Madhesi Mps To Submit Petition To The PM
Expressing their solidarity with the genuine demands raised by Madhesi people around 53 MPs of the interim parliament representing the Terai region are going to submit their joint petition to the Prime Minister asking him to fulfill genuine demands of Madhesi people. The MPs belonging to various political parties as well as four ministers in the current cabinet who represent the Terai region – Hridayesh Tripathy, Mahantha Thakur, Prabhu Narayan Chaudhary and Dharma Nath Shah – have asked the PM to amend the interim constitution to address the demands of Madhesi people. The signatories including deputy Speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav and MPs Bharat Bimal Yadav, Matrika Prasad Yadav and Bijaya Gachhadar have asked the PM to take initiatives to restructure the state on federal basis and reconstitute electoral constituencies based on population. The petition will be handed over to the PM on Monday (Jan 29). Compiled from reports
Trade Hit Hard By Terai Turmoil
The continuous unrest in Terai since the past two weeks have started taking heavy toll on the business and trade sector. Goods worth tens of millions of rupees have been stranded at border points. Almost all of the import export trade of the country is conducted through the border points of eastern Terai cities like Biratnagar and Birgunj. The continuous curfew in these cities as well as bandh in sections of east west highway has brought the trade to a grinding halt. As bandh cripples the trade transactions, the industries in Bara-Parsa corridor are closing down in absence of raw materials. Akhil Kumar Chapagain, president of Nepal Overseas Export Import Association, informed that over one hundred containers bound for Nepal have been stranded in Kolkata port. “And hundreds of other containers released from the port and also containing imported goods from India are stranded in border points like Jogbani and Raxaul,” he said. The traders will have to pay additional money for the delay in releasing the containers from the port. Joint secretary Ram Kumar Shrestha of Finance Ministry has informed that revenue collection from the border points (in Biratnagar and Birgunj) have almost come down to nil in the past few days. As soon as its fast depleting stocks in Thankot and Amlekhgunj finishes, the continued halt in the supplies of petroleum products could also hit the consumers hard anytime soon. Nepal Samacharpatra daily reports
Dr. Bhattarai Against Talking With MJF
Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai dismissed any “need to talk with MJF or Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM).” He termed them as “criminal groups without any base.” Talking with Kantipur TV, he said, “There is no need to talk with them. They are only working as pawns in the hands of royalists and extremist Hindu elements. We eight parties should address the genuine demands of Madhesi people such as federal system and proportional electoral representation.” His rejection of any move to hold talks with the MJF or JTMM comes amid the government’s repeated call for talks with them. Compiled from reports
Air Passengers Also Stranded
Due to the continuous bandh and riots in Terai region, even air passengers are being stranded. As the land transport has been paralyzed, there is rush to buy air tickets even in black market. In Biratnagar, hundreds of passengers are stranded in airport waiting to board the flight. Bir Bahadur Magar, a youth from Udayapur, quipped that he was going to miss his flight to Saudi Arabia where he was going for overseas work. Due to tremendous pressure from the passengers, the travel agencies have closed their shutters. Buddha Air and Yeti Airways have operated additional flights to meet the demands. Buddha Air has increased its daily flight frequency from five to seven a day. Likewise, Yeti Airways has increased its daily flight frequency up to eleven a day. Hundreds of passengers have continued to remain stranded in various parts of highway in eastern Terai region. Local NGOs and organizations are helping them, say reports. Leading dailies report
MPRF President Welcomes Talks Offer, Protests Continue
While his activists continued to defy curfew and launch violent riots in Terai cities, the president of MPRF Upendra Yadav welcomed the talks offer made by the Prime Minister. Yadav claimed that his party was in favor of peaceful protests. He said if the government expressed commitment to amend the interim constitution, they were willing to sort out the problems through dialogue. He also claimed that his party was in favor of republic and wanted effective Constituent Assembly elections. Earlier, speaking in the parliament on Thursday, Maoist leader Matrika Yadav urged the government to change the interim constitution to address concerns of Madhesi people. He, however, accused hands of royalists and Hindu extremists in the ongoing violence. Compiled from reports
21 Hours A Week Load Shedding Imposed
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced three-hours-a-day load shedding across the country beginning Friday (Jan 26). As per the new schedule announced by the NEA’s Load Dispatch Centre, each household in the capital valley will have to suffer from three hours of power cut everyday. There will be 21 hours of power cut every week – twice during 5:30 am till 8:30 am ; once during 9 am till 12 noon ; once during 12 noon till 3 pm ; twice during 5 pm till 8 pm and once during 10 pm till 1 am . Outside valley, the timings are different but the load shedding will be imposed for similar number of hours. According to NEA managing director Arjun Karki, the load shedding hours will be further increased after two weeks – up to 40 hours a week. Most of the hydropower projects in the country are of the run-of-the-river type, whose capacity decreases substantially during the dry months when the water discharge in the rivers decline. There are only two storage type projects – Kulekhani I (60 MW) and II (32) MW – and both of them are run in full capacity during dry season in order to meet the demands. The NEA has said that load shedding could not be averted despite moves to procure power from India . Karki has informed that the country will have to bear crippling power cuts till at least 2012 - after when, he adds, the new projects will start pumping more power into the national grid erasing the need to impose load shedding. nepalnews.com reports
Proposal To Rub Out King From Notes
The Finance Ministry is set to table a proposal at the cabinet meeting in a day or two, that the King’s picture be removed from bank notes and it be substituted with pictures of national luminaries and the Himalayas . According to Vidyadhar Mallik, Finance Secretary, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has already submitted nine different samples at the ministry. He said the ministry had submitted a proposal with only two designs for the cabinet meeting some three weeks ago, but the council of ministers didn’t approve the proposal and sent it back to the ministry, asking for more samples. The fresh proposal has nine samples depicting Lord Buddha as a symbol of peace in different postures, while some of them have the pictures of Mt. Everest and Bhrikuti. Mallik said that the coin depicting a farmer ploughing the field has already come into mass circulation. “It is the first coin that has not mentioned even the King’s name,” he said. “If everything goes as per the plan, the new notes will come into mass circulation by May or June this year,” says a senior official at NRB. According to central bank sources, the paper notes will also see some changes in size and color, which is subject to approval of the cabinet. This will break a five-decade-long tradition of printing the King’s picture on the bank notes. The Himalayan Times daily reports
No Agreement Yet On Electoral Process
Even as the Election Commission (EC) is racing against time to hold Constituent Assembly elections by mid-June, the major political parties have yet to reach understanding over the specific electoral process and whether to use one or two ballot papers during the polls. They could not reach agreement at the all party meeting called by the EC on Tuesday. An official of the EC as saying that leaders differed on whether to adopt Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR) of Parallel System (PS) to elect 204 representatives in the constituent assembly elections. CPN-UML, three factions of People's Front Nepal, Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi), Rastriya Prajatantra Party favored MMPR electoral system, while Nepali Congress, NC (Democratic), CPN (Maoists) and Nepal Workers and Peasant Party stood in favor of PS electoral system. In MMPR electoral system, total valid vote is divided by 409 seats. Each party's seat garnered in the first-past-the-post system will be subtracted from the quotient to arrive at the final number of seats to be allotted to the party in question. Whereas, in PS electoral system, 204 seats will be divided among political parties according to votes received in the election. A leader, who had participated on Tuesday's all party meeting also informed that parties were also divided over whether to use single or double ballot paper for two different electoral systems; first past-the-post and second proportional electoral system. The UML, PFN, Maoists and Sadbhavana party favored double ballot paper during the CA polls, while other political parties preferred two votes (each for the party and candidate) in a single ballot paper. The EC has requested political parties to attend Thursday's meeting to reach consensus on these issues. Compiled from reports
Donors Call For Stringent Punishment
The IUCN Nepal, WWF Nepal and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTN) have raised objections against the controversial verdict (of minimum punishment to a rhino poacher) and sought stiff punishment for wildlife traders. They have urged the government to punish all involved in the incident. The incident involves ranger Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya of Chitwan National Park who made an objectionable decision on notorious wildlife trader Pemba Lama “Yakchhe” who was arrested on the charge of trading 18 rhino horns 19 months ago. On January 10, Upadhyaya sentenced some rhino poachers to five years in prison and imposed on him a fine of Rs 100,000. As per the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act, such poachers can be jailed for 15 years and made to pay a fine of Rs 100,000. Meanwhile, in their joint statement, the wildlife organizations have asked the government to probe again the reason for providing only minimum penalty. It said the controversial verdict is a setback on joint efforts to break the nexus of smugglers. The Himalayan Times daily reports
