NEPAL PLAYS UAE IN WOMEN CRICKET Kathmandu, 25 Jan.: Nepali women play UAE is the ACC Women Cricket Championship in Thailand Friday. Nepal beat Bhutan in its first outing Thursday., nnnn . THREE STAR, MMC PLAY IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu, 25 Jan.: Leader Three Star plays MMC in the martyrs Memorial A division football championship at Dashrth Rangashala Friday. The match will be the last before the super league starts with eight leaders of the tournament. nnnn FORMER PLA IN CUSTODY FOR NOT BRIBING MINISTER Kathmandu, 25 Jan.:: Lenin Bista, who is coordinator of former combatants disqualified by UNMIN and who has reportedly absconded with Rs 1.5 million, claims that Peace Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi had demanded Rs 700,000 out of the amount allocated for the former combatants, Kamal Pariyar writes in Reoublica.. Bista and his team had cashed a Rs 1.5 million cheque issued by the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction on Monday as per an agreement with the government. However, the Ministry of Peace got them arrested for not depositing the money with the party, said Bista. Bista, who was remanded for seven days on Thursday, a day after his arrest, told Republica, “I was asked for Rs 700,000 through Minister Rayamajhi´s personal assistant, but we were unable to fulfill the demand in time.” “We have been accused of running away with the money but we have no reason to run as we all are together paying off our debts at different places", he said. However, Gopal Rokaya, personal assistant to Minister Rayamajhi, said, “We didn´t demand Rs 700,000 from them but the party was asking for return of the loans provided to the former combatants during their one-month protest at Parisdanda.” He said the party had lent them Rs 468,300 in total for meeting their daily expenses during the protest. “They had promised to pay back the amount once their cheque was issued but none of them remained in contact after getting the money," he said. Bista, for his part, said that they were ready to pay back the amount but the minister demanded more from as a bribe, and that was not possible as they had to pay off a lot of debts. “When we were unable to pay him as demanded I was framed.” According to ministry sources, the amount was allocated according to a cabinet decision for distribution among the former combatants so that they could return home and meet their personal expenses. Rokaya said that after getting the money Bista neither distributed the money among the combatants nor repaid the party loans. So they were compelled to have them arrested. Bista said that he distributed Rs 700,000 to the coordinators of the seven cantonments and the debts were repaid on Tuesday. He said he has about Rs 350,000 left after making the payments. The other three ex combatants - Ramesh Basyal, Bharat Rokaya and Lal Chandra BK - who were arrested along with Bista, were released on Thursday after paying the bail amount. The 4,008 disqualified former combatants, who prefer to call themselves ´unverified´, had been staging a series of protests in the past few months, demanding that the government provide them various facilities. Following the protests, they were designated by the government as ´UNMIN discharged´. Nnnn HHOW TAXIS CHEAT Kathmandu, 25 Jan.: Taxi fares in Kathmandu are just Rs 32 per kilometer between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., as set by the Department of Transportation. Which means, the fare need not cross Rs 874 for taking one round of the ring road in a taxi, Gyan Neupane writes in Reublica.. However, the reality is very different. “Rs 874 for one round of the ring road is out of the question, Rs 500 is a normal rate no matter how short the distance travelled,” complains Manisha Panday, a resident of Naya Baneshwor. The government last revised the taxi fare rate in October 2011, limiting it to Rs 48 per kilometer between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., or Rs 16 more than in the daytime. According to the transportation department, there are 8,000 taxis in the Valley. The department is responsible for far more than keeping count of the number of taxis, but in the absence of proper monitoring, taxi drivers charge passengers whatever they can get away with. In response to numerous public complaints against extortionary taxi fares in the Valley, the three bodies responsible - transportation department, the metropolitan traffic police and the national standards and metrology bureau - have of late launched a joint campaign to address the problem. According to available information, action is being taken against 15 to 25 taxis every day for cheating passengers. However, the public has hardly heaved a sigh of relief. According to Rajiv Maharjan of Kupandole, taxis seem to only look for any chance to cheat the helpless passengers. “They demand a very high fare and leave it up to you whether or not you want to ride. When we are in an urgent hurry, we have no choice but to just throw away our cash,” said Maharjan, who just a few days ago had the same bitter experience again. How passengers are cheated The first method of cheating passengers is demanding a fare without any reference to the meter reader, and in most cases passengers do not object. If a passenger insists on going by the meter, he hardly proves any smarter - the meter reader is already tampered to run much faster than it should. For instance, most taxis plying in the Valley have broken or tampered with the seals placed by the National Bureau of Standards and Metrology. “The meter reader seal can be tampered with to make it run faster,” said Bikash Dhownju, chief of the taxi, tempo unit at the bureau. “The meter runs faster when they sound the horn or play music, turn on the FM radio or trigger the earthing.” In addition, the taxi drivers very cleverly use the breaks, horn, accelerator, sidelights and so on to create earthing and speed up the meter. At times, they even tamper with the rate reader, he added. Sources disclose that car workshops do all the technical fixing. The meter timing is often tampered by the bureau staff as well. “As the cheating over fares is such a hot topic, we discussed the issue with all stakeholders,” said a bureau official. Lack of human resources The meter readers have to be adjusted again in all the taxis whenever the price of fuel goes up. This is the responsibility of the standards and metrology bureau. However, even nine months after the transportation department last hiked the rates, the meter readers in all the taxis have not been corrected. While there are 8,000 taxis in the Valley, the bureau can deal with only 50 a day at maximum. According to bureau data, the meter readers in 2,705 taxis were adjusted between July 16, 2012 and January 3, 2013. Dwonju informs that meter reader corrections as per an earlier fuel price hike are is still ongoing. “We have only one machine and a single technician for the job. So it takes months to work on the hundreds of taxis,” he said. And this very inability to adjust the meters promptly is a major challenge, notes General Secretary of Nepal Transportation Entrepreneur´s National Association Dolnath Khanal. “How to blame the taxis when the responsible bodies are unable to do even the minimum.” Who to monitor? The bodies responsible for enforcing taxi regulations are the transportation department, the metropolitan traffic police and the standards and metrology bureau. But none of these are ready to take on the burden. Dwoju of the standards and metrology bureau reports that there are not enough human resources. Engineer Mohan Bhattarai at the transportation department cites a similar problem. Meanwhile, DIG at the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division Upendra Kanta Aryal notes that curbing irregularities by taxis is not up to the division alone. “Until and unless all the stakeholders come together, the traffic police alone can do nothing.” ------- INTERVIEW Systematic monitoring necessary Bikash Downju, engineer at Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology and chief of its tempo, taxi unit. How much has the ongoing monitoring campaign helped to control the problem of unfair taxi fares in the Valley? It has been very effective I think. We started taking action against the taxis since January 13. While around 15 to 25 taxis are being caught every day, above 100 others have been coming to the bureau themselves to get their taxis checked and corrected. The taxi drivers have indeed been alarmed. But people say they have not felt any change. It will obviously take time to improve things at that level. But it does not mean nothing has happened. What action is being taken against the drivers held for cheating passengers? We are not keeping them under custody as such. But they simply do not feel good getting caught. The fine is low - just Rs 2,000 - while the extra money they make in a day through cheating must be far more. But they are definitely affected. In fact, we cannot make them pay much as it depends on the Standards, Weights and Measures Act. If they are caught today, action is taken against them the next day as we have to first test what has been tampered with. How many have been caught so far? Any particular areas where such taxis are rampant? At least 200 taxis have already paid the fine so far. The problem was found to be rampant at most critical locations such as hospitals, nursing homes and and the airport. And no wonder, because at such places they can easily make the passengers pay through their noses. What after the campaign comes to the end? Will not the same situation prevail again? What about the long term? Yes, you are right. The regulation has to be systematically monitored, and all three responsible bodies - transportation department, standards and metrology bureau and traffic police - have to be really serious about checking the cheating. Similarly, the problem of human resources and technology has to be tackled in earnest. Nnnn MADESHIS IN GOVT. TO RISK ANNOYING MAOISTS LEADING GOVT. Kathmandu, 25 Jan.: United Democratic Madhesi Front is gearing up for ‘aggressively pushing’ the government to implement the four-point deal, even at the risk of antagonising its major coalition partner — the Unified CPN-Maoist — in a move aimed at assuaging concerns of Madhesis who have taken the front to the task for its failure to fulfil its promise, The Himlayan Times writes.. UDMF today urged the government to implement the four-point agreement and called on the President to immediately issue urgent ordinances that are pending. It called on the government to ensure bulk entry of Madhesi youth into the national army, proportional representation of the Madhesis in all state organs and to grant citizenships to the children of naturalised citizens and citizens by birth as per the spirit of the four-point agreement. “We are in the government to implement Madhes agendas and if the UCPN-M continues to ignore our concerns, we will adopt an aggressive approach in coming weeks,” an unimpeachable source associated with UDMF told THT. When asked why the front needed to call on the government to implement the deal when they themselves were part of it, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar said the government was under the leadership of the UCPN-M and any decision on citizenship issue could be implemented only through ordinances. UDMF has decided to mobilise people in the Madhes region in order to ensure federalism, inclusion and a new constitution. A task force has been formed to devise strategies for mass mobilisation. Nnnn 13 TRAFFICKERS ARRESTED IN POLICE DRIVE Kathmandu 25 Jan.: The Narcotics Drug Bureau today said it has rounded up 15 drugs traffickers, including a foreigner, in the Kathmandu Valley in the past one month. In nine anti-drug operations in the valley, it arrested Sangbu Sherpa (32) and Nima Sherpa (19) of Sindhupalchowk, Rajan Acharya (19) of Makwanpur, Madan Kumar Bohara (30) of Dadheldhura, Salman Ansari (28) of Banke, Sarita Gurung (38) of Sindhuli and Bhairav Budhathoki (29) and Deepika Acharya (18) of Kathmandu. Other arrestees are Shabhu Majhi (30) of Dhanusa, Birendra Kumar Choudhary (31) of Bara, Prakriti Bhusal (30) of Dhading, Ram Bahadur Ayer (39) of Kanchanpur and Danish national Thomaas Olle Anderson (40). The NDB said it seized 4,200 ampules of injectable drugs (diazepam and buprenorphine), 223 grammes of brown sugar and three kg hashish from the arrestees. DIG Kedar Saud, NDB in-charge, said the arrestees would smuggle pharmaceutical and hardcore drugs ‘to make fast buck’, adding that they have been charged under the Narcotic Drugs (Control and Punishment) Act. NDB had arrested Anderson with three kg hashish at the Tribhuvan International Airport two weeks ago while he was trying to fly to Denmark via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight. Police made other arrests during anti-drug operations in Bouddha, Kalanki, Koteshwor, Gaushala and Swoyambhu. DIG Saud said operatives had smuggled the drugs into Kathmandu from India via porous boarders before supplying them to end users, especially teenagers in the valley.Trafficking in pharmaceutical drugs is on the rise in recent times, thanks to lenient punishment for drug pushers and users. Officials say the ongoing police crackdown on racketeers of hardcore drugs like heroin and hashish has drug users and peddlers switching to prescription drugs. A person convicted of possessing and smuggling hardcore drugs shall be liable to jail term of up to 15 years with confiscation of property against a maximum three years of term for traffickers of pharmaceutical drugs, according to existing laws. nnnn