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 “It is old”, is often the logic we cling on to justify demand/longing for replacements. It is exactly how Nepal Airlines’ (RA) B757s get portrayed, as one (9N-ACB) is still flying and filling schedule voids as required, while the other (9N-ACA) has been immo­bile over two years. There is no denying that they had gotten unre­liable over time. It might still have been workable in less sensitive role with P2F (passenger to freighter) conversion. Pilots who had long flown these feel sorry to see them disposed. Interestingly, 9N-ACA was the only “combi” version (with wid­er door to facilitate loading freight) ever built. It was eventually sold to a person with highly ambitious plan for a ‘BB Airways’ flying the regional circuit. (We do not know if BB stands for the initials of the person who bought it.) Now that BBA is seek­ing permission to scarp the plane instead of flying it, the question is: was it about the ignorance about the intricacies of starting an airline or was it something more? It seems to be both.In reality and as an expert point­ed out, the aircraft cannot even be ferried, let alone carry passenger because of expiry of limited-life parts (LLP) components. The LLP primar­ily includes assessing a) if engine configuration is as per specifica­tions b) reviewing its exhaustive part records and c) an accident and inci­dent statement search. It is more important especially when an air­craft is sold or grounded for long. The buyer naturally needs to be assured about its actual status; the B757 certainly came without a valid airworthiness certificate (AWC) at the time of the sale.

The issue seems to have gotten highly entangled, given the Gordian complexities of our bureaucratic process. The aircraft, as I under­stand, is yet to be deregistered and is still technically owned by RA, and not BBA. Moreover, ownership can­not be transferred to BBA as it does not have an Airline Operation Certif­icate (AOC)!

This is not the first time we have heard of BBA; it had leased an air­craft from a Cambodian charter car­rier TonleSap few years earlier, and had secured an AOC as any commer­cial airline is required to do. The AOC has since expired as it stopped flying and BBA has reapplied for the same. First of all, it takes over a year to get the AOC if the process is smooth. But the prospect of the 9N-ACA flying again is looking increasingly remote as the owner will have to pump in about $19m more just to make it airborne. And that was perhaps not anticipated while buying it.

Scrapping an aircraft is a specialty job and a big business, providing replaceable spares to airlines world over. Elsewhere, aircraft intended for decommissioning are flown to specific airports where they are care­fully taken apart. Engines are the most valuable items followed by landing gear assemblies. There are various other electronic items that are delicate but still sellable. The most easily disposable items are the seats while the sheet metal fuse­lage is bulky but less expensive. The first ever jet scrapping instance at TIA relates to a Thai/DC8 that veered off the runway in 1973. But it was a total write off as an engine was torn off on landing.

First of all, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is obligated to work in tandem with RA or any other Nepal-registered airline to simplify bureaucratic processes where possi­ble. But they are somehow not doing this. This is not to suggest that relax­ing aviation safety should be part of this process. With the advantage of hindsight, it would have been better for RA to have ferried the B757 out to appropriate international venues before it was taken out of service. It might have attracted interest of more prospective buyers there rather than putting it up for sale at a way-off location. But in this case BBA cannot blame anyone but itself for being blindly eager to run an airline and now having to axe it of frustration.

Ideally, entrepreneurs need to be nourished rather than be over­whelmed by all obstacles. Had BBA succeeded, it would have created more Nepali jobs and helped a Nepali learn the ropes of running an airline. By attempting high risk ventures BBA tried to chew a bigger mouthful than would have been considered wise.

We cannot produce entrepreneurs but we can create an environment to help them grow. All in the aviation fraternity should work together for the betterment of this sector. RA may get a better price and BBA may succeed in securing the other B757 even while competing at a location other than Kathmandu. But that will happen only if RA first opts to put the other one for sale as well disregard­ing other plausible options o

There are two ways of looking at the post-2006 political journey of Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. In one reading, he has matured as a political leader and is more aware of the opportunities and risks of competitive demo­cratic politics. He now regrets his decision as prime minister to fire the then army chief Rookmangud Katawal in 2009. Another cardinal sin was to make China instead of India his first foreign stop as prime minister. As a result of these two decisions, he had to resign after only nine months in office. Come September 2018, Dahal is a changed person. As the co-chairman of the all-powerful Nepal Communist Party this time he made sure he went to India first, and during his over an hour-long chat with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, assured the latter that should he be the prime minister again, he would be more mindful of India’s interests. During his four-day India sojourn (Sept 15-18), he also dropped plenty of hints that he expected KP Sharma Oli to in time vacate either of the two posts: the prime min­ister or the party chairman.

But as PM Oli makes one after another blunder, Dahal has been rather cau­tious about coming to the defense of his own gov­ernment, something that has miffed the prime minister. In this reading, Dahal seems to have matured as a politician as he now looks to avoid the kind of impetuousness that marred his early entry into mainstream politician.

But there is also an alternative reading. In this, Dahal has betrayed the cause for which he waged a long and bloody insurgency that led to the death of over 17,000 Nepalis. From a firebrand revolutionary he has turned into yet another Nepali politician who will do everything to ascend the ladder of power. While he was once capable of openly excoriating the ‘hegemonic and imperialistic’ India, consequences be damned, these days he is ultra-careful not to antagonize the southern neighbor, whose help is mandatory to get back to the top of Nepali politics. In the process he has also abandoned marginalized groups like Madhesis and Janajatis, whose collective cause he once championed.

As he heads to China after completing his India tour, power equations will be top on his mind. Operating under the shadow of a powerful prime minister, and biding his time, Dahal’s political legacy, meanwhile, hangs by a thread.

 The chairperson and his deputy at Banke dis­trict’s Rapti Sonari rural municipality have not talked to each other for six months. The reason for their mutual dislike was a dispute over who should get to ride a municipal vehicle. In August 2017, the munic­ipality chairperson Lahu Ram Tharu was given a car for which the municipality had to pay a monthly rent of Rs 110,000. Another Rs 30,000-35,000 a month was spent on petrol while an addi­tional Rs 5,000 was set aside for repairs.

Deputy chairperson Dhani Kumari Khatri complained that she was unable to ride in a car, even though it was paid for by taxpayer money. Last year, the municipality wanted to buy a vehicle. But Khatri insisted that two vehi­cles should be bought instead of one, and the procurement plan was shelved.

On August 1, Khatri com­plained with the Minister for federal affairs Lalbabu Pandit that she was having a hard time getting around to mon­itor development programs without a vehicle. “The deputy chairperson refused to sign official papers until a vehicle was arranged for her,” says an officer at the rural municipal­ity. A vehicle was eventually procured at a monthly rent of Rs 110,000, with another Rs 40,000 set aside for petrol.

“They initially discrimi­nated against me because I am a woman. But now that I am getting the same amounts of rent and petrol, equality has been achieved,” Khatri says.

The rural municipality is spending over Rs 300,000 a month on two vehicles, which are used as private vehicles by the chairperson and deputy chairperson. Chief adminis­trative officer of Rapti Sonari rural municipality Topendra Bahadur KC informs that the process to buy a new vehicle worth Rs 5 million has been started as the rents are prov­ing to be high. “A new vehi­cle will be bought within a month,” he says.

It is not just Rapti’s Sonari rural municipality where money is spent recklessly on rented vehicles. The chairpersons of Narainapur and Janaki rural municipal­ities are also spending over Rs 100,000 each on rented vehicles. The same is the case in Janaki rural municipality.

Nepalgunj sub-metropoli­tan’s Chief Dr. Dhawal Sham­sher Rana, Deputy Chairper­son Uma Thapa Magar and Chief Administrative Officer Toyanarayan Subedi also ride government vehicles. Munici­pal officer Sharad Kumar Pau­del informs that Rs 4.5 million a year is set aside for petrol. Likewise, Kohalpur municipal­ity has set aside Rs 1.65 million for petrol for its vehicles.

Frugal officials too

There are also people’s rep­resentatives who are more frugal. Khajura rural munic­ipality’s Chairperson Kis­mat Kumar Kakshyapati and Bajainath rural municipality’s Chairperson Man Bahadur Ruchal ride their personal vehicles. Both of them how­ever claim fuel cost. “I use my own motorcycle to serve the public. The motorcycle serves me just fine. Why do I need a car?” he asks.

When I was a kid, I hated being escorted to places. My parents asked my younger brother, one who was both physically and emotionally incapable of handling the situation even if we run into trouble, to escort me to places because having a male companion would somehow make me safer. I always wanted to be old enough to do everything on my own. But now that I’ve matured, growing up as a girl in this society has been nothing short of unending paranoia. The things that I wanted to do when I was a kid, like taking a public vehi­cle, walking on the streets or even taking a lift on my own, takes a huge chunk of courage nowadays.

The constant eve-teasing and sex­ual harassment have further wors­ened the paranoia. Eve-teasing is the most common act of public vio­lence—an unimaginative euphemism for the glares, whistles, hoots, “acci­dental” brushing-past, intentional grabbing, groping and pinching. We’ve now reached a point when we no longer feel safe on the streets but are rather habituated to the vul­gar comments, indecent proposals, unwelcome gestures, and attempts at physical contact.

According to a small survey done by The Annapurna Express, 93 out of 100 women surveyed reported facing some form of sexual harass­ment, and 88 of them said the expe­rience affected them. A full 94 per­cent of the women surveyed had been verbally or physically abused, and felt threatened and unsafe every time they ventured out.

The society condones these tendencies. It’s beyond me how a country with a Hindu majority, one of the few religions that deify the female form, could turn a blind eye to women’s daily harassment. The country that celebrates the feminin­ity of women has designed its soci­ety in such a way that women wish they were born a different gender. 95 percent of surveyed women blamed the patriarchal societal norms for this state of affairs and yet it is the women who are blamed and brutalized.

The eve-teasing and the cat-calling that men think is funny, is not. Wom­en are being hysterical, humorless, and oversensitive, they say. This might be seen as something basic, but honestly it can also be terri­fying. I suspect when voice is not raised against this kind of harass­ment and abuse, it turns into some­thing more brutal like molestation or rape itself.