Rare and old coins sold away against laws

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 19

Although a coin or currency more than 100 years older is prohibited by law to sell abroad, the historically and culturally important old and rare coins of Nepal are being taken to other countries without interruption.

Numismatics is a hobby of collection of coin or note of any country. A coin or currency is archaeological, historical and cultural asset, which is used to carry out a research or study on culture, history, politics, society and anthropology of antiquity.

According to the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1956, any coin or denomination older than 100 years is restricted to send away from the country or move from one place to another. Clause 13, Sub-clause (1) of the Act clearly mentions that a prior permission from the Department of Archaeology must be taken before moving such monuments, archaeological objects and curios abroad or inside the country. However, there is no such practice.

“A bulk of such entities is being taken away from the country without any obstacles,” said Jal Krishna Shrestha, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture (MoFACAPAC).

Old coins of Lichhavi, Malla and Shah period, other belonging to even 300-200 BC, are available in Nepal. The DoA purchases or collects the older and rare coins to enhance the national museum. Among others, a very rare coin belonging to unifier of Nepal Prithvi Narayan Shah has been decorated in British Museum, London, said Shrestha, who is spokesperson for MoFACAPAC and also a collector.

The coins, archaeological sources, are generally sold ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 600,000 per piece. They are made of gold, silver and copper. Old and rare Nepalese coins issued by Man Dev, Trailokya Bikram, Prithvi Narayan Shah, Pratap Singh and Rana Bahadur Shah among others are sold on higher prices. If a foreign collector wants to have it, one may pay more than the aforementioned amount.

Ghana Shyam Rajkarnikar, a collector of coins dating from Man Dev to present period and president of Nepal Numismatic Society, said that people use the coins issued by Prithvi Narayan Shah and Chakra Bratendra Malla as medicines during the delivery problems. “Coins are also used as ornaments in the festivals and special occasions,” he said.

The coins are smaller in shape and easy to carry. “If a person keeps it in a pocket or anywhere, it will go unnoticed and will be easily taken away,” said Shrestha. “This is the reason behind smuggling of archaeological entities,” he added.

There are about a dozen of local collectors including Bhupendra Narayan Shrestha, who owns coins worth about Rs 10 million, in the country. They also sell the coins when they are in need of money, said Shrestha.

A person who trades monuments or illegally carries is fined from Rs 10,000 to Rs 100,000 and six months to three years jail term separately or both, according to laws. SSP Rana Bahadur Chand, chief at the Department of Crime Investigation, said that there was no record of coin cases. “If we are informed, we will take action as per the law,” he added.

During British queen Elizabeth’s Nepal visit in 1956, she asked about coins of Nepal. Four years after her visit, DoA initiated to establish museum in the country but it is yet to manage well. However, there is not a specific data of coins available. “Before the time of then king Mahendra, who died in early 1970s, there was no cataloguing system of coin issuances,” said Rajkarnikar.

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National coffer bleeding from foreign trips of ministers

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 15

A comparison between the foreign visits of present jumbo cabinet led-by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in a year and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led smaller cabinet in nine months shows that the government ministers don’t care about emptying national coffer.

According to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), there are 43 members including PM, ministers, assistant and state ministers in the present cabinet while the Maoist-led government comprised of 24 ministers. The cabinet decisions reveal that the present cabinet ministers visited foreign countries 133 times from May 2009 to April 2010 and the Maoist-led ministers visited foreign countries 92 times from August 2008 to April 2009.

A record of the Finance Section at the OPMCM shows about Rs 4.45 million is spent on salaries for the present 43-member cabinet every month. The PM receives 306 litres of fuel; a minister gets 207 litres and a state minister is provided 180 litres per month. They are paid in cash instead of fuel.

Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at the OPMCM, said that the expenses for each foreign visit varied on as per the size of the team, distance and number of days. A minister gets an allowance of US$ 200 every day excluding the bills of travel, food, treatment and accommodation, said Sharma.

Rs 1.2 million was spent on a minor treatment visit of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to Singapore a few months ago. This ratio indicates a huge amount of national coffer is spent on the foreign visits.

The highest scorer in foreign visits stands then foreign minister Upendra Yadav with a total visits by 15 times in nine months. Another Maoist cabinet-member Ganesh Shah visited nine times while PM Prachanda six times; Ministers for Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Local Development six times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation five times; Health and Population, Culture and State Restructuring, Finance, Labour and Transport Management, Commerce and Supplies, General Administration and Education respectively four times each.

Other Maoist cabinet members include Information and Communication, Physical Planning and Works and Water resources for three times each; Youth and Sports, and Law, Justice and CA Affairs for two times each. Similarly, Ministers for Defence, Industry, Home Affairs, and Forestry and Land Conversation once each.

Similarly, present cabinet decisions include PM Nepal for four times; Agriculture and Cooperatives 11 times; Labour and Transport Management, and Foreign Affairs eight times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation, Energy, and Finance seven times each; Education, Forestry and Land Conservation, Home Affairs, Environment, and Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture six times each; Health and Population, Information and Communication, General Administration, Commerce and Supplies, Physical Planning and Works, and Youth and Sports five times each.

The Ministers for Industry and Local Development got four opportunities each; Ministries of Law and Justice, Peace and State Restructuring three times each while Ministers for Defence, Science and Technology, and Women, Children and Social Welfare two times each, and Minister for Without Portfolio one time.

The innumerable visits of parliamentarians, government officials including secretaries and head of other bodies outnumber the ministerial visits. If the achievement from the visits is counted, it is disappointing, conclude the senior government officials.

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Land-mafias using power centres to grab govt land

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 11

The land-mafias have been eying the government land on the name of different organisations along with other land once the government acquisitioned by compensating the owners for the construction of roads.

According to the officials at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW), a number of land mafias have tabled the files for withdrawing the land once they got compensation on the mutual understanding. They have now claimed that the compensation paid to the owners was very low compared to the real price of land.

The MoPPW acquisitioned a plot of land nearby Birtamod of Jhapa district in 1997. However, the mafias with recommendation from the Chief District Officer came to the ministry for withdrawing the land by proposing to return the government given compensation. Another mafia from Itahari in Sunsari district claimed the government land pooled 38 years ago by preparing fake documents belonging to the ownership.

The land mafias have also knocked the doors of the ministry to withdraw the land pooled for Banepa-Sindhuli section of BP Highway, said the senior officials at the MoPPW. The lands were acquisitioned compensating Rs 10,000 per ropani about a decade ago. However, the price of land went higher by manifolds now. “They have submitted the recommendations from CDO to withdraw the land,” the officials said in shocking mood.

The land was evaluated as per the price while they were compensated. Land-mafias are involved in vested interests due to the soaring price of land. They are trying to manipulate the political power centres to own the government land again, claiming that the land once pooled has remained useless.

The mafias are lured to have the land pooled to construct Ram Raja Bridge in Birgunj, which was built six years ago. The mafias were highly encouraged after the Maoist-led government provided 10 bighas of land to them in the name of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries in Nepalgunj.

“Now, the mafias in veil of different organisations are influencing the ministers to grab the land,” said MoPPW officials requesting anonymity. “There are bundles of such files piled in the Ministry. It is in mood to provide two bighas of land to the mafias through the Butwal municipality authority in Rupandehi district,” they revealed.

Just an instance, mafias are trying to grab some 50-60 ropanis of public land in Lalitpur in the name of an institute, said the sources. “It is reported that the mafias forced Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to recommend Deputy PM and Minister for Physical Planning and Works Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to provide land for an organisation. But it is still undecided,” a source quoted as saying the mafia network.

The ministry officials are worried about the political influence encouraging the mafias by misusing the political transitional phase ongoing in the country. “If this trend continues, the bureaucracy alone will be helpless to block such malaises under the pressure from ministers,” said MoPPW senior officials. “The bureaucracy has rejected to okay such files till date.”

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STR in public schools unregulated for a decade

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 5

The District Education Committee (DEC), a body to manage the student-teacher ratio (STR) in the government schools, has become defunct for about a decade. As a result, the STR in the public schools is randomly messed up affecting the quality of education against the hundreds of thousands students.

According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), there are 32,130 schools including primary, lower secondary and secondary schools across the country. Number of teachers constitutes a total of 147,000 including 107,000 permanent and 40,000 on relief quotas in these schools with some 7.2 million students. There are about 1.5 million students in some 800,000 institutional (private) schools in the country.

The Education Act provisions STR of 1:40, 1:45 and 1:50 in Himalayan, mid-hill and Tarai regions respectively. Ironically, a primary school at Patalechhap of Bishankhu Narayan VDC in Lalitpur district has a 1:4 STR while many public schools in Tarai districts have 1:201 STR. However, the DEC comprised of elected representatives, district education officer, teachers’ unions, local development officer and guardian’s representative has become defunct since 2001.

The government formulated policy of DEC in paper but it could not be practised at all, said educationist Prof Dr Biddhya Nath Koirala. “Officially, the authority was given to DEC, and practically, it was bestowed to the politicians and teachers unions were affected by political parties,” he said. “Both of them failed to implement the rule.”

Koirala said that STR was one of the major components for playing a role to upgrade the quality of education. “The authority to manage teachers may be given to the local bodies for its betterment. At least, STR and quality of education in public schools at a VDC must be unitary,” he added.

The quality of public schools is deteriorating day by day while private schools are vested to earn money in the name of quality education, said Suprabhat Bhandary, president of the Guardians’ Association Nepal. “The standards of public schools must be upgraded following each measure enshrined in the law,” he said. “It is the state’s negligence over its responsibility to ensure quality and enforce laws.”

Mahashram Sharma, joint-secretary at the Monitoring Division, the MoE, conceded that the STR was not maintained in the public schools effectively. “There must be political commitment and cooperation from teachers’ unions to ensure implementation of laws. The government efforts to manage are not enough though the Ministry is working on it,” he said.

Mohan Gyawali, president of the Nepal Teachers; Union, blamed the government for not working responsibly. “The government lacks will power to work on it and never raises the concern while we are demanding for it owing to the indifferent political approaches towards the issue,” he said.

“The number of schools should be reduced and the management must be strengthened to promote quality. The STR needs to be downed to 1:30,” Gyawali said. “We are ready to cooperate with the government if it takes initiatives,” he said.

Sharma said that they were mapping the real status of the schools under the school reformation programme. “We are preparing to merge schools with low number of students and distribute teachers proportionally in needy schools,” he said. “The process is on pipeline,” he added.

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