THE CABINET HAS DECIDED TO OFFER A NUMBER of benefits, concessions and facilities for the persons who have been injured during the April's People's Movement II and their families. The cabinet has decided to give concessions in health treatment to the injured persons. "They will be provided with ID cards, which will entitle them for concessions in traveling. Likewise, the injured persons will get to compete among themselves for technician training, among others," Deputy Prime Minister Amik Sherchan said. The injured persons can enjoy 25 to 33 percent concessions in traveling. The cabinet meeting also decided to appoint Dolakh Bahadur Gurung, secretary at the Election Commission (EC) and Dr. Ayodhi Prasad Yadav, an assistant professor, as the two Election Commissioners. Their names had recently been approved by the Parliamentary Special Hearing Committee. Likewise, the cabinet meeting also decided to recruit 2000 additional policemen for the purpose of Constituent Assembly elections. It has also decided to form a security advisory committee.
THE ELECTION COMMISSION (EC) has completed training for the district electoral officers. The trained officers will now be dispatched to the districts to train their assistant officers. Such training will begin immediately in Terai region whereas in hills and mountains, the training will be conducted next week. The EC has also gathered 6.5 million forms for collecting voters' list. Meanwhile, speaking at the meeting of the State Affairs Committee (SAC) of the House of Representatives, on Thursday, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula said that the government has instructed Chief District Officers to take initiatives for reaching local political consensus in restoring police posts for the purpose of providing security during the forthcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) polls.
SAYING THAT UTILIZING FOREIGN ASSISTANCE and/or loans in the construction of hydropower projects had resulted in inordinate delays and difficult conditionalities, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is planning to release power bonds worth Rs 3 billion to raise domestic capital for the purpose. The power bonds will be offered to the public and institutions. For the time being, the NEA wants to use domestic resources to build Chameliya (30 MW); Kulekhani III (14 MW) and also in the ongoing Middle Marsyangdi (70 MW) projects. The NEA has signed an understanding with Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Limited to release the power bonds within March. According to NEA managing director Arjun Kumar Karki, the bonds will have the maturity period of 5 years; and 90 percent of them will be offered to banks, finance companies and insurance companies while 10 percent will be offered to general public. Karki said that the power bonds will have attractive interest rate – more than the rate offered by government bonds.
THE SUPREME COURT, on Wednesday (Jan 10), ordered the government to make clear the status of 446 persons arrested and detained by the royal government and of whom nothing is known now. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel and Justice Tahir Ali Ansari issued the order after a hearing. The bench ordered the authorities to inform it whether the 446 were released or not. The court is to be informed through the Office of the Attorney General. The court has not set any deadline for the government, though. The order was issued in response to writ petitions filed by human rights associations. The petitioners had sought the court order for the release of 446 people. Most of them were arrested and detained on the allegation of being Maoists' sympathizers.
INDIAN AMBASSADOR TO NEPAL Shiv Shankar Mukherjee said that the Indian government has trebled the quantum of financial assistance to the present government of Nepal in comparison to what it was given to previous government. Laying the foundation stone of the building of Bal Janata Higher Secondary School at Deukhuri of Dang district to be constructed with financial assistance of Rs 20 million from the Indian government, Mukherjee said, "The Indian government has hiked three-fold its assistance to the Nepal government formed after Jana Andolan II." He added that over 160 projects with Indian assistance are operating in 75 districts of Nepal . Leading dailies report
Incubator and Venture Capital Company Launched: The founding of Fortune Cookie Ventures Pvt Ltd was announced at the launch of CAN Infotech 2007 last week. Fortune Cookie Ventures Pvt Ltd is an international joint venture set up by successful ICT entrepreneurs in Nepal and Intelligent Capital LLC, a US-based international venture capital company. The goal of Fortune Cookie is to provide incubation and venture capital to deserving innovators with promising ideas in the ICT sector, and thus contribute to the overall development of ICT in Nepal . Fortune Cookie intends to invest up to Rs. 100 million in Nepal ’s ICT sector over the next 2 years through its activities. By creating successful ventures, Fortune Cookie would attract much needed foreign investment into the ICT sector. The promoters of Fortune Cookie are Sanjib Raj Bhandary (Mercantile), Bijay Krishna Shrestha (Beltronix), Navin Joshi (World Distribution), Dileep Agrawal (WorldLink), Rajesh Kumar Shakya (Hi-Tech Valley) and Deepesh Pradhan (Yomari).
THE GOVERNMENT HAS CANCELLED the public holiday on the occasion of National Unity Day on Poush 27 (January 11). The Home Ministry has issued a notice asking all government offices and diplomatic missions of Nepal in foreign countries, corporations and educational institutions to continue their daily works on the National Unity Day which is marked on the occasion of birth anniversary of King Prithvi Narayan Shah, the founder of modern Nepal .
