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Cabinet Meeting At Kalapathar
BY KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On Friday, December 4, 2009, the Nepalese cabinet is holding a meeting at altitude of 17,192 ft (5,250 m) of Kalapathar. The government is airlifting 26 cabinet ministers, a number of reporters, government officials and security personnel for holding a cabinet meeting for discussing and making decision on the climate change agenda for discussing at the 14th climate conference to be held in Copenhagen. This is a symbolic meeting at such an altitude to draw the attention of the world to the climate change and fast melting of snow from the Himalayas.
Considering the high altitude, the cabinet meeting will be only for 15-20 minutes. They will come down to Syngaboche at 14,242 and hold a press conference.
On Thursday, December 3, most of the Cabinet ministers, Security personnel and others fly to Lukla: high altitude airport, and stay there overnight for acclimatizing before flying to the high altitude meeting place.
Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara responsible cabinet minister for holding the high altitude meeting has said that the government will spent only one rupee as a token expense, the private people will bear the expenses of the meeting according to the state-run newspaper ‘Gorkhapatra’ of November 30, 2009. The estimated cost of holding such a high altitude meeting is Rs 6 million.
In Nepal the private companies or individuals will not do anything for the ministers and the government if they do not get special favor from the government or ministers. So, it is hard to believe that in the case of holding a high altitude meeting they are willing to spend so much of money without return. So, the irony is that the Minister of Forest must have already sanctioned to cut several times more than the actual cost of the meeting worth of trees thus causing additional deforestation and contributing to the climate change the Cabinet meeting wants to attract the world attention.
