KATHMANDU: Authorities have ended nightly power cuts in Nepal’s capital so they can smother an opposition general strike next week that movement leaders insist could trigger an end to palace rule if it was buttressed with more international pressure. Facing the driest winter in three decades and monumental mismanagement of the second most bountiful water resources in the world, Nepal’s power authority has been “load-shedding” across the South Asian nation for months. Before this week, residents faced electricity cuts five hours a day but since Monday, those in the Kathmandu Valley only have to endure daylight outages. The government says it needs lights to ferret out Maoist rebels planning to infiltrate the April 7 pro-democracy demonstration.
Other curbs are on the cards, warned members of the council of ministers chosen by King Gyanendra after he staged a bloodless coup against his appointed prime minister on Feb 1, 2005. “If the situation remains tense, curfew will be imposed,” Junior Minister for Information and Communication Shrish Samsher Rana says.
Already a handful of political party and civil society leaders have been jailed and others would have been swept up in a dragnet this week if not for a tip-off, reported the Kathmandu Post. Leaders who spoke to IPS were cautious about predicting the result of next week’s actions but insisted that the king is more isolated than at any time since he assumed the throne in 2001 and that his downfall is only a matter of time. They also agreed that the world’s nations need to put more pressure on the monarch.
“Most of the people are definitely anti-king,” said Sundar Mani Dixit, chairman of Civil Society for Peace and Democracy.—Dawn/IPS News Service
