RAW strikes again, defame Nepali companies

This is yet another example of RAW's new weapon and how it is after Nepali companies. The Himalayan Times never writes about UTL's loot and cheating of revenue and cusatomers but it defames Nepali company and FDI, other than Indian, here's an example.

NTA instructs to improve quality

Himalayan News Service
Kathmandu, March 18:

Following an increased criticism from customers over poor quality of mobile phone services, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) — the telecom regulator — has instructed the GSM mobile phone operators to come up with a specific plan for improvement of quality on services within a month.
NTA held a meeting with representatives of two cellular mobile phone operators — Nepal Telecom (NT) and Spice Nepal Pvt Ltd (SNPL) — and apprised them about findings of a survey carried out by NTA on quality of services being rendered by these operators.
“Though the survey was an informal type, we have found that quality of services are not up to the mark,” said NTA director Ananda Raj Khanal.
According to him, NTA has instructed the officials of both the operators to come up with an improvement plan with specific parameters to be implemented in collaboration with the regulating authority. “The officials of both NT and SNPL admitted quality of services has yet not been improved as expected,” he said.
As per today’s understanding, both GSM operators have agreed to improve quality of services along with their expansion plan. The state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) has already unveiled an ambitious plan of adding 3.5 million new lines within next three years, while the sole private operator SNPL is also expediting its penetration to all populated areas.
Currently, NT has about 1.4 million subscribers for its GSM cellular and wireless CDMA mobile phones, while SNPL has so far distributed over one million GSM lines with the brand name of ‘Mero Mobile’.
According to the survey, connectivity problem and network failure are very high among the poor quality in services. The extent of connectivity problem is very high in major city hubs and busy areas like New Road, Putalisadak, Kopundole, Thamel and New Baneswar, particularly during the evening hours. The mobile connection is hardly available in narrow streets, basement parking, hotel meeting rooms and shopping malls.
The survey states that Mero Mobile’s connectivity and service quality is relatively better in comparison to services of NT’s GSM mobile. However, the Mero Mobile’s services are also not up to the international standard for GSM mobile phones, states the survey.NT’s GSM mobile has reached its network to 66 districts, while Mero Mobile has reached 47 districts in all 14 zones.
The installation of the base transceiver stations (BTS) that plays a vital role in ensuring better connectivity is in slow pace compared to the expansion of the network and subscriber base. The NT has installed about 650 base transceiver stations (BTS) and 260 of them are in the Kathmandu Valley. While Mero Mobile has 450 such BTS across the country.

India's Kashmir, Darjeeling, Khalistan and Nepal's Tarai movement

Has the Kashmir people in India right of self determination?
What about the Khalistan movement and India's treatment of the freedom movement?
And most henious crime against humanity is the eviction of Nepalese speaking people from Bhutan backed by India. No wonder the largest joke to democracy -- India -- didnot speak anything against it? Has is suggested Bhutan dictator to talk to Nepalese langushing in Nepal's refugee camps? The Nepalese in Nepal's camps are fighting to go back home even after more than a decade India stops them on Mechi bridge, a shameless act of largest shame on democracy.
What about the Darjeling movement of separate state? Why is India not ready to recognize Gurkhaland movement and suppression of communist West Bangal? Communist Sita Ram Yechuri doesnot suggest anything on Gurkhaland but he is very actively suggesting in Nepal's case, why is he or any of the Indians so hyperactive in Nepal?
How can India force Nepal to hold talks with the armed goons operating from Indian soil -- Who is supplying arms to all the armed groups like Goit and Jwala Singh operating from Indian soil against Nepal --- Mr Man Monhan Singh can you answer?
Has India any right -- moral or immoral -- to dicatate Nepal?

The Partition of India in 1947 promised its people both political and religious freedom—through the liberation of India from British rule, and the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan. But Still Kashmir is fighting for freedom. The divide brought displacement and death, and it benefited the few at the expense of the very many. Thousands of women were raped, at least one million people were killed, and ten to fifteen million were forced to leave their homes as refugees. One of the first events of decolonization in the twentieth century, Partition was also one of the most bloody.

Cold questions for embattled Nepal

The upshot of it all is that Nepal should be allowed to emerge as a stable democracy. The beneficiary would be Nepalis as well as both the countries in their neighborhood. The sooner the neighbors realize this, the better.

By Dhruba Adhikary
Nepal's capital on Wednesday appeared like a city under seize, with shops closed and serpentine lines of vehicles in front of gas stations. Few residents, already struggling to survive cold winter days and nights amid power interruptions of eight hours a day, had expected supply lines cut a week before to remain severed for so long.
Bitter experience prompts residents to blame what is effectively a blockade on the country's Maoists and their militant wing, Young Communist League (YCL), whose president on February 7 said it was capable of "capturing" the entire Kathmandu valley in just five minutes. The use of threat and intimidation continues even as the country is preparing for elections scheduled for April 10.
Yet the "credit" for effectively disrupting supply lines to Kathmandu, the seat of Nepal's political powers, is being taken by a coalition of three parties which were formed in recent months. The parties, together with some armed groups, are based in the country's southern plains, the Terai region, bordering mainly with the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Six demands they have advanced include "autonomy with right to self-determination" for the entire region. Interim Prime Minister Koirala and his coalition partners read secessionist tenor in this demand, and appear unwilling to meet it at least until the elections to the Constituent Assembly are held.
There is a perception that the Terai groups would not have been able to impose a blockade on the capital and the rest of the country if they had not been encouraged and aided by the government in India.
Unlike in the late 1980s, when Indian authorities directly imposed a trade and transit blockade to take revenge on Nepal for having imported some of its military supplies from China, the blockade this time has been applied indirectly - through Terai groups.
The possibility that leaders of these groups are being handled by New Delhi has to be seen in the context of their frequent meetings with the Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, some of which have been reported by Nepal's electronic media. One such meeting was brought to the public notice by a television channel on February 20.
Only a week ago, an Indian delegation led by Congressman Digvijaya Singh visited Kathmandu when Singh's public statements said India favored neither monarchy nor any other particular group among Nepal's disputing political factions, and that New Delhi would welcome a decision by the people of Nepal. This public posture resembled to the approach from Beijing. But what is happening on the ground is different. The visiting Indian politician, for instance, assured Mahantha Thakur, chairman of the recently formed Tarai-Madhes Loktantrik Party, in private conversation that he wished that their six-point demand be fulfilled. Thakur himself revealed this information to the media.
His party, together with other two, has decided to stay away from the hustings. India's role - some call it outright interference - in recent times has been pervasive. In a media interaction a few weeks ago, Interim Prime Minister Koirala said that the problems created in Terai could be resolved "in a minute" if India offered sincere cooperation.
His remarks apparently made New Delhi unhappy as they gave credence to public perceptions that the Indian authorities have a hand in the Terai unrest. "I have told India and the UN that I will not compromise on [ Nepal's] sovereignty and integrity," Koirala stated at a high level meeting of the party he heads, Nepali Congress, on February 17.
Even so, a noted Nepali columnist described Koirala recently as a "puppet" of India. Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda) leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of CPN (M), is equally uncomfortable with the meddlesome role that New Delhi is playing. Like Koirala, he too thinks the Terai agitation would not be sustained "even for a minute" if India stopped supporting those associated with it. In a public meeting held on February 12, Prachanda also accused Nepal's discredited palace and Americans for having instigated Terai groups. Prachanda and some of his comrades-in-arm obtained shelter in India during the "people's war" they conducted in Nepal. He spent eight of 10 years up to 2006 in India.
Prachanda's assessment coincides with an analysis based on the views of the India's main opposition party, BJP, that the Manmohan Singh government has "outsourced" its Nepal policy to its communist coalition partner and leader Sitaram Yechuri. And, as far as Washington is concerned, it outsourced its Nepal policy to New Delhi, in bid to lure Indians into the fold of strategic partnership. Americans also found it expedient to help India to contain China - Nepal's neighbor to the north. Nobody knows how and when Beijing will react to all these developments.
Meanwhile, another dimension surfaced on Tuesday when the constitutionally sidelined King Gyanendra issued a message to the nation asking his countrymen to pay attention to safeguard Nepal's integrity, independence and nationalism.
The occasion was Democracy Day, which reminded the people of the country's first attempt at democracy in 1951. In the message, Gyanendra described his grandfather, Tribhuvan, as the architect of democracy. And the message was made public in His Majesty's name. The interim constitution does not have provision for the monarchy. Parties promoting a pro-republican agenda, including Maoist leaders, denounced the move and have seen it as a part of a Western conspiracy to prevent them from reaching power.
By alluding to Nepal's integrity, independence and nationalism, Gyanendra appeared to be telling Nepalis that he too sees a threat to the existence of Nepal as an independent country. Those who continue to support the monarchy in Nepal (simultaneously being critical of Gyanendra and his son Paras) hastily cite the sequence of events in Sikkim in the 1970s - the Himalayan territory was eventually annexed by India, in 1974. First, the Sikkimese people were encouraged to get rid of their monarchy, then an elected assembly was prodded to pass a resolution seeking merger with India. Being a part of India, Sikkimese did get democracy, and lost their country in the process.
Nepal's larger size and status, analysts contend, is not comparable with Sikkim's; not even with Bhutan's. But they do agree that a separatist movement in Terai needs to be read in the context of what happened in Kosovo, with its declaration of independence from Serbia, earlier this week.
The upshot of it all is that Nepal should be allowed to emerge as a stable democracy. The beneficiary would be Nepalis as well as both the countries in their neighborhood. The sooner the neighbors realize this, the better.

(It was published on http://www.nepalnews.com/ and has been reproduced on http://www.nepalnews.com/ courtesy http://www.atimes.com/.)