UML-RPP forge alliance for NA polls

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KATHMANDU, June 17 - The main opposition CPN-UML has joined hands with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) for the seats in the National Assembly, the Upper House of Parliament during the upcoming elections.

During the filing of candidacy Sunday, the governing Nepali Congress (NC) fielded six candidates and one woman candidate for the single reserved seat for women. NC holding a majority in the Lower House is certain to get all the seven seats.

Maiya Devi Shrestha, who had made headlines donating her house to NC, is the only woman candidate for the one seat reserved for women.

CPN-UML with 69 members in the Lower House, has fielded three candidates. Even after getting their people elected they will have 12 surplus votes, which they have decided to support RPP to get their official candidate Lok Bahadur Thapa elected. RPP has 12 votes of their own but fall short of seven votes to get Thapa elected, which will now be propped by CPN-UML.

In return RPP has promised to support CPN-UML in the election to be held for the five seats in the five development regions.

"We have decided to help RPP in the election here, in return they will help our candidates in the development regions," said CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Each of the candidates need the support of at least 19 members from the Lower House to get elected.

CPN-UML which could have easily used its surplus 12 votes to support Leftist candidates like Santa Bahadur Nepali from the National People’s Front. Instead the party suprisingly decided to throw its weight behind RPP.

"We had to consider not just the election here but at the development regional level too where RPP is in better position to help than any other parties," Nepal said.

"All aspects have to be considered when it comes to an election. It is all about where we can gain most from," said Khadga Prasad Oli, CPN-UML’s second most powerful leader.

Besides the official candidate, RPP has one more member filing as a rebel candidate.

Jog Meher Shrestha, once powerful minister during the panchayati days, filed his candidacy but the party was quick to declare that he was not their official choice.

When asked RPP Chairman if the party was going to take action against Shrestha, he said anyone can contest the elections.

"It is election for all the 10 seats ... but there is only one official candidate," Thapa said.

Shrestha’s candidacy was proposed and seconded by four parliament members from RPP. Yet, he has no chance of winning, sources in the party say. This is Shrestha’s ploy to bargain for better position in the party or at least the party leadership’s endorsement for the next election and is likely to withdraw soon.

Candidates can withdraw their names till 3 pm Monday.

Industrialist Shanker Lal Kedia is the lone independent candidate. This is his third attempt to get himself elected into the National Assembly.

"The National Assembly is also for businessmen and professionals and I have been assured by all the parties that they would support me," Kedia said after filing the nominations.

The Elections is scheduled for June 27, when voting will be conducted at the parliament and the headquarters of five development regions.

Out of the 20 vacant seats, 11 will be elected by the 205 members of the House of Representatives, five will be chosen by the District Development Committee members from each of the development regions and four will be nominated by the King.

Every two years, a third of the total 60 members of the National Assembly, which is also known as the house of the elites, retire to be replaced by fresh members. The tenure of each of the members is six years. There are 10 members nominated by the King. NC has Ashok Koirala, Akkal Bahadur Bista, Deepak Bahadur Gurung, Bal Bahadur Rai, Radheshyam Adhikari and Ramjeevan Singh. And CPN-UML has Mahesh Mani Acharya, Laxmi Das Manandhar and Mahesh Mani Acharya Dixit as their candidates.

Palace security review underway

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KATHMANDU, June 17 – A high level task force has been set up to review the security arrangements within the Royal Palace, highly placed military sources said today.

The review has been commissioned to find the loopholes in security arrangements, which was made glaringly clear on the night of June 1 when a drunken then Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his entire family before shooting himself. Altogether 10 royalties died in the shootings, including late King Birendra.

Military sources said that the Royal Palace commissioned the security review. The former Principal Military Secretary of the Royal Palace, Lt. General Santa Kumar Malla is leading the review.

Lt. Gen. Malla’s mandate is to "review the security lapses" that fateful night. "The committee is supposed to review the present security system and modify it," an official said.

Lt. General Malla, who joined as an ADC to Late King Birendra when he was a Second Lieutenant, had retired from Palace services last year. His place was taken over by Military Secretary, General Bibek Shah.

The palace is guarded by a crack unit of soldiers who are entirely under the command of the Royal Palace. This consists of two battalions of Royal Security Military Police and a unit of ADCs. The Royal Nepal Army has no role in the palace security.

This fact was underscored by Army Chief General Prajwalla Shumsher Rana in his deposition given to the two-member investigation commission that probed the June 1 murders. According to the transcript of Gen. Rana’s deposition, the army "is not responsible" for the palace security.

"The ADCs inside the Royal Palace all go as young officers from the army just like the present senior officers there. They are all promoted from there itself…We have no hand in that," Gen. Rana told the Commission. "We select their names as per the criteria and regulations of the Royal Palace…Apart from that, we have no other hand."

When the Royalties do travel outside the Royal Palace, their security detail consists of two security personnel from the Royal Palace, army personnel and the police officers. In an interview given to the probe commission, Military Secretary General Bibek Shah had said that the Royal Family members could take away any weapons available in the Palace garrison.

"The weapons of the army or other security agencies in the palace remains in the garrison. The Royal family members can take any available weapons when necessary…Receipts are issued to those that are taken by the ADC but not by the Royal family members," he says. The weapons used by the then Crown Prince Dipendra in the shooting was also taken from the garrison.

House could convene on June 25

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KATHMANDU, June 17 – The budget session of parliament could begin on June 25 after all, according to high level cabinet sources. However, an official announcement to this effect could be made only after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

"These are uncommon times and we decided not to hold back on calling the session anymore," said a top level cabinet minister.

The cabinet had already decided calling the House on June 25 and had even forwarded the dates to His Late Majesty King Birendra last month. But before the monarch could make the announcement, he was slain in a palace massacre on the night of June 1.

According to regulations, at least 15-day notice is required to convene the House, but ministers today said that it could be called abruptly as well in "uncommon times," and in consultation with other political parties. "We have already spoken with other political parties and none of them have any problems," said another senior cabinet member. Last week, government sources had indicated that the session could be pushed back a little.

The coming session of parliament is crucial because of the budget announcement which has already been delayed by one month compared to last year. The new budget could be unveiled on the first or second week of July, said a minister.

Other issues waiting immediate parliamentary attention is the several unanswered questions into the killings of King Birendra and his family early this month.

Though most of the major political parties have been positive about the official investigation report into the killings, several others say they still have doubts and want parliament to debate how such a massacre could take place in the most well-guarded area of the country.

Another weighty issue that is coming up in this session is the fate of the royal ordinance on the Armed Police Force, along with two other ordinances on regional administrators and health. They were re-promulgated by King Birendra in April after the government failed to win parliamentary approval in the winter session. The House did not conduct any business in that session due to the opposition’s protest against Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala who was alleged of corruption in the Lauda Air scandal.

If those same ordinances are to continue to have force of law, then they will have to be approved by parliament within 60 days of the first day of the coming budget session. It is unclear what the role of the opposition, chiefly the main opposition CPN (UML), will be in this session.

UML leaders today indicated that their position remained unchanged from the last winter session. "We have put one condition that the captain of the ship (Prime Minister Koirala) has to step down, and if they do that then we are ready for any kind of talks and discussion (on parliamentary business)," said top UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari.

Several other important bills have remained pending in the House - namely bills on amending the Civil Code that purports to provide some sort of property and abortion rights to women, anti-corruption bills, etc - which could see the light of day in this session.

Katte-bahuns end up in their Valley residences

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LALITPUR, June 17 - Contrary to expectations, the katte-bahuns, who were sheltered at the Jawalakhel-based Kattepati for past few days, refused to be chased out of the Valley, Monday morning, and instead ended up at their residences right inside the Valley, feeling cheated and betrayed.

Durga Prasad Sapkota, 75, and Devi Prasad Acharya, 65, who drew public attention by consuming the forbidden meal ‘Katto’ on the 11th day rituals of the late Kings Birendra and Dipendra, were driven to their residences Sunday afternoon. By tradition, security personnel were supposed to escort the katte-bahuns to the end of the valley. But this time, they were forced into a police van and driven away from the temporary resident at Jawalakhel.

The duo were almost in tears when policemen took away the katte-bahuns in a van without a number plate today at 3.20 p.m. under tight security.

They complained to the journalists at their residence near Pashupatinath that the government did not fulfil the promises made during the Katto ceremonies.

"The hakims said that they would provide me with a house but that did not materialize. We were simply cheated," said Acharya.

Earlier, a dozen armed army personnel blocked reporters from talking with them and even taking photographs. They were originally scheduled to leave the Kathmandu Valley on Saturday.

"When King Mahendra passed away 30 years ago, the katte-bahun was taken on elephant to Thankot," a woman said, who was at Jawalakhel right from the morning to see the departure.

People at Jawalakhel watching the incident, said that both the priests did not appear satisfied with the donation they received for consuming the Katto meal. Quoting Acharya, a spectator said that Sapkota was given donations equivalent to Rs 2.1 million whereas Acharya had received Rs 600,000. "Dissatisfaction is the reason of their delay in departure," he said.

It has been a tradition that the one who partakes the Katto are also given "sufficient amount of cash", gold ornaments, silverwares, living room furnitures, cupboards with clothes, kitchen utensils and staple food enough to feed one family for a month or so. Local people say that by traditions these brahmins become social out-cast because the katto meals is supposed to be contaminated with some "unwanted material".

However, the brahmins themselves are not sure whether anything like that is practised today or not. Still, such a person is not allowed to conduct any religions rituals and thus is exiled from the Kathmandu Valley.

HM Queen's operation

KATHMANDU, June 17 (RSS) - Her Majesty Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah underwent operation for chest injury at the Birendra Military Hospital today.

Her Majesty’s health condition is satisfactory, according to doctors involved in the operation.

Her Majesty had been hit by two bullets in the left armpit in the tragic incident which took place at the Narayanhity Royal Palace on June 1.

One of the bullet had hit Her Majesty on the left armpit causing a big wound on the other side(chest) while the second bullet had fractured four ribs and caused five wounds in the left lung and come out from the chest, according to the doctors.

Earlier an emergency operation had been performed on Her Majesty on June 1 to check the massive bleeding taking place.

The wound in Her Majesty’s chest from where the bullet had come out had been kept open for necessary treatment.

The wound caused in the chest was stitched under the operation performed today.

This is stated in a notice issued here today by the Principal Press Secretariat of His Majesty the King.

Entertainment industry begins slow recovery

By Bunu Dhungana

KATHMANDU, June 17 - Movie theatres opened its doors and commercial radio stations began to air normal programs today after over two weeks of closure.

The half dozen or so FM radio stations in the capital that had been broadcasting religious hymns and patriotic songs have begun to air melodious popular numbers again.

This is perhaps a slow transition before blaring their usual rock numbers. For the past 15 days, these FM stations have been airing nothing but mourning music.

Hem Subedi, a Kantipur FM radio jockey, said that until next week Kantipur FM will not be entertaining audience with their regular programs, like taking phone calls from audiences, and will be mostly playing soft songs only.

Immediately after the June 1 slaying of King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other members of the royal family, a ban was imposed on entertainment sector for 13 days by the government.

These stations which are already competing neck to neck with each other for the limited advertisement not only lost much of their audiences but also hundreds of thousands of rupees in revenues.

Some popular stations lost as much as Rs. 1 million over the two-week period.

"FM stations had to face loss of lakhs of rupees. But lost business is just one aspect when the whole country was mourning over the loss of the Royal Family," says Bharat Shakya of KATH 97.9. "At a time when the whole nation is in deep sorrow money does not matter."

It will be at least another week, before these stations will begin their normal rucus aired for its listeners.

Even the cable television operators have begun to relay entertainment channels. During the two weeks, they had only news programs like CNN, BBC and Star News and later added documentary channels like National Geographic for the viewers relief.

Now, normal programs like HBO, MTV are on to the relief of thousands of views who despite having had to stay home over the mourning period had been deprived of their favourite channels.

"Now I can watch Kyon Ki Saas Bhi Bhahu Thi," said Menuka Majgaya, a 30-year-old house wife from Bagdole. She is happy to be finally able to watch one of her favourite serials which she missed for past 2 weeks. This Hindi serial is one of the most popular soap on air these days.

"I was just tired of watching news," says 22-year-old Bimisha Bhattarai from Baneshwor. "For first few days I did not want to watch entertainment programs as our nation had been through the worst tragedy. But later it was just too much."

But, there were some relief for the people in forms of home videos. "During the mourning period people rented video cassettes and VCD’s at least 4-5 times compared to normal days as all the entertainment channels were blocked," says Kiran Shakya of Suwal Video, New Road.

While the shopkeeper of Tik ‘n Tok New Road, Sunil Ratna Tuladhar says that the sales of music cassettes has really slumped for the past 10-15 days. "I guess people were not in the frame of mind to listen to music after the terrible incident," he added.

For the movie theatres, though they opened up screening commercial Hindi and Nepali films, business is still to pick-up again.

The cinema halls were comparatively less crowded compared to the usual days. Nabin Acharya, the General Manager of Gopi Krishna Hall said that they had to face a loss of nearly Rs. 2 million in the past 15 days.

It appeared like it would be few more days before their audiences would return back to the theatre to view their favourite stars dancing across the silver screens.

RNAC to take wary step in next Lauda deal

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KATHMANDU, June 17 – The new Board of Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) will approach the forthcoming negotiations with Lauda Air (Austria) "with an open mind to discuss all the possibilities", said a high-ranking civil aviation ministry official today.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post on condition of anonymity, the official from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) said, "In a day or two, the Board will decide the line of action that will be pursued in the Lauda deal. There are so many options before us."

The negotiations, despite the correspondence between the RNAC and Lauda Air could not take place due to the closure because of the Royal massacre and also because the government had not decided on the new Board.

The newly-constituted Board has RNAC Executive Chairman Rajesh Raj Dali, members Rameshwar Khanal from the Ministry of Finance, Yagya Prasad Gautam from MoCTCA and Medini Prasad Sharma, the Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). The last two are the newly-inducted members in the Board that is chaired by the RNAC chief. The new members were inducted last Wednesday.

The discarded previous Board members are Tirthalal Shrestha, Siddharaj Joshi and Gaurinath Sharma. The axed trio is among the 10 charged of corruption in the RNAC-Lauda Air jet lease deal. The case is now in the Patan Appellate Court.

The negotiations with Lauda Air is expected to begin as soon as the Board decides the next course of action and the team that will go outside the country and meet the Lauda Air officials.

When asked if scrapping of the deal with mutual agreement was one of the options, the official said, "I cannot comment on that. But we will certainly do something that is beneficial to the Corporation." There were reports that Lauda Air was negotiating with a British firm for the re-leasing of the B-767 wide-body jet leased to RNAC.

The Lauda Air withdrew its jet from the service of the RNAC on May —, asking the Corporation to first clear the advance monthly payment of June as per the agreement. The jet was taken to Bangkok on May — after it developed some problems in its pressurization system. Instead of bringing the plane back to Kathmandu, the Lauda Air wrote a letter to the RNAC about the payment that was due with the RNAC.

MP Subedi’s arrest confirmed

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KATHMANDU, June 17- Police sources at the Mahendra Police Club today confirmed that Nawaraj Subedi, an MP and the General Secretary of National People’s Front (Rastriya Jan Morcha) has been arrested.

Subedi along with four of his comrades were arrested on Saturday from Bhotahity where the party was holding a mass meeting to discuss on the current issues facing the country. Over fifty party cadres had hardly converged at the venue of the meeting, from where five activists along with Subedi, were arrested.

Subedi said the arrest of the party cadres from the venue of a peaceful meeting was unjustifiable. "I would like to ask the government this question: why have we been arrested without issuing a prior notice. We have not violated any rules."

Locals initiate actions to lay-off refugee teachers

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MORANG, June 17 - Local youths of three different Village Development Committees (VDC) here have started to chase away Bhutanese refugees and other aliens working as teachers in private and boarding schools in this eastern Terai district.

These youths are pressurising the management of all 18 private and boarding schools of three VDCs — Sanischare, Pathari and Hrisandaha — to lay off 54 teachers who are either Bhutanese refugees or aliens. These youths have even formed a Movement Coordination Committee (MCC) to intensify the lay-off of such teachers.

Coordinator of the Committee Ashok Rai says that such movement was initiated to give room for the local educated youths. "The refugees who are protected by various organistions and even from various trusts of government are employed. But we, inspite of our education, are unemployed," says Rai. He says that such refugees and other non-Nepalis would be chased away from such jobs which will be replaced by Nepali educated youths.

Rai says that the private schools are warned to lay off such refugee teachers by one and half month, provided if they fail to do, other necessary steps would be taken.

The youths have also sought the help of VDC, police and other local administration to remove such refugee teachers from private schools. The principals of such private and boarding schools have been saying that there would be practical difficulties to lay off such teachers, but the locals are adamant that they would chase them away at any cost.

The Bhutanese refugees are ready to take to streets if they are laid off from their jobs, while the locals claim that the local administration should not allow the refugees to walk out of the refugees camp for employment.

"Even we will be forced to take to streets if the administration don’t stop the refugees going out of the camp for employment," says locals. According to them, the local job market is filled with such refugees who work at very cheaper wages.

UML's demand for PM's resignation still on

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KATHMANDU, June 17 - The main opposition party CPN-UML which reportedly was in a mood to call a Special Session of the Parliament in order to discuss the high level committee report made public by the two-member committee over the Naryanhity Royal Palace carnage only a few days ago, now seems to have changed its mind.

"It was never publicly said by our party that we will be calling a Special Session of the Parliament and I don’t know how the press got to know that we were thinking about it," said Bharat Mohan Adhikary, former Finance Minister and a prominent party leader.

Kantipur daily, a sister publication of this paper on June 14, quoting another prominent leader of the party had printed that the party was "thinking seriously to call a Special Session of the Parliament to discuss over the probe committee’s report".

Adhikary added that the party was studying the report in detail and that many things would be discussed in the forthcoming Budget Session of the Parliament.

At the same time the party is still holding on to its demand that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala should step down before the UML holds any official talks or discussions with the present Government. In fact the Royal carnage of June 1, it seems, has given the UML another strong reason apart from the infamous Lauda Air Scandal to ask the "tainted" Prime Minister to step down.

In its statement over the probe committee report, the party had lashed out at the "incompetence" of the Government. It had also mentioned that the attitude of the Government (that it was not ready to take responsibility of the incident) was very grave and dangerous for the democratic system.

"Keeping the terrible state of the country in mind we even suspended our protest program," said Adhikary. All we are asking from the Government is that the tainted captain of the ship (Girija Prasad Koirala) should step down. If that is done then our party is ready to help the government gain confidence of the people and deliver to the people which all the governments have failed in the last 11 years, he added.

When asked if the party would even go to the extent of disrupting the upcoming Budget Session of the Parliament like the previous one if the Prime Minister did not step down, Adhikary said, "We are expecting that he will resign soon and as long as we are expectant we won’t say anything." First let the Budget Session be called, then we will see, he added.