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HMG donates Rs 10 million for quake victims

Kathmandu, 31 January: The Nepal government announced a contribution of Rs10 million to help the quake victims in the Indian state of Gujarat. HMG also decided to despatch a team of 10 doctors to help survivors. The Nepal Red Cross Society has also sent a cheque of 2000 Swiss Francs (Rs 89600) to the Indian Red Cross Society through the Geneva based Federation of Cross to help victims. Some Nepalis working in Gujarat are reported dead. Nepalnews.com/br/at 

Nepal-India joint committee meeting concludes

Kathmandu, 31 January: The Nepal-India foreign secretary level joint committee meeting concluded in New Delhi Wednesday. According to the Royal Nepalese Embassy in New Delhi,
talks during the meeting were comprehensive and focused on trade, transit, border, water resources and the 1950 treaty. Foreign Secretary Narayan Sumsher Thapa led the Nepal team among whom were joint secretary at the Ministry Gyan Chandra Acharya, under secretary Rudra Kumar Nepal, and Royal Nepalese Ambassador to New Delhi Dr Bhek Bahadur Thapa. The Indian team was led by foreign secretary of IndiaLalitman Singh.

The joint committee at the foreign secretary level was formed during Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's official visit to India last year to solve all the pending issues between Nepal and India. The main responsibility of this committee is to seek out possibilities of reviewing the 1950 treaty between Nepal and India.  Nepalnews.com/yl/at

Bishwa Prakash Sharma elected NSU president 

Kathmandu, 31 January: The Eighth General Convention of Nepal Students Union (NSU), student wing of the ruling Nepali Congress concluded in Chitwan Wednesday after adopting programmes and policies for the next two years and electing new leadership. Bishwa Prakash Sharma was
elected president of the NSU and Yadav Pandit the new general secretary along with one vice president from each of the five development regions, secretary, treasurer and 12 members. The results of the election were announced Wednesday evening. 
A faction meanwhile boycotted the counting of the votes alleging that the election was rigged. However convener of the election committee Chandra Bhandari said that elections were completely free and fair. The convention was scheduled to end two days ago but only ended Wednesday because of disputes over voters list and membership distribution. Nepalnews.com/yl/at

Kathmandu, 31 January: The Election Commission has asked the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to extend the expired terms of Special Courts hearing complaints of four cases of election irregularities during parliamentary elections held last year, the Commission said here on Tuesday.

The Election Tribunal of the Appellate Court, Ilam was hearing a complaint filed by defeated Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Giriraj Parsai against Khadga Oli elected from a constituency in Jhapa on a Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) ticket. The same court was also hearing a complaint filed by defeated CPN-UML candidate Yukta Bhetwal against Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola elected on a NC ticket from another Jhapa constituency. Another special court in Butwal was considering a complaint filed by Dipak Bohara of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party against Duryodhan Chaudhary NC, while the case of Gopalji Jung Shah NC against Tirtha Gautam (UML) was being heard in Dang.

The Election Tribunal of the Appellate Court, Lalitpur overturned a result from Nuwakot and declared Dr Prakash Chandra Lohini (RPP) elected last year. Elections were held early last year to 205 seats in the House of Representatives. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Sweeping measures to save power

Kathmandu, 31 January: A government appointed task force has recommended sweeping measures to cut costs and increase revenue without increasing the present electricity tariff. "We oppose the condition of some donors to increase tariffs," a senior official earlier told Nepalnews.
The task force formed on 20 July submitted its report to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala Tuesday.

The task force recommended reducing electricity leakage from 30 to 25 percent to save Rs 180 million annually. Electricity surplus should be sold at discounted rates to increase revenue of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) from 2003 onwards, a recommendation said. The report suggested improvement and development in infrastructure to increase export to India while also recommending that the government co-operate with the NEA to recover dues from defaulting government offices, municipalities and village development committees. The NEA can save Rs 50 million every year if internal power consumption is reduced by 1.5 to 1 percent of present levels of consumption. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Girl trafficker arrested

Kathmandu, 31 January: Bhim Bahadur Basnet, an impostor who passed off as a policeman and suspected of trafficking more than 200 girls to brothels in India, has been arrested at Kakarvitta in east Nepal, police said. Basnet was nabbed after a long search by police and Maiti Nepal, an organisation fighting to prevent girls and women from being sold as well as helping those that have made it back to the Nepal. Police are still searching for two of Basnet’s accomplices who are at large. Basnet confessed to his crimes during police interrogation. Nepalnews.com/br/at

World Cup preliminaries shifted from Nepal

Kathmandu, 31 January: Nepal's most popular sport has suffered because of the continuing controversy between rival factions of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) that began last year. The venue of the preliminary matches of Group 6 of the World Cup scheduled to be held in the capital from 25-29 March has now been shifted to Kazakhastan due to the dispute in the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA). Nepal, Kazakhastan, Iraq and Macao are pooled together in this group. The matches will now be played in Kazakhastan 21-25 April.

"After knowing that we would not receive assistance from the National Sports Council and other concerned bodies, we were forced to write to FIFA to shift the matches to another venue," said Ganesh Thapa, chief of the FIFA recognised ANFA. The government has recognised the rival ANFA headed by Geeta Rana. Nepalnews.com/br/at

50th anniversary of USAID marked

Kathmandu, 30 January: King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya graced a function to mark the 50th anniversary of USAID in Nepal Tuesday evening. The royal couple viewed a photo exhibition of USAID activities in Nepal in the last five decades held at the residence of American Ambassador Ralph Frank. They later attended a reception hosted by the Ambassador to mark the occasion. The United States has been one of the major aid donors since the 1960’s and still continues its aid programme to Nepal. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Maoists hack one to death

Kathmandu, 30 January: Chandrabir Rokya, resident of Salyan district was abducted from his village and hacked to death by Maoists Saturday, according to reports. Maoist insurgents also abducted three persons from their homes in Saptari and Kalikot districts Monday and Saturday, police said. Nepalnews.com/br/at

PM expects early SAARC summit

Kathmandu, 30 January: The state owned Radio Nepal reported that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said he expects the stalled summit of the South Asia Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) soon after the restoration of peace and normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan. Koirala made the comment Tuesday in an interview with Indian newspaper Punjab Kesari, Radio Nepal said.

"Nepal is ready to host the postponed summit of SAARC. The summit could not be held because of differences between India and Pakistan. I am confident the obstacles will now be removed. Technical committee meetings of SAARC have been held and foreign ministers of the region are meeting soon," Koirala reportedly said.

India scuttled the SAARC summit that was to be held in Kathmandu 1998 following the military coup in Pakistan and is still opposed to the summit while agreeing to talk with Pakistan at the technical committee level of SAARC. Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the regional grouping. Nepalnews.com/br/at

ILO working to eliminate child labour

Kathmandu, 30 January: The International Labour Organization (ILO) is working with the government and others to eliminate child labour in Nepal in the next five years, an announcement here said. The ILO is holding consultation workshops in all five development regions to formulate a five-year time-bound programme to eliminate the menace. The second workshop for the mid-western region concluded Monday while the first one was held in Bhairahawa.

ILO has selected El Salvador in Latin America, Tanzania in Africa and Nepal in Asia, as the three countries to implement the pilot programme. An ILO convention to ban child labour came into force on November 2000. "We are seeking inputs from local authorities because they can contribute a lot in identifying the prevailing forms of child labour in the region," said Yadav Amatya, National Programme Manager for the Elimination of Child Labour. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Kathmandu, 30 January: The Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has asked the business community and the general public to donate in cash and kind generously to the quake victims in India. The Indian Embassy has also asked for donations to be routed through the Embassy or the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund in India.

Latest estimates say more than 100000 may have died in the quake that hit parts of India and Pakistan last week There is speculation that some Nepali nationals may also have died as many work in Gujarat state. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Kathmandu, 30 January: A fire gutted about 21 huts at Prithvichowk in the resort town of Pokhara and destroyed property worth nearly Rs six million Sunday night. No casualties have been reported. The fire allegedly started from a restaurant. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Kathmandu, 30 January: Maoist leader Comrade Prachanda said his underground party is ready for talks with the government to resolve the six-year-old communist insurgency. “Our party is ready for talks if the government meets minimum conditions to end the bloodshed,” Prachanda said in a statement issued Monday while opposing the ordinance to establish the Armed Police Force and the administrative changes that gives sweeping powers to five regional administrators. The rebel leader also asked all political forces to form a united front to oppose the government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Refugee verification to begin

Kathmandu, 30 January: The verification of Bhutanese refugees is to start in the third week of February. The Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team that met and inspected different refugee camps in Jhapa during the last four days decided to start on-the-spot verification. Nepal and Bhutan had agreed to form a joint team for the purpose in the tenth ministerial level talks. Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home is the chief of the Nepali team while Sonam Tenzing heads the Bhutanese team.

Bhutan claims that not all of the 100,000 living in different refugee camps of Jhapa and Morang in eastern Nepal are Bhutanese while Nepal maintains they are all genuine Bhutanese nationals who must be repatriated with dignity and honour. The refugees allege that they had to flee their homes to escape brutality of Bhutanese security personnel. Nepalnews.com/yl/at

Kathmandu, 29 January: The long winter officially ended Monday as devotees thronged the Goddess of learning Saraswoti's temples, toddlers were made to scribble their first alphabets and King Birendra listened to hymns by priests heralding spring at the Hanuman Dhoka Royal Palace.
The minimum temperature in Kathmandu still hovers at 5.5° Celsius while the northwestern district of Jumla went through -5.5° Celsius Sunday. However the government will only resume its summer schedule on 12 February. Nepalnews.com/br/at

Nepal-India foreign secretaries to meet

Kathmandu, 29 January: Foreign Secretary Narayan Shumshere Thapa left for New Delhi Monday as head of a three-member delegation to participate in talks with his Indian counterpart on bilateral matters. Other members of the delegation are senior officials of the Foreign Ministry Gyanendra Acharya and Rudra Nepal. The meeting will review the status of bilateral relations following Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's official visit to India six months ago. Nepalnews.com/br/at 

Nepali team off to Delhi

Kathmandu, 29 January: A high-level Nepali delegation headed by Foreign Secretary Narayan Shamsher Thapa left for New Delhi today to hold talks with Indian officials on the 1950 treaty and other pending issues. Other members of the team are joint secretary at the Ministry Gyan Chandra Acharya and under secretary Rudra Kumar Nepal. Foreign Secretary of India Lalitman Singh is to lead the Indian delegation. The Royal Nepalese Ambassador to India Dr Bhek Bahadur Thapa will also join the delegation.
The meeting of the Nepal-India joint committee at the foreign secretary level is being held in accordance with the agreement reached between Nepal and India during Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's visit to India last year. The joint committee comprising foreign secretaries of both countries was formed to discuss issues pertaining to the review of the 1950 treaty between Nepal and India. Nepalnews.com/br/yl/at