so we have proposed for immediate appointment of 158 staffs including 43 gazetted officers for the purpose,” said Karna. The CUDCO has its sole office with hardly half a dozen staffs including project chief. In an effort to discourage the out-bound migration from hill districts to urban and tarai, the government has been implementing project to upgrade ten small settlements along the Mid-Hill Highway into bigger towns by developing necessary infrastructures and services by investing over Rs 1.37 billion. Officials said separate urban development projects would be designed and implemented for those 10 mini-towns that are selected on the basis of nine criteria-- availability of space and water resources, prospect of economic development, non-agricultural activities, existing population as well as prospect of growth of population through inbound migration from other places, literacy rate and availability and prospect of electricity facility. The target of the program is to increase the existing population of those towns to accommodate at least 50,000 people each. Among the picked towns, Phidim had the highest population of 13,650 where as Rakam is inhabited by just 1,800 people, according to the population census 2001. “In the first phase, we have been developing roads, sewage system and drinking water networks in Chaurjahari, Phidim and Sanfebagar with the plan to gradually initiating works in other town as well,” Karna added. nnnn ________________________________________