ROSHAN SEDHAIKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Fewer Nepalis are taking up overseas jobs a year after the devastating earthquake, according to the latest data from the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), even as their demand in the Gulf coun-tries, especially Qatar, con-tinues to rise.

DoFE’s statistics show that only 311,850 workers left the country in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, a fall of 39.20 percent compared to a year earlier. Some 512,887 Nepali migrants had left for the overseas jobs in the same period a year earlier.

Experts said that growing job opportunities at home is the main reason behind the decline in number of Nepalis taking up jobs abroad. They expect further decline in the labour migra-tion after the multi-billion dollar post-earthquake reconstruction picks up pace in the coming months.

“Both skilled and unskilled workers are find-ing it more profitable to work in the country, as they are getting good pay in their

own neighborhood,” said Ganesh Gurung, a foreign employment expert. Gurung said the policy makers should draft appropriate pol-icies to retain more workers at home in the coming days.

Nepal will need at least 700,000 skilled and unskilled labourers for the post-earth-quake reconstruction, according to the Post Disaster Needs Assessment estimates.

More than 500,000 houses were destroyed and more than 250,000 houses were partially damaged by the April 25 earthquake and aftershocks last year, accord-ing to preliminary surveys. Of them, 31,000 earthquake survivors have rebuilt their homes a year after the earth-quake, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

Nepal still faces a dearth of both skilled and unskilled manpower although employ-ers here are willing to pay as much as employers in the Gulf and Malaysia. Unskilled workers working on a piecemeal basis are earning between Rs 800 to Rs 1000. Unskilled workers, who make around 75 percent of Nepal’s total workforce,

earn between Rs 20,000 to 30,000 in the Gulf and Malaysia.

“Skilled workers are get-ting even better pay here than the Gulf countries as there are huge demands for mason, electrician, carpen-ter and so on,” said Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal (FCON) President Sharad Kumar Gauchan. He said that the government should draft special policies to retain the workers. FCON is currently lobbying to revise the minimum wage scale for construction workers.

FCON representatives said that a majority of con-struction companies are hir-ing workers from India and Bangladesh to meet the demand. Although manpow-er agencies and some gov-ernment officials here claim that the free-visa-free-ticket scheme has resulted in less demand from work destina-tions, the data shows other-wise.

DoFE statistics show that Nepal was able to meet bare-ly 35 percent of total job demands from the over-seas-based employers in the given period.

>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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CAPITAL EDITION l PRINTED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN KATHMANDU, BIRATNAGAR, BHARATPUR AND NEPALGUNJ

Vol XXIV No 72 | 12+4 Pages SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 (19-O1-2073)

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PM gets an earful for keeping half an eye on pressing issues

KAMAL DEV BHATTARAIKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

An all-party meeting called by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Saturday turned into a forum for attending parties to direct slings and arrows at the government for its “multiple failures”.

Coming down heavily on the government for failing to address the Madhes crisis and expedite reconstruction work, parties represented in Parliament urged PM Oli and his government to take prompt measures.

Drawing the PM’s attention to the long-drawn Madhes crisis, the parties said that

the sooner the issue was addressed, the easier it would be to implement the constitution.

In order to revisit the boundaries of federal prov-inces as demanded by Madhes-based parties, party leaders also advised Oli to reshuffle the political mechanism that

was formed with a view to addressing the boundary row.

The political mechanism led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa has remained idle since its forma-tion on February 18, as the Madhes-based parties and the main opposition Nepali Congress have refused to be part of it. PM Oli had called the all-party meeting to gather

inputs on Madhes crisis, reconstruction and upcoming budget.

On NC’s take on the politi-cal mechanism, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said, “We were not con-sulted while forming the com-mittee. Therefore, we will not be part of it. The Madhes problem has been lingering on due to the negligence on the part of the government.”

Urging PM Oli to take the lead to address the demands of Madhes-based parties, Deuba said, “As Madhes-based parties do not have faith in [this] govern-ment team, discussions on forming a new committee could be a better option.”

On reconstruction, Deuba said mobilisation of party cadres will not help much.

>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Leaders censure govt for failing to address Madhes issue and speed up reconstruction

all-party meeting

n Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli chairs an all-party meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, on Saturday. POST PHOTO: SHALIGRAM TIWARI

KATHMANDU: During an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the Madhes crisis was one of the major agendas. But the Madhes-based parties absented themselves from the meeting. “There is no point attending a meeting just for the sake of it when the PM does not seem to be serious about addressing our concerns,” said Upendra Yadav, chairman of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal, said, (PR)

Madhes-based parties snub

meetingn Parties urge government to be

serious about resolving Madhes crisis

nLeaders call for forming a new political mechanism to address boundary dispute

nThe main opposition asks gov-

ernment to hold pre-budget dis-cussions before bringing policy and programmes

nParties draw PM Oli’s attention to slow reconstruction works and urge him to do the needful to expedite the process

IN A NUTSHELL

COMPARISON FOR TWO YEARS2015-16* 2014-15

Workers who left the country Demands

311,850512,887

890,298

997,009

Fewer Nepalis keen to take up

overseas jobs‘Growing work opportunities at home main reason’

Secys told to expedite spendingPOST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has instructed ministries whose spending has remained at 20 percent to accelerate their spending.

With just two and a half months to go for the closure of the current fiscal, PM Oli on Saturday invited the secretaries of various minis-tries and instructed them to speed up expenditure.

According to secretaries present in the meeting, PM Oli sought reasons for poor capital expenditure and asked why some of the projects hav-ing adequate budget failed to spend the allocated money. Most of the secretaries blamed the border blockade as the major reason for poor cap-ital spending.

Then, PM Oli sought “nota-ble improvement” in capital spending in remaining months. “Expressing concern

about low capital expenditure so far, the prime minister instructed the secretaries to speed up road, bridge and electricity project works,” said Suman Sharma, secre-tary at the Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry of Energy, which has so far spent only 28 percent of the capital budget, has projected its capital expenditure to go up to 80 per-cent this fiscal.

Most of the budget meant for energy projects is spent

through the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), but a dis-pute between NEA Managing Director Mukesh Kafle and the then energy minister Radha Gyawali had affected the spending

“With the dispute over legitimacy of incumbent Managing Director Mukesh Kafle already settled, the NEA can now take important deci-sions, which will help expe-dite spending,” said Sharma.

>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Govt treasury has Rs 170b unspent even as fiscal year draws to close

FOREST FIRES KILLS ONEKATHMANDU: A person died while trying to contain a for-est fire at Gothibang-3 in Pyuthan district on Saturday. Police identified the deceased as Krishna Bahadur Khadka, 35, of Gothibang-3. Deputy Superintendent of Police Ranjit Singh Rathaur said two other persons sustained burn injuries. Raging forest fires have destroyed 19 houses and sheds in the district. Fresh bushfires were reported in around a dozen community and national forests in Parbat district on Saturday. (Details on Pg 3)

* FIRST NINE MONTHS

thekathmandu postnews 02Sunday, May 1, 2016

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‘Recognise work in informal sector’POST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Women working in the infor-mal (entertainment) sector have urged the government to bring out a specific law to address the problems of sexu-al and physical violence asso-ciated with their sector.

The two-day conference ended on Saturday, on the eve of International Labour Day, with women working in the dance restaurant/bar, cabin restaurants and massage par-lour sharing their experienc-es of how their hopes of relief from such brutality ended with the much-awaited amended Labour Act failing

sideling their issues. “I work hard by dancing in a bar to eke out my living. I want the state to recognise my work as decent work so that I can live in the society with my head held high instead of being subjected to unnecessary har-assment from both the securi-ty personnel and the employ-er,” said Samjhana Gurung, who hails from Pokhara.

Gurung, 25, added that the government could have done more to recognise the exist-ence of women working in the entertainment sector. The amended Labour Act com-mended for ensuring work contract, sound working con-dition, working hours, holi-

days in favour of employees and which also forbids sexual harassment at the workplace has disappointed a huge sec-tion of women working in the informal sector.

Around 150 women from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Saptari, Sunsari, Jhapa and Siraha, who attended the conference, shared their plight explaining lack of identity card, unfixed working hours and social stig-ma, among other problems.

In the absence of specific law, rights advocates say, the right to decent work of those working in entertainment sec-tor, regardless of gender, which has been enshrined in

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23) and also the constitution has been violated. “A huge section of the work force are in this sec-tor and instead of addressing their problems the govern-ment has simply been turning a blind eye to their problems by refusing their existence,” said Srijana Pun, member of Women for Women, an organi-sation working for the rights of women working in the entertainment sector.

An estimated 40,000 women are working in the informal sector, which includes those working in restaurants and massage parlours in the Capital alone.

Youths begin fast for job securityPOST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Disgruntled with rife unem-ployment rate in the country despite constitutional right to employment, youths have been staging a hunger strike in the Capital for the past four days.

A dozen youths began fast at Khulamanch on Wednesday under the leadership of for-mer Valley In-charge of UCPN (Maoist)-affiliated Young Communist League Chandra Bahadur Thapa, who has since left the organisation.

They, along with hundreds of supporters, have demanded that the government create

employment opportunities for youths within the country.

Protesters said that more than 1,000 youths from across the country have signed the petition so far. The condition of those on hunger strike is worsening as some of them could be seen receiving medical attention along with saline drip. “Right to employ-ment is listed as a fundamen-tal right in the constitution itself, so the government needs to ensure this right,”

said Sunil Kumar Chauhan, a protester from Kapilvastu.

“The government should either concede that the coun-try is devoid of resources or fulfil our demand for rightful employment,” he said, blam-ing the government for creat-ing a situation of labour flight in the country.

The Article 33 of the consti-tution states that every citizen shall have the right to employ-ment with provisions for unemployment benefits.

The protesting youths had submitted a six-point charter of demands to Prime Minister KP Oli on April 9. The demands included a state guarantee for employment as per one’s qualifications and provision of loans for self-em-ployment at subsidised inter-est rates to the unemployed. The protesters have also demanded that the govern-ment issue identity cards for them to claim social security benefits.

“We had given a 15-day ulti-matum to the government, but we have yet to hear anything from their side,” said Gyanendra Adhikari of Gulmi.

work in progress

n Workers install drainage pipes as part of the ongoing road widening drive, at Tripureshwor in the Capital on Saturday. POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR

Pollution taking toll on health of Valley denizensPOST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Madhu Bhandari, a street ven-dor, returned to selling goods at Jadibuti on Friday, a week after suffering from fever and headache.

The haphazard road expan-sion activities going on along the Pepsicola-Jadibuti road section since last month has not only affected her business but has also exposed her to toxic air pollutants such as dust, construction debris and vehicular emissions.

“I’m having difficulties in carrying on my business,” the 36-year-old said in wailing voice.

The concentration of harm-ful air pollutants, particularly dust particles with potential to enter deep into the lungs is found to be significantly high in Kathmandu, with construc-tion works and road expan-

sion drive at different parts of the Valley picking up the pace as this fiscal nears its close.

“The Kathmandu Valley has been plagued with high level of dust and debris from construction, contributing to air pollution this time,” said Toran Sharma, director at the Nepal Environment and Scientific Services (NESS).

According to him, the smoke and ash from the forest fires around the Valley and other parts of the country has also contributed to smoky haze pollution in Kathmandu

as well as other urban cities like Pokhara.

Lack of rain and strong winds suggest the hazy condi-tion will persist for a longer time. There is growing public furor over the poor air quality in Kathmandu, one of the pol-luted cities in the world in terms of impact on human health.

Various complaints over the lack of attention from the authorities on degrading air quality have been submitted to Hello Sarkar, a hotline established to allow public record their problems to the government body.

“Everyone living here in Kathmandu is feeling the impact of air pollution. Unfortunately, we are not aware to what extent our air is polluted and how badly it is impacting our health in the absence of proper monitor-ing,” Sharma added.

Concentration of harmful air pollutants, particularly dust particles with poten-tial to enter deep into the

lungs is found to be signifi-cantly high in Kathmandu

Article 33 of the constitution states that every citizen shall have the right to employment with provisions

for unemployment benefits

POST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

A person died while trying to contain a forest fire at Gothibang-3 in Pyuthan district on Saturday. Police identified the deceased as 35-year-old Krishna Bahadur Khadka of Gothibang-3.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Ranjit Singh Rathaur said two other persons sus-tained burn injuries. Raging forest fires have destroyed 19 houses and sheds in the dis-trict.

Fresh bushfires were reported in around a dozen community and national for-ests in Parbat district on Saturday. According to the District Forest Office, the fires have caused a huge loss of forest resources.

Officials said settlements close to the forests have been alerted against the haz-ards of fire. According to Bidhan Adhikari, a local, around 20,000 hectares of forestland have been destroyed by infernos.

At least 20 houses were burnt down at Badagaun, Majhgaun and Dajakot areas in Gulmi district on Saturday.

Assistant Sub-inspector Ganesh Shrisha said the fire at Dandathok Community Forest had caught the settle-ment after strong winds fanned it. As many as 40 hous-es are still at high risk, said Shrisha.

According to Gulmi Police, fires are sweeping through eight other forests. Two per-sons were burnt to death in

their bid to douse the blazes on Friday.

In Salyan, forest fires have destroyed at least 15 houses in

the past week. According to police, property worth Rs5 million was destroyed.

In Dolakha, wild animals

have started entering human settlements as their habitats were burnt. As the Jilu forest was engulfed by fire, deer

have started taking shelter at Nayagal. Local residents reported that wild animals were seen near Lektol.

In Palpa, forest fires that broke out at Humin-6 destroyed six houses in Hatiya bazaar on Saturday. Four oth-

ers turned to ashes at Telgha in the district.

(With inputs from our local correspondents)

thekathmandu post news03 Sunday, May 1, 2016

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in full bloom

n Jacaranda trees in bloom give Durbarmarg a purple hue, in Kathmandu on Friday. POST PHOTO: SHALIKRAM TIWARI

POST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Five separate incidents of fire were reported in the Valley on Saturday.

Police stopped a forest fire at Dakshinkali Municipality-5 from engulf-ing the nearby settlement earlier in the day.

Officers from Metropolitan Police Sector Pharping

doused the fire with support from the Fire Brigade.

At Swoyambhu, two fire engines rushed to Kimdol forest to stop a fire from spreading.

A jungle in Ikudol at Bhattedanda VDC caught fire which destroyed an aban-doned earthquake-damaged house and a barn belonging to Hiramani Ghorasaini.

Likewise, a fire at a build-

ing inside Pashupatinath Mandir premises destroyed wooden furniture and zinc sheets.

According to police, the fire started at the ticket coun-ter of Pashupati Area Development Trust at the new Kiriyaputri building.

Fire at a grocery store in Lalitpur destroyed goods worth around Rs500,000.

An electric short circuit

from a refrigerator ignited the fire at Ishan Kirana Store belonging to Ishwor Karki in Imadol, police said.

According to police, three to five incidences of fire in the Valley are being reported on a daily basis for the past couple of weeks. Chief of Juddha Fire Brigade Office Inspector Kishor Kumar Bhattarai said that fire-relat-ed incidents are on the rise

due to the dry weather. He also informed that firefight-ers across the country have joined hands to minimise damage in such incidents and are staying on high alert.

Municipalities are respon-sible for controlling fire haz-ard and fighting fire in their area and neighbouring areas. T h e K at h m a n d u Metropolitan City has six fire engines at the New Road-

based Juddha Fire Brigade Office. The station is manned by 33 firefighters and 11 per-sonnel from the Armed Police Force work as auxilia-ry firefighters. Although Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City has two fire engines in working condition, it only has manpower to operate one at a time while there is one improvised fire engine in Bhaktapur.

Five incidents of blaze reported in Valley in single day

Forest fires take lives, destroy propertyWild animals driven out to human settlements

n Fire officials, Armed Police Force personnel and locals fight a fire at a forest in Chobhar, Kathmandu, on Saturday. POST PHOTO: DIPEN SHRESTHA

>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

During the meeting, most of the secretaries had project-ed that their ministries could spend capital budget in the range of 60-70 percent, accord-ing to a secretary present at the meeting. “The Ministry of Finance had projected the capital expenditure of 75 per-cent this fiscal,” he said.

“Most of the secretaries were of the view that most of the spending takes places in the last four months and pay-ment of expenditure made in first and second four months also take place at the same time, hence expenditure fig-

ure will grow,” said Prem Rai, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Mid-Term Review of the budget 2015-16 has mentioned that over the last seven years, the trend has it that over 70 percent of actual capital expenditure takes place in the last four months. “This trend is likely to continue this year too.”

Though the government declared the current fiscal “Budget Implementation Year”, development activities were severely affected by shortages of fuel and con-

struction materials due to four-and-half-month-long bor-der blockade and trade dis-ruptions.

Rai said that construction works in most of the develop-ment projects under it have resumed after the end of the blockade.

“But there is no sign that Tribhuvan International Airport Upgradation Project will resume any time soon as a case has been filed at the court preventing the contrac-tor to use sands from Pashupati Area,” said Rai.

Despite achieving just 30 percent capital budget so far,

Agriculture Secretary Uttam Kumar Bhattarai said they have targeted 80 percent spending at the end of fiscal. “Following the usual trend of spending in last quarter, we can achieve the target,” said Bhattarai.

However, concerns have been raised over the quality of works while spending in haste in the last months of fiscal.

Due to failure to spend on the part of the government, its treasury still has Rs 170 billion unspent, according to Nepal Rastra Bank, which is the highest over last four-five

years. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, former vice-chair-man of the National Planning Commission, said it was the abnormal year for Nepal with Gorkha Earthquake and pro-longed blockade, but blaming them only for poor expendi-ture would not help the cause.

“There is a tendency to allo-cate budget to politically moti-vated projects in the last quar-ter of the fiscal year to accel-erate spending,” said Pokharel, adding that such tendency must be avoided while diverting the resources for better performing large infrastructure projects.

>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Government agencies need to work effectively to speed up reconstruction,” said Deuba. “If government mechanisms fail to spend the budget, just by mobilising [party] cadres will not yield results.”

On budget, Deuba said that the government should hold pre-budget discussion before bringing the policies and pro-grammes. Along with the main opposition, the ruling parties too criticised the gov-ernment during the meeting.

Stating that the govern-ment has failed to take mean-ingful steps to resolve the Madhes crisis, senior Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Pashupati Shumsher Rana said, “Parties and the govern-ment should first make their position public regarding two provinces in the Madhes.”

Leaders of the ruling UCPN (Maoist) also criticised the government for putting the Madhes issue on the back burner, while fringe parties asked the government to be serious about Madhes issues.

DPM Thapa, who is also the chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N), said he was ready to resign “if it helps to resolve the Madhes problem”.

“I am ready to step down from the political mecha-nism,” said Thapa.

After scathing remarks from various leaders, PM Oli said that demands of Madhes-based parties “should be addressed through dialogue and consensus”.

“The government is ready to hold negotiations with the Madhes-based parties,” PM Oli told the meeting.

>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Nepal received 890,298 job demands in the first nine months, including 529,965 quotas from Qatar, slightly less than total job demands received in the given period a year earlier. Nepal had received 997,009 in the same period a year earlier, includ-ing 474,452 demands from Qatar. “In fact, we are receiv-ing nearly three times more demands after the introduc-tion of the free-visa-free-tick-et scheme. We are expecting it to grow once Malaysia lifts ban on hiring of new foreign workers,” said a DoFE offi-cial.

PM gets an earful for keeping ...

FEWER ... Secretaries told to expedite spending

ROW OVER CADRE DEPLOYMENTKATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Oli has proposed joint mobilisation of party volun-teers for building shelters for earthquake survivors before monsoon begins.

The PM said it could create an unhealthy competition if the parties deployed their cad-res separately. “We should keep a record of all volunteers and launch a joint campaign for a month,” PM Oli told an all-party meeting on Saturday. He said he would ask the rebuilding authority to set up a system to monitor the relief costs of domestic and interna-tional organisations. (PR)

Community hospitals ineligible for grantsPOST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Community hospitals inside Kathmandu Valley will not be eligible for government grants and that priority will be given to hospitals outside the Capital, according to a new directive on community hos-pital grants prepared by the Ministry of Health.

Lack of transparency by the grant receiving hospitals and political meddling has forced the ministry to come

up with the directives, bar-ring all hospitals operating inside the Valley from receiv-ing the grant.

“Community Hospital Grants Directives-2016”, for-mulated recently by the Ministry of Health in its bid to regulate the money given to community hospitals as incentives. Last year, the then finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat created a stir allocating Rs20 million to BP Smriti Hospital, Basundhara. The Manmohan Memorial

Community Hospital, Thamel and Mahendra Narayan Nidhi Hospital, Gaushala also received Rs50 million in gov-ernment grants.

The directives has set six criteria each with different weightage for these hospitals to apply for the grant. Under the criteria, work experience carries 5 points; existing human resources and special-ity service (15 points); infra-structure (10 points); service in rural areas (20 points); free service or service charge (45

points) and report (5 points). “To qualify for the grant,

each hospital should secure at least 40 points before a com-mittee led by chief of curative division at the ministry reviews the documents and decides on the matter,” said Mahendra Shrestha, the min-istry spokesperson.

“Importantly, no hospitals run with an intention of mak-ing profit or sharing of profit among stakeholders can apply for the grant.”

While releasing the docu-

ment, the ministry will pro-vide first 50 percent of the budget and the rest following the review.

Recently, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority had instructed the ministry to develop guidelines before releasing grants to the hospitals.

Shrestha said these direc-tives will ensure accountabili-ty and notify the Auditor General’s Office, which has been complaining of arrears in its audit reports.

UP TO 19,000 CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL IN KAPILVASTUMANOJ PAUDELKAPILVASTU, APRIL 30

Up to 19,000 children in Kapilvastu district are out of school even as the District Education Office (DEO) has been organising enrolment campaigns for the past few years. Fifty-five percent of them are girls.

According to records at the DEO, 12,000 children were not enrolled in schools two years ago. District Education Officer Hari Gautam said the campaign has been ineffec-tive.

In Kapilvastu Municipality, the number of children who do not go to school is around 1,500. “We need to conduct a separate campaign to enroll them in schools,” said Gautam, stressing the need for making parents aware of the importance of educating their children.

The DEO data shows that 17,000 children aged between five and 12 years have no access to education. DEO offi-cial Baburam Bhattarai said many of them are out of school due to the poverty of their families.

There are several causes of dropout. Narendra Chaudhary, a teacher at Chhatrapali Tirthadevi Higher Secondary School, said the authorities con-cerned should identify the problems and implement programmes to attract chil-dren to school.

“Many have quit school due to a lack of child-friendly instruction,” Chaudhary informed.

Most of the children deprived of education are from marginalised and impoverished communities such as Dalits.

There are 105,000 students studying at 427 community schools in the district.

Lack of transparency in Valley hospitals and political meddling force ministry to deny funds

thekathmandu postnews 04Sunday, May 1, 2016

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n Young children from the Newari community perform rituals while taking part in Bel Bibaha (ritual marriage) in Kathmandu. The two-day ceremony, usually held several times a year in the Capital’s historic durbar square, sees pre-pubescent girls ‘marry’ the Hindu deity, Vishnu, symbolised by the local ‘bel’ fruit. The centuries-old custom is believed to protect girls from the stigma of widowhood by ensuring that a Newari woman’s first husband—the god—will inevitably outlive her mortal spouse. AFP/RSS

Girls ‘wed’ Hindu god to protect from widowhood

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

It’s a big day for nine-year-old Nepali schoolgirl Riddhima Shrestha and her three-year-old sister, Ishita, as they dress up in silk brocade and gold jewellery, preparing to wed a Hindu god.

The two sisters are among dozens of girls taking part in the “ihi” or “bel bibaha” cere-mony—a coming-of-age ritual practised by Kathmandu’s indigenous Newar communi-ty, whose customs combine elements of Hinduism and Buddhism. The two-day cere-

mony, usually held several times a year in the capital’s historic durbar (royal) square, sees pre-pubescent girls “marry” the Hindu deity, Vishnu, symbolised by the local “bel” fruit.

The centuries-old custom is believed to protect girls from

the stigma of widowhood by ensuring that a Newari wom-an’s first husband—the god—will inevitably outlive her mortal spouse.

During the ceremony, girls hold the bel fruit, also known as a wood apple, in one palm and touch a statue of the god with the other, symbolically giving Vishnu their hand in marriage.

The girl’s parents also secure their place in heaven by performing “kanyadaan”—the practice of giving away one’s daughter in marriage—according to the priests who conduct the ceremony.

“These are traditions hand-ed down by our ancestors, we have to follow them and keep them alive. It is our culture,” said Dipendra Shrestha, father of the two girls.

After the rituals end, with gifts for the bride followed by a feast for family and friends, it’s back to school for third-grader Riddhima, who is the first of her classmates to go through the ceremony.

“My friends were curious about it, it was fun to tell them about it,” Riddhima told AFP.

“I really enjoyed myself, I felt like a grown-up, like a bride.”

Two more die of flu-like disease in Humla VDCPOST REPORTHUMLA, APRIL 30

Two more persons have died of flu-like disease at Rodikot VDC, taking the toll in Humla district to 18 in the past three weeks.

Raj Bahadur Aidi, a local from Rodikot, said that Kalendra Rokaya and Riuli Rokaya, both 60, of Rahadeu died on Friday due to the sea-sonal flu. Some other villagers have been taken ill.

Sixteen people died due to the similar symptoms at Raya, Syada, and Madana VDCs in

the district. The elderly peo-ple and children have been greatly affected with the dis-ease. People suffering from the disease have symptoms, including headache, fever and common cold.

Contary to District Public Health Office’s claim of send-

ing medical teams in the affected area, the villagers complain the shortage of medicines. “The disease is spreading but there are not medicines in the village,” said Krishna Prasad Jaisi of Rodikot, adding that elderly people suffering from asthma are hit hardest by the disease.

According to Bhim Bahadur Rokaya, the non-gazetted fist class officer at the District Administration Office, there is shortage of supply of medi-cines at Saya, Barai, Gothi, Shreenagar among other vil-lages in the district.

Daulichaur folk find a way to contain alcohol problemBASANTA PRATAP SINGHBAJHANG, APRIL 30

Daulichaur, a remote village in Bajhang district, has found a noble method to develop-ment infrastructure: Using the fines collected for drink-ing and selling alcohol in development works.

The villagers have con-structed a concrete school building, a temple and carried out other development activi-ties with the money they col-lected as penalty for consum-ing alcohol. In the village notorious for murder and domestic violence, they have launched a campaign to curb alcohol abuse--the root cause of those problems.

Gorakh Bahadur Bohara, the chairman of Daulichaur Alcohol Control Committee, said the committee had collected around Rs1.6 million as penalty in the past couple of years. According to him, the amount was used to con-struct a four-room school building, a temple and a Chautaro (public resting place). The amount was also used to install solar

panel at a local health post. “We have decided to initiate

the campaign as the village was infamous for violence caused by the consumption of alcohol. Some people were reluctant initially to join the campaign, but the majority of them supported us as we start-

ed using the money collected from penalties for develop-ment activities,” said Bohara, adding more than 100 people have been fined.

The committee charges a fine of Rs10,000 for consuming alcohol and Rs20,000 for sell-ing liquor in the village.

Three years ago, two per-sons were killed in Daulichaur when a drunken brawl turned ugly. The hostility between two fractions in the village persisted for months, forcing some families to leave the vil-lage for fear of retribution.

VDC Secretary Krishna Raj Joshi has hailed the commit-tee’s effort to maintain peace in the area. “Alcohol is the main cause of the violence in the village. The violent activi-ties have decreased signifi-cantly since the launching of the anti-alcohol campaign,” he said.

Taking a leaf out of Daulichaur book, locals in adjoining areas Surma VDC and Mayana, and Suila settle-ments in Jayaprithivi Municipality have now start-ed the similar campaign.

Parents also secure their place in heaven by per-

forming ‘kanyadaan’—the practice of giving away

one’s daughter in marriage

Custom is believed to ensure that the god will outlive her mortal spouse

BOY DROWNS IN DARAUDI

GORKHA: A 14-year-old boy drowned in the Daraudi river at Chhebetar, Gorkha, on Saturday. Police identi-fied the victim as Sushil Baram of Pandrung VDC in the district.

The teenager, who had been staying at the Gorkha district head-quarters, had ventured out to swim. Hordes of people from Gorkha Bazaar come to the river, some 20km away, for washing clothes and bathing due to a shortage of water there in the recent days. (PR)

People suffering from the disease have

symptoms, including headache, fever and

common cold

Three years ago, two persons were killed in the remote village in

Bajhang when a drunken brawl turned ugly

worldkathmandu postthe

PG 05 | SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

China wants cooperation with JapanBeijing wants to establish a relationship with Japan based on “cooperation, not confrontation”, China’s for-eign minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart Saturday. Various territorial and historical disputes have soured bilateral relations in the past, but they have thawed more recently. Fumio Kishida was on a three-day visit to China.

Kenya seeks ban on tusk tradeKenya’s president Saturday set fire to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than 1 ton of rhino horn, believed to be the largest stockpile ever destroyed, in a dramatic statement against the trade in ivory and products from endangered species. Uhuru Kenyatta put a flame to the biggest of 11 pyres of ivory tusks.

Sweden celebrates king’s 70th birthdayRoyals from around the world flew in, loyal Swedes lined the streets of Stockholm and the sounds of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” rang out from an army band on Saturday as Sweden celebrated King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 70th birthday. A service in the palace chapel was attended by the king’s family and royal visitors from Japan, Spain, among others.

Kenya buiilding collapse death toll hits sevenNAIROBI: The death toll from the collapse of a six-storey building in Kenya’s capital has risen to seven and the number of injured stands at 121, police said on Saturday, as rescue operations con-tinued to pull others from under the rubble. The building collapsed in Nairobi’s Huruma resi-dential estate late on Friday after days of heavy rains that have left several parts of the city flooded. “Seven people are confirmed dead and 121 people have been res-cued and rushed to vari-ous hospitals in Nairobi,” Japheth Koome, Nairobi County police boss said.

Afghan forces launch push against TalibanKABUL: Government forc-es have launched opera-tions against the Taliban in 18 provinces of Afghanistan as fighting has intensified since the start of the insurgents’ spring offensive this month, the ministry of defense said on Saturday. The operations, backed by air power and artil-lery have been concen-trated in areas where the Taliban insurgents have been aggressively chal-lenging government forc-es seeking to reassert control over districts.

Bangladesh tailor hacked to deathCHITTAGONG: A Hindu tailor has been hacked to death in Bangladesh, police say, the latest of a number of such killings in the country. Nikhil Joarder, who was in his early 50s, was attacked as he sat outside his shop in Tangail on Saturday afternoon. Police said he had been arrested in 2012 for allegedly making derogatory comments about Islam. (AGENCIES)

NEWS DIGEST

C M Y K

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEPRAGUE, APRIL 30

Czech Republic and/or Czechia? Ever since gaining independence after their peaceful split with Slovakia in 1993, the Czechs have been poring over a correct short form for their country’s name.

Led by President Milos Zeman, Czech officials fed up with seeing often wrong and chaotically used names for the Czech Republic launched a campaign this month that should end the dispute once and for all.

“I use the word Czechia because it sounds nicer and it’s shorter than the cold Czech Republic,” Zeman once said.

The Czechs are going to propose that the United Nations registers the names of “Czechia” in English, “Tchequie” in French, “Chequia” in Spanish and

“Tschechien” in German as trans-lations of the Czech version, “Cesko”. These are still subject to approval by the Czech govern-ment, and will be used wherever the longer, formal name is not required.

“The name ‘Czechia’ will not replace the full official name of the Czech Republic,” the foreign ministry says on its website.

The relationship between the two will be similar to that of France with its official name, the French Republic.

But the issue has sparked con-troversy even inside the Czech centre-left government.

“I disagree with the name ‘Czechia’,” Regional Development Minister Karla Slechtova said, adding: “I don’t want people to confuse our country with Chechnya.”

To which the foreign ministry

retorted: “Poor geographical knowledge cannot be a reason for not using a country’s name.”

It pointed out there are plenty

of countries with similar-sound-ing monikers, from Niger and Nigeria to Slovakia and Slovenia.

Czechs living abroad sometimes

face other unexpected problems when telling people where they were born. “I prefer to say I’m from Prague,” says Ivana Schachnerova, living in Italy since 1989.

“When I say I’m Czech (ceca), everyone will help me cross the street,” confusing the word for “cieca” or “blind”.

Even the Czech language does not have a generally accepted short name for the territory which was once the Bohemian Kingdom (Regnum Bohemiae) before becoming part of the Habsburg Monarchy.

In 1918 it was incorporated in the newly-established Czechoslovakia and then turned into the Czech Republic when Czechoslovakia split in 1993, four years after shedding its totalitarian Communist rule of four decades.

The search for a short name has been a puzzler in a land that was founded, according to ancient leg-end, by the mythological “Forefather Cech”.

It comprises the historic regions of Bohemia (Cechy) with 6.5 million inhabitants, Moravia (Morava, 3 million) and Silesia (Slezsko, one million).

A number of proposals have surfaced since 1993, including Morce, an acronym for Morava-Cechy which means “guinea-pig” in Czech.

In the end, “Cesko” prevailed as top choice, despite opposition from many including former pres-ident Vaclav Havel, who once said he felt like “having slugs creeping down” his body upon hearing the name. But those promoting great-er regional autonomy insist that the word “Cesko” ignores both Moravia and Silesia.

My name? Make it simple: Czechia!I N D E P E N D E N C E H E A DAC H E

Violence rages in Syria’s AleppoAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEALEPPO, APRIL 30

Terrified residents fled a new wave of air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria’s second city Aleppo on Saturday, as a “freeze” in fighting held on two other fronts.

Aleppo was left out of the temporary US-Russian bro-kered truce, which appeared intact in the regime strong-hold of Latakia as well as Damascus and the nearby rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta.

In Aleppo’s rebel-held east, dozens of civilians left the battered district of Bustan al-Qasr early on Saturday morning, an AFP correspond-ent said.

“The situation has become unbearable,” Abu Mohammed said as he prepared to flee with his wife and five chil-dren.

“One of my kids is terrified by the bombing and no one has been buying anything from my shop for a week,” said the household appliance salesman. “Everything is par-alysed.”

Once Syria’s economic hub, Aleppo and its surrounding countryside have suffered some of the worst fighting in a conflict that has killed more than 270,000 people and dis-placed millions.

The city has been divided between regime control in the west and rebel control in the east since 2012.

More than 246 civilians have died in shelling, rocket

fire and air strikes in both sides of the city since April 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

At least six civilians died in rebel-controlled areas on Saturday, including Bab al-Na-irab and Bustan al-Qasr dis-tricts, the civil defence said.

The few people out on the streets in the city’s east

watched the sky anxiously for regime aircraft, running for shelter when one launched a new raid.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies of a wide network of sources on the ground, reported 28 air strikes on the area.

Some families have fled to safer districts nearby. Others

left by the dangerous Castello road, the only route out of near-besieged east Aleppo that has been targeted by air strikes and shelling.

Hospitals have also been bombed in nine days of esca-lating violence in Aleppo.

A total of four medical facilities were hit in Aleppo Friday on both sides of the

front line, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A raid on Wednesday hit a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross as well as nearby hous-ing, killing 30 people in an attack UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned as “inexcusable”.

That strike also killed

Mohammad Wassim Maaz, one of the last paediatricians in the rebel-held side of the city.

Samar Hijazi, head of the archives at the hospital, said the doctor was “totally devot-ed” to his patients.

“He examined about a hun-dred children a day,” she said. “The hospital was almost his home. He stayed until late at night.”

“I once saw him crying because he hadn’t managed to save a child with internal bleeding after being shot by a sniper,” she said.

Hospitals still operating in rebel areas are very few and “medical staff is exhausted,” she said.

On other fronts, fighting halted at 1:00 am Saturday (2200 GMT Friday) in a “freeze” set to last for 24 hours in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta, and 72 hours Latakia.

In northeastern Syria, a suicide bomber killed five Kurdish policemen at a check-point in the city of Qamishli, police said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) group has claimed previ-ous bombings in the mainly Kurdish city.

The violence in Aleppo has severely tested a February 27 truce between the regime and non-jihadist rebels intended to pave the way to an end to the five-year conflict.

A new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on May 10 in Geneva.

n A civilian evacuates a baby from a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel held area of Aleppo’s al-Fardous district, Syria, on Saturday. REUTERS

The region was left out of the temporary US-Russian brokered truce which appears intact in other places

Hundreds die of heat wave in IndiaASSOCIATED PRESSPATNA, APRIL 30

With sizzling temperatures claiming more than 300 lives this month in India, officials said they were banning day-time cooking in some parts of the drought-stricken country in a bid to prevent accidental fires that have killed nearly 80 more people.

The eastern state of Bihar this week took the unprece-dented step of forbidding any cooking between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., after accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages and killed 79 people. They includ-ed 10 children and five adults killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in Bihar’s Aurangabad district last week. People were instead told to cook to night.

Hoping to prevent more fires, officials have also barred burning spent crops or holding religious fire rituals. Anyone defying the ban risks

up to a year in jail.“We call this the fire season

in Bihar,” Vyas, a state disas-ter management official who goes by one name, said Friday. “Strong, westerly winds stoke fires which spread easily and

cause great damage.”Much of India is reeling

under a weekslong heat wave and severe drought conditions that have decimated crops, killed livestock and left at least 330 million Indians with-

out enough water for their daily needs.

Rivers, lakes and dams have dried up in parts of the west-ern states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, and overall offi-cials say that groundwater

reservoirs are at just 22 per-cent capacity.

In some areas, the situation is so bad the government has sent tankers of water for emergency relief. Monsoon rains are still weeks away, expected to start only in June.

At least 300 people have died of heat-related illness this month, including 110 in the state of Orissa, 137 in Telangana and another 45 in Andhra Pradesh where tem-peratures since the start of April have been hovering around 44 degrees Celsius.

That’s about 4-5 degrees Celsius hotter than normal for April, according to state meteorological official Y.K. Reddy. He predicted the situa-tion would only get worse in May, traditionally the hottest month in India. The southern state of Andhra Pradesh is running ads on TV and in newspapers urging people to stay indoors during the hot-test hours. Construction and farm laborers are advised to seek shade when the sun is directly overhead.

Shia protesters storm Iraq House

BBCBAGHDAD, APRIL 30

Iraqi Shia activists have stormed parliament in pro-test against ongoing dead-lock in approving a new cabinet.

Hundreds of supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr broke through gates of the protected Green Zone after MPs again failed to convene for a vote.

The protesters are reported to have begun ransacking parliament buildings.

Sadr wants Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to press ahead with a plan to replace ministers with non-partisan technocrats.

Powerful parties in par-liament have refused to

approve the change for sev-eral weeks. A protest out-side the Green Zone escalat-ed after parliament again failed to reach a quorum on Saturday, AFP news agency reports.

It said the protesters stopped lawmakers attempting to flee the build-ing chanting, “the cowards ran away!”

Iraq’s system of sharing government jobs has long been criticised for pro-moting unqualified candi-dates and encouraging corruption.

Abadi, who came to power in 2014, has prom-ised to stamp out corrup-tion and ease sectarian ten-sions—but he has failed to far to introduce a new tech-nocratic cabinet.

n Followers of Iraq’s Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are seen in the parliament as they storm Baghdad’s Green Zone in Iraq on Saturday. REUTERS

Sizzling temperatures claim over 300 lives n Parts of the country ban daytime cooking

n Indian village women collect drinking water from an almost dried up well at Talad village in Samba, some 40 kilometres from Jammu, India, on Friday. AP

n A vendor displays a t-shirt with a sign Czechia in a gift shop in Prague. REUTERS

Russia defends US plane interceptionREUTERSMOSCOW, APRIL 30

Russia said on Saturday it had sent a fighter plane on Friday to intercept a US aircraft approaching its border over the Baltic Sea because the American plane had turned off its transponder, which is needed for identification.

The Pentagon said the US Air Force RC-135 plane had been flying a routine route in international airspace and that the Russian SU-27 fighter had intercepted it in an “unsafe and unprofessional” way. CNN reported that the Russian jet had come within about 100 feet of the US plane and had performed a barrel roll. “All flights of Russian planes are conducted in accordance with internation-al regulations on the use of airspace,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

“The US Air Force has two solutions: either not to fly near our borders or to turn the transponder on for identi-

fication.” Friday’s incident underlines rising tensions between Russia and the United States over eastern Europe. NATO has said it plans its biggest build-up in the region since the Cold War to counter what the it consid-ers to be an aggressive Russia.

The Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which joined NATO in 2004, have requested higher and perma-nent presence of the alliance, fearing a threat from Russia after it annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. The Kremlin denies any intentions to attack the Baltic countries, but it has often said that they have become an aggressive “Russophobic kernel” pushing NATO towards a consistently anti-Russian course.

“We are already starting to get used to the insults of the Pentagon regarding alleged ‘unprofessional’ manoeuvres when our fighters intercept US spy planes at the Russian border,” the defence ministry said in its statement.

The new constitution is said to have been enforced, but it is a half-truth. In fact, the constitution is not even a complete document. It says Nepal is a “federal democratic

republic”, but where is the “federal” structure? Seven regions have been demarcated as federal provinces, but after the endorsement of the constitu-tion, the whole country was held hos-tage by agitating forces. The govern-ment responded by partially amending the constitution, which was rejected by the protesting groups.

The first thing to do to implement the constitution is to settle the dispute through dialogue and negotiation. The government claims that the amend-ment has settled all major issues. But the revolting Madhesi Morcha does not agree. The process of dialogue seems to have been suspended after PM Oli’s Delhi visit. Seriousness is required from both the sides.

Set of pre-requisites A complete checklist of things to do for the full implementation of the con-stitution should have been prepared in the very first week or at least the first month of its promulgation. But no care seems to have been given in this regard. Let’s start with the time frame. Roughly, two and a quarter years were left for current Parliament to complete the state restructuring process and conduct elections for next Parliament. More than half a year has passed, but no action has been initiated. If the restructuring is not completed by that date, there will be a constitutional cri-sis. Parliament cannot extend its ten-ure. The Cabinet cannot survive with-out the support of Parliament. The

country will be left in the hands of the President and the Vice President. Is this what the present government wants?

Another pre-requisite is the passage of over a hundred new laws or the amendment of old laws regarding the restructuring from a unitary state to a federal one. This requires not only a seriousness of purpose, which is lack-ing, but also a considerable stretch of time for Parliament and the various committees. Many acts of restructur-ing cannot even begin without the presence of the concerned laws and by laws. The government has formed a committee under the leadership of the PM to direct the course of the imple-mentation of the constitution. But in this lone act too, two oversights have been noted. First, the Nepali Congress (NC) was not consulted and second, the minister of Local Development and Federal Affairs was excluded from the said committee. Such flawed approach-es are the result of a lack of foresight in the leadership.

Future hurdles One urgent pre-condition is the identi-

fication of the provincial or state capi-tal for each of the seven or more prov-inces finally agreed upon by all the political forces. Identification of the capital can be a thorny issue in itself. The power of determining the provincial capital seems to have been vested in the state legislature, which cannot be formed in the foreseeable future. But as several regions, populat-ed by diverse communities, are involved, each community would exert pressure to locate the capital in the area where they have greater presence, leading to disputes. The political par-ties are not particularly known for their wisdom of moderation and medi-ation. So a cold war will surface, requiring the highest level of interven-tion.

After selecting the capitals, other problems—such as building of infra-structures including access to road networks, supply of drinking water, electric lines, projects to construct buildings to house the legislature, the cabinet and the high court, innumera-ble state level government offices and residences for important functionar-ies—will arise. Given the record of the

speed of construction works in Nepal in the public sector, such massive con-struction programmes cannot be com-pleted in a decade even if resources are made available within a reasonable time frame. All these construction works will need budgetary resources far beyond the capability of the government. So we might need to bor-row money for this purpose, but the necessary preparedness is not visible in any corner.

The oppositionThe process of federalisation has prov-en to be a problem that the political parties have failed to cope with. The NC claims to actively engage in the process of implementation, but it has opted to stay in the opposition. If it seriously intends to engage in the implementation, it should be willing to help the government. But it is claim-ing to play the role of ‘constructive opposition’, whatever that is intended to connote. In the general political par-lance, an opposition is an ideological position which tries to keep the gov-ernment in track. The obvious goal of the opposition party, however, is to drive away the government with the motive to replace it. So the rhetoric of offering constructive opposition is an ornamental coating to conceal the real motive.

The constitution has been brought to the present state by the collective effort of the NC, the CPN-UML, the UCPN (Maoist) and some smaller par-ties. It is the moral responsibility of the big parties, particularly the NC, to continue collaboration, and finalise and implement the constitution. This responsibility cannot be accomplished by playing the role of the opposition. It is an urgent necessity to bring the fed-eral republic into existence, for both the establishment and the opposition to play their respective roles. Both of them should realise that Nepal is still undergoing a dark transition. If the republic fails, the opposition will have no one but itself to oppose!

Sharma is a political analyst

thekathmandu postfree the words 06Sunday, May 1, 2016

India’s former ambassador to Nepal and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran’s article titled ‘Kathmandu’s triumphal-ism about China is misplaced’ appeared in the op-ed pages of the Hindustan Times on March 31. The

write-up, which covered issues like the Madhes agitation, Nepal’s ties with China and Indian nationals of ‘nepali-hill origin’, is a clear manifestation of the growing frustration of a section of the Indian ruling class and its associates over Nepal’s recent political develop-ment and ties with China.

A resident of Bihar’s bordering area with Nepal and also someone who played an important role in the signing of the 12-point accord between the then Seven-Party Alliance and the Maoists of Nepal, Saran’s interest in Nepal is quite under-standable. But while his observations are thoroughly one-sided, his statements are, more often than not, factually incor-rect. As someone who believes in the theo-ry that India’s smaller neighbours, par-ticularly Nepal, should remain under its ‘influence’, Saran does not conceal his disdain of Nepal’s new constitution which was promulgated defying Delhi’s dictates. Naturally, he is also unhappy with Nepal’s increasing closeness with China, especial-ly with regard to the recent transit treaty signed between the two. I have, therefore, some questions for Mr Saran.

Clarification pleaseI’ll begin with your statement that says “As India’s ambassador, I had formally requested that India should be enabled to engage in trade with China through Nepal…(But) this was studiously ignored”. Given Nepali leader’s yearn-ing to make Nepal a ‘bridge’ (of trade) between her two giant neighbours, this revelation does not sound convincing, especially when you have not given any details. Could you therefore, prove or substantiate your allegations please?

You also claim that “China has over the past several years, built a number of highways across the Nepal-Tibet border linking up with Nepal’s East-West high-way”. The fact is that not a single north-south road that connects the Chinese border to the East-West highway (which lies in the southern belt of the Tarai) exists in this country. Kodari highway, which is in use since half a century, links Kathmandu with China. The still under-construction Syafrubesi road links Tibet’s Kerung with Galchhi along the Kathmandu-Pokhara highway (which was also built by the Chinese some 45 years ago). Similarly, a couple of high-altitude roads, like one each in

Mustang and Humla will, when complet-ed, link with Tibet’s bordering towns. And, these roads are not built for mili-tary purposes; they are essential for the development of the rugged Himalayan region of northern Nepal and for the live-lihood of people living there. They are also too far away from the Indian border.

With regard to Nepal’s contentment over the recent signing of the first ever transit treaty and other agreements of cooperation with China, you opine that “problem with Kathmandu’s misplaced triumphalism is that it may encourage the capi-tal’s elite to close the door to political compromise with Madhesis and Janajatis.” Your appre-hension that with China’s backing, Kathmandu will backtrack from compro-mises reached with its own people is outrageous, to say the least. You are trying to undermine, albeit indirectly, Nepal’s elected Constituent Assembly (CA) that endorsed the consti-tution as ‘capital’s elite’. In some way, you are also alleging that our democracy is not inclusive. Mr Saran, could you answer, where was your inclusive democ-racy when over one hundred thousand Bhutanese Nepalis or Lhotsampas (one-sixth of the total population of Bhutan) were forcibly exiled into Nepal with your full complicity? Where was your ‘political compromise’ when you refused to honour your own promise made in the UN to conduct a plebiscite in Kashmir, and, instead, resorted to oppression there?

The ‘Pahadi-Madhesi’ cardYou also “warn (Kathmandu) against projecting the ‘Pahadi-Madhesi’ divide as Nepal-India issue”, something which you argue will pose a “threat to Nepal’s (own) unity and political stability.” Rest assured Mr Saran, Nepali people are not fools to pursue such a self-destructive course. People of Nepal, as well as the international community, know very well who is playing the ‘Pahadi-Madhesi’ card and why.

You further argue that “to equate them (the Madhesis) with Indians is as pernicious as is the convenient silence over the vast number of Indian citizens who are of Nepali Pahari origin.” Mr Saran, let me clarify two things in this regard. First, although the major politi-cal parties of Nepal that enjoyed the majority vote of the Madhesis during the last CA election have seri-ous differences with lead-ers of the Madhesi parties

on a number of issues, they never equate their Madhesi brethren with Indians. Second, as far as the ‘Pahadi-Madhesi divide’ is concerned, fuelling it will do no good to India either that has a sub-stantial population of hill-people which includes, among others, people of Nepali descent. Your veiled threats toward Nepali speaking Indians who already are one of the marginalised communities of your country are provocative, unwar-ranted and uncalled for—at least in the present context. They also defy the val-ues of multiculturalism and inclusive democracy, nourished by the likes of

Mahatma Gandhi, Pundit Nehru and Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Future topicsYou are also worried that “China is mak-ing inroads into our sub-continental neighbourhood, posing economic and security challenges.” Sir, your continued ‘Sino-phobia’ from the war days of 1960s is totally outdated; it reflects neither the ground reality nor the globalised think-ing of the 21st century. All the same, you are free to live with your phobia; but we as an independent nation want to culti-vate and maintain equally good relation-ship with China too, for our mutual bene-fit and for the benefit of all in the region.

So much for whatever you have writ-ten. Any Indian ambassador to Nepal will certainly have many more to write about and reveal. We know that Kathmandu does not only have the largest Indian mission, a Kathmandu posting is also the most prized posting for any Indian diplomat, mainly because of the clout Indian diplomats enjoy in Nepal’s power circles. Anecdotes of India’s micro-management in Nepal’s internal affairs, adventures of its hegem-onic and interventionist Nepal policy that has, more or less, remained unchanged since the colonial days, blockades occa-sionally used as tools of political bar-gain, stories behind the inking of the 12-point accord, covert and overt opera-tions of RAW in this country (to whatev-er extent an ambassador has the knowl-edge of) and so on are the subject we want to hear from you. We will wait for your next article (a book is even more welcome) that may throw light on topics like these, provided you maintain objectivity and factual correctness unlike this time.

Moment of reckoning

Poachers prevail You are wrong Shyam Saran!Saran’s observations are thoroughly one-sided and his statements are for the most part factually incorrect

Two months ago, India’s Ministry of Health raided the kingpin of the illegal oxytocin trade of the country. He is a lowly employee of the

Municipal Corporation of Kolkata with five houses, and many godowns stuffed with oxytocin, a powerful hormone, and other ille-gal drug codeine, sleep-inducing and analgesic drug. Both items have been flown in from China regularly by Fed Ex which has been doing a roaring business in shipping illegal drugs and wildlife trophies across the world. Fed Ex has not been hauled up as yet. If they are, they will blame a single employee.

Illegal trade In July 2015, an American dentist went on a holiday to Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe and shot the national animal, a lion named Cecil, which he then cut into parts and sent to himself through UPS.

Both Fed Ex and UPS have facil-itated wild life crime across the world. More than 26,000 wild hunt-ing trophies were shipped around the world between 2010 and 2014.This includes thousands of wild animal heads, elephant ears, pan-ther skulls and black bear claws. Other items include turtle eggs, snake skins, panther skulls, alliga-tor skins and rhino horns and leather. These trophies do not include the millions of insects that both these companies have been handling. From India, millions of butterflies have been sent through these international shippers and three species have become extinct. Snake skin exports are common. Foreigners come, pay locals to catch the animals and send them through parcels to foreign coun-tries—unchecked by customs and usually mislabelled. Mongoose

hair, pangolin scales, star tortois-es, even tiger parts are shipped across the planet through UPS and Fed EX. Surprisingly they have not been banned from most countries.

After Cecil the Lion case, they were asked to stop shipping ani-mals and their parts. Both ship-pers have refused. Over 3oo,ooo people have signed petitions pledg-ing not to use these delivery firms in future. But it makes no differ-ence to them. Even after the lion case, they have shipped hundreds of trophies of elephants, wild buf-falo and leopards out of Africa to America. A spokesman for UPS said that it “is strongly against the trafficking or trade of endangered species” but “accepts for shipment taxidermy items that are legally obtained and appropriately docu-mented”. That is an outright lie. No documentation is given or asked for any illegal shipment of wild animals or drugs by either of these two firms.

Keng Liang Wong, a Malaysian wildlife smuggler has been sen-tenced in federal court in San Francisco to 71 months jail and a fine of $60,000 for trafficking in endangered reptile species. The species involved ranged from Komodo Monitors and Plowshare Tortoises which are on the brink of extinction. Wong spearheaded an international smuggling ring that illegally imported and sold more than 300 protected reptiles native to Asia and Africa. He sent regular shipments to the US through Fed Ex. Seven other defendants have been convicted for sending or receiving Fed Ex con-signments, including a FedEx employee Robert Paluch. None of this could have happened without Fed Ex, which brought the reptiles in express delivery packages and large commercial shipments of legally declared animals.

The US is the biggest customer for all illegal wildlife. But while special agents in the Wildlife Service patrol major air and sea-ports, no one is paying attention to Fed Ex, Airborne and other mail carrier hubs. In fact the number of agents has decreased over the last 25 years while wildlife crime has exploded in sales and revenue across the globe. The growth has

been fed by the internet and the parcel carriers. The internet is an unrestricted shopping mall for nat-ural resources and has enabled thousands of illegal transactions from one side of the world to another. Global shipping services are smugglers’ best friends. They do not screen packages but do pro-vide online tracking and delivery confirmation. Dealers use their services regularly as the animals and their parts arrive safely. In one DHL package from Singapore, labelled as toys addressed to a deal-er in California, the US wildlife officials found 51 Indian star tor-toises smuggled out of India.

India is one of the major victims of the parcel trade. We have no sniffer dogs at parcel venues. Even though DHL, Fed Ex, UPS have been caught many times in both drug and animal smuggling, no action is taken against them. India’s Home Ministry has no one patrolling the internet for wild animals / fish / birds that are free-ly advertised by Indian sellers. Some instances are the thousands of painted glass fish being offered, dried seahorses, shark fins, dried fish bladders, butterflies, and scor-pions. Even though there is a ban on all ivory ads, code words are common on the internet and in the shipment service.

No repercussion Sites like Yahoo openly advertise ivory. More than 12 tons of ivory exchanged hands from 2012 to 2014 on Yahoo Japan. With more than 30,000 elephants being killed for their ivory each year, Japan and China have emerged as the drivers of the illegal trade. How did the ivory reach Japan from India and Africa? Fed Ex zindabad. While Google has technically banned ivory sale on its platform, it still has ads for ivory products on its shopping site in Japan.

eBay has been identified as the worst offender in the online trade of endangered wildlife products. The International Fund for Animal Welfare found that 4,300 of 5,200 tracked elephant ivory listings took place on eBay. Amazon explic-itly bans ivory sales. Still, the Environmental Investigation

Agency, in 2013, found that the company allowed thousands of ads for real ivory on its Japanese site. Craigslist was thrust into the spot-light in March 2015 after an inves-tigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare showed more than 600 elephant-related items, worth a total of $1.5 million, were advertised on the website. Only three percent were legally obtained. Craigslist is still selling ivory products and endangered animal parts. When a customer buys an illegal animal item from these sites, who do you think deliv-ers them to your doorstep? The unhampered, unregulated parcel companies. In March 2015 UPS for-feited $40 million to the US govern-ment for shipping drugs from “ille-gal internet pharmacies”. A Grand Jury indicted them for delivering drugs to vacant homes, parking lots where carloads of people are waiting, customers with multiple names and suspicious identifica-tion documents and people who are under watch by the local law enforcement agencies for crim-inal activities. In its defence Fed Ex claims that it is its job to deliver packages. Not to examine packages to make sure they are legal. “We are a transportation company—not law enforcement.” is their cry. This means they can carry on with the criminal smug-gling right under the nose of every government!

Today, over 140 species of sharks are threatened by extinction. An estimated 73 million are killed per year for shark fin soup and 98 per-cent comes from India where shark fin export has been banned. Two international shipping compa-nies—UPS and DHL—publicly declared they will not ship shark fins any more. Fed Ex has refused to take part in the ban. And we refuse to do anything about it.

To join the animal welfare move-

ment contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org

Political parties are not particularly known for their wisdom of moderation and mediation

International shipping companies have been shipping illegal drugs and wildlife trophies

ISSUES & ANALYSIS

JAINENDRA JEEVANjeevan1952@hotmail.com

MANEKA SANJAY GANDHIgandhim@nic.in

HEADS AND TAILS

C M Y K

The internet is an unrestricted shopping mall for natural resources and has enabled thousands of illegal transactions

Apprehension that with China’s

backing, Kathmandu will backtrack from

compromises reached with its own

people is outrageous, to say the least

KHAGENDRA N SHARMA knsad66@yahoo.com

thekathmandu post free the words07 Sunday, May 1, 2016

Letter to the

EDITORHUMAN TRAFFICKINGn It is said that human trafficking is the most heinous of crimes (’16,500 Nepalis trafficked in last two years: NHRC’, April 26, Page 1). But this crime is increasing day by day in our society. Nepal is not the only country facing this crime. A handful of people are expanding this business across the world. Naïve, illiterate and poor rural females in particular easily suc-cumb to the sweet promises of human traffickers.

Therefore, Village Development Committees (VDC) should moni-tor this issue with utmost serious-ness. Awareness campaigns against this scourge must be intensified. The government should also identify communities that are beset by abject poverty and, through the VDCs, offer them the opportunities to learn job-oriented skills and gain employment. Similarly, there should be greater focus on educa-tion so that people cannot easily be entrapped by the human traf-fickers. Only our collective voice and action will eradicate such serious crime in the days to come. So we need to work together to fight against human trafficking and those who engage in and profit from this abominable business.

Saroj Wagle, Dumarwana, Bara

ACT SOONn Many quake victims are still liv-ing and languishing in temporary shelters even after one year of the killer quake. Many of them have not even received relief materials and grant money for buying GI sheets. The government took many months to establish the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), which is still understaffed. It is still struggling to equip it with adequate staff. The expertise of the chief of the NRA has been questioned. However, we still hope that it will realise its vital role and start working with extraordi-nary efficiency.

The quake survivors have kept alive their hopes of receiving the grant money from the govern-ment so that they can rebuild their permanent shelters before the onset of monsoon. However, lengthy bureaucratic process has been a hurdle. It was encouraging to know that around two dozen Nepali Congress lawmakers have now realised that reconstruction is moving slowly and have exerted pressure on Prime Minister KP Oli to expedite the process (‘Congress MPs ask PM to cut through red tape’, April 27, Page 1). PM Oli and his ministers continue to assure the people that the government will leave no stone unturned to help the affect-ed people rebuild their homes before monsoon by releasing the grant money as soon as possible. However, the real problem lies in implementation, both at the cen-tre and the local levels. If the gov-ernment fails to release the grant money and mobilise its machiner-ies soon, more people will lose their lives during the upcoming monsoon. Let’s hope that Nepal will not turn into another Haiti.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj

LOOKING LONDON TALKING TOKYOn Prime Minister KP Oli’s readi-ness to send more workers to South Korea is like ‘Looking London, Talking Tokyo’, a phrase that was widely popular in the Newar Valley to describe people who say one thing and do just the opposite (‘SKorea asked for more job quotas’, April 25, Page 3). For the last several years, people got the impression from the parties’ man-ifestoes and politicians’ speeches that the youths will be employed in the country and will be dis-suaded from going abroad as migrant labourers. But just the opposite has happened; Nepalis have been migrating to the Gulf, Malaysia, Korea, etc. with active instigation from the new ruling class. But readiness is one thing and the outcome can be quite the opposite as Korea has drastically reduced the intake of Nepali workers.

Manohar Shrestha, via email———————

KANTIPUR PUBLICATIONS PVT. LTD., Kantipur Complex, Subidhanagar P. B. No. 8559,

Kathmandu; Nepal Phone: 5135000, Fax: 977-1-5135057, e-mail: kpost@kmg.com.np

C M Y K

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Sixty-nine years ago, India and Pakistan decided to part ways. Lines were drawn on land, water and even in the sky. They took different political

turns. Their relations saw many ups and downs. There have been several instances of open con-flicts. There have been instances where relations almost reached a dead end. But beyond politics, beyond the control of minds, there are hearts which are still full of love and hope.

Following every political clash, there were attempts by the youth and civil societies in both the countries to rekindle the hopes. And each time, they managed to win hearts because they were only bringing out the hidden love and desire for peace, which rests in every heart. An average Indian and Pakistani have the same secret desire to cross the border, at least once. They want to see what people on the other side eat, how they talk, how they look and how they think.

And if what those lucky people who have visited say is to be believed, they will be highly ‘dis-appointed’ because it is just the same there. We share a common history, a common language (even slangs), a common culture and even a common desire. With a huge sense of pride, the third gen-eration will narrate how their grandparents had crossed the bor-der. The images of the past, the nostalgia are still being invoked after 69 years, after all the politi-cal clashes and fluctuating rela-

tions. It shows the common desire which is to build strong ties of friendship and brotherhood. India and Pakistan even have the same political, economic and social challenges to fight. So why keep the falsely constructed distance?

The same happened to us a cou-ple of weeks back when I was in Nepal to attend the Religious Youth Service (RYS2016) event. Representatives from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia, Russia, Sierra Leone and the United Arab Emirates all gathered to talk about peace. Mayank Kurnani was the only Indian while there were five Pakistanis. The very next day, we travelled to Pokhara where our event was scheduled to be held. When we finally reached Pokhara, I got to know that the two of us would be roommates for the next seven days.

During those seven days, we realised that our language and culture were similar. During the Indo-Pak cricket match on March 19, Tahira (another Pakistani col-league) was supporting India because she wanted Mayank not to feel lonely. Our last night in Pokhara was a cultural night. After the host country Nepal’s presentation, Pakistan’s delega-tion started with the national anthem and later performed two popular songs which rocked the floor. We started with ‘Laal Mere’ by Rouna Laila and dedicated the song to all of South Asia. Even Bangladeshi delegates were sur-prised to find out that Pakistanis were the biggest fans of Rouna Laila. Our next performance was ‘Ho-Jamalo’ by Shazia Khushk. We were shocked to know that Indians were also fans of Shazia Khushk. Even Indians and Bangladeshis know how to do the Sindhi Jhomar and Luddi dances.

The next performance was by Mayank from India. He was the only delegate from his country. He started his performance with the Indian national anthem but it was not looking good with only one per-son singing it on the stage. So the Pakistani delegation decided to join him on the stage as most of us know the Indian national anthem (thanks to Indian movies). After we finished, everyone was surprised and clapped at how Pakistanis were taking care of their Indian friend. None of them was expecting this kind of gesture from us since they were under the impression that all of us were enemies due to the media. After that event, all of us sat down together and had another long discussion on how the youth can interact and know the softer and real side of each other. We came to the conclusion that we have to start a youth campaign in the entire Saarc region.

Our first target will be the youth of India and Pakistan and later we will include all the other nationalities. Our only aim is to know the real and peaceful side of all the nations and start a learning process from each other. Adopting good and positive things can lead all of South Asia towards another level of prosperity. Despite so many differences, the European Union can stay together; so why not a South Asian Union? Why not peace, education and health for all of us? Let the barriers be only political ones because, socially and cultural-ly, there are no barriers. These bar-riers have been constructed and have to be demolished. Let’s start #AmanKaSafar.

Shahzad is the director of the Concern for Children Trust and a

former Minister for Information Technology (Youth Parliament

of Pakistan)

Imagine a tree. What do you see? Lush green leaves? Cool and relaxing shades? Mouth watering colourful fruits? Generally trees are considered to be the epitome of natural beau-ty and healthy environment. What if someone

declares that tree plantation could be harmful to our environment? Will people accept such a fact? Probably not. The person making such a claim is likely to be a subject of ridicule. But such a scenario is possible.

Nepal has been promoting tree plantation and conservation mainly to support livelihood and conserve biodiversity. Nepal experienced massive deforestation from 1950s to 1970s. Therefore, in late 1970s, communities attempted to reestablish their lost forest resources in the barren hilly regions of Nepal. A special forest-ry programme known as “Nepal-Australia Forestry Project” was then initiated. Pinus rox-burghii or ‘Chir pine’ (which is known locally as Khote salla) was chosen as one of the prime tree species for this reestablishment pro-gramme. Chir pine was selected because of its high survival rate and for the ease of its estab-lishment. Though Chir pine was planted with a noble objective, little did people know about its fatal consequences.

Slowly, after a decade or two, people started to witness the scenario of drying water resources in the area of pine plantation. Gosaikunda Community Forest of Kavre dis-trict could be taken as an example where water resources are drying up. The residents living near Gosaikunda forest complained about water depletion after the growth of pine trees. Likewise, an experimental study known as thermal dissipation method was conducted in the Gosaikunds forest to measure pine water use. The study revealed that a single pine tree on average uses 13.5 liters of water per day. Depending on the tree size, the figure of up to 70-80 litres per day was recorded during noon when the temperature was more than 20 degrees Celsius. The study also demonstrated

that bigger Chir pine trees consumed more water than the smaller sized ones.

It is not only the water sources that are being affected in the pine stand. Even the soil experi-ences a similar fate. Strong to moderate acidity was observed in the soil in Gosaikund forest. This high level of acidity in the soil is likely to prevent the growth of several diverse plant species in the area. The acidic bed rock of the area could be one of the factors behind the acidic nature of the soil. However, deposition of fresh pine needles may contribute to soil acidity to a certain extent. The possibility of dire consequences brought about by pine nee-dles cannot be ruled out.

In the area with high dominance of the pine trees, other species rarely grow well. High acid-ic nature of soil signifies the presence of less diverse micro organisms in the soil. Smaller population of the soil microorganisms means lesser decomposition of the organic matter, which may affect the fertility of the soil. Fewer microbes could be the reason behind the low soil organic level in the Chir pine forest of Kavre district. Pine needles take a longer time to decompose than other broad leaves. Such slow decomposition is likely to be inefficient in improving soil fertility.

After witnessing the adverse impacts of the pine stand, the user group of Gosaikund Community Forest is now attempting to replace pine with Chilaune (Schima wallichii) and Utis (Alnus nepalensis). Though the users are unsure about the impacts of these two species, they perceive Schima and Alnus to be more suitable than pine. In future, the users are like-ly to establish more diverse broad leaves plant species to form a heterogeneous forest.

Afforestation and reforestation could be quite favorable and affirmative steps in terms of livelihood options. Yet, it is equally signifi-cant to assess the characteristics of any plant species before they are introduced in new areas. It is important that we learn lessons after witnessing the fate of pine tree planta-tion. Since plants, soil, air and water are linked to one another, it is essential to analyse these natural elements and their inter-linkages. Therefore, more forestry research should be carried out along with the monitoring of vari-ous natural elements such as soil, water and vegetation that depend on one another.

Shrestha is a researcher at Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal

QAISER SHAHZAD

ANUSTHA SHRESTHAanusthashrestha@gmail.com

European Union came together despite many differences, so why not a South Asian Union?

Deep rootsThough Chir pine was planted with a noble objective, little did people know about its fatal consequences

There are no reasons to feel nostal-gic about a Nepali iron ruler’s visit to any place in history, nor are our public memories associated with such rulers’ dreams. But when I saw the port of Marseilles for the

first time in 2000, I remembered Jang Bahadur Rana’s visit to Europe in 1850-51 and his emotional outpouring of his love for Europe when he was about to board a return ship. This reference can be found in John Whelpton’s book Jang Bahadur in Europe: The First Nepalese Mission to the West. Enamoured of London in his three-week visit, Jang began saying he would have loved to stay behind as resident ambassador if he had enough money. That transformation of a per-son who had established a family rule after orchestrating the Kot massacre in 1846, who, we can guess, must have been deeply damaged by the rough and tumble of his power-sav-vy career, and who was clever enough to convince the British to receive him as the raja of a country in South Asia—something denied to his predecessors—is a remarkable subject of study in its own right.

When I read the second edition of Whelpton’s book with coloured photo-graphs and more commentaries pub-lished a few days ago by Mandala Book Point in Kathmandu, I was struck by a number of issues and narratives. As before, I turned to that section in which, to the chagrin of his brothers, Jang

expresses his reluctance to leave Europe. The desperate brothers had to ask Cavenagh to persuade him to return. Whelpton’s commentary speaks volumes about the mind of a pow-er-mongering ruler. “When he had final-ly set sail from Marseilles on board HMS Growler, Jang wrote a sort of poetic farewell to Europe, in which he stated that he should look upon his visit as a dream which could never recur…He agreed his idea was impossible but said he would still like to have some of his children educated in Britain”. This archetype of ‘foreign’ love that Nepali rulers of different hues, denominations and eras have carried is perhaps a sub-ject that we have explored very little. The idea of sending one’s children abroad for better education and, if things go as expected, even settling there one-self, has perhaps become normal. But this is not exclusive to the Nepali ruling

class. Postcolonial stud-ies have revealed more of this psyche.

Roads and politicsWhelpton has used one other reference to the construction of a road linking Nepal to the British Raj. Jang did not want a road linking Nepal to the British India for fear of going down in his-tory ‘as the author of his own country’s destruc-

tion’, because he believed that would be tantamount to inviting Britain to take over Nepal. A different historical inci-dent of a dictator’s psyche about con-structing roads can be recalled here. King Mahendra built the Kathmandu-Kodari road in the sixties but he had a different psyche about going down in history by building a road linking a big power to Nepal. It is interesting to recall this road imagery in relation to a dicta-tor’s psyche of inviting a big power to take over Nepal by building a road. In the context of sorting out difficulties in the reopening the Kathmandu-Kodari

highway following the damage caused by last year’s earthquake, it becomes even more interesting. However, King Mahendra, answering a journalist’s query, had said, he did not believe com-munism would come to Nepal by riding a car. Having said that, Whelpton’s Jang reveals an entirely different context of geo-political relationship including the narratives of power. Though this trans-lated text, as Whelpton says, is not

much of an authentic and serious mate-rial, it constitutes an important aspect of the narrative of history that speaks, among other things, about the quirks and unease, appeasement and contain-ment of relationships among nations, especially in relation to the burgeoning colonial power.

Academic significanceOut of the five or so different versions,

Whelpton uses the 1957 version that Kamal Mani Dixit published because I had made this available to him in London towards the end of 1978 when I was studying at Edinburgh University. To Whelpton, perhaps this travelogue became a metonymy to look into the Nepali history of that period because he embarked upon the study of Jang and his times for his PhD research following this episode. We got this text published in Kathmandu by Sahayogi Press in 1983 after he started his PhD research.

A rather meandering introduction to this book written by the late historian and statesman Rishikesh Shah and Whelpton’s own original and insightful interpretation of the history evoked by Jang and his mission on the basis of this text and the study of the British press reporting then convince us that this moment of Nepali historiography is usable even today if we see it compar-atively. The late Ernest Gellner says in his review of the first edition of this book under the title “Strategies of sur-vival” in the Times Literary Supplement of December 23, 1983, “The book high-lights the manner and context in which Jang Bahadur excogitated and decided on his general policy” that he “imple-mented it conspicuously seven years later”. We used Whelpton’s translated text of the travelogue with Gellner’s review in the MPhil course of Nepal studies prepared for English students; Jang’s confidence and style of perfor-mance were the principal focus in the academic discussions.

Recently, in the context of observing the bi-centenary of Nepal-Britain rela-tionship, the evocation of a period of history falls in place. Metaphorically, John Whelpton is doing Jang Bahadur and I am doing Shakespeare in this con-text. Whelpton’s recent speech given at the Royal Society in London and at Social Science Baha organised by Mandala Book Point has revived the discussion of the Jang narrative. Indeed, the Jang discourse evoked by such discussions has some interesting academic significance.

WORDS & ECHOES

ABHI SUBEDI

Jang’s nostalgiaKing Mahendra had said he did not believe communism would come to Nepal by riding a car

The archetype of ‘foreign’ love that

Nepali rulers of different hues,

denominations and eras have carried is a subject that we have

explored very little

Kya Mumbai, Kya Karachi

et ceterakathmandu postthe

kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

Nepathya live in concertPheri Uthne Chha Nepal—Nepathya in Concert, is scheduled to be held at the Jawalakhel Ground on May 14, 5pm onwards. The concert, conceptualised by Positive Vibes, an event management company with the collective participation of likeminded and concerned NGOs, aims to generate funds for the victims of the earthquakes of last year.

Wiki Loves Earth 2016 in NepalWiki Loves Earth, an international photography compe-tition that aims to promote natural heritage sites around the world through Wikimedia projects, is sched-uled to be held in Nepal for the first time. Interested applicants need to apply by May 1. The competition, which is open for professionals and amateurs, will end on May 31 and the results will be declared on June 10.

Model UN training workshops The Everest International Model United Nations—in collaboration with American Embassy Nepal, Youth Thinkers’ Society, and MUN Society Nepal—is organising the Model United Nations Training Workshop and Simulation Programme for Beginners’ level on May 1 at King’s College, Bijulibazar. Registration fee:Rs 200.

PG 08 | SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016

C M Y K

To the only boy who has my heart and is a sweet lullaby of lovePRALISHA ADHIKARI

The flashlight on his phone pene-trated through the dark room (now bright) ominously spread in front of him. On opening the

door to the terrace, he was hit by a chill blow of January wind while he struggled to stay warm under the woolen sweater he wore. After coming to contact with the light emanating from the full moon, he switched the lamp off—he looked squarely above his head, saw the moon shining full in its splendour. And the moon took him back to her.

‘Hey, take a look at the moon’ were the very words he had texted her exactly a year ago.

And, his girl, as always, had him intrigued by her reply. Send me a

picture of yours so that I can look at MY moon.

nnn

He had always been a stargazer. His wish to look at the twinkling stars while lying beside the love of his life only remained a wish. Tonight, the stars twinkled all over the sky, but he didn’t feel a tinge of excitement. He closed his eyes and tried to picture the most striking star of his life. The phone on his pocket hummed an Arctic Monkey rhythm—violent, too violent, for a silent January night. When his sweater could no longer repel the

cold winter wind he rushed downstairs to his room. The four walls made him feel empty—none of the fancy things the room boasted fascinated him.

He sat on a plush chair and looked at the piece of paper lying on the table. He couldn’t decline the feeling of wanting to read the letter over and over again. It wasn’t only because she wrote it; when he read it, he felt too lucky—and too sad at the same time—for being loved by the most awesome girl who ever lived. The paper, even after a year, still smelled

of the lavender perfume she used to wear—

To the only boy who has my heart and is a sweet lullaby of love!

Do you know why I love you? Because, you take me to a whole new level of ecstasy and nobody else has that magic over me but you. Because, you can look at me and love me with just your eyes. Because, nobody but you have that power of making me warm without even touching me. Do you know that your eyes tell me stories about love which your lips don’t? When you look at me and your lips stretch into a smile my heart skips a beat and I exactly know why. I like how our hands fit. I love how our lips meet and kiss the craziest kisses. I need you to make me feel alright. I can never be enough for myself. Do you know why? Because, you are mine and I am yours—till the end of time. Without your part my story never completes and baby you are the best part of it.

On completing the letter, he frowned. He was angry at her because she left him here alone with so many people he didn’t care about. He grabbed a pen and on the same letter she wrote to him, he started scribbling—

People say I’ve stopped smiling. They don’t understand; do they, baby? How can I manage to smile without you by my side when you were the sole reason behind it? They say I’ve stopped living my life. When that one person you’ve loved all the time doesn’t breathe the same air you breathe they don’t understand how unjust life can be for your heart beats but the person for whom it does, isn’t around anymore. When I walk the dusty roads I wish you’d appear by my side to slide your hands onto mine. Don’t you see the couples walk-ing hand in hand on the road make me jealous of what we used to have and now we don’t? When I have to travel, instead of the fat man beside me I wish you were there to fit your head beautifully on my shoulder. Life indeed isn’t only about happiness. However happy you are sadness sur-rounds you once in a while and you

cannot do anything about it but stay at a corner and look at the world out-side your window and wonder how many people are going through the same thing you’re going through right now.

He let out a long sigh. And, continued.

Do you realise that I’m angry at you for breaking the promise of watching the stars together and leaving me alone here on this non-starry world while you sit among the stars up there and twinkle all night? How do I look from up there, baby? Do you look at me? Don’t you feel like coming down to me because I have that constant feeling of coming up to you and look at the world below us. Now, who will put up with my never-ending talks about life? What

tales of ours will I tell our children since you went away without bearing me any? I’m just so annoyed on how I will never get to count the age lines time would have drawn on your cheeks when we would have been growing old together. I hate it when everything I do, anywhere I go, reminds me of you; it reminds me of us. Didn’t you remember my face when you chose to strangle yourself to death? Didn’t this beautiful, magical thing you said we had refrain you from tying the rope around your neck? When I’ll meet you up there hundreds of questions on my head will seek for your answers. You won’t run away from them again, will you? I might never forgive you for not putting aside your ego and instead coming to me with things that were troubling you. Surely I could bear your presence until you answer my questions.

And, the most important one would be: why, love?

Walking past the back wall of the Nepal Academy in Kamaladi, an intriguing pyramidal structure draws your eyes. I was lucky to have witnessed its construction a

month ago, during the World Wood Day festival. David Best, of Burning Man fame, and his team of volunteers was putting it together when I walked in to take a peek at the amazing array of wood carvings being exhibited there from around the world.

Best had apparently been approached by residents of the Bungamati village to rebuild either the Rato Machindranath or Bhairav temple that they had lost to the devastating earthquakes last year. Responding to the call, Best and his team flew in, partially funded by the International Wood Culture Society. The situation on the ground was not exactly what they had expected and the project soon morphed into the exciting, creative process of building a large scale art installation instead of the originally intended rebuilding of a collapsed temple. Best’s team, including the young architect Steven Brummond, settled in with the resi-dents of Bungamati before setting about taking stock of their actual needs. They spent a lot of time with the community, listening to their experience of the devastation before deciding that it would be ethically wrong to direct resources towards

rebuilding a temple when people were lacking homes and essential structures like schools. The neatly planned blueprint of a seismically designed temple was scrapped and Best and Drummond instead decided upon creating an art piece from wood scraps to commemorate the thou-sands of lives lost.

The group of volunteers began scavenging for pieces and beams of wood from the earthquake debris, before painstakingly cutting these up and drilling holes through to create wood blocks that could be strung together with rebars. Their new aim was to make the process as low impact as possible on the country’s already scarce resources and be able to build a structure reminiscent of the fragile beauty and massive scale of a Best temple at Burning Man. The main structure we have at Nepal Academy is 20 feet tall with a base diameter of 10 feet, with a smaller alter accompanying it. The approxi-mate number of the recycled wood pieces coincided with that of the number of victims, but unlike Burning Man, the Nepal Temple pro-ject will not go up in flames but will instead remain in situ as a symbolic vehicle for healing. A few blocks had messages written on them by random visitors, and Best picked one up as I poised my camera and it uncannily read, ‘Answer from Shakespeare!’.

The fact that Best’s team respond-ed to the situation on the ground with humility and empathy as they tried to interpret an unfamiliar culture without compromising their own eco-conservationist values is a point of departure for me. For I now con-nect their project to yet another effort at adaptation, this time by an acclaimed and local theatre group comprising Nepali actors. Theatre Village is currently staging a Nepali adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

and like Best, they do so with empa-thy for the original text ensuing from a culture that is distant both in time and space. Part of a global project initiated by Globe Theatre to com-memorate the playwright’s 400th death anniversary, the Nepali Hamlet is directed jointly by Bimal Subedi and UK’s Gregory Thompson and will happily be presented in London in May, right after the show closes in Kathmandu—a rare honour indeed!

As Best had strung together availa-ble scraps to create a new piece, so has the Nepali edition of Hamlet. The

play being staged does away with nearly a third of the original Shakespearean text, though aptly translated by Shristi Bhattarai, and sometimes brings to question the jus-tification of tampering with the structure classic texts. Shakespeare, like classic Bollywood films, had a knack for coming up with a perfect balance of emotive scenes with strong narrative continuity and sym-bolic nuances and taking away from these inevitably puts a production at risk. I particularly missed the ghost walking scene at the ramparts at the

very beginning for its ‘in medias res’ impact, the exclusion of Laertes aka Lalitjung adeptly played by Sandeep Pokhrel from the earlier scenes, for narrative continuity and the short-ened ‘churchyard’ scene in Act V that dealt with the inconsistencies of social norms and laws.

Divya Dev towers—literally and figuratively—over the rest of the cast with his brutal engagement with Hamlet’s confrontations with his own subconscious and the outer world. Clothed as a Buddhist monk and ade-quately shorn, Divya Dev brings the

play its rare moments of glory, and unfortunately spotlights the produc-tion’s need for proper pacing. For it is indeed unfortunate that Hamlet’s monologues sounded hurried and less felt than more redundant moments like Ophelia’s breakdown. The play is after all about Hamlet and not Ophelia’s gendered interpreta-tion. Which brings me to the next stellar performer, an unlikely but very lively Shristi Shrestha as Ojaswi or Ophelia. She carried herself with grace and lovable impunity through-out. I remember writing last year about the Globe Theatre production, ‘Phoebe Filoes’ Ophelia came across as strangely apt in her raw, youthful energy and awkward insanity’. Shristi Shrestha actually lives up to this accolade.

Like the sculptural piece I talked about earlier, Nepal’s interpretation of Hamlet strung together wonderful-ly crafted moments or blocks in time to build an edifice that speaks for the cast’s commitment if not the finesse of the overall production. I felt some-what deflated by Aruna Karki’s bril-liantly played but insular Gertrude/Gyaneshwori—as a mother of an ado-lescent son myself, I did not quite empathise with her self-absorption. A trait that seemed to beset most of the actors, whose craft was otherwise brilliant. It seemed as if they had rehearsed their roles to perfection in the seclusion of their own spaces and not quite learned how to respond to each other. Hamlet as a play is in fact well known for this trap, as I have already said even ‘earlier in the sea-son, the play opened at Barbican in London with Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock fame in the lead. The actor had been critiqued for his dis-tantiation from the rest of the cast and action.’ It is warning we should heed. Some texts are like quick sands and can easily engulf a perfectly bril-liant cast. For Kamal Bikram did play Claudius to perfection but again fluid in the same insularity. Rajkumar Pudasaini comes across as wasted in his Ghost and other roles given his gestural acumen but his casting no doubt reflects more upon directorial acumen. Lord Polonius played by Bholaraj Sapkota did not leave a mark, neither did Horatio played by Shrawan Rana till his last monologue when he steals the show. Rarely have I witnessed a stronger recuperation by an actor, almost like four sixers in a game of cricket in the last over!

Sujan Oli’s lights were adequate and added little more than expected. The craft of stage production fell lower than what I would expect of Theatre Village but this is a show not to be missed for it will be showing and in Nepali in London next month. I do hope we will see some resonances of Nepal in the Burning Man experience this year!

The Nepali Hamlet is directed jointly by Bimal Subedi and UK’s Gregory

Thompson and will be presented in London

in May

David Best, of Burning Man fame, strung together available scraps to create a piece foreign to his culture, as did the Nepali edition of Hamlet currently being staged at Theatre Village

WHY, LOVE?

When I’ll meet you up there hundreds of questions on my head will seek for your answers. You won’t run away

from them again, will you?

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Interpreting unfamiliar cultures

PHOTO COURTESY: DIVYA DEV PANT

life&stylekathmandu postthe

PG 09 | SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

Vikander, the new Lara Croft?Swedish Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander has scooped the coveted role of Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie reboot, according to industry reports. Vikander, who won an Academy Award this year for her role in The Danish Girl follows in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie to play the famed adventurer. According to reports, Roar Uthaug will direct the movie.

BORN TODAYIndian actress Anushka Sharma is 28

Irish actor Jamie Dornan is 34

American filmmaker Wes Anderson is 47

Indian actor Ajith Kumar is 45

American singer Tim McGraw is 49

Star Wars 8 filming on trackThe last Star Wars film was dogged by problems during filming, but fans will be pleased to know the latest one is on track. That’s according to the director Rian Johnson. He posted a message to fans: “I can’t believe we’re halfway through the shoot.” The message and two pictures were added to his Tumblr page and have left fans wanting more.

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rapping it at pokhara

n The spearhead of RAPtivism, Aisha Fukushima, performs during a concert organised to commemorate last year’s earthquake, in Basundhara Park, Pokhara, on Saturday. POST PHOTO

Pop classic Baby Baby gets Tori Kelly rebootASSOCIATED PRESSNASHVILLE, APRIL 30

A pop classic from the early ‘90s, Amy Grant’s hit Baby Baby is getting a reboot 25 years later thanks to Grammy-nominated singer Tori Kelly.

A new version of the song featuring original vocals from Grant and new vocals from the Should’ve Been Us singer was released Friday digitally as the 1991 No 1 song is being remade for a new generation.

“At least those of us who enjoyed the first run of it, we hear this ver-

sion that Tori Kelly does and it just brings back all the best memories where that song was the backdrop,” said Grant. Grant was already a well-known Grammy-winning gos-pel singer before she crossed over to pop. She is now one of Christian music’s most successful musicians, with six platinum and three multi-platinum albums.

“I was always trying to find a

unique way to express a lifestyle of faith without being preachy,” Grant said.

Baby Baby, co-written with Keith Thomas and inspired by Grant’s daughter Millie, made her the first Christian pop artist to have a No 1 song. Her album Heart in Motion was certified platinum five times. The song eventually became a world-wide hit, reaching top 10 charts in

several other countries as well. In Nashville, she was mobbed by screaming teenagers and it became a fan favorite at her live shows.

“That song came out at a time when it just fit so comfortably in everybody’s playlists,” Grant said.

The new version adds an R&B rhythm and beat over Kelly’s vocal range, which Grant said impressed her immediately when she saw Kelly sing in the studio.

“For Tori to be joining me on this song and then taking it to where it always wanted to go, to me that’s fantastic,” Grant said.

The call of the outdoorsPOST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

The hills of Hattiban, Pharping came alive to the cheers of onlookers as the forests turned host to the fifth iteration of the Himalayan Outdoor Festival. The festival, which draws in out-door sports lovers, enthusiasts,

and athletes in one arena, is an annu-al three-day gala event with a series of outdoor sporting events.

“Himalayan Outdoor Festival, for the last five years, has been promot-ing the outdoor culture in Nepal. By outdoor culture, I mean sports, a camping culture, rock climbing, trail running, mountain biking, and the like. Through this festival, we have been trying to provide a platform, not just for sports enthusiasts but for everyone, to enjoy some time out-doors, with great food, adventure sports, music and a relaxing ambi-ence,” says Dipesh Ghaley, Executive President of Himalayan Outdoor Festival.

The event, which saw more than 200 participants on the first day, saw around 400 participants on the sec-ond day. Participants from different

categories—elite (professionals), open (amateurs), masters (ages above 30-35), and kids—competed in sub-cat-egories under the three main catego-ries: Rock, Run and Ride. Participants competed in races like natural rock climbing, cross country Olympic ride, cross country eliminator, and

the like, and winners were awarded various cash purses under all the race categories.

“Every year, the Himalayan Outdoor Festival donates the amount of money raised from a particular category towards a social cause. This year, we have introduced a new cate-gory called the Night Uphill Run, the first of its kind in Nepal, and all the proceeds registered from this trail will go on to an NGO called Children and Youth First,” said Ghaley.

Bands such as Kanta Dab Dab, Ranzan and Band, Zeromile, Adriennce Mack-Davis and New Fame performed live music at the event. At the kids’ corner, slackline, zipline, rappeling, rope climb and horizontal bungee bouldering were open throughout the day.

The event, which will continue till May 1, will conclude with a clean-up campaign led by around 80 volun-teers, and a training session led by The North Face group.

Sallipir in stores

POST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Author Nayan Raj Pandey’s new novel, Sallipur, was released amid a programme held at the premises of Nepal Tourism Board, in the Capital, on Saturday. The book was

launched jointly by author Pandey and poet Shyamal.

Sallipir is the seventh novel by Pandey, whose previous works like Loo and Ulaar were highly acclaimed by the audience and critics alike.

“Pandey whose previous works were set mostly in different settings in the Tarai has this time around ascended to the Himalayan region,” said poet Shyamal, referring to the novel’s Himalayan setting. “But, the tales he weaves are equally poign-ant.” “I did stay in the Khumbu region for six months while I was working on filming documentaries.

Staying there, I got a chance to take a close peek at the rites and rituals of the Sherpa community,” said author Pandey, speaking during the event; “which left an indelible impression upon me; that very impression is what has culminated in the form of a novel. I am glad in this regard that I am putting out a work after long about the Sherpa community, which has always fascinated me.”

Sallipir tells the story of three gen-erations of a Sherpa community; and it encapsulates into its plot the mani-fold struggle the community under-goes through.

The book has been published by Fineprint Publications and is priced at Rs 348.

Photo caption: Poet Shyamal and author Nayan Raj Pandey unveil Sallipir, Pandey’s latest offering, during an event held at Nepal Tourism Board premises, in the Capital, on Saturday.

West Wing actress gives White House press briefingBBCWASHINGTON, APRIL 30

For a few moments at the White House on Friday, The West Wing TV series came back to life as actress Allison Janney who played fictional White House spokeswoman CJ Cregg took the

podium at the daily press briefing.Janney’s appearance was a stunt

meant to highlight Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner, a glitz-filled annual event which draws celebrities and powerbrokers alike.

Janney, whose character served as press secretary to fictional president Jed Bartlett in the televised drama, peppered her remarks with inside jokes from the show as she beat White House press secretary Josh Earnest to the briefing.

“Josh is out today. He has, I believe it’s a root canal,” she said, referenc-ing a root canal that sidelines her character. “But let’s be honest: I’m better at this than he is.”

She said she had a message from President Barack Obama.

“The president is still working on his jokes for the White House Correspondent’s dinner. I don’t have any details on that other than he

intends to be funny. Very funny,” said Janney. Earnest later told reporters not to rule out surprises from Obama, who will be making his last appear-ance at the annual dinner before his term ends in January.

NBC’s The West Wing, which ended in 2006, drew legions of devot-ed fans with its depiction of power plays in Washington.

The return of CJ whet the appe-tites of Washington media ahead of the dinner, known for its playful ribbing of both politicians and the news media and headlined this year by Comedy Central late-night host Larry Wilmore.

It also quickly became one of the top-trending items on Twitter in the United States, with “CJ Cregg” trend-ing on the social media platform.

In seriousness, Janney, who now appears on CBS’s TV show Mom, used her brief appearance to high-light the nation’s opioid epidemic and efforts to fight substance abuse.

Before Janney exited, reporters pressed her on the 2016 presidential race, asking her who the show’s fic-tional president was supporting in the real-life Democratic primary between former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

FILM TO BE MADE ABOUT SANTHAL COMMUNITY

POST REPORTKAKADBHITTA, APRIL 30

Filmmaker Kiran Khatiwada has announced to film Bonodal, about the Santhal (also known as Satar) community, which is one of Nepal’s most endangered indige-nous community. Bonodal was

inaugurated on Friday at Charpane in Jhapa.

“It’s not any wishy-washy idea. It was after years of research that I came up with the idea of making a film about the community,” said director Khatiwada. The film will capture the culture and tradition of Santhal community and will even feature the everyday activities of the Santhals.

The original Nepali script of the film has been translated into the Santhal language by Jona Kisku and Dewan Tudu.

The film will be shot mostly in Haldibari and Charpane of Jhapa district.

“A highlight of the film will be its dealing with the Majhihadam pratha prevalent in the community,” said Balaram Hemram, who is one of the featuring actors.

Along with Hemram, the film will feature actors Sunil Hasda and Kavita Waskey.

The production team expects to release the film by coming autumn.

The fifth iteration of the Himalayan Outdoor Festival saw participants compete under three main categories: Rock, Run and Ride

Bands such as Kanta Dab Dab, Ranzan and Band, Zeromile, Adriennce Mack-Davis and

New Fame performed live music at the event

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Author Pandey’s latest offering is about the manifold struggle a Sherpa Community is bound to undergo through

The early ‘90s Amy Grant’s hit song has got a reboot 25 years later, which was released digitally on Friday

thekathmandu postvariety 10Sunday, May 1, 2016

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YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOTDILBERT

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

GARFIELD

GRAFFITI WORD GAME

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If you want to know who is really a man’s best friend, put your dog and your wife in the trunk of a car, come back an hour later, open the trunk, and see which one is happy to see you.

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A husband and wife are moving out of their house and are starting to box everything up. The husband finds a box under the bed, pulls it out, and looks inside, where he finds two eggs and about $8,000. He approaches the wife and asks, “What are the eggs for?” She replies, “Every time I cheat on you, I put an egg in the box.” He says, “That’s alright, you’ve only cheated on me twice. What’s the money for?” The wife replies, “Every time I get a dozen, I sell them!”

KANTIPURTV

LAUGH OUT LOUD

KANTIPUR FM

ARIES (March 21-April 19)***It doesn’t matter if you have a drive for success if you’re not moving anywhere! Today is a day for making the most of your potential. There is too much at stake right now to let other people take control or to let other people tell you what to do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)***It might feel like you are losing some of your idealism today when a harsh truth hits you square in the face, but do not lose sight of your hopes and dreams. You can see the better side of people if you choose to, so don’t give up.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21)**You need to slow down right about now. Why are you trying so hard to rush past everyone else? Why get ahead of them? You haven’t stopped to realise than once you zoom right by everyone, you’ll be all alone!

CANCER (June 22-July 22)****Today is a great time for you to look ahead toward your future. Start putting some new goals into place, and try to get a little bit more aggressive about achieving them. It’s very wise to create attainable goals, but it’s only the loftiest goals that can inspire you.

LEO (July 23-August 22) *You shouldn’t speak or act quickly today because you are going to be around people who are quick to judge—and slow to listen. Not only could they misinterpret your goals, they could start talking to other people and spread news or gossip around.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22)***Today, any first impressions you are going to make will be very important, and your ambition requires you to play along with some political games. Use a classic combination of calm and cool to help you take advantage of a gigantic opportunity.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22)***You may really want to help a friend or co-worker who is strug-gling to keep up right now, but there are limits to what you can do. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t make their world as sunshiney bright as you feel it should be.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)*****Your already-healthy ambition needs to get a little bit more exer-cise to stay on top of its form—so how about putting it to work in your personal life? This is a great day to start making powerful improvements in your romantic life.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)*****There’s a bit of a battle brewing between your more cautious and conservative side and your more outrageous and radical side today. No matter which side comes out on top, you’ll still be fine —so don’t worry, this day will be a win for you.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)**If you’re putting negative energy into a tricky situation at work or school, then how on earth are you going to ever have a positive outcome? You have to work for the good of everyone, not just yourself, right now.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)****You have to listen to your body today. If you are feeling tired, then go get some rest. If you’re feeling antsy, then go get some exer-cise! Do whatever your body craves and it will lead you to fulfil-ment.

PISCES (February 19-March 20)****Today could be a very productive day, thanks in no small part to all of the generous friends and co-workers who are offering their helping hands. Are you going to accept their contributions? Don’t let your ego get in the way of doing something that makes sense.

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Revolution Cafe, AmritMarg, Thamel, away from busy crowed street, offers great music, fast wi-fi and wide menu with rea-sonable prices. Operation hours: 7 am to 10 pm, contact: 4433630

Enjoy Gourmet Saturday Brunch with your family and friends at the Sunrise Restaurant , Hotel Yak & Yeti from 12-7 pm every Saturday. Contact: 4248999

Escape, relax and get in shape @ Hyatt Regency. Embark on a personal well-being at Club Oasis. Remember us for Tennis, sauna, Jacuzzi, swimming, fitness centre and Beauty Salon. Contact: 4491234

Learn cardio, gym, aerobics, zumba, spa, boxing, kick-boxing, b-boying, bollywood dance at Oyster Spa and Fitness Club, Sinamangal. Time: Sunday to Friday from 5 am to 8 pm. Contact: 4110554

Jasmine Fitness Club and Spa, Fully equipped gym and spa; Zumba, aerobics and cardio classes; therapeutic massage; beauty parlour and men’s salon. Tripureshwor; Contact: 4117120

Ayurveda Health Home has been providing ayurvedic treatments/ massages, sirodhara & counseling for stress, detox & rehabilitation. Dhapasi, Kathmandu: 01-4358761, Lakeside Pokhara 061-463205

Yoga detox and Ayurveda treatments and retreats every day at Himalayan Peace & Wellness Centre, Park Village Hotel. Get 10% discount on all Ayurvedic treatments. Contact: 980106661

Krishnarpan—a specialty Nepali Restaurant at Dwarika’s, 6 courses to 22 courses Nepali meal served. Opening Time: 6 pm-11 pm. Prior reservations required, contact: 4479448

The Italian restaurant serves authentic Italian cuisines in an elegant ambience for both lunch and dinner. Timings: Lunch: 1230-1445 hrs, Dinner: 1900-2245 hrs, Contact: 427399, at Soaltee Crowne Plaza

Every Friday evening enjoy Starry Night BBQ from 7 pm onwards at Shambala Garden Café at Hotel Shangri La with live musical performance by Ciney Gurung. Contact: 4412999

Enjoy Bubbly Brunch every Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm at Shambala Gardena and Club Sundhara. Contact: 4412999

Savour the cardamom and saffron spice, slow-cooked kebabs and kormas at Indian restaurant serving Awadhi cuisine. contact: 427399, at Soaltee Crowne Plaza

China Garden offers delectable dishes from across Asia, including Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese. Timings: Lunch: 1230-1445 hrs, Dinner: 1900-2245 hrs, contact: 427399 at Soaltee Crowne Plaza

Garden Terrace offers an authentic world cuisine, providing diners with the unique experience of observing their selected dish-es being prepared by chefs. Contact: 427399 at Soaltee Crowne Plaza

Kaiser Cafe Restaurant & Bar at The Garden of Dreams, opening time: 9 am till 9 pm, offers an international cafe menu serv-ing breakfast, lunch, dinner, specialty tea’s, coffees and pastries, contact: 4425341

Embers Bar, Pulchowk, in all its sophistica-tion and glory is happy to announce Happy Hours every 6-7pm. It will be hosting a Barbeque night every Friday from 6:30-9:30pm

Mako’s offers traditional Japanese food served. Don’t miss out on Mako’s special Tempuras, and green tea ice cream, Time: 11: 30-14:30 & 19:00-22:00, contact: 4479448

Manny’s Eatery and bar introduces a spe-cial lunch package that is affordable, tasty, nutritious and quick enough to fit your lunch break, Jawalakhel, Shaligram complex, 5536919

The Toran, an ideal location for all day loung-ing and informal dining offers multi-cuisines. Contact: Dwarika’s Hotel, 4479488

Weekends brunch @ Hyatt Regency—treat yourself with a lavish buffet lunch, splash by the swimming pool or laze around outdoor, Jacuzzi, all for just Rs 2300 plus taxes per person. Contact: 4491234

Special Saturday Brunch at The Café & Garden, The Everest Hotel 1200-1600 hrs; Ph 4780100

We serve nothing but the finest Arabica coffees at great value prices at Barista Lavazza Coffee Restaurant, Lazimpat, Contact: 4005123/4005124

Bourbon Room, Lal Durbar Marg is open for lunch from 12 noon. Enjoy affordable and deli-cious meals starting from Rs 99! We are cur-rently offering Indian & chinese combos along with momos. Call: 4441703

Enjoy a Barbecue Buffet at the Radisson Hotel, wide selection of mixed fresh grills and vegetables together with a choice of salads and a delicious dessert buffet at a rate of Rs. 1,350 plus taxes per person. Contact: 4411818

Latin—Gypsy Jazz at The Corner Bar, Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu with Hari Maharjan feat Monsif Mzibiri, 7 pm onwards, Wednesdays & Fridays. Contact: 4411818

Sandwich and Crepes: Taste the sandwich-es and crepes at The Lounge from 11 am to 6 pm everyday. For further details call Hyatt Regency at 4491234.

Rosemary Kitchen and Coffee shop, Thamel, opening hours: 7:00 am to 10:00 pm offers an International cuisine in reason-able prices. Contact 01-4267554

Out-of-Africa Lunch amid rural splendor: Sat & Sun from 1130 to 1630 hours at The Watering Hole, Indrawati River Valley. For prior reservation contact: indrawatire-sort@gmail.com

Tibetan Gyakok for Lunch & Dinner every day at The Mandarin, The Everest Hotel ph: 4780100 ext: 7811

Make your weekend more exciting with family and friends with sumptuous Satey, Dimsums, Mangolian Barbecue and Pasta at The Cafe from 12:30 noon to 4:00 pm. Call: Hyatt Regency, at 4491234

The most delightfully awesome chicken momos & yummy rich chocolate cake on this part of the planet @ Just Baked Bakery & Cafe, Battisputali, offering much more spe-cialties at affordable price.

Enjoy snacks and drinks from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm every day and nightly live music from “The Corner Band” except Tuesday and Saturday from 7 pm to 11:00 pm at Corner Bar, Radisson Hotel. Contact: 4411818

Every Friday BBQ from 7:00 pm at Fusion Bar & Pool side at Dwarika’s Hotel with live band “Dinesh Rai and Sound of Mind”. Price Rs 1600/ includes BBQ dinner and a can of beer or a soft drink. Contact: 4479448

Hotel Narayani Complex, Pulchowk, Lalitpur presents Shabnam & Cannabiz Band every Wednesday and Rashmi & Kitcha Band every Friday, 7:30 PM onwards @ Absolute bar P Ltd; Contact: 5521408

Starry Night BBQ—every Friday Evening from 7:00 pm at Shambala Garden Café, Hotel, Shangri~La only @ Rs 1799 net per person and live performance by Ciney Gurung. Contact: 4412999

Enjoy live DJ nights, on every Sunday chill out/ ambient, Wednesday tech/ funk house & Friday psy/ proggy/ full on from 6:00 pm to 10 pm at garden and 7:00 pm onwards at club at Funky Buddha Resturant & Bar, contact: 4700091

Set within the historic Garden of Dreams, the Kaiser Cafe Restaurant and Bar, Thamel, offers a continental menu and serves as an atmospheric venue for anything from a quiet coffee or intimate meal. Contact: 442534

Trisara offers food and drinks along with good music and great times. Sunday- Live Music by Barbeque Night, Monday, Wednesday-by Positive vibes, Tuesday, Saturday-By Jyovan Bhuju, Friday-Live Music by Dexterous

Experience The Last Resort, the perfect place for family fun adventure and relaxation. Special packages for residents. Contact: 4700525/ 4701247 or mail us at info@thelastresort.com.np

Asia World Travel Pvt Ltd presents fascinat-ing luxury escapades to amazing destinations: Prague, Ladakh, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Mount Kailash and Panchpokhari in North East Nepal. Contact: 6222604

Jungle Safari Lodge, Sauraha Chitwan offers 2 Nights 3 Days package only for Rs 6500 per person. Suman 9851008399

Much needed getaway—1 night/2 day package @ Hyatt Regency. Enjoy luxury stay of a five star hotel for a couple with breakfast and access to spa facilities for just Rs 9999 plus taxes per person only. Contact: 4491234

Experience the Gyakok @ Shambala Garden, Hotel Shangri~la only @ Nrs.1700 Nett per person and Nrs.3000 Nett for cou-ple. For more details and reservation: 4412999

5:00 Bhaktisur/Amrit Bani

6:00 Jeevan Bigyan/Jyotish

6:40 Sky Shop7:00 Kantipur Samachar8:00 Kantipur News8:30 Rise N Shine9:00 Headline News9:05 Marga Darshan10:00 Kantipur Samachar10:30 Market Updates11:00 Headline News11:05 Uddhyam11:30 Ditha Sab12:00 Kantipur Samachar

12:30 Info Plus1:00 Headline News1:05 Music Summit1:30 Cinema Fest2:00 Kantipur Samachar2:30 Rise N Shine3:00 Headline News3:05 Parsiwartan4:00 Kantipur Samachar4:30 New Entry5:00 Headline News5:05 Call Kantipur

Reloaded6:00 Kantipur News6:30 Ukali Orali7:00 Kantipur Samachar

7:30 Market Updates

8:00 Kantipur Samachar9:00 Sajha Sawal10:00 Feature10:30 Kantipur News11:00 Kantipur Samachar11:30 Market Updates12:00 Call Kantipur1:00 Kantipur News1:30 Feature2:00 Kantipur Samachar2:30 Ukali Orali3:00 Kantipur Samachar3:30 Sajha Sawal4:30 Feature

00:00 Non-stop Hindi songs

02:00 Non-stop Nepali pop/adhunik songs

04:00 Non-stop Bhajan05:00 Bhakti Anusthan06:30 Kantipur Diary07:00 The Headliners07:30 Big Gernal08:00 Kantipur Diary08:05 Namaste Nepal09:00 Kantipur Diary09:15 Traffic Update09:20 Shufflin

10:00 Kantipur Diary10:05 Wish You All

the Best11:00 Kantipur Diary11:05 Aaaja ka Nari12:00 Kantipur Diary12:10 The Turning Point13:00 Kantipur Diary13:05 Ke Chha Nepal14:00 Kantipur Diary14:05 Ke Chha Nepal15:00 Kantipur Diary15:15 Raiwar 16:05 Song on Demand

17:00 Kantipur Diary17:05 Saathi sanga

Manka Kura18:00 Opening Page18:30 Kantipur Diary18:55 Khoj19:00 Chart Busters20:00 Kantipur

Diary20:05 Hindi Hungama21:00 Kantipur Diary21:30 Indreni 22:00 Romantica23:00 Jeevan Sangeet

BAAGHIQFX LABIM Mall: 08:30/09:30/12:00/14:45/

15:15/18:00/20:00QFX Civil Mall: 08:45/12:15/15:30/18:45

QFX Kumari: 08:45/15:00/18:00QFX Jai Nepal: 09:00/12:00/15:15/18:30

JUNGEQFX Civil Mall: 09:00/15:15

QFX Kumari: 09:15/12:15QFX LABIM Mall: 11:45

3D THE JUNGLE BOOKQFX Kumari: 12:00/18:15

QFX Civil Mall: 12:30/15:00/18:00QFX LABIM Mall: 12:30/15:00/17:30

HOW FUNNYQFX Civil Mall: 12:00

THE JUNGLE BOOKQFX Kumari: 15:15

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Redknapp joins MarinersFormer Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp will work with Australian side Central Coast Mariners as a recruitment consultant next season while helping promote the club over-seas. The announcement was made by the A-League team at their end-of-season dinner on Friday.

Vegas shares lead in ZurichVenezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas shot a three-under 69 to grab a share of the clubhouse lead after the second round of the rain-delayed Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Friday. Vegas is tied with American Jamie Lovemark at 11-under as the second round of the USPGA Tour event was suspended because of darkness.

Steyn replaces Malinga in CPL South African fast bowler Dale Steyn was Friday named as a replacement for injured Sri Lankan seamer Lasith Malinga in the Jamaica Tallawahs team to play in the Caribbean Premier League. Steyn will be making his debut in the six-franchise Twenty20 tournament which runs from June 30-August 7.

SPortS diGeStWest Kathmandu in semi-finals NEPALGUNJ: West Kathmandu edged top tier outfit Saraswoti Club 1-0 to enter the semi-fi-nals of the Nepalgunj Gold Cup football tourna-ment here on Saturday. Nigerian recruit Ibrahim struck early in the sev-enth minute at the Nepalgunj Stadium for a goal that ultimately proved to be the decider. West Kathmandu coach Sundar Thapa was delighted with the result. “We formed this team in a short span of time. To defeat an ‘A’ Division side is a big achievement for us,” said Thapa. (PR)

Hosts through to semi-finals DHANKUTA: Hosts Dhankuta XI defeated Raut Construction of Morang 3-1 to enter the semi-finals of the Martyr Bhim Narayan Gold Cup football tournament on Saturday. Buddha Chemjong scored a brace after Sujal Shrestha put the hosts ahead in the game. Bijay Dhimal had pulled one back for Morang. On Sunday, Godhuli Club of Sunsari will play Boys Union Club of Kathmandu. (PR)

Kakadvitta defeat Darjeeling ILAM: Kakadvitta Football Training Centre eased to a 3-0 victory over Darjeeling in the Nepal Cup International Invitational Gold Cup football tournament on Saturday. Karna Limbu scored twice for Kakadvitta after Khamir Gilson Limbu put them ahead in the 10th minute. All three goals were scored in the first half. A total of 10 teams are par-ticipating in the tourna-ment with the winners set to win a cash purse of Rs 100,000. (PR)

Crotone in Serie A for first time ROME: Crotone clinched promotion to Serie A for the first time in the club’s history after Friday’s 1-1 draw with Modena in the second tier. With the top two in Serie B automatically promoted, Crotone are 13 points clear of third-place Trapani, who still have four matches to play. The league-leading Calabrians, who are coached by former Croatia international Ivan Juric, are five points clear of sec-ond-place Cagliari. (AFP)

Chinese offer for AC MilanMILAN: A group of Chinese investors has offered to buy AC Milan soccer club, one of for-mer Italian prime minis-ter Silvio Berlusconi’s most cherished assets, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. The offer values the club at around $801 million including debt, one of the sources said. Berlusconi, who owns the club, has been look-ing for a buyer for a minority stake for more than a year. (REUTERS)

Arsenal lock in Sydney datesSYDNEY: Arsenal on Saturday confirmed two 2017 pre-season friendlies in Sydney, continuing the growing trend of top clubs choosing Australia as a warm-up destina-tion. The Gunners will play A-League side Sydney FC on July 13 next year and Western Sydney Wanderers two days later. Arsenal last visited Sydney in 1977, well before long-time manager Arsene Wenger’s days, losing 3-1 to an Australian XI. (AFP)

C M Y K

champions

n Samrakshyak Bhushan Bajracharya and Mayanka Rana with their trophies after winning the singles titles of the Citizen Bank Open Tennis Championships in Kathmandu on Saturday. Photo CouRteSy: NSC

Platini wages last fightAgence FrAnce-Presse Lausanne, apriL 30

Uefa’s fallen president Michel Platini mounted a final chal-lenge against his six-year ban from football on Friday in an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), with a verdict due by May 9.

The stakes could not be higher for the 60-year-old for-mer French international, who led Europe’s powerful football confederation and was favoured to take charge of world governing body Fifa before his dramatic downfall last year. Among the witness-es at the day-long hearing was Platini’s former ally-turned-foe, Fifa’s disgraced ex-presi-dent Sepp Blatter.

If CAS overturns the ethics violation verdict imposed by Fifa judges, then Platini could be at the Stade de France for the Euro 2016 opener between hosts France and Romania on June 10.

A negative verdict will see his glittering career in the sport brought to an ignomini-ous halt. “Today the match begins, a new match, the final...I’m optimistic, we’re going to win,” Platini told reporters before entering the court in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Exiting the court after the hearing, Platini said his confidence had grown and restated his claim that the ver-dict from Fifa judges was unjust.

The Frenchman has been sanctioned over an infamous two million Swiss franc ($2 million, 1.8 million euro) pay-ment he received in 2011 from then-Fifa president Blatter. Fifa’s ethics committee in December banned both men from all football activities for eight years. The suspensions were cut to six years in February. Both men insist

they did nothing wrong and that the payment was part of a legitimate oral contract tied to consulting work that Platini did for Fifa between 1999 and 2002.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said that May 9 verdict would include “simply a decision and the reasoning will come a little later”. Before entering the court, Blatter told reporters he was “happy” to honour a request from Fifa that he testify and that he was looking forward to greeting Platini again. “It has been a while since I’ve seen him,” the

80-year-old Blatter said. He later described the pro-

cess as “fair (and) very prop-er”. “I hope that my participa-tion has helped to find a solu-tion to this problem,” Blatter said, declining to discuss spe-cifics of his testimony. Blatter has also appealed to CAS and is awaiting a date for his hear-ing. In a further twist, Blatter remains the target of a Swiss criminal investigation partly focused on the dubious trans-action.

Blatter and Platini were the

hightest profile casualties in the massive scandal that has engulfed Fifa over the last 11 months. Previously the most powerful figures in world foot-ball, the pair were once con-sidered strong allies but their relationship publicly frayed as Blatter repeatedly refused to cede the Fifa presidency and graft allegations widened.

The murky two million Swiss franc payment ulti-mately destroyed Platini’s chances of replacing Blatter as the Frenchman was forced

to pull out of the race to become Fifa president in an election won by his number two at Uefa, Gianni Infantino.

Uefa has said it will not replace Platini until all his appeals are exhausted, so if the former French star is suc-cessful at CAS he could reclaim his job in time to pre-side over Euro 2016. The May 9 verdict date means Uefa will almost certainly not elect his replacement at the body’s con-gress in Budapest next week, as it would have done if CAS had ruled against the Frenchman.

The fallen Uefa chief appeals against six-year Fifa ban with verdict scheduled for May 9

n Uefa’s fallen chief Michel Platini leaves the Court of Arbitration for Sport after his appeal hearing in Lausanne on Friday. AFP/RSS

fifa corruption scandal

Smith backs day-night TestreUTers sydney0, apriL 30

Cricket Australia has bol-stered its campaign to host a day-night Test against South Africa later this year by pub-lishing an interview with cap-tain Steve Smith in which he backed the proposed fixture.

South Africa’s players balked at an invitation to play a day-night match in Adelaide in November after discus-sions with Australian players including Smith, Proteas skip-per AB de Villiers said this week. Smith, however, said his team would be happy to play a day-nighter against South Africa at the famous South Australian venue, as well as the fixture already scheduled to be played under lights at the Gabba against Pakistan in December.

“I’m surprised that he named me,” Smith was quoted as saying from India on the Cricket Australia (CA) web-site. “The feedback we gave them was that Adelaide is the best place to play it, in our opinion. We’re playing one in Brisbane now, but Adelaide is the best place to play it and I think it could work there. I don’t know where they’ve got their ideas from,” he added. “If they want-ed to play one we’d be happy to.”

The Australian

Cricketers’ Association, how-ever, said on Friday that feed-back it had received from the players indicated they would “prefer to only play one day-night test in 2016/17”. “Pink ball tests are a fundamentally different game to traditional red ball test matches,” chief executive Alistair Nicholson said in a statement. “We con-tinue to be concerned about the durability and visibility of the pink ball, both the changing light conditions and the specifically prepared pitches are altering the condi-tions that the players are used to at each venue.”

CA are determined to reprise the success of last year’s inaugural day-night Test against New Zealand in Adelaide. The test attracted huge crowds but lasted only three of the scheduled five days on a wicket especially prepared to offset durability problems with the pink ball.

CA are continuing their talks over the fixture with their South Africa counter-parts and it looks likely that Chief Executive James Sutherland will have to get his cheque book out again. CA committed an additional A$1 million ($762,400) in prize money for the series to help

overcome reservations from Australia and New Zealand players about the use of the pink ball.

n Steve Smith

Santwana rout St Xavier’s, White House triumph

POsT rePOrTKathmandu, apriL 30

Santwana College and White House College won their respective matches of the Expert College Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Tribhuvan University Stadium on Saturday.

A star-studded Santwana crushed St Xavier’s College by 111 runs after posting a mam-moth 217-4 in 20 overs. White House, meanwhile, edged Nepal Tourism and Hotel Management College

(NTHMC) by seven runs. The victories saw both teams sail into the quarter-finals.

Santwana’s dominating performance was the high-light of the day as they restricted St Xavier’s to 106-7 in 20 overs. Anup Neupane made a 22-ball 29 with five fours for St Xavier’s with Srijendra Bajracharya (21) and Bibhatsu Thapa (21) their remaining batsmen to reach double figures. Avinash Karn and Rajesh Pulami picked up two wickets each for Santwana.

Earlier, Santwana’s domi-

nating display was the high-light of the day after they got off to a strong start with open-ers Prakash Bista and Naresh Budhayer (21) beginning with a 41-run stand. Bista, who made 35 off 28 with three fours and a six, also shared 68-run partnership with Hashim Ansari. After his departure, Ansari and Pulami shared 51 runs for the third wicket.

Ansari smashed seven fours and a six in his 33-ball 51 but his departure did not impact Santwana. Pulami went on to add another 56 runs with Pushpa Thapa (20 not out) to guide his team to a huge total. Man-of-the-match Pulami hit four sixes and as many fours in a 31-ball 58.

In the first match, White House managed 153-8 with a late onslaught from Sameer Nepal. NTHMC mustered 146-7. Ramnaresh Giri did the damage in NTHMC middle order picking up 3-33 from four overs. NTHMC were 43-4 before Rijan Prajoo and Anupam Singh put the team in chase with a 53-run stand.

Singh made a 38-ball 39 and Rijan Prajoo top scored with a 30-ball 42 and their dismissal was the end of NTHMC chal-lenge. Both batsmen hit four fours and a six each. Ishan Singh Baniya made 23-ball 25 with three fours.

White House didn’t have the best of the start after they were reduced to 68-5 in 12.5 overs before Nepal lifted the total with a quick fire 42 off 24 clubbing three each sixes and boundaries. Opener Rit Gautam (23), Pawan Sarraf (20) and Nasruddin Ansari (20) were other notable scor-ers. Amrit Gurung, Prajoo and Raju Gurung took two wickets each for NTHMC.

college premier league

n Avinash Karn of Santwana College bowls against St Xavier’s during the College Premier League at the TU Stadium on Saturday.

Djokovic can be beaten: MurrayAgence FrAnce-Presse madrid, apriL 30

World no 1 Novak Djokovic returns to the Madrid Masters for the first time in three years, aiming to forget his blip at the Monte Carlo Masters with a strong challenge expected from a resurgent Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic was stunned in his opening match in Monte Carlo by the unheralded Czech Jiri Vesely, to lose for the first time in 2016 other than when he was forced to retire with an eye infection against Feliciano Lopez in Dubai back in February. The Serb’s absence cleared the way for Nadal to land his first Masters title in nearly two years and the Spaniard extended his perfect start to the European clay-court sea-son by claiming a ninth Barcelona Open last week to equal Guillermo Vilas’s record of 49 clay-court titles.

Nadal will be eager to claim his 50th on home soil having reached the final in Madrid in six of the past seven years, although he was comprehen-sively beaten by Andy Murray as the Briton claimed his first Masters title on clay in last year’s final. Murray has had an inconsistent season as he has dealt with the extra bur-den of becoming a father for the first time in February. Yet,

despite Djokovic’s dominance over the past year, Murray believes the 11-time Grand Slam champion can be stopped in the tournament that starts on Sunday.

“Everyone and anyone can be beaten, but at the moment Novak’s consistency is mak-ing him just that little bit harder to beat,” said Murray. “He has incredibly consistent ground strokes, so he likes to

draw the points out. I think more and more guys are try-ing to make the points against him shorter, they’ll move into the net a bit earlier and put him under pressure. However he has the ability to make shots from everywhere so it doesn’t always work. It’s good to have multiple game plans against him, if one isn’t work-ing you can switch to some-thing different, it’s important to keep him guessing and make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

Djokovic, Nadal and Murray will be joined by Roger Federer in the Spanish capital. The 17-time Grand Slam champion had initially planned to skip Madrid to reserve his energy for the three remaining Grand Slams and Rio Olympics later in the year. However, the Swiss’s plans have changed having missed nearly three months of the season due to knee surgery.

n Andy Murray

POsT rePOrTKathmandu, apriL 30

Dr Niranjan Sharma scored 42 points to win sixth Hyundai Open Golf Tournament here at Gokarna Forest Resort on Saturday.

Played under stable ford 3/4 handicap, Sharma edged Mithun Rai by one point. He won a gift voucher worth Rs 100,000. Deepak Rajbhan-dari finished third on count back after he was tied on 39 points with Sumod Bastakoti.

Tashi Dong scored two-un-der gross for 38 points to win the gross title. Mi Jeong Ju was the ladies winner with 32 points. A total of 111 players took part in the tournament sponsored by Laxmi Intercontinental Pvt. Ltd.

WeSt KAthMANdu iN quARteR-FiNALS

Published and Printed by Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd. Kantipur Complex, Subidhanagar, Kathmandu, Nepal, Phone: 5135000, Fax: 977-1-5135057, e-mail: kpost@kmg.com.np, Regd. No. 32/048/049, Chairman & Managing Director : Kailash Sirohiya, Director : Swastika Sirohiya, Editor-in-Chief : Akhilesh Upadhyay

thekathmandu postsports 12Sunday, May 1, 2016

sports digestKrohn-Dehli faces long lay-offMADRID: Sevilla midfield-er Michael Krohn-Dehli faces seven to eight months out after under-going surgery for a seri-ous knee injury sus-tained in Thursday’s Europa League semi-fi-nal first leg against Shakhtar Donetsk. The Denmark international came on as a 59th-minute substitute in the 2-2 draw in Lviv but was stretch-ered off just 13 minutes later with what was later diagnosed as a fractured kneecap. “The player has been operated on...for a displaced fracture of the left kneecap. The opera-tion was performed with-out incident,” Sevilla said in a statement. (AFP)

Palermo prez gets suspendedROME: The outspoken president of Serie A strugglers Palermo has been handed a 20-day suspension by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for comments made about FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, it was announced on Friday. Maurizio Zamparini was punished for reportedly claiming that Infantino won February’s presiden-tial vote at the expense of Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa “only because he bought more votes”. (AFP)

Stendel extends contractBERLIN: Hanover coach Daniel Stendel will stay in charge of the German side next season despite their relegation to the second tier, the club announced on Friday. The former Hanover player and youth team coach has signed a new deal which will keep him at the HDI-Arena until 2018. Stendel took over from Thomas Schaaf on an interim basis earlier this month and the Bundesliga’s bottom side are unbeaten in his three matches so far, with one win and two draws. (AFP)

Betov escapes doping banPARIS: Belarusian tennis player Sergey Betov has escaped punishment despite testing positive for meldonium, the same substance which has brought a halt to the career of superstar Maria Sharapova. Betov, 28, failed a drugs test at the Australian Open where he had been play-ing doubles. But since the amount of meldoni-um discovered in his sample was below that set by the world anti-doping agency earlier this month, he has been allowed to resume playing after a provisional suspension. (AFP)

Ibra leads PSG rout of RennesPARIS: Zlatan Ibrahimo-vic scored twice as French champions Paris Saint-Germain beat Rennes 4-0 on Friday to equal their record points tally for a season with three games remaining. PSG have 89 points to match their total from two seasons ago and are 30 points clear at the top. Maxwell and Edinson Cavani added one each for the reigning Ligue 1 champions. (AP)

(C.R.P.D.)—3/052/053

Mainali claims golf trophyPOST REPORTKAthMANDU, APRiL 30

Mahendra Mainali won the Calsberg Classic Golf Tournament at the Royal Nepal Golf Club on Saturday.

Played under stable ford ¾ handicap, Mainaili accumu-lated 47 points to get hold of the title. Mainali had the scores of 28 in the front nine and 19 in the second half. He edged Ravinder Saini by two points. Pradeep Bikram Rana won the best gross with 31 points.

Maj Gen Gajendra Bahadur Limbu took the senior golfer award scoring 39 points, while Bijay Shrestha (38 points) was the guest winner. Pratima Shrestha earned 38 points to edge Pushpa Rai by one point for the female golfer award. Pratima Sherpa won the most birdies award with four to her name.

Damodar Khadka and Maj MB Limbu won the best front nine and back nine awards with 21 points in both halves respectively. Mithun Rai had the longest drive at 11th and Shreejay Acharya was closest to the pin at 12th hole. Rabi Raj Karnikar walked away with sportsmanship honour.

United keen to stop LeicesterAgEncE FRAncE-PRESSE MANChEStER, APRiL 30

Louis van Gaal is determined to stop Leicester City from winning the Premier League title at Old Trafford on Sunday.

But the Manchester United manager expects that even if his side tops the Foxes from celebrating on Sunday, the champagne will merely be on ice temporarily, with Leicester’s coronation as champions to come in the fol-lowing few days. Leicester will become the most unlikely title winners in Premier League history if Claudio Ranieri’s side secures victory at United. But van Gaal’s team need the points themselves as they try to secure Champions League football for next season.

And so the Dutch manager would rather be reliant on sec-ond-placed Tottenham Hotspur losing at Chelsea on Monday or beating Everton themselves next Saturday to guarantee their historic tri-umph. “We have to beat them (Leicester) because we are still in the race for fourth posi-tion,” van Gaal said Friday. “We cannot allow them to be champions this weekend at Old Trafford.

“They shall be champions a week later. We don’t spoil the party, only postpone it a little bit. I was the first to say they could be champions. For me it’s no surprise. I’ve seen it many times. I believe in team building and this manager (Claudio Ranieri) has done that with his team. Of course they had the circumstances with the same team and they didn’t play as many matches as other teams in the Premier League (because of a lack of European commitments), so it’s always possible. It’s good for the Premier League and the sport of football that it’s not always the same teams (winning the title),” van Gaal said.

United are a distant 17 points behind champi-ons-elect Leicester but van Gaal believes they can still finish the season on a high,

with an FA Cup final against Crystal Palace to come next month and the opportunity to bridge a five-point gap on Manchester City and Arsenal, who occupy third and fourth positions in the Premier League respectively and are still to play each other. “We are fighting for the Champions

League and still in the FA Cup,” said van Gaal. “We have to fight for something and we shall do it. Hopefully we can beat Leicester City.”

United last won the Premier League title in 2013 under Alex Ferguson and van Gaal

claims they were not geared up to do it this season as he looks to continue to re-build the squad he inherited from David Moyes two years ago. “The players we are now play-ing are not used to being champions,” he said, despite

the fact that most of United’s senior squad have won a league title either in England or their home countries.

“You have to see the situa-tion where the club is. We have seen that we are in a transition period. When I was mentioned as the coach it was also about that. When I took

over we had five or six players above the age of 32/33. You have to buy other players. There were not too many young players. It is a process of transition.” Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and defender Luke Shaw are only two injury absentees heading into this weekend.

english premier leaguen A file photo shows Leicester players celebrating their recent win against Swansea during the English Premier League on April 24. AP

Hackett plans to quit boozeAgEncE FRAncE-PRESSE SyDNEy, APRiL 30

Australian swimming great Grant Hackett on Friday said he plans to quit drinking after a highly publicised meltdown on a plane which left him with a “deep sense of shame”.

The dual Olympic champi-on, 35, was accused of drunk-enly squeezing the nipple of a fellow business class pas-senger on a flight from Adelaide. Hackett, who failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics at this month’s Australian trials in Adelaide, admitted he had been binge-drinking and that his reputation has been black-ened. “It has definitely got a tarnish to it unfortunately and I have to live with that,” he said on the Gold Coast, in

his first public appearance since the April 17 incident.

“It is very difficult. A deep sense of shame, guilt, embar-rassment, of regret. I am so sorry for my actions and the people it has impacted.” The former long-time 1,500m world record-holder said he had let down his family, friends, Australian swim-mers and all athletes

involved in the sport. Australian swimming is try-ing to turn a corner after a flop at the 2012 Olympics when their campaign was marred by ill-discipline, drug use and drunkenness.

“I wanted to support that through my actions, but (through) pure stupidity, making poor decisions at crucial times in my life, I

have compromised that and myself and (I have) a huge amount of regret around that,” he said.

Hackett retired after the 2008 Beijing Olympics after winning the 1,500m freestyle at both the 2000 and 2004 Games. Hackett said he planned to get professional help to stop drinking and wanted to set a positive example for his children. “I will seek help. I have decided to get off the drink — I don’t want to see my life in this situation again,” he said.

“That is an issue, some-thing that needs to be addressed and I am doing that. I want a happy and prosperous life and I have two little children that I love and I want to make sure everything that I do is posi-tive for them.”

n Grant Hackett

IndO-ASIAn nEwS SERvIcENEw DELhi, APRiL 30

Delhi Daredevils produced a thorough all-round perfor-mance to notch up their fourth win, beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) clash here on Saturday.

Delhi recovered from a poor start to post an strong total of 186-8. It was enough as they claimed wickets at regular intervals to bowl out KKR for 159 in 18.3 overs.

It moved Delhi to second in the standings, with eight points from six matches, demoting KKR to third, due to an inferior run rate. KKR have also played a game more.

Delhi skipper Zaheer Khan (3-21) led the way for a disci-plined bowling performance. West Indies’ World T20 hero Carlos Brathwaite (3/47) also chipped in with the ball after hitting a quick-fire 34 while batting. A 106-run fourth wicket partnership between Karun Nair (68) and Sam Billings (54) shaped Delhi’s innings at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium.

KKR got into early trouble while chasing, losing skipper Gautam Gambhir and pinch-hitter Piyush Chawla. Gambhir (6) produced a lead-ing edge at cover off Zaheer Khan in the third over. His departure allowed the intro-duction of Chawla (8), who was pushed up in search of some quick runs. But it flopped as he was also claimed by Zaheer to reduce KKR to 33-2 in five overs. Opener Robin Uthappa (72) carried the team forward but lacked support. Hard-hitter Yusuf Pathan (10) went cheaply to compound their problems.

Delhi climb to 2nD Position with KKR scAlP

ipl

IPL SummaryDelhi Daredevils 186-8 in 20 overs (K Nair 68, S Billings 54; A Russell 3-26, U Yadav 3-33) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 159 all out in 18.3 overs (R Uthappa 72, S Yadav 21; Z Khan 3-21, C Brathwaite 3-47) by 27 runsMan-of-the-match: C Brathwaite (DD)

Pochettino set to stay at Spurs until 2021AgEncE FRAncE-PRESSE LoNDoN, APRiL 30

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has announced he intends to extend his contract with the Premier League club by two years until 2021.

The Argentinian has taken Spurs to second in the table and the north London side still have a slim chance of winning the title, with the White Hart Lane club seven points behind champi-ons-elect Leicester City with three games of the season left. Such has been the impact of former Southampton manag-er Pochettino upon Tottenham, that he has been linked with a number of high-profile jobs and touted as a possible successor to Louis van Gaal should the Dutchman be sacked by Manchester United.

However, Pochettino appeared to end talk of a move to Old Trafford by saying on Friday he had no qualms in staying with Tottenham, a club he joined in 2014. “It was an easy decision when you feel the love of the people and

the potential of the club is massive, so why change?,” he said. “We create a good atmos-phere on the training ground and I think we can achieve big things in the future. I believe in this project and this club. I want to stay here.”

Pochettino added he had reached a verbal agreement regarding his two-year exten-sion, which he believes will be confirmed in writing in the next few days. When he took charge of Spurs in May 2014 he was the club’s fifth manag-er in seven years. But he has brought a degree of stability

to the club, promoting a crop of talented and young English players such as Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier while building a team that has taken Tottenham to the verge of qualification for the Champions League.

Spurs are also due to move to a new 61,000 all-seater stadi-um in 2018/19 and Pochettino forecast an exciting future for the club. “We started to speak before, a few months ago, and today I think is a good moment to communicate we have reached the verbal agree-ment,” Pochettino said. “I am very happy. I wanted to stay for many reasons. Tottenham have unbelievable potential. We created after two years here a great group of players. We have a very strong squad, young, with potential to be a top team. The staff and the supporters are unbelievable, there is massive potential, why not stay here?”

Tottenham will be without Alli for the rest of the season after the England midfielder was given a three-game ban for punching West Bromwich Albion’s Claudio Yacob on Monday.

n Mauricio Pochettino

Silva to miss clash against RealREuTERS LoNDoN, APRiL 30

Manchester City will be with-out playmaker David Silva for two to three weeks, ensuring he will definitely miss Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg tie at Real Madrid, manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Friday.

Pellegrini expressed his hope that the Spanish interna-tional might be fit should City reach the final in Milan on May 28. The bad news for City came as Pellegrini reiterated his annoyance that having to play a key Premier League match on Sunday against Southampton might affect their European final ambi-tions. Silva limped out of the first leg tie at the Etihad

Stadium on Tuesday, with Pellegrini revealing: “He has a small hamstring injury and he’ll need two or three weeks to recover.” Asked when he might be back, he added: “He’ll be able to play the final.”

Yaya Toure remains anoth-er injury concern for Pellegrini following a muscle injury. “Yaya started working today, we saw the way he improved during the weekend and we’ll see if he can be fit for Wednesday. At the moment we don’t know.” Pellegrini said he could not understand why, amid such a crowded schedule and with City still pushing for the top four finish that would guarantee Champions League football next season, they had not been given the chance by the

Premier League to play on Saturday.

That, he had hoped, would give them an extra day to pre-pare for the daunting trip to the Bernabeu. “I said this before we knew we were going to play eight games in 30 days, which is a lot for this squad, so I’m making rotations in every game we play,” Pellegrini said. “I don’t under-stand why having so many games in this league with so much interest why we cannot play 24 hours earlier, at least the same as Real Madrid. It’s not for me to say and there’s a lot of things like the rights of TV, so I don’t know.”

“As a manager you always want to have all of the options. We’re representing England and the Premier League in the Champions League. n David Silva

Vodafone plans ‘$2-3 billion’ India IPO Page III British telecoms operator Vodafone has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), Kotak Investment Banking and UBS as joint global coordinators of its Indian unit’s IPO, people familiar with the matter said, kicking off its long-awaited listing plan.

INS IDESyangja fails to make max use of 24-hr power supplyLoad shedding-free district of Syangja has yet to make optimum utilisation of electricity supplied by local Kaligandaki A Hydropower Project due to the lack of industries and busi-nesses, experts have said. Despite 24-hour supply, electricity usage is limited to household purposes, and industrial development has been very slow compared to other districts that are facing power outages. “Plans are laid out to establish dairies, water- and agro-based industries and poultry farms,” said Dili Pratap Khadka, a civil society leader. Pg: II

Oculus Rift delays flatten virtual-reality fan fervorVirtual reality, oddly enough, isn’t immune to the problems that arise in practical reality. Just ask would-be fans of the Oculus Rift headset, many -- possibly most -- of whom are still waiting for their $600 gadgets more than four weeks after they started shipping. The delay, naturally, has sparked online grousing and even some data-based activism, including the creation of a crowdsourced spreadsheet for tracking who received their prized VR gear and when. Pg: III

Nepse continues record-breaking spreeContinuing its rally, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week jumped 10.56 points to close at yet another record high of 1,464.91 points. The market that opened at 1,454.35 points on Sunday rose 7.4 points on Monday. The benchmark index lost 8.64 points on Tuesday before posting gains for rest of the week. Stockbrokers attrib-uted the rise to easy availability of cheaper loans against shares, Securities Board of Nepal’s bid to bet-ter regulate the market and good returns offered by a number of com-panies. Pg: IV

SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016 (19-01-2073) kathmandupost.ekantipur.com

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kathmanduposttheCROSS CURRENCY

US Dollar 106.71

Euro 121.52

Pound Sterling 155.72

Japanese Yen 9.97

Chinese Yuan 16.45

Qatari Riyal 29.32

Australian Dollar 81.40

Malaysian Ringit 27.32

Saudi Arab Riyal 28.45HOW TO READ THE TABLEThe chart shows the rates of nine world currencies. Move across the table to find rates of exchange between any two currencies. One unit of the currency mentioned vertically is worth that amount in the currency mentioned horizontally.

USD EUR JPY GBP CHF CAD AUD INR NR

NR 106.7100 121.5200 9.9700 155.7200 110.8000 85.2500 81.4000 1.6015

INR 66.325 75.611 0.6208 96.865 69.05 52.9697 50.623 0.6244

GBP 0.6839 0.7793 0.0064 0.7096 0.5465 0.5219 0.0103 0.0064

JPY 107.07 122.01 157.2500 111.15 85.53 81.7400 1.6108 0.1003

EUR 0.8774 0.0080 1.2646 0.9109 0.7005 0.6697 0.0132 0.0082

USD 1.1374 0.0091 1.4385 1.0374 0.7985 0.7634 0.0151 0.0094

F O R E X

Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank

C M Y K

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSENEW YORK, APRIL 30

Plunging crude prices battered oil giants’ profits in the first quarter, another blow following credit downgrades, layoffs and drilling cutbacks in the wake of a long rout.

Chevron on Friday became the latest big oil company to land in the red due to low commodity prices, reporting a loss of $725 million in the quarter ending March 31. The second-biggest US oil company pledged more belt-tightening after trimming capital spending nearly 25 per-cent in the first quarter from the year-ago period, said Chevron CEO John Watson. “We continue to lower our cost structure with better pricing, work-flow efficien-cies and matching our organiza-

tional size to expected future activity levels,” Watson said.

ExxonMobil, which was down-graded from the highest triple-A credit rating earlier this week, managed to stay in the black with $1.8 billion in profits. But profit was 63 percent lower and includ-ed a loss of $76 million in its nor-mally lucrative exploration and production business.

BP, ConocoPhillips and Hess all reported losses. The results reflect the effects of a nearly 40 percent drop in oil prices to under $30 a barrel for much of the first quarter amid a persis-tent global oversupply.

Oil prices have since risen back to around $45 a barrel, rais-ing hopes that the first quarter could be a low point. “This quar-ter is probably going to be the trough in their earnings pro-

files,” said Nate Thooft, a senior managing director at John Hancock Asset Management. “Later in the year, assuming oil stays at this level, or at least stays somewhat stable, this will proba-

bly be the worst quarter for ener-gy earnings we’ll see.”

While results in exploration and production were particularly ugly, profits in the refining business were also bad. Chevron

saw a nearly 50 percent decline in earnings from this area to $735 million.

Cheaper oil prices usually boost refining profits because crude is a feedstock for making gasoline. But that effect was blunted in the first quarter due to weak demand for some petroleum products, such as heating oil, because of the unseasonably warm winter.

ExxonMobil also suffered a big hit to its refining profits, but got a boost from $373 million rise in chemical earnings to $1.4 billion. Chevron does not have a separate chemical busi-ness. ExxonMobil shares were up 0.1 percent to $88.10 in after-noon trade, while Chevron fell 0.9 percent to $101.51.

Earlier this week, ConocoPhillips reported a quar-

terly loss of $1.5 billion, US mid-sized producer Hess lost $509 mil-lion and British giant BP lost $583 million. All of those compa-nies took a cautious stance on the recent rise in oil prices.

ConocoPhillips, which announced Thursday it was slashing its 2016 capital budget for a second time, said it would devote gains from higher oil pric-es to debt reduction before boost-ing its drilling budget.

“We are not in a hurry to say there is some price trigger where we are going to add back capital,” said Al Hirshberg, executive vice president for production, drilling and projects.

“We will be looking at the entire macro environment, look-ing at supply and demand funda-mentals and whether we think that any price action that we get

is actually sustainable or not.”Hess said it planned to reduce

its drilling rig fleet in the Bakken shale region from three to two in the third quarter. Hess had 12 rigs operating in the Bakken in the year-ago quarter.

The company plans to ramp up again in the Bakken only once oil prices reach $60 a barrel, a level that will permit its finances to “come out of this low price envi-ronment on our front feet,” said chief executive John Hess.

BP chief financial officer Brian Gilvary said the company expects “a modestly more favorable oil price environ-ment in 2017 than we see today” and suggested the second half of 2016 could also see some gains from today’s levels. The reticence stems from the fact that oil inven-tories remain at lofty levels.

Oil giants’ profits plunge as industry eyes a bottomP LU M M E T I N G P R I C ES

n A file photo shows Statoil’s gas platform near Stavanger, Norway. REUTERS

tourist spot

n Tourists visit the Zhanqiao Pier in Qingdao, a coastal city in east China’s Shandong Province, on Saturday. XINHUA

Tunnel to complete ‘within a year’

BIBEK SUBEDIKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Hit hard by last year’s Gorkha earthquake and India’s blockade, works on the Melamchi Drinking Water Project is regaining momentum.

Project officials said construction of the diver-sion tunnel is scheduled to be completed within a year.

The government had claimed that the first phase of the oldest Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project would be completed by April 2016,

and that the valley would get 170 million litres of water per day, but the plan failed to materialise due to the earthquake and the embargo.

As of now, only 16km of the 27.5km tunnel has been completed. However, con-sidering the fact that Italian contractor CMC Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna dug 932 meters in March and

800 metres in April, project officials are hopeful of completion of the works within a year.

“The work volume decreased in April due to some unforeseen technical problems at Gyaldum area, which was sorted out, and the con-tractor has promised to dig a kilometre a month from May,” said the project’s chief Ghanshyam

Bhattarai, adding project authorities will review the contractor’s progress after the first week of May.

ADB said the change of the consultant is one of the major reasons for the new-ly-gained momentum. “After EPTISTA was appointed as the new con-sultant, the relation between the contractor and the consultant has been improved,” said ADB Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama. “The good rela-tion has been reflected in the form of good progress in work.”

The new consultant was appointed in May 2015. The relation between the con-tractor and the previous consultant turned sour after the former accused the latter of not providing the design document in time.

Once the tunnel is com-pleted, other works such as concreting and plastering of the floor and fixing up of the gates at various exit points will start.

“Such tasks will take around six months,” said Bhattarai. “If everything goes as planned, Kathmandu will get water from Melamchi by the end of October 2017.”

Yokoyama also believes if things remain normal, the completion of the pro-ject is realistically within the stipulated date.

melamchi drinking water project

Contractor digs 932 meters of the tunnel in March and 800 metres in April

Rampant syndicate disputes hit travellers SUDIP KAINIGORKHA, APRIL 30

Vehicular movement on the Arughat-Gorkha Bazaar road has come to a complete halt for the past week due to a dispute between Transportation Entrepreneurs Association and Arughat Yatayat Pvt Ltd.

The dispute ensued after the syndicate barred Arughat Yatayat from running busses on the route.

Political parties meant to solve local disputes through coordination are instead in favour of the syndicate sys-tem, the company said, accus-ing local political leaders of attempting to legalise the syn-dicate system. “Despite the laws allowing the company to operate, the leaders threat-ened to stop operations,” the company’s secretary Hukum Khadka said.

Arughat Yatayat’s attempts to operate buses on the route

have failed for the last six months.

Gorkha Yatayat Committee, is also accused of encouraging syndicate system. Members of four parties operate vehicles under Gorkha Yatayat Committee formed through political apportion. “Syndicate in transportation sector exists because of political protec-tion,” said Chief District Officer Narayan Bhatta.

Locals have complained about growing hooliganism and brawls due to the syndi-cate disputes. Youths of con-flicting-groups threaten each other and vandalise busses in their stronghold areas, caus-ing tooubles to the travellers.

Both groups have mobilised youths to obstruct vehicles on

the route, sources said. Local goons are hired for vandalism purposes, the police added.

“The committee has been pressuring us to merge with it and operate,” said Tara Bahadur Khadka, advisor to Arughat Yatayat. “Political parties and the administra-tion has joined hands to ensure continuity of the syn-dicate system,” he said.

The leaders of civil society and human rights activists recently submitted a memo-randum to the CDO demand-ing an end to the syndicate system. “Although the politi-cal parties agree the need to end the system, they don’t want it to stop. Political pro-tection has helped the syndi-cate grow, CDO Bhatta said.

Political parties meant to solve local disputes through coordination are instead in favour of the syndicate

system, according to the stakeholders

289 climbers in bid to scale EverestSANGAM PRASAINKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Two hundred and eighty nine climbers are in a bid to exploit a short window of good weath-er, which formally begins next week, to stand atop Mt Everest. Among the bidders, 160 are new climbers.

Dambar Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators´ Association of Nepal, said the Icefall Doctors have prepared the routes till Camp III as of Friday.

“They have fixed double ropes, for ascent and descent, at the Camp III to make climbing easier and reduce congestion.”

The Icefall Doctors were to start fixing the ropes at Camp IV on Saturday. “Official reports are yet to come,” Parajuli said.

The route starts from the Everest Base Camp at 5,380m. Camp I, II and III are at the altitudes of 6,065m, 6,500m and 7,470m, respectively.

From the Camp IV (7,920m), the climbers will make their final summit push. They will

reach the “balcony” (8,400m) first, and launch the Everest push, which normally starts around midnight.

“If the weather behaves well, climbing will start in seven to eight days,” said Gyanendra Shrestha, an offi-cial at the Department of Mountaineering that issues climbing permits.

“The number of Everest aspirants has deceased this year compared to last year, but the figure is not that disap-pointing given back-to-back disasters,” he said.

Last year, 356 mountaineers had acquired climbing per-mits. But there were no Everest bids in the spring of 2015 due to avalanches set off by the devastating April 25 earthquake that killed 19 climbers, including high-altitude guides and help-ers at the base camp and the Khumbu Icefall.

The government has extend-ed their permits for two years until 2017.

The number of issued per-mits dropped this year as the government made late

announcement for extending last year’s permits, mountain-eering agencies said.

“The number dropped this season as the climbers did not have enough time to prepare. They also need to arrange hefty amount of money,” said Shrestha. “However, 2017 is expected to be better.”

The government collected more than Rs210 million in royalties by issuing Everest permits this season. The gov-ernment charges $11,000 per foreign climber.

In April 2014, there was an

avalanche near Everest Base Camp which killed 16 Nepali guides. Rescuers pulled out 13 bodies and the remaining three were never recovered as search and rescue operations were called off due to “too much risk”. Subsequently, the mission was called off.

The government had also extended the Everest climbing permits until 2019 of those climbers who were forced to abandon the mission in 2014. That year, 326 mountaineers had received climbing permits.

Lhotse, Manaslu ascent annivKATHMANDU: The govern-ment on Saturday celebrat-ed the 60th anniversary of the ascent of Mt Lhotse and Mt Manaslu, the world’s fourth and eighth highest peaks, respectively. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari handed over a plaque of honour to legend-ary climber Minoru Higeta, a member of a Japanese expedition that conquered

the 8,163m Manaslu on May 11, 1956, two days after the feat was accom-plished by Japan’s Toshio I m a n i s h i a n d GyalzenNorbu Sherpa. A Swiss team represented by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger from the Swiss Mount Everest/Lhotse Expedition had first climbed the 8,516m Lhotse on May 18, 1956. (PR)

moneyeconomy IISunday, May 1, 2016 | thekathmandupost

France economy grows 0.5pcPARIS: France posted Friday an acceleration in economic growth at the start of 2016, a rare dose of good news for President Francois Hollande as he confronts fierce opposition to planned job market reforms just a year ahead of elections. Hollande’s hopes for a signature achievement on the economic front, notably through reforms that would make it easier for employers to lay off workers, have taken a hit from huge protests, including a demonstra-tion that disintegrated into violent clashes Thursday night in the streets of Paris. The Socialist Party govern-ment will likely take some heart, however, from official data show-ing France’s gross domestic product grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter of this year. The expansion beat expecta-tions of 0.4 percent growth and came on top of upbeat employment figures. (AFP)

RBS suffers more lossesLONDON: Britain’s state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday said net losses more than doubled in the first quar-ter owing to an excep-tional payment back to the government. Losses after tax in the first three months of the year stood at £968 million ($1.4 bil-lion, 1.2 billion euros), which compared with a net loss of £459 million in the first quarter of 2015, RBS said in an earnings statement. Pre-tax profits came in at £421 million, up from £37 million. However, the bottom-line net figure was hit by RBS having to pay the government almost £1.2 billion in order to allow the bank to begin paying dividends again. “An attributable loss of £968 million included pay-ment of the final Dividend Access Share (DAS) dividend of £1,193 million to the UK govern-ment,” RBS said. (AFP)

Continental books Q1 profitsFRANKFURT: Continental, the German car parts specialist, said Friday it got off to a good start to the year, driven largely by strong demand for its tyres. “In light of the difficult mar-ket environment, we had a good start to the new fiscal year,” said chief executive Elmar Degenhart. This was “primarily attributable to volume growth in our tyre division and the sta-bilisation of industrial business” at the group’s ContiTech, he explained. In the period from January to March, group sales climbed by three percent to 9.85 billion euros ($11.2 billion), Continental said. Negative exchange-rate effects sliced 2.1 percent-age points off sales growth, it noted. Underlying or operating profit climbed by five percent to 1.1 billion euros and the operating margin increased to 11.3 percent from 10.6 percent a year earlier. (AFP)

NEWS DIGEST

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEMARACAIBO, APRIL 30

Carmela de la Hoz sent a customer away with his hair half cut when the power went off in her salon. The customer will be back—but so will the blackouts.

The rolling electricity cuts the Venezuelan government ordered across the country starting this week have hit the city of Maracaibo hard. Security forces are patrolling the streets to prevent unrest follow-ing reports of looting in Maracaibo and other towns, a sign that Venez-uela’s crisis is close to boiling point.

In their green uniforms, they guard subways and entrances to supermarkets where locals queue for hundreds of meters (yards) to buy rations of food and supplies. Citizens have already been short of basic goods for months. Now the power cuts prompted by an electrici-

ty shortage are driving locals to despair. “This is a disaster,” De la Hoz said. “We can’t live here. How can I work without electricity? How can I pay my five employees and rent the premises?”

The city is home to an old fishing

community beside the Maracaibo lake that gives onto Venezuela’s northern gulf in the Caribbean. It lies near one of the world’s biggest oil reserves. They once helped fuel an economic boom, but the price of the oil has plunged, slashing the

state’s revenues, and critics say the government has failed to provide economic alternatives.

President Nicolas Maduro says a drought has dried up Venezuela’s hydroelectric dams. His opponents say his government has misman-aged the entire power network. Maduro announced four hours of power cuts a day for 40 days from Monday. But locals here say the lights have been going off for much longer periods.

While blackouts have not been enforced in the capital Caracas, poor families in cities like Maracaibo are suffering the consequences. Sweating in the sun, carpenter Jose Ortega, 45, stands in the doorway of his home—a rickety house mounted on piles on a bank of the lake.

Inside his workshop, the saw and sander are not working because of the power cut. “It is hitting us hard. We can’t get supplies at any price,”

he said. “We are eating mostly bananas, although the fish we get from the lake help a bit.”

Switching the power supply on and off causes irregular surges of current that burn out the resistors on refrigerators and televisions. “They turn off the power with no warning,” Ortega said. “You have no time to turn anything off and the equipment gets damaged.”

One of his neighbors, Ramon Morillo, 58, had to pay the equiva-lent of hundreds of dollars to get his fridge fixed. He catches fish to help feed his eight children. “We are screwed with the light, the water, the food,” he said.

Critics say Maduro’s power cuts are misguided. Former head of the state electricity utility Miguel Lara said he considers the blackout plan flawed, saying the cuts would be fol-lowed by periods of high use that would saturate the network.

Hair left half-cut in Venezuela electricity chaosRAT I O N I N G

C M Y K

regaining momentum

n Workers and technicians are seen at the site of Sikta Irrigation Project in Banke on Saturday. Works on the main canal, which were halted due to Tarai strikes, India’s trade embargo, and shortage of construction materials, have gained pace. POST PHOTO: JANAK NEPAL

n A file photo shows customers at a bakery during a power cut in San Cristobal. AFP/RSS

Syangja fails to make max use of 24-hr powerPRATIKSHYA KAFLESYANGJA, APRIL 30

Load shedding-free district of Syangja has yet to make opti-mum utilisation of electricity supplied by local Kaligandaki A Hydropower Project due to the lack of industries and businesses, experts have said.

Despite 24-hour supply, elec-tricity usage is limited to household purposes, and industrial development has been very slow compared to other districts that are facing power outages.

Stating that businesses can cut production costs signifi-cantly due to uninterrupted power supply, Nawaraj Subedi, president of Syangja Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said: “We are making efforts to attract industries in Syangja. We have initiated dis-cussions on how to optimally utilise electricity.”

“Plans are laid out to estab-lish dairies, water- and agro-

based industries and poultry farms,” said Dili Pratap Khadka, a civil society leader.

He said despite the 24-hour power supply and fertile soil, the locals are more interested in purchasing land plots, houses and jewelleries, rather than investing in development projects. “I/NGOs, govern-ment and private sector

should unite to promote and develop Syangja,” he said.

“There is a growing need for manufacturing-based industries. The private sector should shift their focus in line with the facilities available in the district.”

For the last three years, the district has not seen major power outages.

n Despite 24-hour supply, electricity usage is limited to household purposes, and industrial development has remained slow compared to other districts that are facing power outages. POST FILE PHOTO

Auction fails as no takers for brand Kingfisher, trademarksPRESS TRUST OF INDIAMUMBAI, APR 30

Auction of brands and trade-marks of Kingfisher Airlines turned out to be a damp squib today as lenders failed to attract a single bidder for sale of these pledged assets at a reserve price of IRs3.66 billion in their efforts to recover unpaid loans from belea-guered Vijay Mallya.

This is the second failed attempt by the 17-bank consor-tium led by state-run behe-moth SBI to recover some money from Mallya, after an earlier auction of Kingfisher House—the erstwhile head-quarters of the long-defunct airline—met with a similar fate, with no bidder coming forward.

The items on sale during today’s e-auction included the the Kingfisher logo as also the once-famous tagline ‘Fly the Good Times’. The other trademarks on sale included Flying Models, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device.

The reserve price for the trademarks was kept at IRs3.66 billion, which is not even one-tenth of the price at which it was pledged

as a collateral for the loan. Sources, however, said the reserve price was “too high” for any bidder to come in.

“There were no bids, possi-bly because the reserve price was considered very high. Though the reserve price was set much lower than its origi-nal valuation at the time of taking the brand as collateral, people still found it to be high,” a banking source said.

The online auction began at 11:30 am and lasted for an hour without any success. It was conducted by SBICAP Trustee Company on behalf of lenders under the Sarfaesi Act.

The Kingfisher brand itself was valued at more than IRs40 billion by Grant Thornton

when the airline was at its peak. In its annual report for 2012-13, KFA said that at its peak, it was the largest airline in India, with a five-star rating from Skytrax. The airline’s brand had been registered sep-arately from the Kingfisher beer trademarks.

A senior banker said: “The interest for this auction could have been from existing air-line operators, but no one will come. It is better to start a new airline company than to buy this brand and revive it.”

In a previous attempt at recovery of dues, which have ballooned to over IRs90 billion after taking into account the interest component, the banks had conducted an auction of

Kingfisher House last month, but did not find any takers at a reserve price of IRs1.5 billion.

Sources said the lenders might now try to lower the reserve price in both the cases in their future efforts to sell these pledged assets.

The Kingfisher House property has a built-up area of over 17,000 square feet in posh Vile Parle near domestic air-port here.

Mallya, who left India on March 2 and is currently in London, has a non-bailable warrant against him in a mon-ey-laundering investigation. His passport has also been revoked.

Earlier this week, the gov-ernment said it has written to the British government seek-ing Mallya’s deportation.

In an interview to the Financial Times, the liquor baron, however, said he is in a “forced exile” and has no plans at the moment to return to India where things are fly-ing at him “fast and furious”.

“I definitely would like to return to India. Right now, things are flying at me fast and furious. My passport has been revoked. I don’t know what the government is going to do next,” he said.

TTIP negotiators claim progressAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSENEW YORK, APRIL 30

Negotiators on the ambitious TTIP transatlantic trade pact said they had made significant progress in New York this week and hope for a deal in 2016, despite popular opposi-tion on both sides.

Both sides said they would not be deterred by increased attacks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and did not plan to water it down despite vocal objections from politicians and the public on both sides.

“The United States has no interest in a ‘TTIP light’ that would not fulfil the economic promise of the ambitious agreement that we’re seek-ing,” said Dan Mullaney, the US Trade Representative’s front man in the talks. “A TTIP

light.. is not workable for the US or for the Europeans,” said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, the lead negotiator for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade.

US and EU negotiators told journalists that there were still significant sticking points. While 97 per-cent of tariff issues had been covered, three percent -- the most challenging, including for farm products, remained and could be some of the last things to deal with.

Other key challenges are on the opening of the EU services sector and better European

access to US government pro-curement projects. “Quite sub-stantial work is still ahead of us,” said Garcia Bercero.

After nearly three years of talks, he said progress on access to US government pro-curement lags other issues, suggesting that Washington needs to make more conces-sions on allowing European firms to compete equally in contracts from US public authorities.

The US meanwhile wants to see Europe’s services sector opened wider to American companies. Both sides said they need to open those doors

wider rather than leaving the most politically difficult issues untouched. “We shouldn’t reserve significant amounts of space to discrimi-nate against each other,” said Mullaney. They also down-played the affect on their nego-tiations of critics of free trade deals, including from the US politicians now battling to succeed President Barack Obama; and from the looming referendum in Britain on Brexit, withdrawal from the European Union by a key trading power.

“This is not an issue which is impacting our negoti-ations,” Garcia Bercero said of Brexit. “There is a lot of anxiety about globalisation both in Europe and in the United States, and one certainly needs to understand those concerns,” he added.

Yahoo’s bidder shortlist points to cash dealREUTERSSAN FRANCSICO, APRIL 30

Yahoo Inc has shortlisted close to 10 bidders in the auc-tion for its core Internet assets, including Verizon Communications Inc, with most offers involving cash rather than a combination with another company, accord-ing to people familiar with the matter.

The shortlist comprises mainly large companies and big private equity firms including TPG Capital LP, and excludes many small companies that proposed some kind of combination, such as privately held Yellow Pages owner YP LLC, the people said this week. The sources declined to divulge the full list.

Some bidders that did not make the shortlist because their first-round offers were not specific enough are still being kept close to the process by Yahoo’s advisers, the peo-ple said.

One of those bidders is Liberty Media Corp Chairman John Malone, who has pro-posed a tax-efficient merger with one of the companies he controls, the people said.

The sources asked not to be identified because details of the sale process were confi-dential. Yahoo, Verizon, TPG and YP declined to comment. Liberty Media did not respond to a request for comment.

A sale of Yahoo’s Internet assets for cash, followed by a divestment of its 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, would leave the company owning just its 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

In December, Yahoo scrapped plans to spin off its Alibaba stake, after investors fretted over whether that

transaction could have been carried out on a tax-free basis. Yahoo has been laying off employees and seeking to cut costs as its core Internet busi-ness shrinks.

Earlier this week, Yahoo said that activist hedge fund Starboard Chief Executive Jeffrey Smith and three inde-pendent directors associated with him would join its board immediately.

A truce with Smith, its most vocal activist investor, helps Yahoo clear the way for the auction of its core businesses, analysts said.

Yahoo’s four new directors were on a slate that Starboard proposed last month to oust Yahoo’s entire board. Analysts see Verizon, which bought AOL last year for $4.4 billion, as the candidate likely to pre-vail in the auction.

Verizon is being advised by three investment banks, Guggenheim Partners LLC, LionTree LLC and Allen & Company, as reported by Reuters.

G7 ministers to push for internet freedomINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE TOKYO, APRIL 30

Information technology min-isters of the G7 countries, dur-ing a meeting in Japan on Saturday, agreed to tackle the digital divide by bringing internet access to more peo-ple, and pushing for policies free of political censorship.

The plan set out by the min-isters of the G7 countries -- Japan, the US, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy -- and European Union officials is to enable 1.5 billion more people to have internet access by 2020, EFE news reported.

It is believed that around 4 billion people, representing 60

percent of the world’s popula-tion, still lack internet access. “We believe that global digital connectivity should in par-ticular contribute to improv-ing the quality of life for all people everywhere, to generat-ing economic growth.”

Meanwhile, in a message to countries such as China and Russia where governments censor web content, the minis-ters called for a free flow of information.

“We continue to support ICT policies that preserve the global nature of the internet, promote the flow of informa-tion across borders and allow internet users to access online information, knowledge and services of their choice,” a

joint statment issued after the meeting said.

The group also called for the active participation of govern-ments, the private sector, civil society, the tech community and international organisa-tions in matters concerning internet governance. The meet emphasised the need to strengthen international and public-private cooperation to bolster cyber security and combat cyber terrorism.

Japan, which has the cur-rent rotating presidency of the G7, proposed the develop-ment of a barometer to assess cyber risks. The information and communication technolo-gy meeting of the G7 is the first to be held in 21 years.

The shortlist comprises mainly large companies and big private equity

firms, and excludes many small companies

transatlantic trade dealBoth sides pledged not to water the deal down despite objections from politicians and public

money worldIII thekathmandupost | Sunday, May 1, 2016

Gucci warns over HK paper fakesHONG KONG: Luxury fash-ion brand Gucci has warned Hong Kong shops selling paper hand-bags and other goods as offerings for the dead not to market items resem-bling their products. It is a tradition for Hong Kong families to pur-chase and burn paper replicas of everything their deceased loved ones could ever want in the afterlife. As such the city is bustling with specialty stores stocking everything from paper false teeth, iPads and shirts, to chauffeur-driv-en cars, macaroons, man-sions and wads of fake cash. But it was the rep-lica bags and other prod-ucts bearing Gucci-like logos and designs that caught the eye of the lux-ury goods maker. “In this instance, we fully respect the funeral context and we trust that the store owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci’s trademark,” the company said. (AFP)

Spain posts steady growthMADRID: Spain’s economy grew at a steady pace in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, despite a political stale-mate that has left the country without a gov-ernment since December. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.8 percent between January and March from the previous three months, matching growth in the previous two quarters, according to preliminary figures from national statistics institute, INE. On a year-on-year basis, Spain’s GDP grew by 3.4 percent during the first quarter, a slight slowdown from the final three months of 2015 when it rose by 3.5 percent, it added. Spain was hit hard by the glob-al financial crisis, expe-riencing five difficult years of on-off recession that saw unemployment rocket from a low of around eight percent in 2007 to a high of 27 per-cent in the first quarter of 2013. (AFP)

BA owner trims expansion plansLONDON: International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways and Iberia, said Friday it was scaling back plans to raise its flights offering, blaming the move on last month’s Islamist attacks in Brussels. The announcement was made alongside news that IAG had swung into a net profit in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, thanks to its recent purchase of Aer Lingus and lower fuel prices. However IAG was the biggest faller on London’s bench-mark FTSE 100 index, slumping 4.45 percent to 526.50 pence. The FTSE was down 0.9 percent overall. “British Airways parent IAG went into a tailspin as it scaled back short term capacity plans in the aftermath of the Brussels terror attacks,” said Russ Mould, investment direc-tor at AJ Bell. “The group was the biggest blue chip faller in early trading despite a strong first quarter.” (AFP)

NEWS DIGEST

REUTERSNEW DELHI, APRIL 30

A flurry of complaints from Uber drivers about an unusually high number of cancelled book-ings was the spark that ignited a bitter legal fight with Ola, Uber’s rival for dominance of India’s $12 billion taxi market, according to court documents and a source with direct knowl-edge of Uber’s case.

A seven-member internal team was set up to investigate the driv-ers’ complaints in November, and its findings are the basis of a law-suit filed by Uber accusing Ola of a campaign to disrupt its busi-ness and poach its drivers, said the source. Ola, an Indian compa-ny backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, denies any wrongdoing. Uber is suing Ola for $7.5 million

to compensate for lost revenue and goodwill, alleging the Indian market leader created about 94,000 fake user accounts with the ride-hailing service and used them to make more than 405,000 false bookings.

The broad outlines of the law-suit were reported when it was filed last month, but a Reuters review of court filings and inter-views with sources close to both sides have uncovered new details about how Uber says it was able to trace fake bookings and calls to Ola employees, and Ola’s response to the allegations.

It paints a picture of a no-holds-barred corporate battle between the two start-ups in one of the world’s fastest growing taxi markets, where both have been burning millions of dollars of investor money as they seek to

undercut each other with cheaper fares. A source close to Ola said the case against it had been fabri-cated in retaliation for a lawsuit it had filed earlier this year accusing Uber of flouting a court order to switch to clean-fuel cars in the Indian capital. Uber said it could not comment on a matter that was still before the courts, and Reuters was unable to inde-pendently verify the allegations made by either side. SoftBank, one of Ola’s largest investors, declined to comment on the case.

Uber’s investigation identified locations and internet protocol addresses of tens of thousands of users who had booked and can-celled rides, using information logged when a new customer account is created on Uber’s plat-form, the source familiar with the company’s case said.In court

documents, Uber says it found 660 accounts used to make trouble-some bookings came from a building housing Ola’s office in the western city of Pune. Most of the rest were created near Ola’s

office in the tech hub Bengaluru, it said.In the court filings, Uber said more than 23,000 of its driv-ers quit due to “illegal and wron-gful interference” between Sept-ember 2015 and February 2016.

The source close to Ola said the company had made its own checks and found no correlations in the thousands of data points submitted by Uber in its com-plaint, which included names and mobile phone numbers alleged to belong to Ola employees. The data could have been compiled in a few hours using names, busi-ness addresses and phone num-bers linked to Ola that could be looked up online, the source said.

The Delhi High Court has set a hearing on the latest case in September. Ola’s case against Uber is before the same court. The backdrop to the legal spar-

ring is a relentless price war between Uber and Ola, who also offer competing incentives to lure drivers. “The one which lasts the longest will eventually win and enjoy monopoly power,” said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research.

Counterpoint estimates Uber’s growth has outpaced Ola over the last two years, when it doubled its market share to 26.5 percent. Ola, however, still leads with 52 percent share. Uber’s legal sub-missions included several images of LinkedIn profiles, locations pinpointed with Google Maps and hundreds of phone numbers it said belonged to people associat-ed with Ola.

Reuters called dozens of those numbers, but most were not oper-ational. One number cited in court documents, from which 74

cancellations were made, belonged to a user identified as Kisan Kumar.When Reuters called the number, the person answering identified himself as college student Shashank Kumar in Pune and said Kisan was his brother.

Shashank said he often used Uber and Ola but had not made repeated cancellations on the Uber platform. Reuters was una-ble to contact Kisan for comment.

Another number Reuters was able to connect to belonged to someone identified as “Shiv D” in Uber’s filings, which alleged he created 30 fake accounts to book and cancel dozens of rides.

Shiv D said he had worked for Ola helping drivers get new cars, but denied Uber’s allega-tions and said he had since left the company.

Uber vs Ola: How fight for Indian taxi market ended up in courtCA N C E L L E D B O O K I N G S

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plank road

n People walk along a 500-metre-long plank road built over a river in Shiziguan scenic spot of Xuan’en County, central China’s Hubei Province, on Saturday. The plank road is expected to be open to the public on May 1. XINHUA

Oculus Rift delays flatten virtual-reality fan fervourASSOCIATED PRESSLOS ANGELES, APRIL 30

Virtual reality, oddly enough, isn’t immune to the problems that arise in practical reality. Just ask would-be fans of the Oculus Rift headset, many—possibly most—of whom are still waiting for their $600 gadgets more than four weeks after they started shipping .

The delay, naturally, has sparked online grousing and even some data-based activ-ism, including the creation of a crowdsourced spreadsheet for tracking who received their prized VR gear and when. Some longtime support-ers of Oculus have declared themselves alienated by the company’s inability to deliver; others have defected to rival VR systems, or are at least considering it.

Christian Cantrell, a soft-ware engineer and science-fic-tion author in Sterling, Virginia, put in his pre-order roughly 15 minutes after Oculus started accepting them in January—and is still wait-ing. It’s been a “bummer,” he says, because he passed up buying a rival headset, the HTC Vive, hoping to be part of a VR “renaissance” with Rift. “I’ve been kind of like an Oculus believer,” he says. “But if they bump it again, I might just order a Vive.”

It’s too soon to say how the delays will affect Oculus, much less the overall accept-ance of VR, a technology that submerges users in realistic

artificial worlds. (Early VR “experiences” consist primar-ily of video games .) In other contexts, big companies like Apple have managed to weath-er shortages and shipping delays for products such as the Apple Watch and its new iPhone SE. But some find the Rift delays intolerable, espe-cially given that Oculus is no fledgling startup, but part of Facebook—the social network bought it two years ago for $2 billion. “There’s an element of inexcusable incompetence going on,” says J.P. Gownder, a Forrester Research analyst, who placed his preorder in the first 10 minutes but doesn’t expect his Rift until mid-May.

Experienced hardware manufacturers would have set

up suppliers months or years in advance to avoid these types of problems, Gownder says. The fact that Oculus managed to bungle its launch with more than three years to prepare, plus the backing of Facebook, is “scandalous,” he says.

Oculus, which has blamed the delays on an “unexpected component short-age,” declined to comment on specifics. It told the AP in a statement it has moved to address the shortage and

expects deliveries to acceler-ate in coming weeks. By way of apology, Oculus said it will offer free shipping to custom-ers who ordered before April 1.

Few have been as disap-pointed as some of the compa-ny’s earliest supporters. Back in January, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey announced that 5,600 of the company’s first Kickstarter backers would be eligible for a free headset. He then tweeted on the eve of first deliveries that the gifts would “start arriv-ing” two days before others, giving the impression Kickstarter backers would get theirs first. It didn’t happen. Unhappy customers gathered on Reddit to complain and to figure out where they stood in

line; one poster catalogued the frustration on a crowdsourced spreadsheet. While not neces-sarily representative of the entire Oculus customer base, that data shows that of the 131 early Kickstarter backers who submitted responses, only 28 report receiving a unit. Of 1,399 pre-order customers, just 165 say they got a Rift.

The virtual reality boom is just getting going, and the competition is growing. Sony will release its PlayStation VR headset later this year. Google is expected to expand on its primitive Cardboard viewer, and recent Apple acquisitions suggest that it may also be jumping into the field soon.

Meanwhile, the Rift is los-ing some of its first-mover appeal. Some games originally designed to be Oculus exclu-sives have now been hacked to work on the HTC Vive, which launched about a week after the Rift, but hasn’t experi-enced shipping delays. Customers who bought Rift games before receiving their headset can now get digital keys so they can play games in real reality, on a regular PC.

Bill Ellis, a 30-year-old com-puter engineer in Houston, has been playing with his Vive since it arrived April 5, and may not keep the Rift after it arrives. His plan, he says, was always to buy both, and sell the one that didn’t live up to expectations: “The one that hasn’t shown up is the one that hasn’t lived up to my expectations so far.”

The delay, naturally, has sparked online

grousing and even some data-based activism

Vodafone plans ‘$2-3b’ India IPOREUTERSSINGAPORE/HONG KONG, APRIL 30

British telecoms operator Vodafone has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), Kotak Investment Banking and UBS as joint global coordinators of its Indian unit’s IPO, people familiar with the matter said, kicking off its long-awaited listing plan.

The IPO is expected to raise between $2 billion–$2.5 billion, Reuters previously reported, which, at the upper end, would make it India’s biggest stock market listing since state-owned Coal India Ltd raised $3.5 billion in 2010.

Deutsche Bank, HSBC and ICICI Securities have won joint book-runner roles, the people added, declining to be identified as the information is not public. Vodafone is like-ly to launch the IPO early next year, they said.

The deal offers a rare oppor-tunity for international banks in a market where equity capi-tal raisings worth more than $1 billion are uncommon and where stock underwriting fees are amongst the lowest in the world.

Vodafone said in November it had started preparations for floating its Indian subsidiary. IFR, a Thomson Reuters publi-cation, said in a report the IPO is expected to raise $2 bil-lion-$3 billion. The company was not immediately available for comment outside its regu-

lar business hours when Reuters attempted to contact it on Saturday.

Vodafone, India’s sec-ond-largest mobile operator behind Bharti Airtel, had raised the prospect of a listing in India as early as 2011. The company is one of the largest corporate investors in Asia’s third-largest economy and is expected to use the proceeds to buy additional radio spectrum and further expand its opera-tions across India’s crowded and cut-throat telecoms mar-ket.

Indian mobile phone opera-tors have been spending heav-ily in setting up fourth-genera-tion (4G) mobile broadband data networks to meet expect-ed demand.

Vodafone entered India in 2007, when it acquired a majority stake in Hutchison Essar and since 2014 has whol-ly owned Vodafone India, which operates in a market that has over a billion mobile subscribers -- the second-big-gest market in the world behind China.

Reuters reported last week that Vodafone had invited for-eign and Indian banks to pitch for the Indian IPO.

moneystock IVSunday, May 1, 2016 | thekathmandupost

C M Y K

MARKET WATCH

Vegetables Unit Price (Rs)

Fruits Unit Price (Rs)

Red Potato Kg Rs45

White Potato Kg Rs35

Onion (Indian) Kg Rs45

Tomato Small Kg Rs55

Carrot Kg Rs65

Tomato Big Kg Rs55

Squash Kg Rs65

Cabbage Kg Rs55

Brinjal Long kg Rs75

DAILY COMMODITIES

GASOLINE WATCH

BULLION PRICE PER TOLA

SOURCE: FENEGOSIDA

Apple Kg Rs115

Pomegranate Kg Rs215

Water Melon Kg Rs33

Sweet Orange Kg Rs135

Mango kg Rs145

Pineapple 1Pc Rs145

Cucumber Kg Rs95

Pear Kg Rs145

Papaya Kg Rs75

Banana Doz Rs105

Lime 100 Pcs Rs475

Pokhreli Rice Kg Rs65

Jeera Masino Rice Kg Rs70

Indian Basmati Rice Kg Rs100

Mansuli Rice Kg Rs55

Sona Rice Kg Rs45

Beaten Rice (Taichin) Kg Rs120

Beaten Rice Kg Rs50

Big Mas Kg Rs270

Small Mas Kg Rs250

Big Mung Kg Rs220

Musuro (No 1) Kg Rs170

Musuro (No 2) Kg Rs160

Rahar Kg Rs240

Chana (Big) Kg Rs150

Chana (Small) Kg Rs140

Chilli Powder Kg Rs350

Commodities Unit Price (Rs)

INT’L MARKET

Energy Price (US$) %Change

Agriculture Price (US$) %Change

Industrial Metals Price (US$) %Change

Copper Future (Lb) 228.3 2.31

Precious Metals Price (US$) %Change

Gold 100 Oz Futr (T Oz) 1,280.10 1.08Silver Future (T Oz) 17.82 1.32

Cocoa Future (Mt) 3,177.00 -0.41Coffee ‘C’ Future (Lb) 122.2 0.58Corn Future (Bu) 394.5 0.83Cotton No. 2 Futr (Lb) 83.33 -1.28Rough Rice (Cbot) (Cwt) 11.1 0.82Soybean Future (Bu) 1031.5 0.39Soybean Meal Futr (T) 333.3 -0.03Soybean Oil Futr (Lb) 33.88 1.17Sugar #11 (World) (Lb) 18.12 2.81Wheat Future (Cbt) (Bu) 487.25 0.39

Hallmark Gold Rs56,500

Tejabi Gold Rs56,250

Silver Rs800

RETAIL PRICE

Brent Crude Futr (Bbl) 48.24 0.48Gas Oil Fut (Ice) (Mt) 418.75 0.54Gasoline Rbob Fut (Gal) 159.77 -0.02Natural Gas Futr (Mmbtu) 2.08 0.00

POST REPORTKATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Continuing its rally, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) last week jumped 10.56 points to close at yet another record high of 1,464.91 points.

The market that opened at 1,454.35 points on Sunday rose 7.4 points on Monday. The benchmark index lost 8.64 points on Tuesday before posting gains for rest of the week.

Stockbrokers attributed the rise to easy availability of cheaper loans against shares, Securities Board of Nepal’s bid to better regulate the mar-ket and good returns offered by a num-ber of companies.

“Easy loans at cheaper rates and lack of alternative investment areas have fuelled the growth,” said Pralhad Kumar Oli, managing director of Pragyan Securities.

Of the nine trading groups, four posted gains. The insurance sector (up 168.4 points) was the biggest gainer, followed by development banks, manufacturing and hotels.

The losers were hydropower, others,

finance companies and commercial banks. The trading group was stable at 201.38 points.

The sensitive index that measures the performance of ‘A’ class companies rose 2.11 points to close at 317.27 points.

The transaction volume increased 5.28 percent to Rs4.59 billion, but the number of shares traded fell to 6,935,390 units from 7,424,600 shares.

Standard Chartered Bank posted the highest individual transaction of

Rs405.06 million. It was followed by Nepal Life Insurance, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Global IME Bank and Everest Bank. National Hydropower Company topped in terms of the number of shares traded (526,000 units).

Meanwhile, the Nepse listed primary shares of Reliance Lotus Finance and right’s shares of Kaveli Bikas Bank and Gandaki Bikas Bank.

It also listed bonus shares of Ace

Development Bank, Kamana Bikas Bank, Kaveli Bikas Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and Deprox Laghubitta Bikas Bank during the review period.

REUTERSNEW YORK, APRIL 30

Coming off a barrage of flimsy company earnings reports that included Apple’s first revenue drop in 13 years, investors will turn to April jobs data for signs of budding resilience or further weakening in the second quarter.

US nonfarm payrolls, unem-ployment and wages data are due Friday May 6, when the economy is expected to have added 200,000 jobs in April, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 5 percent and a wage increase of 0.3 percent, according to Reuters data.

Unlike in recent months, where weak jobs numbers were counted on to stave off another Federal Reserve interest rate hike, investors are now itching for better-than-expected employ-ment data to indicate a stronger next earnings season, analysts said.

“The most important thing to stock investors is not what the Federal Reserve will do in June

at their meeting; the most important thing is to see a recovery in the economy and earnings,” said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Albany, New York-based Hugh Johnson Advisors.

Even as expectations for first-quarter earnings have improved of late, S&P 500 com-panies are still seen posting a 5.9 percent earnings fall in the first quarter. On April 1, the estimate was for a 7.1 percent decline.

With dismal US gross domes-tic product figures released on Wednesday showing the slowest economic expansion in two years, jobs will be especially important for signaling a sec-ond-quarter recovery, Johnson said.

If employment can beat esti-mates, markets will likely rally, Johnson said, even if the num-ber triggers talk of an impend-ing rate hike at the Fed. After a slow climb since the start of the month, as many companies beat ultra-low first-quarter earnings expectations, stocks fell sharply

over the last two trading days. Pushing the downturn were Apple’s results, which included the first decline in iPhone sales.

Even if a stronger-than-ex-pected jobs report furthers a short-term selloff, investors would then feel more confident that a bull market is sustainable without Fed support, said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Capital Management.

“If we’re going to see positive economic growth perpetuate, it needs to come on the back of job growth and wage increases,” Luschini said. “If we did see

some disruption as a conse-quence of the Fed raising inter-est rates, it would be welcome.”

Stronger employment data signals an increase in demand for consumer goods, which typi-cally indicates better revenue for companies. “The jobs report is a great running barometer on how our economy is doing,” said Jack Ablin, chief invest-ment officer at BMO Private Bank.

Ablin said he would pay close attention next week to any changes in wage growth, which has been particularly stagnant. Average hourly earnings gained

seven cents in March after slip-ping the prior month. Nonfarm payrolls rose 215,000 in March and the unemployment rate edged up to 5.0 percent from an eight-year low of 4.9 percent.

In addition to employment figures, analysts said they will continue to look at earnings reports next week, Fed officials’ comments, and economic data, including manufacturing, ser-vices sector growth and car sales.

US stocks posted their largest weekly drop in more than two months on Friday as earnings reports continued to weigh, but the S&P 500 and Dow managed to close up for April after strong showings mid-month.

Company results once more gave the market direction as a 9 percent decline in Gilead Sciences shares weighed the most on both the S&P and the Nasdaq Composite. Apple shares were down for the tenth session in the last 11 and closed the week down 11.3 percent, the largest such decline since January 2013. Its April fall was

of 14 percent.Apple and Gilead, alongside

Corning, Goodyear and Xerox are among the companies that reported earnings this week and are closing them with dou-ble-digit declines in their stock. “Every sort of case-by-case blowup was handled in a compa-ny-specific fashion and lo and behold this week we have stum-bled into some household names that kind of rolled the market over with them,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 57.12 points, or 0.32 percent, to 17,773.64, the S&P 500 lost 10.51 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,065.3 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 29.93 points, or 0.62 percent, to 4,775.36.

The weekly declines were of 1.3 percent for both the Dow and S&P and the Nasdaq fell 2.7 per-cent. It was the largest weekly drop for the Dow since the week to Feb. 12, and for the S&P and Nasdaq the declines were the largest going back to Feb. 5.

With weak earnings in tow, focus turns to jobs dataWA L L ST R E E T W E E K A H E A D

Nepse continues record-breaking runTOP FIVE COMPANIES IN TERMS OF TURNOVER

Company Turnover (in Rs. millions) Standard Chartered Bank 405.06Nepal Life Insurance 296.94Nepal Bangladesh Bank 281.86Global IME Bank 171.33Everest Bank 160.64SECTORS THAT WENT UP

Sector Points GainedInsurance Companies 168.40Development Banks 51.61 Manufacturing 34.87Hotels 1.79SECTORS THAT WENT DOWN

Sector Points GainedHydropower Companies 7.20Others 7.04Finance Companies 1.98Commercial Banks 0.37

Asia markets end lower after Wall Street lossesAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEHONG KONG, APRIL 30

Asian stocks mostly fell on Friday fol-lowing losses in New York while con-cerns about the global outlook were reinforced after data showed the US economy grew at its slowest pace for two years in the first quarter.

Investors were still coming to terms with the Bank of Japan’s decision not to boost its stimulus, with the yen at 18-month highs against the dollar, while analysts warned central banks’ weap-ons were becoming less effective.

Hong Kong ended 1.5 percent lower, while Seoul closed 0.3 percent down. Shanghai ended off 0.3 percent, although Sydney rose 0.5 percent. Taipei slipped 1.1 percent after figures showed the island’s economy shrank in the first three months, prolonging a recession that started last year, as its key export sector dived.

The US Commerce Department said Thursday that the world’s number one economy grew 0.5 percent in January-March, almost half the pace expected, and the worst reading since 2014 as

consumer spending sputtered. The news seemed to justify the Federal Reserve’s decision not to raise interest rates and to lower its expectations for any more hikes this year. However, it was the latest item of bad news for investors after the BoJ held fire on monetary policy despite slack Japanese growth, falling prices and a deadly earthquake that caused the clo-sure of factories.

“Central banks look like they have run out of bullets to a degree,” Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners in Wellington, told Bloomberg News. “We’re getting to that point where there are limits to the results they can get from anything more they do. This points to a fragile outlook with still a lot of risks out there.”

The downcast outlook and lack of movement from the Fed or BoJ has pushed the yen up against the dollar. The greenback sank to 107.00 yen in the afternoon—at levels not seen since Japan last beefed up its stimulus in late 2014.

The weaker greenback provided fur-ther support to oil, which is priced in dollars making it cheaper for holders of other currencies.

Both main contracts—West Texas Intermediate and Brent—rose to fresh 2016 highs Friday, topping off another strong week that saw US production fall. Confidence in the crude market has picked up in recent weeks as China’s economy shows small signs of picking up, while US borrowing costs are expect-ed to be kept low for the near-term.

US shares ended sharply lower, driv-en by news that investor tycoon Carl Icahn had liquidated his Apple stocks owing to concerns China would thwart its efforts to sell more iPhones and other gadgets in the country. In European early trade London and Frankfurt lost 0.8 percent and Paris shed 1.25 percent.

market debut

n Parques Reunidos CEO Fernando Eiroa rings a bell during its bourse debut in Madrid, Spain, on Friday. REUTERS

UPCOMING AGMSCOMPANIES AGENDAS VENUE DATE

NMB Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha

1:1.2 right share issue Hotel Barahi, Lakeside Pokhara May 7

Aarambha Micro Finance Bittiya Sanstha

Financial Highlight 2014-15, Appointment of Auditor

Head Office, Sindhupalchowk May 7

Vibor Bikas BankMerger with Society Development Bank

Amrit Bhog Complex, Kalikasthan, Dillibazar, Kathmandu

May 3

Society Development Bank Merger with Vibor Bikas Bank Amrit Bhog Complex, Kalikasthan, Dillibazar, Kathmandu

May 3

Nepal Doorsanchar Company

50% Cash Dividend Tribhuvan Army officers Club, Tundikhel, Kathmandu

May 2

Sensex logs first weekly drop in threePRESS TRUST OF INDIAMUMBAI, APRIL 30

The benchmark Sensex on Friday moved sideways for the most part and ended little changed at 25,607 points, breaking its two-week winning streak, as muted earnings weighed heavy on gains in oil stocks.

May series derivatives contracts got off to a better start, which contributed to the upside. Pharma, power and PSU stocks stayed in the limelight. On a weekly basis, the BSE Sensex ended 231.52 points, or 0.89 percent down, while NSE Nifty fell 49.50 points, or 0.62 percent.

Selective buying towards the fag end on the first day of the May series of derivatives contracts, mainly helped the key indices close in the positive zone, though with minor upward changes. After resuming higher, the Sensex swung between gains and losses before settling 3.52 points, or 0.01 percent high-er at 25,606.62 points.

The index had lost 461.02 points in the last session after BOJ took investors by surprise by deciding against fresh stimulus and April F&O expiry. On sim-ilar lines, the broader Nifty ended high-er by 2.55 points, or 0.03 percent, at 7,849.80 after trading between 7,889.05 and 7,788.70.

Brokers said fresh positions built up by participants following beginning of May series in the derivatives segment helped trading sentiment improve. However, disappointing Q4 earnings by top private lender ICICI Bank came as a spoiler.

ICICI Bank shares ended 1.48 percent lower after the company today reported 75.97 percent decline in standalone net profit for the fourth quarter ended March. HCL Technologies tanked 6.19 percent after its quarterly show.

Shares of telecom operator Idea Cellular tumbled 6.52 percent after the company’s net profit declined 39 percent in the March quar-ter. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.50 percent while Shanghai Composite shed 0.25 percent. Japanese financial mar-kets were closed today for a public holi-day. European markets too slid in early deals as losses in US equities weighed on sentiment.

In the 30-Sensex constituents, Lupin gained the most by surging 1.94 percent, followed by Cipla (1.89 percent). Shares of cement makers such as ACC and Ambuja Cement were back in demand as they gained 0.34 percent and 0.30 percent respectively, triggered by an increase in cement sales in the March quarter.

Foreign portfolio investors net bought shares worth IRs1.2 billion on Thursday, provisional data showed. In the 30-share Sensex constituents, 17 ended higher and 12 lower, while Hero MotoCorp ended flat.

In the sectoral indices, the BSE realty gained the most by rising 1.18 percent, followed by power by 0.93 percent, healthcare by 0.76 percent, metal 0.51 percent, oil&gas 0.39 percent and bank-ing 0.33 percent. The mid-cap index ended 0.22 percent higher but small-cap index shed 0.05 percent.

Investors were still coming to terms with the Bank of Japan’s

decision not to boost its stimulus, with the yen at 18-month highs

The benchmark index last week jumped 10.56 points to close at yet another record high of 1,464.91 points

NEPSE Index

1,454.35

April 24 April 25 April 26 April 27 April 28

1,461.75

1,453.11

1,464.91

1,458.38