Breaking News: Madhav Kumar Nepal – The Prime minister of Nepal Finally Resigns [2010-07-01]
Source: nepalnews.com
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal tendered his resignation before President Ram Baran Yadav Wednesday evening.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal announcing his resignation in a …
PM Nepal reached Shitalniwas with his aides Wednesday evening minutes and submitted his resignation letter minutes after he announced his resignation through a televised nation to the address.
Nepal and President Yadav discussed about the current political situation of the country for a while at Shitalniwas before the PM submitted his resignation.
Nepal will be relieved of his responsibilities as Prime Minister after the President approves his resignation. However, Nepal and his cabinet will continue as a working until a new government is formed.
Earlier, today saying that he no longer wishes to see the country remain “hostage to indecision”, PM Nepal had announced his resignation through a televised message to the nation.
He said the government has been unable to present its polices and programmes in the house, a pre-requisite before announcing the annual budget, hence leaving him with no choice but to resign.
After making the announcement, PM Nepal said he hoped his resignation will mark an end to the longstanding political deadlock and all other problems facing the country, as the Maoists have been saying.
PM Nepal will now submit his resignation to the President shortly.
Earlier today, PM Nepal had consulted with some ministers of his party, CPN (UML) at his Baluwatar residence before reaching to a decision to step down.
Talking to media-persons a short while ago PM Nepal’s press advisor Bishnu Rizal said that the prime minister decided to step down to pave the path for the formation of a national consensus government, as demanded by the opposition party UCPN (Maoist) and its supporter.
Originally posted 2010-06-30 22:01:25.
The Crack Down On ISPs in Nepal to Block Access to Porn and Horror Content is overzealous
Courtesy: Nepali Times
The cabinet’s new Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), set up last month, has already come under fire for being overzealous, and violating constitutionally guaranteed privacy laws in going after Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
The new ‘FBI-style’ unit was set up by the government two weeks ago in response to a nationwide rise in abductions, financial scams, cyber-crime and call-bypass syndicates. The high-powered and well-resourced force works under the direct control of the chief of police and is designed to act immediately to counter organized crime.
However, by targeting Nepal’s ISPs, the CBI has stirred a hornet’s nest among IT companies, constitutional lawyers and consumer advocacy groups, who say the unit is overstepping its bounds.
Sirish Karmacharya of the internet provider Namche was arrested this week and jailed for having provided bandwidth to customers who were allegedly using it to bypass calls. Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) sent a letter this week to ISPs, warning of stiff punishment if they didn’t fulfill conditions for operation that include filtering pornographic and ‘horror’ content. NTA wants material that ‘incites racial and religious hatred’ and is against the ‘national interest’ filtered.
“The conditions are too broad and ISPs can’t be held responsible for what the subscribers use the internet for, it’s their private business,” explains Binay Bohara of the ISP Association. “In any case, filtering content is very expensive, cumbersome and difficult.”
Constitutional lawyer Satish Kharel goes a step further and says NTA’s conditions for use also violate the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy. “Only parliament can pass laws restricting fundamental freedoms, it can’t be done by NTA or the police,” Kharel says. “This is an infringement of the constitution and also goes against the right to privacy under international human rights instruments to which Nepal is a signatory.”
Kharel, who specialises in telecommunications, says if the government is serious about going after those misusing Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), it should investigate the real culprits and not those who are simply selling the connection.
Following the NTA directives to the letter would effectively shut down YouTube, Facebook, popular Nepali portals like cybersansar.com, mysansar.com, and even nepalitimes.com, because some of the comments in the feedback section could be construed to be objectionable.
Minister of Information and Communication, Shankar Pokharel, said the government was losing billions in international call-bypass and was forced to act against operators with VOIP. “The state needs information on who is using excessive bandwidth at all times of the day, without this data it is difficult to catch the culprits,” Pokharel told Nepali Times. “All we are asking is for the ISPs to pass on this information.”
The police say they have been handicapped by their inability to access mobile phone and internet usage data in going after criminals. DIG Arjun Singh Bhandari says, “Our main concern is to ban VOIP calls as it becomes difficult to trace criminal activities, and organised crimes have been carried out using VOIP. We have requested ISPs to help us in our investigation.”
But Karmacharya’s arrest and the fact that he has been presumed guilty until proven innocent has sent shockwaves through the ISP community, and lawyers are aghast at the lack of due process in the case. This has led to suspicion that the police are themselves involved in extorting ISPs. “It now seems to be our turn to be milked,” said one cyber café owner in Thamel.
Internet shutdown?
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who met the home and information ministers Thursday morning, said both blamed them for complicity in the call-bypass scam. ISPs say they can’t run a business with the threat of arrest at any time and may collectively return their licenses. This would potentially paralyse internet services in Nepal.
ISPs say the new law holds them liable if an illegal VOIP operator is using its bandwidth without the knowledge of the service provider. Said one ISP owner: “The police want us to tell them about excessive use, but what is excessive use? Who defines it? There are hundreds of legitimate individuals and businesses who use more than 1MB, do we report all of them?”
Nepal’s 49 ISPs have already blocked scores of pornographic sites under instruction from the police in the past month, and they say they can block other sites as well. But they can’t be filtering everything because it is impossible, especially since the definition of what is deemed ‘anti-national’ and ‘inciting racial hatred’ is so broad. Says the ISP Association’s Binay Bohara: “If they tell us what to block we will block, but we can’t accept this blanket blame.”
[Editors Comment: This article form Nepali Times was chosen to be presented at Sanjaal Ganthan's iNepal category where the interesting development related to the modernization of Nepal, introduction of laws etc are collected for references]
Originally posted 2010-06-30 22:01:25.
E-Map Of Pokhara Being Prepared For Tourism
नेपाल समाचारपत्र, (पोखरा) आन्तरिक तथा बाहय पर्यटकले बसेकै ठाउँबाट पोखराको सम्पूर्ण जानकारी लिन सक्ने भएको छ। नेपाल पर्यटन बोर्डले आगामी डेढ महिनाभित्र पोखराको पर्यटकीय नक्सा इन्टरनेटमा सार्वजनिक गर्ने भएपछि आन्तरिक तथा बाहय पर्यटकले पोखरको बारेमा घरमै बसेर जानकारी लिन पाउने भएका हुन्।
कम्प्युटरमा इन्टरनेट प्रयोगकर्ताहरूले नक्साको कुनै पनि ठाउँ, भाग, होटल, पर्यटकीय स्थल आदिमा माउस क्लिक गरेपछि पोखरासम्बन्धी सम्पूर्ण विवरण हेर्न मिल्ने नेपाल पर्यटन बोर्डमा आयोजित कार्यक्रममा जानकारी दिइयो।
पर्यटन व्यवसायीहरूका अनुसार इन्टरनेट नक्सालाई अंग्रेजीमा जीआईएस इन्टरएक्टिभ म्याप भनेर बुझ्ने गरिन्छ। जीआईएस भनेको जिओग्राफिक इन्फरमेसन सिस्टम अर्थात् भौगोलिक सूचनाप्रणाली हो।
आकासबाट तल जमिनमा हेरेजस्तो गरी उक्त नक्सामा पोखरा र वरपरको भागलाई हेर्न, बुझन र अध्ययन गर्न सकिने नक्सा तयार गरिरहेको जेनेसिस कन्सल्टेन्सी प्रालि काठमाडौंका प्रबन्ध निर्देशक अनिश जोशीले बताउनुभयो।
‘तयार भएको नक्सालाई र्सवसाधारणले समेत पढ्न, बुझ्न र हेर्न सक्ने गरी नेपाल पर्यटन बोर्डको वेबसाइटमा अपलोड गरिने बताइएको छ। वेबसाइटमा अपलोड भएपछि विश्वका जुनसुकै देशका पर्यटकले पोखराको बारेमा बुझन सक्नेछन्।
नक्सामा पोखराका होटल, ट्रेकिङ र ट्राभल एजेन्सी, रेस्टुराँ, घुम्ने स्थलहरू, बैंक, अस्पताल, सिनेमाघर, र्याफ्टिङ स्थल, प्याराग्लाइडिङ स्पटलगायतको अवस्थिति र तिनीहरूसम्बन्धी सूचनाहरू राखिनेछ।
पोखराका मन्दिरहरू, वरपरका तातोपानी कुण्डहरू, प्रहरी र प्रशासनका कार्यालयहरू, वाषिर्क रूपमा नियमित हुँदै आएका पोखराका ठूला खालका इभेन्टहरू र तीसम्बन्धी जानकारी पनि नक्सामा समावेश गर्न लागिएको उहाँले जानकारी दिनुभयो।
Source: newsofnepal.com/new/detailnews.php?type=mahanagar&id=4782
Originally posted 2010-06-30 22:01:25.
