Return-Path: <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> Received: from mp.cs.niu.edu by library.wustl.edu (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA26780; Sat, 4 Jun 1994 16:11:17 +0600 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA13330 (5.67a/IDA-1.5 for nepal-dist); Sat, 4 Jun 1994 14:45:56 -0500 Received: by mp.cs.niu.edu id AA20785 (5.67a/IDA-1.5 for nepal-list); Sat, 4 Jun 1994 14:45:52 -0500 Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 14:45:52 -0500 Message-Id: <199406041945.AA20785@mp.cs.niu.edu> Reply-To: The Nepal Digest <NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu> From: The Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> Sender: "Rajpal J. Singh" <A10RJS1@mp.cs.niu.edu> Subject: The Nepal Digest - May 27, 1994 (16 Jestha 2051 BkSm) To: <NEPAL@cs.niu.edu> content-length: 32405 Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 13
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The Nepal Digest Friday 27 May 94: Jestha 16 2051 BkSm Volume 27 Issue 3
Today's Topics:
Note: Apology for no headers due to time restrictions.
- TND Editorial Board
*****************************************************************************
* TND Board of Staff *
* ------------------ *
* Editor/Co-ordinator: Rajpal J. Singh a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu *
* SCN Correspondent: Rajesh B. Shrestha rshresth@black.clarku.edu *
* Editing Editor: Padam P. Sharma sharma@plains.nodak.edu *
* Discussion Moderator: Rajendra P. Shrestha rajendra.shrestha@dartmouth.edu*
* News Correspondent: Vivek SJB Rana rana@ccit.arizona.edu *
* *
* Subscription/Deletion requests : NEPAL-REQUEST@CS.NIU.EDU *
* Provide one line message: sub nepal "lastname, firstname, mi" <user@host> *
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* TND database to: <A10RJS1@CS.NIU.EDU> *
* Snail-Mail Correspondences to: Rajpal J. Singh *
* Founding-editor/Co-ordinator *
* The Nepal Digest (TND) *
* 502 West Lincoln Highway *
* DeKalb, Illinois 60115, U.S.A. *
* Digest Contributions: NEPAL@CS.NIU.EDU *
* Discussion Topics ideas: RAJENDRA.SHRESTHA@DARTMOUTH.EDU *
* News clips for Taja_Khabar: RANA@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU *
* Contributors need to supply Header for the article, email, and full name. *
* *
* Postings are divided into following categories that are listed in the *
* order below. Please provide category-type in the header of your e-mail. *
* *
* 1. Message from TND Editorial Board *
* 2. Letter to the Editor *
* 3. TAJA_KHABAR: Current News *
* 4. KATHA_KABITA: Literature *
* 5. KURA_KANI: Economics *
* Agriculture *
* Forestry *
* Health *
* Education *
* Technology *
* Social Issues *
* Environment *
* Tourism *
* Foreign Policy *
* History *
* Military/Police *
* Politics *
* 6. Entertainment (Humor, Recipies, Movie Reviews, Sattaires etc.) *
* 7. JAN_KARI: Classifieds *
* 8. Immigration/Taxes *
* 9. TITAR_BITAR: Miscellaneous *
* *
* The Nepal Digest(TND) is a publication of the Nepal Interest Group for *
* news and discussions about issues concerning Nepal. All members of *
* nepal@cs.niu.edu will get a copy of TND. Membership is open to all. *
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* **** COPYRIGHT NOTE **** *
* The news/article posters are responsible for any copyright violations. *
* TND, a non-profit electronic journal, will publish articles that has *
* been published in other electronic or paper journal with proper credit *
* to the original media. *
* *
* +++++ Food For Thought +++++ *
* "If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything" - Anon. *
* "Democracy perishes among the silent crowd" - Sirdar_RJS_Khalifa *
* *
*****************************************************************************
**********************************************************************
From: Puspa M Joshi <pjoshi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Congratulation
To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu (The Editor)
Date: Sun, 22 May 94 13:37:02 EDT
CONGRATULATION
--------------
We would like to congratulate Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh on his graduation from
Capital University, Columbus, Ohio with a Master of Law degree.
Puspa, Arun, Rummi, Kiran and Ashish Joshi
May 22, 1994
News from Columbus, Ohio: By Puspa Joshi
On the evening of May 14th, Mukesh Kumar Singh and Sarala Pandey Singh hosted a
dinner party at the Buckeye Village recreation center. Mr. Singh, Lecturer of
the Law School in Kathmandu, graduated from Capital University with Master of
Law degree in International Marketing. His commencement ceremony on May 15th
happily concided with the day of his second wedding anniversary.
Guests at the party were entertained with delicious special Nepali foods which
included Tama tarkari with bori and alu (bamboo curry) and Alu ra kerau achar.
While most of the guests were from the Columbus area, some were travelling to
Columbus for the event, including Prof. Pralhad Pant and his family from
Cincinnati and Baikuntha Sharma and some students from Lexington.
After dinner, there were cultural activities. Mr. Kumar Sharma of Nepal
Commercial Bank who is visiting his brother Kuber in Columbus, with his mother,
entertained the attendees with Nepali Muktak, Hindi Shayeri ad classical Nepali
songs. All the hosts as well as guests also participated in singing, dancing,
or telling jokes.
************************************************************************
Date: Sun, 22 May 1994 22:35:53 -0500 (CDT)
From: Padam Sharma <sharma@plains.NoDak.edu>
Subject: Kurakani
To: Nepal Digest <nepal@cs.niu.edu>
Glimpses from Nepal....Part IV
by Padam Sharma
After a week of stay in Kathmandu, we hit the roads to visit Chitwan,
Morang-Sunsari, and Jhapa. Our first destination was Rampur, Chitwan, the
home of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science where I used to
work before. For Kathmandu to Narayanghat, we took the advantage of
`tourist couch' service called Baba Transport. More convenient than the
general daily express bus services (which means stoppage at every formal
and informal bus stops), these coaches are mostly used by tourists
visiting the Royal Chitwan Wildlife Refuge at Souraha.
I would like to narrate here one incident of significance that took place
at about 6 AM on the bus-departure site at King's Way. There were about
7-10 buses on line to go to Pokhara and other tourist destinations. The
travelers (mostly Europeans) were busy boarding the bus, loading their
backpacks on the roof, negotiating with rikshaw drivers and their guides
from the hotels, or being ripped up by the side street vendors.
Suddenly, there was a scuffle. A tourist had caught the hand of one Nepali
pick-pocket in the act of removing his passport and money. The drivers
and conductors of the buses surrounded him and were commenting about the
pick-pocket problem and how it was hurting their business and giving a bad
reputation for Kathmandu. Mr. thief was a suited-booted gentleman (dressed
hip with clean colored shirt and pants with a printed tie and a black
jacket and good looking dingo boots), about 20 years old, and looked like
a college student. They said that two of his equally well dressed partners
fled during the melee. He was quiet not because that he was read his
rights to remain silent but due to fear that he could be dealt with
instance justice if he opened his mouth. We did not wait to find out what
happened to him, but they were talking about giving him a good beating
before handing over to the police. A sign of the changing times in Nepal,
the growth of this enterprenuership skill in Kathmandu puts her at par with
most of the cities in north India.
We started at about 7 AM from Kathmandu and arrived Noubise at about 9 AM,
a distance of about 20 miles(?). The traffic was stop and go due to bumper
to bumper flow of incoming night buses and trucks. We did not count but
about 100 night buses (coming from all over Nepal) and about 300 trucks
(hauling goods to Kathmandu) for the two hour ordeal may be an
underestimate. How many other trucks and vehicles come and go from
Kathmandu during the rest of the 22 hours? The traffic intensity gives one
a perception of how much Kathmandu has grown and why the Vikram tempo is
only a scapegoat for causing all the air pollution problem in Kathmandu.
The section of road between Kathmandu to Naubise is real bad. Given the
strategic importance of this road, I wondered why it could not be
maintained regularly. Are we still recuperating from the effect of last
year's heavy rain? Is it that Nepal does not have any money and that no
donor country or agency has taken pity and come forward with offer to
finance the maintenance of that road? Or that the need to supply goods and
services to the spiraling population of Kathmandu valley is so intense that
Kathmandu can not afford to stop traffic for a few days to resurface the
road. Whatever the hang up is, the pitiful maintenance (or lack there of)
of the road and the bottle-neck of traffic flow from Naubise to Thankot
typically exemplify how the country is being managed in all other sectors
of national development. The good news is that the road from Naubise to
Mugling and beyond to Pokhara is being widened and resurfaced. I do't know
who should we thank here for the progress (the Chinese who built the
original road? or some other donor).
Mugling, a favorite food stop at the intersection of Kathmandu-Pokhara road
with links to Narayanghat on the East-West Highway, is hustling and
bustling, as usual. This is the only town in Nepal that never sleeps. Any
time of day or night, the Thakali DALBHAT shops are always ready with rice,
dal, chicken curry, and beer. The passengers can relieve themselves in the
outhouses (synonyms: toilets, latrines, bathrooms) behind each eatery.
These relief houses are supplied with water, relatively safe to step on,
and tolerant to one's nose (sorry, no tissue papers and commodes yet). Signs
of times are evident in Mugling; there are more halwai shops (than before)
and chanawalas (snack peddlers) catering to needs of increasing population
of Indians (tourists and significant others) in transit.
Every known little and big town along the way has grown little bigger.
The service sector economy and mom-pop enterprises are, perhaps
unprofitably, numerous. Specifically noticeable are the location of shops
on second and third floor of some multi-story buildings (no sky-scrappers
yet!) in big towns such as Narayanghat. There are many more tea stalls,
tailor shops, cloth, grocery, hardware stores, and significantly many
agri-vet stores. Beer and cigarette bill boards dominate these towns along
with their pride possession of one, or more private "English" Boarding
schools. The names are so fancy: Little Star, Morning Bright, Little
Angels, Future Bright .....and more.
After a stay over at Rampur Campus and a visit to the Royal Chitwan
National Park at Sauraha (canoeing the Rapti, jungle walk, the elephant
ride and rendezvous with the rhinos: Aah! the trouble of taking my
camcorder really paid off here! ) in Chitwan, we took a night bus from
Narayanghat to the east. The road from Narayanght to Hetaunda is generally
good; Hetaunda to Pathlaiya is bad; and Pathlaiya to Lahan and beyond is
ugly. Some reconstruction effort (by Indian assistance, I was told) is
underway between Dhalkebar and Kanchanpur. The sector from Pathlaiya to
Dhalkebar, built by the USSR, has disintegrated like the former states of
the Soviet Union. Along this sector or along many other sectors in the
east (built with Indian cooperation), one would have difficulty locating a
road sign that I thought would be appropriate, "BUMP IS NOT HERE".
We could not sleep througout the 10 hours of roller-coaster ordeal from
Narayanghat to Itahari. We admired the talent of the drivers in keeping
the buses and trucks on the road or whatever surface that is left of
the original road. These drivers could easily win the Olympics on
"rough terrain racing" of mass transit vehicles, a sport that Nepal
should push for inclusion into the Summer Olympics.
We also went to Biratnagar which has grown little bit but not at an
alarming rate like Kathmandu or some nearby towns like Itahari and
Birtamod. Thanks to consistent effort of the British to upkeep with the
maintenance work, road link between Biratnagar to Dharan is the best in
Nepal. I was impressed with the width of the newly reconstructed section of
the road in Biratnagar which has provision for two driving lanes each way.
It is a delight to see the open space being utilized by the numerous and
quite affordable rickshaws - a sustainable and environmentally sound
in-city transportation system for the Terai. A sight that I missed in
Biratnagar was the "Bar-gachhi", the famous bar-tree which symbolized
Biratnagar's struggle for democracy in Nepal. It became a casualty of
the wide new road.
We finally arrived at Jhapa, my home district, at a time when political
activity was hot due to the by-election. After a decade, it was nice to
come home and visit my family members, relatives and neighbors. We were so
busy seeing people that all the political activities related to the
by-election in Jhapa was of no immediate concern. Only problem we suffered
from the election hoopla was the election day "no transportation" rules
at Chandragadhi (the headquarters of Jhapa District) and coersion by
Saraswati worshippers to local bus-drivers which resulted in a three day
transportation strike (chakka-jam) from Birtamod to Bharatpur. After
flying from around the world and having come to Birtamod without any
incidence, we could not go to Bhadrapur (about 20 km?) to meet our closest
relatives.
As most of you know, the Congress Party won the `other' by-election in
Jhapa (most of the national attention was on KP's election in Kathmandu) at
the expense of the UML. Rumor was that the communists had a relatively
"unknown" person in the ticket and a lack of serious campaigning effort.
Symbolically, the congressis were gloating on the fact that they had
finally breached the "Red Fort" of Jhapa. This did not mean that Jhapalis
are making right turns or endorsing the Congress Party's role in the
government. I think the politics was local and a general lack of
enthusiasm of voters for the by-election. The other significant event of
the time was the death of our famous neighbor, C.K.Prasai, an
intellectual, socialist stalwart of the Congress Party. About 100,000
people including the GP and KP (?) attended his funeral.
So far I have received a few positive comments on my recounts of our visit
to Nepal which encourage me to write some more. However, I would like
some more feed back. If I am boring you with my ganthan of the jatra,
please let me know. I can always shut up.
Yet to come are my general overall perceptions of the current state of
Nepal and some analysis of my visit to Nepalese communities in adjoining
states of India and Bhutan.
***********************************************************************************************
***********************************************************************************************
Date: Mon, 23 May 94 11:32 CDT
To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu
From: Sirdar_RJS_Khalifa
<A10RJS1@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU>
Subject: Influx from the Southern Border - Neighbour Nations Watch
"Much has been said about population influx to Nepal from
Southern Border. Nothing has been done to stop/encourage
the influx.
Russia and China were/are in similar situation. It is interesting
to note Moscow's solution to the percieved problem."
-Sirdar_RJS_Khalifa
Russians Fear Invasion of Chinese Traders 155
-----------------------------------------
Source: The Washington Post, 5/18/94
By: Lee Hockstader
BLAGAVESHINSK, Russia - Some squatting on their haunches, some bustling
around their stalls, dozens of Chinese merchants were doing a brisk
business the other day hawking cheap shoes, talking wristwatches and
kitschy knickknacks at the central market in this Russian border town.
Russians watched with a mixture of suspicion and admiration as the Chinese
did sales-and clinched their reputation in Russia as the shock troops of a
stealthy commercial invasion from the south.
Since 1988, when then-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev gave the green
light, tens of thousands of Chinese have streamed into Russia through
border points such as Blagaveshinsk, where the high strains of Oriental
music can be heard drifting across the icy Amur River from the Chinese town
of Heihe just across the way.
With estimates of the number of Chinese in Russia now ranging from
200,000 to 2 million, debate has intensified in Moscow and Russian border
regions between those who see the influx as a vital trading link that can
lift Russia's economy and those who want to stanch the flow of Chinese,
whom they see as dumping substandard goods while draining Russia of its raw
materials at bargain prices.
In recent months, the latter forces have succeeded in choking off some
of the cross-border traffic-"regaining control of our borders," as they put
it-much to the applause of Russians who believe illegal immigration is out
of hand but to the distress of those whose shopping habits, and in some
cases livelihoods, have been disrupted.
In Russia, the debate is tinged with racism, nationalism and an ancient
fear of being overrun by a vastly more populous neighbor, particularly in
the sprawling and sparsely settled territories of Siberia and the Russian
Far East.
Nonetheless, the Chinese never blended into Russian society as fully as,
say, Koreans did at the time. They rarely became Russian citizens, often
spoke no Russian and maintained insular Chinese communities.
Many of the Chinese left in the 1930s as the Bolsheviks tightened their
grip on the Russian Far East, turning private farms into collectives,
closing down private businesses and opening factories. In 1938, Soviet
dictator Joseph Stalin expelled the few Chinese who remained. One of the
city's Chinese theaters was turned into an officers club for the forerunner
of the KGB.
"Our guests felt too much at home on our territory. People started to
say there were too many of them, that their behavior on the street was
strange," said Tatyana Kurts, head of the foreign trade commission for the
Amur River region. "People were afraid of Chinese expansionism, afraid that
we'll have Chinatowns here."
That sentiment led local officials in Russia's Far East to tighten
immigration, customs and tax procedures so they could keep closer track of
the Chinese. In Vladivostok, authorities expelled the Chinese from a
downtown market by banning the sale of manufactured goods there. Elsewhere,
police hassled the Chinese at every turn, and customs officials did their
part by extracting sky-high taxes and bribes. But the central government in
Moscow went even further, imposing much tighter restrictions on Chinese
seeking visas.
Since January, traders have been required to have an international
passport as well as proof of an invitation from a Russian business partner
or official organization. Then they must wait for months before the
paperwork is processed. Local residents said the Chinese presence here
already is dwindling.
********************************************************************
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 08:44:21 EDT
To: a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu
From: sogbs@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Birth in S Asia: Panel at 1995 Washington AAS
Birthing Practices in South Asia [Provisional Title]
Panel for AAS Meeting, Washington, D.C, April 6th to 9th 1995
The limited range of studies so far available (mainly from North India and
Bangladesh) suggests that South Asia forms a distinct cultural region with
respect to birthing practices. Specific features include a high degree of conce
rn
with pollution; traditional birth attendants (dai etc) of low caste or status,
whose primary role is to remove pollution rather than aid the birth process
itself; a high level of concern with supernatural danger; little or no antenata
l
care; limited postnatal care for mother and child. This situation poses
problems for strategies which aim to improve birthing practices, maternal and
child health by working through traditional birth attendants. Papers are invite
d
which support, challenge or modify this account. Papers dealing with adjoining
regions (e.g. peoples in Nepal, Tibet) and with other aspects of reproductive
health are also welcome.
We are hoping to present a panel at the 1995 Association of Asian
Studies Annual Convention (Washington, D.C., April 6th to 9th, 1995) on the
above topic. The intention is that the papers from the panel, along with other
papers from contributors not able to attend the panel, form the basis of a
book. Potential contributors are invited for the panel (as paper-giver or
discussant, preferably the former) and for the book.
We are both social anthropologists, currently working at the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Newcastle,
Australia. Santi Rozario has carried out research on reproductive health in
Bangladesh and written two papers on Bangladeshi village birthing practices (
"The Dai and the Doctor: Discourses on Women's Reproductive Health in
Rural Bangladesh," and "Boundary as Predicament: The Case of the Dai in
Rural Bangladesh." both to be published shortly. (We can send you copies of
these papers on request). Geoffrey Samuel's work so far has mainly been with
Tibetans in India and Nepal, focussing on religion in Tibetan societies, and
recently examining questions of shamanism and healing. We have recently
commenced a joint comparative research project on women, health and ritual,
focussing on questions of reproductive health, in Bangladesh, West Bengal and
southern Nepal.
If you are interested in giving a paper at the AAS meeting, we need a
title and one-page abstract for your paper in time to submit to the AAS for
their deadline. We are not quite sure when this deadline will be, but in 1993 i
t
was 3rd August, so we need this material as soon as possible.
Santi Rozario and Geoffrey Samuel
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
TEL: (049) 215927, 521970FAX: +61 49 216902
EMAIL: sogbs@cc.newcastle.edu.au
**********************************************************************
From: Rajendra.P.Shrestha@Dartmouth.EDU (Rajendra P. Shrestha)
Subject: Re: The Nepal Digest - May 19, 1994 (8 Jestha 2051 BkSm)
To: NEPAL@mp.cs.niu.edu
I agree with Mr. Leader's suggestion of decentralizing the Nepal Home Page.
If anyone wants to setup and maintain a specific part of it, please let me
know. Also, is it possible to ftp anonymously to cs.niu.edu? If so, maybe you
could setup a directory in there and put previous issues of Nepal Digest
(say, like from the past year) so that they would be available both through
ftp and WWW.
%%%%%Editor's Note: It is not possible to ftp anonymously from %%%%%%
%%%%% cs.niu.edu. But if there is enough interest %%%%%%
%%%%% to access TND via FTP, I can make my machine %%%%%%
%%%%% gurkhas.acs.niu.edu anonymously accessed. %%%%%%
%%%%% But this machine is "cooperative multitasking" %%%%%%
%%%%% running Microsoft Windows 3.1. It is not %%%%%%
%%%%% "pre-emtive multitasking" like UNIX or OS/2. %%%%%%
%%%%% All this means is that when people are FTPing %%%%%%
%%%%% to my machine, it will slow down my work and %%%%%%
%%%%% it may even crash my machine (Software wise :-)%%%%%%
%%%%% Anyone out there who has enough hard-disk %%%%%%
%%%%% space on UNIX (Sun or others) willing to %%%%%%
%%%%% store back-issues of TND for FTP and Mosaic %%%%%%
%%%%% access? - Rajpal J. Singh a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu %%%%%%
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**********************************************************************
From: dmamatya@eos.ncsu.edu
Message-Id: <9405241344.AA07483@drain1.bae.ncsu.edu>
To: rajendra@coos.dartmouth.edu
Cc: nepal@mp.cs.niu.edu
Subject: Commendable job
Dear Rajendraji,
Thanks for a commendable job by adding a lot of
information on our country - NEPAL on WWW browser (NCSA mosaic)
Information Highway System. I hope a lot of people who has the access to
the system will be benefitted by this kind of information. Meanwhile, I
also thank the TND editorial board for sending these messages on such
nice things to the TND subscribers. Once again, thanks to Rajendraji.
Devendra Amatya
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC
************************************************************************
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 14:58:00 EDT
To: a10rjs1@mp.cs.niu.edu
From: MUSYAJU@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU
Subject: thank you
Rajpalji ,
Thank you very much for including me as a member of TND subscribers.
I feel very happy to get my own copy now. I thank Del Friedman
for giving me the opportunity to get news from "home" through his
enclosures last many issues.
Sulochana Musyaju
*************************************************************************
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 11:34:33 EDT
To: a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu
From: sshakya@lynx.dac.neu.edu (Sunil Shakya)
Subject: News from Nepal
Headline: Bus accident kills 22, injures 24
Dateline: KTM, May 23, 1994
Source : UPI
A bus drove off a mountain highway in west Nepal on Monday, killing 22
people and injuring 24 others, a home ministry spokesman said. The bus
was travelling between Tansen and Tamagas when it drove off the highway
near Gulmi, about 125 miles (200 km) west of the Nepalese capital, KTM.
Twenty people died at the scene of the crash, and two others died on the
way to the hospital. They have not yet been identified. Eleven of the
injured were flown to a nearby hospital in Palpa, and 13 others were
airlifted to KTM for emergency treatment, the home ministry spokesman
said. One person escaped without injuries.
Headline: Pakistan's Butto asks for no nukes
Dateline: KTM, May 23, 1994
Pakistan P.M. Benazir Bhutto has asked India not to develop or deploy
nuclear weapons. She said nuclear security can be achieved only if India
is prepared to accept an obligation not to develop or deploy nuclear
weapons.
Headline: Nepal to control pollution in KTM valley
Dateline: KTM, May 20, 1994
Source : Xinhua
Nepali P.M. Girija P. Koirala directed the National Planning Commission
, environmental protection council and ministries concerned to make
action plan to control the growing environmental problem in KTM valley.
The Nepali P.M. gave this directive on Thursday while presiding over the
5th meeting of the environmental protection council. Koirala said that
appropriate incentives should be arranged for the factories to create a
congenial atmosphere for the shifting of the factories outside the KTM
valley. The P.M stressed that the decisions which bring long-term
benefit to the people should be implemented with political conviction
even if they are unpalatable in the short term. The meeting decided to
monitor environmental pollution from vehicles and not to permit
uncertified vehicles to enter the Singh Durbar where the government and
parliament building are located from the World environment day- June 5,
this year. The meeting also decided to fix physical, chemical and
biological parameters to check the releasing water from the existing
carpet factories in the valley, and conduct pre-feasibility study for
construction of a sewerage.
Headline: Bhutto on nuclear programme, Kashmir, SAARC, relations with
China
Dateline: KTM, May 23, 1994
Source : BBC
Pakistan's P.M. Benazir Bhutto, has asserted that Islamabad will not
accept any unilateral conditions on its nuclear programme. Bhutto, who
begins a three-day visit to the Himalayan kingdom on Tuesday (23rd May),
said Pakistan was ready to accept any equitable and non-discriminatory
regime for banishing nuclear weapons from South Asia for ever and
charged India with not accepting Pakistan's proposals in this regard.
She made these remarks in interviews to "The Kathmandu Post" and
"Kantipur", two dailies published from KTM. Accusing India of adopting a
'negative stand' on Kashmir, the Pakistani P.M. said an "amicable
settlement of the Kashmir problem was central to improving
Indo-Pakistan relations. Bhutto said the U.S. perception of Pakistan had
changed after the disintegration of former Soviet Union, affecting
U.S.-Pak relations. Nevertheless, the U.S. was not moving closer to
India due to these developments, she said, adding the Clinton
administration acknowledged both India and Pakistan as key players in
the region. Describing China as a factor of stability in the security
equation of the region, she welcomed normalization of Sino-Indian
relations, which, according to her, was extremely essential for regional
peace. Bhutto said: "SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation) may not progress to its full potential until its charter
disallowing discussion of contentious bilateral political problems is
amended with a view to resolving them amicably through negotiations."
She expressed confidence that her Nepal visit would help further cement
the relations between the two countries.
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