Palpa DDC to nab defaulters

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PALPA, April 12 : District Development Committee (DDC), Palpa, has announced of initiating legal actions against its employees and politicians failing to clear advances taken under various topics since last twelve years.

The DDC has recently developed a database of accounts to identify individuals, who were in beneficial posts under Panchayat system and have started corresponding with bad debtors - failing to settle ‘advance’ accounts, said Khadananda Chaulagain, Local Development Officer (LDO).

The committee has even constituted three-member task forces under the coordinatorship of a DDC member at village-level to evaluate the development projects and other activities for which the funds were released. "The sub-committee is also endowed with the responsibility to issue clean chit to debtor if the work has been completed with the proper utilisation of funds," he said.

Source at the committee, meanwhile, informed The Kathmandu Post that the task force has submitted already submitted reports on some of the projects launched then clearing its accounts. "However, in most of the areas, the committee yet to develop reports," said the official. According to him, ‘advance’ account worth Rs 11.34 million is yet to be settled in the district since the Panchayat regime.

Bad debtors in the various cases include political activists of Panchayat regime, representatives of larger political parties like Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Rastriya Prajatantra party, and former district development officials and local development officers.

Even the officials of Village Development Committees (VDCs) have taken an advance worth Rs 9.35 million from the DDC as of now. Likewise, the committee is yet to recover amount worth Rs 166 thousand local liquors factories under various headings.

Former LDO, Abdul Rais Khan, and district development employees are yet to settle advance account worth Rs 43,000, while VDCs are still to submit their expenditure report on how much and in which programmes they spend the block grant worth Rs 967 thousand.

Moreover, reports on utilisation of fund released in advance worth Rs 1.10 million for rural road construction, Rs 152 thousand for maintaining suspension bridge, Rs 26,500 for drought relief, Rs 6,000 for irrigation channel and Rs 358 thousand for flood relief are still to be submitted to the DDC.

Among others, advance accounts still to be settled include Rs 11,200 released to VDCs secretaries for various purposes, Rs 103 thousand for local construction works and Rs 1.05 million taken by various DDC officials for development works on personal guarantee.

Stock market slides over 1 pt

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KATHMANDU, April 12 : Stock trading at the country’s sole secondary market registered a decline this week when the country witnessed serious students protest against petro price hike. The decline in stock trading was marginal - 1.31 point in index terms.

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) that opened at 215.39 point on Monday slid to 214.08 point on Thursday, the closing day of the week, according to information issued by the Nepse. The decline in index this week follows a marginal recovery of 1.38 point recorded during last week.

Key groups enlisted at the Nepse registered a mixed performance during the week. While the commercial bank, manufacturing and finance group recorded a downfall in their shares trading, the hotel, insurance and the development bank group saw gain in their indices.

According to the Nepse, the commercial bank group, the largest group at the secondary market, recorded a decline in its index by 1.95 points, against the growth of almost 2 points registered in the last week. The index of the group dropped at 212.02 from 213.97 point during the week.

Indices of the manufacturing and finance group too landed to 247.22 point and 219.09 point respectively on Thursday against 247.77 point and 221.58 point recorded on Monday respectively. The manufacturing group index was maintained constant during the last week.

Indices of the hotel and the development bank group soared to settle at 206.28 point and 265.06 point respectively on the closing day of the week against their opening stand of 205.89 point and 264.71 point respectively. Last week index of the hotel group had remained constant, while index of the development bank group had slid by over 4 points.

During the week, the insurance group recorded a soar in its index to 256.08 point from 253.87 point. The group has seen rise in index the last week as well.

Meanwhile, indices of the trading and other group were maintained constant throughout the week at 89 point and 61.19 point respectively, as that of the last week.

As usual, the commercial bank group captured the largest chunk of stock trading carried out at the Nepse floor. Its trading comprised 61.85 per cent of the total stock trading. While the development bank group captured 6.92 per cent of the total stock trading followed by the insurance group at 5.89 per cent.

Likewise, the finance group captured 1.80 per cent. The hotel group and the manufacturing group comprised 1.05 per cent and 0.46 per cent respectively. No trading was recorded under the manufacturing group.

Standard Chartered Bank topped the list of largest traders in the monetary terms. Trading of the bank’s shares totalled to Rs 850,085 during the week. Likewise, Gorkha Finance recorded maximum shares transactions put at 360 during which a total of 6,500 shares of the company was traded.

During the four-day week, a total of 32,877 share units were traded at Rs 7.22 million through 1203 transactions, while the last week, 41,349 share units were traded at Rs 10.89 million from 1,471 transactions.

Rab Ren to produce bikes locally

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KATHMANDU, April 12 : Rab Ren International (RRI), authorised dealers of Yingang motorcycles, today announced of launching two models of bikes viz. YG 125-11 and YG 100-12 from its plant in Nepal shortly.

A company would establish the assembling plant in Damak, said Dhiren Tamang, Chief Manager of Avco International, further stating that the parts would be brought from a Chinese company, Chongqing Yingang Science and Technology.

"The assembly units is expected to arrive within 45 days and first lot of bikes will be launched before September and Dashain," he said. By two years, the company further aims to start manufacturing the mirrors, clutch wires, electrical wiring and other fast moving smaller parts in the country, stated Tamang.

Officials stated that 5-7 Chinese engineers would oversee the production and also train around 30 to 40 Nepali Technicians and engineers. Binod Aryal of the group said that the plant would produce some 10,000 bikes a year.

The RRI officials further claimed that the price of the locally produced bikes would come down as low as 15 to 20 per cent depending on the excise duty and customs on imported parts.

This was revealed during a promotional test drive for six models of Yingang bikes, held today by RRI, a member of the business house - Soi Group - including Avco-Hyundai and Cosmic Air, among others. The test drives are also to be held in Pokhara, Dharan, Biratnagar, Butwal, Narayanghat, Dhangadi and Mahendranagar.

The bikes are said to have a patented energy saving device, which the firm claims will save up to 20 percent fuel. The bikes are also said to have a dual clutch system.