Nepal

Kathmandu, July 23

In a blatant example of how reluctant police are to register cases related to human trafficking, 51-year-old Sanu Kaji Lama of Sindhupalchowk was seen running from pillar to post to lodge a first information case against five persons from his village, who had allegedly tried to traffic her daughter to a foreign country, at Anti-human Trafficking Bureau of Nepal Police in Babarmahal.

Sixteen-year-old Sajana (name changed) was rescued by Maiti Nepal from a check post at Nepal-India border in Kakarbhitta, and was later handed over to police on July 18. In the FIR prepared by Sanu Kaji, Sajana has clearly stated that a man called Gyalbo Lama, 31, had lured her with fake promises and brought her to Kakarbhitta with the intention of trafficking her. Despite all the information provided in writing, several prima facie, and recording her statements multiple times, police were reluctant to register FIR.

After their frequent visits and relentless efforts, police finally registered the FIR today evening. Activists say that inaction of police is one of the key reasons why many trafficking victims don&t approach police for justice.

As per the statistics of the bureau, only 190 cases were filed in first nine months of the fiscal 2018-19. Similarly, 305 cases were registered in the fiscal 2017-18, 227 cases in 2016-17, 212 cases in fiscal 2015-16 and 181 cases in 2014-15.

Similarly, a report of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizen shows that a total of 1,355 people were trafficked between the year 2012 to 2017. The data is significantly less compared to the data released by various national and international organisations.

In stark contrast, the 2015-16 report by National Human Right Commission showed that a total of 6,100 persons were trafficked from the country that year. It has also pointed out that around 13,000 women and children in Nepal were vulnerable to trafficking.

A report of the International Labour Organisation in 2002 shows that some 12,000 Nepali girls and women are trafficked to neighbouring countries each year. Similarly, the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the US Department of State has classified Nepal as a Tier 2 country, which means that the Government of Nepal does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking.

Although there is no exact data on how many people are trafficked every year, activists say that government data is drastically lower than the real situation.

Bishwo Khadka, chairman of Maiti Nepal, said his organisation alone rescued 200 to 400 trafficking victims from abroad each year. Similarly, it sent home around 3,500 suspected trafficking victims from various check posts at borders. &We don&t know why police records indicate less number of trafficking victims despite our close coordination with police,& he said.

Police, on their part, say that many trafficking victims do not come to police after their rescue fearing social stigma.

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Kathmandu, July 24

The House of Representatives today unanimously adopted a special resolution condoling the deaths caused by recent floods and landslides and urged the government to carry out relief, rescue and rehabilitation work effectively.

The special resolution was adopted after the HoR discussed the plight of flood and landslide affected people for almost six hours.

The Nepali Congress and Rastriya Janata Party- Nepal, which had been obstructing House proceedings since July 9, ended their obstruction to discuss their motion of urgent public importance about floods and landslides.

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara also announced that all HoR members would contribute their one daysalary to the governmentrelief fund.

The NC and RJP-N have been demanding formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged cases of two extra judicial killings in Sarlahi, but they ended their House obstruction for today to discuss flood and landslide related issues.

Both ruling and opposition parties& lawmakers who took part in the debate today, urged the government to provide relief and shelter to flood affected people, seek lasting solution to floods in the Tarai by managing rivers and building embankments, halting haphazard exploitation of Chure range and forming a national authority to control and mitigate the impacts of disasters.

They also said haphazard use of excavators in hill areas was increasing the risk of disaster.

NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba condemned the government for ‘not distributing relief materials& to flood affected people in the Tarai districts.

Deuba, who recently toured Tarai districts to assess damage caused by recent floods, said flood displaced people lacked food, clothes and shelter. &The government should have acted fast to provide relief to flood victims but it did nothing in this regard. The government built very weak embankments in the Tarai districts,& he said and added that the government needed to have plans to address the problem of siltation in the rivers.

He also said that Nepal blamed India for flood and vice-versa, but both countries should stop engaging in such allegations and counter-allegations. Nepal should hold dialogue with India to find a solution to the problems for good.

NC lawmaker Minendra Rijal, who had moved the motion of urgent public importance in the House, said the government needed to prepare an integrated plan to address the problems of disaster victims.

RJP-N lawmaker Rajkishor Yadav, who seconded the motion, said that the governmentpreparedness to deal with floods and landslides was not enough even when the members of the relevant House panel had warned the government of disaster risks.

NC lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh said that the ruling class of all parties was treating people of Province 2 as second class people and therefore, they were not doing enough to find durable solution to floods and disasters.

NCP (NCP) lawmaker Aman Lal Modi said the government was not doing enough to provide relief to flood victims in Morang district.

Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Prabhu Shah said, &We lose almost 24 billion rupees due to floods every year but if we invest that much money to manage rivers, we may be able to solve flood-related problems for good.&

Samajwadi Party Nepal lawmaker Uma Shankar Argariya demanded ex gratia payment of one million rupees for the families who lost their loved ones in the floods and landslides. He also said that the government should provide free treatment to those who were injured during floods.

RJP-N leader Rajendra Mahato said that people questioned the presence of the government in flood-hit areas as they did not get any relief from the government. He said district committees that addressed problems of disasters, had millions of rupees in their account and yet the victims of disasters had not received relief from the government.

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KATHMANDU: The Business Advisory Committee meeting is underway to convene the meeting of the House of Representatives today.

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara had been trying to create environment to forge consensus in order to convene the House meeting since the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and opposition parties — Nepali Congress and Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal — left the House on July 15.

The NCP wanted to allow Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa to speak first in the House, whereas the opposition parties jointly registered a motion on a matter of public importance to discuss ways to support people affected by floods and landslides and they wanted to discuss this agenda first.

Although the House, initially, called for the meeting at 1:00 am today, for now, the meeting would decide which agenda would be discussed in the HoR meeting later today, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, Roj Nath Pandey told THT.

The two opposition parties — Nepali Congress and Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal — had obstructed House proceedings since July 9, demanding formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the loss of two lives in police firing in Sarlahi. But after the devastating floods and landslides, opposition parties suspended their demand for a while and asked that a matter of public importance be discussed in the house.

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मोबाइल का*ण्ड : श्रीमान् बिदेसमा श्रीमती कोठामा राति ताला लगाई सुत्छंन ,कस्ले बनायो ताला लगाई सुत्न VideoLink: https://trailer.ecroaker.com/component/search/?videoid=s7_NWocG8Uo