Nepal Asks Maoists Not To Disturb CA
The Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal has asked the Maoists not to disturb the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. Nepal who met with Maoist leaders Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, on Sunday (August 12), before he left for Norway on a ten-day tour, said that he has advised the Maoist leaders to concentrate on elections. Meanwhile, in response to reports that his party leader and Education Minister Pradeep Nepal was in a mood to resign owing to dictatorial style of functioning of the Prime Minister, Nepal asked PM Girija Prasad Koirala to correct his style of functioning. Compiled from reports
Sushil To Become Acting President; Deuba Ahead In Party Hierarchy
Both the Congress parties have agreed to make Sushil Koirala as acting president and Sher Bahadur Deuba as the senior leader ahead of the acting president in the party hierarchy, reports Kantipur daily. Disputes regarding vice presidency, district and regional committee leadership has stalled the unification negotiations between the taskforces of Nepali Congress (NC) and NC-Democratic for the last one week. The NC-D leaders have warned that they would go ahead on their own if there is no agreement on unification process within next five days. The daily quotes sources as saying that Prime Minister and president of NC Girija Prasad Koirala met with Sushil and Deuba, separately, last week, to reach to the understanding. He first met with Deuba to convince him to give acting presidency of the unified party to Sushil. Subsequently, he met with Sushil to convince him to accept Deuba as senior leader ahead of him in the protocol. PM Koirala then informed the taskforces of the understanding. Meanwhile, the report added that there were still disputes regarding seniority in vice presidents and general secretary. As per the understanding, the two vice presidents of NC-D, Gopal Man Shrestha and Prakash Man Singh will become vice presidents of the unified party as well. However, the NC has asked NC-D to consider the complications that would arise with this decision since its general secretary duo Ram Chandra Poudel and KB Gurung are quite senior to Shrestha and Singh. Likewise, the taskforces are yet to reach final understanding regarding the leadership of district committees. nepalnews.com reports
Fleeing Rebels Announce New Faction
Even as five different teams of police and Young Communist League (YCL) are engaged in search and combing operations to locate the attackers who attacked a police post in Fikuri of Nuwakot district on Thursday (August 9) and looted weapons, the attackers have floated a new front called Janabadi Yuba Samuha. The attackers were later confirmed as Maoists who rebelled from their district party unit. Additional police reinforcement from Kathmandu has reached the area while YCL cadres are also engaged in search missions. The Maoists have claimed that a group led by one Raj Kumar Regmi who has parted ways from their party had attacked the police post. They had looted one pistol, two 303 rifles and 114 rounds of bullet. Earlier, on August 9, a group of Maoist cadres had attacked the police post at Fikuri of northern region of Nuwakot district. The Maoists beat up three policemen who were at the post when their colleagues went out, reports say. The in-charge of the police post, Sub-Inspector Ram Asis Barahi said the Maoists told them that they raided the post since the policemen were helping the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) to expand their base in the village against the Maoists. The Maoist attackers first supplied false information to the policemen that a civilian had died in neighboring Bhalcha VDC. Five out of the total 8 policemen stationed at the post headed to the village. “The Maoists then entered the police post, took us under control, tied us up and looted the arms”, said Head Constable Chhabi Lal Bhatta. The policemen were freed by the locals after the Maoists left. Leading dailies report
Limbuwan, Khumbuwan Groups Suspend Agitation
In response to the talks offer by the government, the Limbuwan Mukti Morcha and Khumbuwan Rastriya Morcha have decided to suspend their agitation in eastern districts and have also formed their teams to hold talks with the government. Limbuwan appointed its general secretary Khabuhang Banim as the chief of its negotiation team and the Khumbuwan has named its secretary Uttar Khumbu as the chief negotiator. The two groups have been organising indefinite strike in the eastern districts demanding autonomous federal state based on ethnicity for them in that region. Leading dailies report
Parliament Passes Budget; Maoists Abstain The Voting
In a strange development, the Maoists abstained the voting on the budget of the current fiscal year on Thursday (August 9). When the budget was put before the parliament for approval, only the MPs of Nepali Congress, NC-Democratic and Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) voted in favor. The Maoists walked out of the parliament chanting ‘no vote.’ The budget unveiled last month was put to vote after series of debate. Maoist MPs announced boycott the voting, saying it failed to meet people's aspirations and that it was brought without consensus in the eight-party alliance. They also described the budget as pro-palace. Maoist chief whip Dina Nath Sharma said his party had decided to boycott the voting as the budget did not come according to the spirit of Janandolan-2 and that there were no programs for radical land reform and debt relief for small farmers. Nepal Workers and Peasants Party voted against the budget while Janamorcha Nepal and United Left Front stayed away from voting, expressing their reservations. Finance Minister Dr Ram Saran Mahat had presented Rs 168.99 billion budget for the Fiscal Year 2007/08 on July 12. Compiled from reports
Minister Mahato Not To Be ‘Recalled’
Overturning her earlier decision, the president of Nepal Sadbhavana Party –Anandidevi (NSP-A), Anandidevi Singh, has decided not to recall Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahato from the cabinet. The meeting of the national executive committee of the party held late Wednesday (August 8), made the decision not to recall Mahato, according to statement issued by the party. Earlier, on Monday, Singh had written a letter to the Prime Minister informing about the decision to ‘recall’ Mahato as he had failed to ‘advance the Madhesi cause.’ Mahato, on the other hand, had been adamantly refusing to comply with Singh’s letter. Nepal Samacharpatra daily reports
Chure Agitates In Capital Streets
Condemning the killings of people of hilly origin in Terai, Chure Bhawar Ekata Samaj held a street demonstration in the capital on Wednesday (August 8). They brought the dead bodies of two of their activists – Mohan Gautam who was killed by Jwala Singh’s men on August 5 in Sitapur, Saptari and Prakash Subedi who was killed by Bisphot Singh’s men on August 7 in Birgunj – and held a rally. After the Chure activists tried to cremate their bodies right in the middle of the street in front of Bir Hospital, the police intervened and used tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. The police later transported the dead bodies to Aryaghat, Pashupati. The Samaj activists have condemned the government for being a silent spectator when people were being killed in Terai. Leading dailies report
Govt-NFIN Close Deal With 20-Point Understanding
The government and the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN) inked 20-point understanding on Tuesday (August 7) ending the ten rounds of talks they held so far. After inking the deal, Janajatis have withdrawn their agitation and have vowed to concentrate on Constituent Assembly (CA) elections. The government has agreed that the candidates for the first-past-the-post election system would also be selected on a proportional basisi, while it was agreed that all the political parties would ensure the representation of all the 59 recognized ethnic groups in the elections. The government also agreed to ensure representation through legal or constitutional means, of all the recognized ethnic groups that are not accommodated in the two election systems. They also agreed to form an inclusive commission on restructuring of the state on the basis of ethnicity, language, region, economic viability and cultural specialty. The NFIN has, however, relinquished its demand for fully proportional electoral system for the CA polls. “We have decided to withdraw all protest programs as the government has addressed some of our demands,” said Dr. Om Gurung, coordinator of NFIN talks team. The agreement was signed by Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel on behalf of the government and Dr. Om Gurung and KB Gurung, coordinator of Indigenous Nationalities Joist Struggle Committee. Leading dailies report
Middle Marsyangdi Further Delayed
The completion of under construction 70 MW-strong Middle Marsyangdi hydropower project is going to be delayed by two more years. The contractors and consultant have informed Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) of the further delay due to bandh, strike and chakkajam. They have said that the project will now complete on January, 2009. The project was earlier expected to come into operation from December, 2007. The project has already been delayed by four years resulting in loss of Rs 5 billion to NEA in terms of failure to generate electricity. This loss is exclusive of losses in expenditures due to delay. NEA executive director Arjun Kumar Karki informed the parliamentary committee on Natural Resource about the delay. Kantipur daily reports
PABSON Decision To Hike Fees Draws Flak
The recent decision of the Private And Boarding Schools' Organization Nepal (PABSON) to increase fees in schools maximum by 25 percent has drawn flak from the stakeholders. Suprabhat Bhandari, president of the Guardians' Association Nepal, said that the PABSON is not an authentic body to increase students' fees. The increment in fees should be in line with the education regulations that states the School Management Committee has the authority to increase fees, which should be later approved by Fee-Ceiling Fixing Committee at District Education Office, he added. Bhandari said: "Though private schools take exorbitant fees from students, more than 90 percent of the teachers are unpaid and exploited". Pradeep Poudel, president of the Nepal Students' Union, said that the PABSON's "one-sided" decision only favors a handful of people. "Instead of decreasing fees, its decision to hike is totally unjustifiable and we are against the decision," he said, adding: "The decision has proved the exploitation and other irregularities in private schools." Poudel asked the PABSON to withdraw its decision. "If not, we will be compelled to hit the streets." Umesh Shrestha, president of the PABSON, said they decided to increase the students' fees so as to provide more salary to teachers as their pay has not been increased for five years. "We have directed the schools outside the Valley to raise the fees according to the situation of schools and School Management Committees," he said. Leading dailies report
RBB Registers Profit Of Rs 1.68 Billion
The state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) has registered profit of Rs 1.68 billion in last fiscal year. This is more by one percent compared to previous fiscal year when it had posted Rs 1.65 billion profit. The bank, which is going through reform process, is the largest bank in terms of deposits and loan investment. The bank has informed that its deposits increased by 9 percent in last fiscal year. Likewise, loan investment also increased by 9.29 percent. Total deposit of the bank has reached Rs 50.34 billion. The non performing loans have come down to 29 percent from 70 percent few years ago. The bank has informed that since the new (foreign) management took over, its loan recovery has increased to 99.5 percent. The bank has cut manpower by 43 percent. Its net asset is still negative due to past losses. Kantipur daily reports
