Indian Officials Urge To Use EVM
The Indian election officials who met with their Nepalese counterpart recently in Kathmandu have urged the latter to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the forthcoming Constituent Assembly elections. They assured all kind of technical and logistic support for the purpose. The Election Commission officials including its chief Bhoj Raj Pokharel met with Indian delegation led by its deputy election commissioner R. Balkrishnan. The Nepalese EC officials informed that they were interested to make use of modern technologies like EVMs. Leading dailies report
NSU To Hold Its Tenth General Convention In Janakpur
The student wing of Nepali Congress (NC) – the Nepal Students Union (NSU) –is going to hold its tenth general convention in Janakpur from March 9 to 11. Last year, the union's tenth convention had to be cancelled due to clashes among the students. At a press meet organized on Saturday (December 23), the NSU president Mahendra Sharma said the general convention will be held smoothly. The NSU has also urged the government to appoint vice chancellors in universities to end the uncertainties in education sector. The NSU has condemned the behavior of Maoist-affiliated student union, which it said was using armed guerrillas to threaten other students. Compiled from reports
PM To Appoint VCs Soon
At a time when the student wing of Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) has announced agitation against the government for not appointing vice chancellors in universities, the Prime Minister and chancellor of the universities including Tribhuwan University has assured that he will make the appointments soon. According to Education Minister Dr. Mangal Siddhi Manandhar, who is also the co chancellor of the universities, the PM has assured of appointments soon. "I have once again drawn the PM's attention to the need of appointing officials and he has assured to appoint them soon after taking Maoists, too, in confidence," Dr. Manandhar said. Leading dailies report
Udayapur Shut Down To Protest Maoists
Protesting the atrocities by the Maoists and attacks by their guerrillas against student activists close to UML, the Udayapur district was shut down on Thursday (December 21). Bazaars of district headquarters Gaighat and Katari, the place where the incident took place, were closed down. Enraged by their atrocities, local people, students and businessmen even vandalized the contact office of the Maoists in Katari. They have declared Katari as 'prohibited' zone for Maoists. Leading dailies report
IOC Cuts Down Supplies To NOC
With the objective of pressing it to pay back outstanding dues, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has cut down the supplies to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). NOC chairman Biswonath Goyal has said that the IOC has cut down the regular quantity of supplies to NOC. Reports say that the IOC has cut down as much as 60 percent of supplies triggering acute shortage and depletion of petrol stock at Thankot depot. Goyal said that from Friday, they will not be able to supply petrol from Thankot depot. The NOC needs to pay Rs 9.04 billion to IOC; and the latter has been pressing the NOC to pay the dues soon. "The IOC has demanded that we pay Rs 320 million a month. In order to press their demand, they have cut down the supplies," said Goyal. Earlier, the IOC had cut down 33 percent supplies to press the NOC. At present, the supply of kerosene and diesel has not been affected much though. Meanwhile, the monthly losses of NOC have come down to a record low level in years. It now accrues monthly loss of Rs 15 million only due to sharp reduction of oil price in the international market. Kantipur daily reports
Moriarty Protests Maoist Actions
On the day he left for Washington on Christmas holidays, American Ambassador James Moriarty met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and expressed concerns over the actions by the Maoists in recent days. He was particularly perturbed by the violent bandh imposed on Tuesday. "The Prime Minister told me that he had consulted the Maoists before the cabinet took the step," Moriarty said, referring to the government's decision to nominate ambassadors. PM also assured him that the recent Maoist activities will not affect the peace process. "Obviously what happened (on Tuesday) was a direct violation of a commitment; combatants' recruitment also violates a commitment," Moriarty told reporters. Saying that he had not received any indication that the Maoists would give up violence, Moriarty hoped that everybody settles issues through dialogue. Leading dailies report
RPP Protests Its Non-Inclusion
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) president Pashupati SJB Rana met with Prime Minister Koirala and protested the deliberate sidelining of his party from vital processes like constitution-making. Rana said that although his party has 13 percent seats in the current parliament, RPP was kept in total dark over the making of interim constitution. He also protested decision of seven parties and the Maoists to nominate local body officials on mutual consent. Leading dailies report
Maoist PLA Attack NC, UML Students
In two separate incidents, Maoist guerrillas physically attacked students of Nepal Students Union (NSU) and All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) in Chitwan and Udayapur. In Chitwan, over 1000 Maoist guerrillas barged into the Rampur Agriculture Campus and thrashed NSU activists injuring 49 of them. The guerrillas descended on the campus on Monday (December 18) following some differences between NSU and activists of pro-Maoist student union. After the incident, the campus has been shut down. The NSU has issued a statement saying that over 1000 guerrillas came to the campus from Shaktihor cantonment nearby. "They used iron rods to beat us," said Rajendra Dotel, president of the campus unit of NSU. In a separate incident, over 20 students were injured when Maoist guerrillas attacked activists of ANNFSU in Gaighat of Udayapur district. The guerrillas came after there were disputes between ANNFSU and pro-Maoist students in Katari campus. According to reports, even ordinary people and policemen were injured when the guerrillas from Belsrot camp came on buses and attacked them. The student organizations have condemned the incident and termed it as violation of peace agreement. Compiled from reports
PFN And Unity Center Against Citizenship By Birth
Chitra Bahadur KC, president of a faction of People's Front Nepal (PFN), said that the approval of the Citizenship Act that upholds distribution of citizenship based on birth and inclusion of the same provision within the finalized interim constitution is highly objectionable. "If this provision is actually implemented, door will be opened for foreigners to receive Nepali citizenship," KC said. KC's party as well as Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Center-Masal) issued statements deploring the provision. The Unity Center has lent a 'critical support' to the interim constitution but has remarked that "provisions related with citizenship could seriously hurt nationalism." "Provision of providing citizenship based on birth can pave the way for foreigners to become Nepali citizens and this would have serious and far-reaching consequences to the nationalism," states a statement issued by Mohan Bikram Singh of Unity Center-Nepal. Compiled from reports
Write Offs Behind Fall In Banks' NPL Level
Going by statistics, the crucial issue of non performing loans (NPL) ailing the financial sector may appear to have been sorted out. The level of NPL, which stood at whopping 60 percent prior to the financial sector reforms in 2002 and hovered around 30 percent in 2003, has come down to 14.22 percent in 2006. But thereby hangs a story of massive write offs of loans and interest on loans. Nepal Bank Limited has written off loans amounting to almost Rs 4 billion and an interest of around Rs 8 billion, points out Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). According to the bank regulator, even Rastriya Banijya Bank (RB) is planning to write off a total of Rs 12 billion loans. "But the problem is far from solved," avers Surendra Man Pradhan, NRB executive director (Regulation), "As the NPL level remains far above the acceptable level of less than five percent. Although the management teams have struggled to recover Rs 17 billion from medium and small sized loans this year, the big fish have gone scot free. "The big borrowers have been avoiding loan repayments by getting stay orders from courts," says Pradhan, who recently even made a presentation in this regard to the Supreme Court judges and the banking committee. The Himalayan Times daily reports
ANNFSU To Launch Agitation
The All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) – the pro-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) student wing - has announced agitation to force the government to immediately appoint vice chancellors in universities including in Tribhuwan University (TU). The ANNFSU has announced that it was forced to announce agitation after the government failed to appoint vice chancellors in universities such as TU, Pokhara University, Purbanchal University and so on since the last nine months. "We have repeatedly drawn the attention of the Education Minister in this regard but in vain," he said. Education Ministry's portfolio is currently held by a UML leader Dr. Mangal Siddhi Manandhar. Compiled from reports
Citizenship To Be Distributed Before CA Polls
The government has said that it will distribute citizenship to the people of Terai region before the elections of Constituent Assembly (CA). The Home Minister Krishna Sitaula informed the parliament on Tuesday (December 19) said that special teams will be dispatched to distribute citizenship to the people beginning January 15. The Home Ministry will dispatch such teams across the country with the objective of distributing citizenship ahead of planned Constituent Assembly (CA) elections to be held by mid-June 2007. The government plans to complete the distribution of citizenship between mid-January and mid-March. Leading dailies report
MMR Is A Neglected Crisis: Disaster Report
In Nepal, maternal and neonatal mortality topped the list of the neglected crisis. A record of Department of Health Services in 1996 put the mortality rate at 539 per 100,000, later in 2004 after adjustments by UNICEF, the rate was put at 740, implying that 5000 to 6000 women die each year during childbirth, according to World Disasters Report 2006. "It means one pregnant woman dies every two hours," said Jonathan Walter, editor of the report presenting Nepal's fact file. Unsafe childbirth and neonatal practices, lack of healthcare facilities and discrimination against women are main factors responsible for high mortality. "Most of the mothers died during childbirth due to lack of emergency obstetric care or assistance from a skilled birth attendant following birth complications," the report stated. Over 90 percent deliveries take place at home without skilled attendants. The rate of neonatal mortality is 39 per 1000 live births. An estimated 30,000 neonatal deaths occur every year, a report of Department of Health Services said. The Himalayan Times daily reports
