Furore in House over Army Chief's remarks

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar. 29: Opposition parties today boycotted the meeting of the House of Representatives demanding clarification from the Prime Minister regarding the remarks made by Chief of Army Staff General Prajwalla Shumsher JB Rana.

Strongly objecting to the statement of the army chief, they said they would continue to boycott the House proceedings until Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who also holds the Defense portfolio, made clarifications about Rana’s remarks.

Army chief Rana had blamed the political parties and their leaders for the country's sorry state of affairs. Rana had made the remarks while speaking at a graduation ceremony of the Royal Nepal Army’s Command and Staff College at Shivapuri on March 27.

Leader of the Main Opposition, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), and general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said that his party had taken Rana’s statement seriously. "This has made us anxious," said Nepal adding, "Every individual and institution has its limitation. The statement is a ‘bad omen’."

The issue raised by the army chief may be right, but it is not he who should raise it, Nepal said.

Premier Deuba, who is also the Defence Minister, is responsible for the remarks, said Nepal and demanded that he immediately furnish replies in this regard.

Nepal further said that it was not the time to raise conflicts and misunderstandings when the country was passing through an array of crises. "This is a critical hour to be united to root out the Maoist terrorists. By accusing each other, the situation will only worsen.

It is the duty of all to boost the morale of the security personnel who are fighting the terrorists by putting their lives at risk, he said and added, "The CPN-UML always supports the army's action against the terrorists."

Denying the charges made by Rana that the political parties and workers were not supporting the military operations against the terrorists, UML General Secretary Nepal said that hundreds of political cadres had lost their lives in the fight against terror.

He informed that over 100 Nepali Congress workers and about 50 UML cadres had been killed by the Maoists. Likewise, the Maoist terrorists have killed functionaries from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, the United Peoples’ Front and the National People’s Front, among others, he said.

Nepal also demanded that the Maoists withdraw their 5-day Nepal Bandha programme saying it would jeopardise the future of millions of students.

RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa said that the remarks of the army chief had invited problems that could only worsen the situation. Thapa said that there were certain procedures and forums to express one’s grievances.

"Everybody should be concerned not to allow the already-serious situation to deteriorate further," Thapa said and added that prudence was necessary to face the current situation.

He also demanded that the PM immediately clarify on the issue and determine whether the remarks were right or wrong.

Similarly, lawmaker and leader of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party Badri Prasad Mandal said that discipline had been utterly violated in the country.

Chitra Bahadur KC of Rastriya Janamorcha Nepal said it was high time all parties united to safeguard the achievements of the popular movement of 2046 BS. He said that although the statement of the army chief was not wrong, he was not the person to be making such remarks.

Lilamani Pokharel of the United People’s Front and Narayan Man Bijukchhe also objected to the remarks of the army chief.

ADB aid to depend on performance: Vokes

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar. 29: Nepal’s foreign aid policy is not bad. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) fully supports it, said Richard Vokes, Nepal Country Director of ADB.

Vokes made the remark at a press conference organised here today to disseminate information regarding the consultations held by the annual Country Programming Mission of ADB with the government, private sector organisations, NGOs and Nepal’s other development partners. The Mission was on a visit to Nepal from 18 to 29 March 2002, to have consultations with various agencies and agree upon and prioritise support for the period of 2003-2005.

"The consultations focussed on ensuring that the proposed programme is consistent with the government’s own development strategy and policies set out in the documents at the recent meeting of Nepal Development Forum," Vokes told the press meet.

According to Vokes, ADB has reached an agreement with the government to launch 13 loan projects totaling US$ 300 million for the period 2003-2005.

The proposed projects will be supporting agriculture and rural development, water supply and sanitation, delivery of rural financial services, empowerment of women, sub-regional roads connection, and promotion of technical and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) education. A non-lending technical assistance programme consisting of 24 TAs totaling on average of about US$ 4 million per annum is also included in the proposed 2003-2005 programme of assistance.

Vokes informed that the grant-financed technical assistance programme will largely focus on capacity building of Nepal’s key institutions, sector reviews and project preparation.

He expressed the view that despite significant progress in many areas over the last decade, progress has fallen short of people’s expectations. He further said that there was a widespread perception that the fruits of development have been concentrated among better-off groups and regions, thereby worsening inequality. "Nepal’s development efforts have also been undermined by poor governance and corruption," he said.

He further said that Nepal is currently facing ‘formidable’ political and economic difficulties. "The recent upsurge in the insurgency, a sharply deteriorating economy, and a growing fiscal crisis, severely constrain efforts to address Nepal’s key challenge of widespread poverty," he said.

"Efforts to restore law and order need to go hand-in-hand with renewed endeavours to strengthen development activities, especially at the grassroots level and in remote areas," he suggested.

He stated that the level of future ADB support to Nepal would depend upon country performance against a set of criteria in the areas of microeconomic management, sector policy reforms, and utilisation of existing assistance as per ADB’s Performance-Based Allocation Policy. "Our current assessment of performance places Nepal in a base case scenario, which makes it eligible for a lending level of US$ 90-100 million per annum from ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund," he said.

He also said that considering the security situation and the country’s fiscal problems, which could affect the availability of counterpart funds, flexibility in implementing the proposed programme would clearly be needed.

He, however, welcomed the government’s initiatives to form a high level judicial commission to probe into illegally owned property and to strengthen the Commission for Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA). "Nepal’s reforms are now substantial in many respects. A mixed picture has started to be seen. Policies and programmes are good but the implementation aspect is still weak," he said.

He said that while the government has initiated reform measures in a number of areas, including agriculture, power, governance, and financial sectors, much more needs to be done to deepen and sustain them to ensure the anticipated impact on the economy and poverty reduction.

"The government needs to continue to redefine its role in the economy to focus on providing the appropriate legal and regulatory framework within which a competitive private sector can grow," he said. He also emphasized the need for aggressively priorising government expenditure, improving the delivery of basic services and strengthening accountability and transparency.

Minimise cost of oral health services, says Bhattarai

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar. 29: Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai formally launched the National Oral Health Awareness Programme (NOHAP) amidst a function here today.

A private sector initiative, the Programme aims at making people aware of oral health to prevent dental and oral ailments and also extending oral health services to people at the grassroots level.

To achieve its aim, NOHAP has been distributing posters to the public, toothbrush and toothpaste to children in government schools, providing oral health training to school teachers, running free dental camps, and conducting surveys to collect data on oral health for the last four years.

"It’s necessary to minimise the cost of dental health services to ensure poor people’s access to them," Nepali Congress leader Bhattarai told the inaugural session of the Programme.

Besides, Bhattarai stressed on the need to make children aware of oral health during their school days to improve oral health in the country. "The regular health check-up programmes in the schools can be very effective in improving the national health scenario."

Minister for Health Sharat Singh Bhandari said the government alone would be unable to provide the necessary health services to the public and emphasised government--private sector partnership to expand health services in the country. "The government wants to go hand in hand with the private sector and the civil society to expand health services to the remote areas."

Minister Bhandari said the government had set up the Focal Point of Non Communicable Diseases to increase awareness about non-communicable diseases at the grassroots level. "It’s working actively; we need to think of ways to make it sustainable."

Calling for positive approaches to increase health awareness in people, Bhandari said the government would declare March 29 as National Oral Health Day as proposed by NOHAP. He said the government had received positively NOHAP’s demand for a ban of tobacco related advertisements in the print media.

World Health Organisation Representative Klaus Wagner said oral health problems were widespread in Nepal and lauded NOHAP’s endeavour.

Earlier NOHAP Chairman Dr. Sushil Koirala said the Programme had been launched to push ahead with health awareness programmes in an integrated way. He also submitted two separate proposals to Minister Bhandari to declare March 29 as National Oral Health Day and put a ban on tobacco related advertisements in the print media as it has been done in the electronic media.

Koirala announced that NOHAP would give National Oral Health Awareness Awards to selected domestic or foreign oral health professionals beginning next year. He, however, did not specify the details of the awards.

Pledge to empower local bodies not fulfilled: ADDCN

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar. 29:When the Nepal Development Forum (NDF) meet in 2002 was in full swing the government had made several pledges to the donor agencies. Among them was the empowerment of the local bodies. However, nothing has been done so far in this regard, said ADDCN (Association of District Development Committee of Nepal) officals here today.

Even after the enactment of the Local Self-Governance Act -2049, the local bodies are still grappling with a number of constraints in order to speed up the development process. Besides this, the local bodies are not economically independent and they have not been provided with adequate resources, said President of ADDCN Kirshna Prasad Sapkota.

Talking to the press here today, Sapkota said that the government should be more liberal in devolving authority to the local bodies. The overall development of the country is not possible unless the local bodies are made more autonomous, he noted.

The contribution of the local bodies to the total budget of the nation is over eight per cent. However, less than 3.6 per cent of the budget has been allocated to the local bodies in the current fiscal year.

On top of that the government has not given the authority to the local bodies to levy taxes. "In fact we are entangled a sea of problems," Sapkota said.

There are 23 Acts that still contradict with the Local Self-Governance Act–2049.

"The government should not let this situation to continue,' Sapkota, who is also the District Development Committee (DDC) president of Kavrepalanchok, said.

According to Sapkota, the government has downsized the volume of the DDC budget by 23 per cent and VDC budget by 50 per cent. This has triggered a lot of complications for of the local level government, he said.

Issuing a press statement, ADDCN has pointed out the need to make some changes in the Constitution with regard to the local bodies.

ADDCN has stressed the need to introduce direct election while forming the DDC body. Apart from this, ADDCN has demanded that the government set aside a certain number of seats for the backward society if the Constitution is to be amended.

'NRB intervened in forex market due to low liquidily'

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar. 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stated that there has been a deceleration in broad money and acceleration in narrow money during the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2001-2002.

Interest rates on treasury bills and interbank transactions in the money market increased while further squeeze was observed in the security market transactions.

In view of the lower liquidity position of the foreign currency with the commercial banks, Nepal Rastra Bank intervened in the foreign exchange market by injecting foreign currency equivalent to 980 million rupees, according to NRB.

In spite of the continued rise in regular expenditure, growth of total government expenditure slowed down to 6.1 per cent this year compared to 19.2 per cent last year, owing to the sharp decline in development expenditure.

As the growth of government expenditure was highter than that of resources, budgetary deficit expanded during the review period. The inflation rate, on a point to point basis, recorded at 3.2 per cent this year compared to a lower growth of 1.8 per cent last year.

This was primarily due to a rise in the prices of food and beverages group. In the external front, respective declines of 6.8 per cent and 9.3 per cent were noticed in both exports and imports.

However, the larger base of imports and slower decline of exports than that of imports narrowed down the trade deficit by 11.7 per cent.

Due to a deficit in the balance of payments, foreign exchange holdings of the banking system declined by 3.5 per cent from the last year's level. However, this was enough to finance the merchandise imports of almost one year and goods and services imports of 10 months.

During the review period broad money grew at a slower rate of 3 per cent (Fis. 7.12 billion) to Rs 221.78 billion while it had recorded a growth of 8.1 per cent during the same period last year. This decline is attributed mainly to a decline of 5.3 per cent in net foreign assets. However, narrow money grew by 7.9 per cent (Rs 5.60 billion) during the review period from a lower growth of 7.3 per cent during the same period last year, due mainly to a sharp deceleration in time deposits.

A slower growth of 4.2 per cent was noticed in domestic credit of the banking system in the review period as compared to a growth of 9.1 per cent during the same period last year. Deceleration in credit flow to the private sector and decline of 13.6 per cent in claims on non-financial public enterprises were the main reasons for this slow growth. The flow of bank credit to the private sector grew by 5 per cent (Fis 6.3 billion) only during the review period compared to an increase of 10.4 per cent during the same period last year.

Decline in both exports and imports along with slackness in overall economic activities led to the deceleration in private sector credit.

The share market further shrank during the review month. NEPSE index registered a sharp decline of 19.9 points to 236.0 and market capitalisation of the listed companies at Nepal Stock Exchange came down to Rs 35.2 billion, recording a steep decline of 8.4 per cent from the previous month. This was primarily because of slackness in overall economic activities caused by security problem and external shocks, accroding to NRB.

Government expenditure on cash basis recorded a slower growth of 6.1 per cent ouring the review period to Rs. 34.66 billion compared to a rise of 19.2 per cent in the same period last year. Of this, regular expenditure rose by 11.1 per cent to Rs. 25.26 billion in comparison to 24.4 per cent last year while development expenditure during this period declined by 11.6 per cent to Rs. 7.92 billion in contrast to the rise of 9.3 per cent in the same period last year.

The reason behind this was curtailment of development expenditure due to sluggish revenue collection and an increase in regular expenditure caused by internal security problem. During the review period, government resources rose by 5.9 per cent only to Rs. 28.35 billion as compared to a rise of 19.7 per cent last year. Of this, revenue collection recorded lower growth of 4.1 per cent compared to a growth of 18.4 per cent last year.

This was mainly attributed to the decline in import, and slackness in the industrial, tourism and development activities.

However, foreign cash grant and non-bugetary receipts increased sharply by 47.3 per cent and 34.6 per cent to Rs 2.25 billion and Rs. 943 million respectively.

As a result of the slow growth in total government resources compared to that of expenditure, budgetary deficit rose further by 6.6 per cent to Rs 6.31 billion this year compared to an increase of 17 per cent last year. In order to meet the deficit the government mobilised foreign cash loan of Rs 2.43 billion and issued treasury bills worth Rs 1.5 billion, Citizen Saving Certificates of Rs 418 million and development bond of Rs 1.09 billion. Moreover, overdraft facility of Rs. 937 million was used by the government.

The inflation rate, on a point to point basis, registered at 3.2 per cent during this period compared to a lower rate of 1.8 per cent last year.

A rise in the price of food and beverages group pushed up the rate of inflation to this higher level. Of the overall index, price index of food and beverages group rose by 4.1 per cent mainly due to the sharp rise of 9.1 per cent in the prices of vegetables and fruits in contrast to the decline of 2.5 per cent last year, while non-food and services index slowed down to 2.3 per cent during review period from 6.8 per cent last year.

This was minly owing to a decline of 1.7 per cent in the price index for education and recreatior. On a regional basis, price index for Terai recorded higher growth of 4.6 per cent, wheras that for Kathmandu and Hills registered lower growth (1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively).

On the external sector, exports declined by 6.8 per cent and amounted to Rs 30.67 billion during the review period in contrary to a sharp rise of 22.3 per cent during the same period of the preceding year.

Of this, export to third countries recorded a sharp decline of 37.3 per cent whereas that to India accelerated by 31.4 per cent.

Decline in total exports was due to a steep fall in major exports to third countries like readymade garments (38.8 per cent), woolen carpet (23.1 per cent) and pashmina (74.6 per cent). Higher exports of vegetable ghee, jute goods, copper wire, noodles, large cordamom, plastic goods, polyster yarn, paper and pulses to India resulted in an acceleration of total exports to India.

During the reivew period, imports from India declined marginally by 0.7 per cent whereas imports from third countries went down steeply by 14 per cent. As a result, total imports also declined by 9.3 per cent amounting to Rs 60.86 billion in contrast to 8.4 per cent growth in the same period last year.

This was mainly attributable to the decline in the import of textile, thread, rice, transportation goods and spare parts, chemicaals, cement, paper, agri-equipments, chemical fertilizer and other machinery and parts from India and gold and silver, edible oil, raw wool and silk, thread video, TV, transport and communication equipments, and other machinery and parts from third countries.

In spite of the decline in both exports and imports, the larger import base and slower decline of exports in comparison to that of imports further narrowed down the trade deficit by 11.7 per cent to Rs. 30.19 billion during the review period compared to a small decline of 2.3 per cent in same period last year, the NRB press statement says.

Based on the available balance of payments statistics for the first five months of the current fiscal year, a steep decline of 58.8 per cent in services net resulted in a substantial increase in the current account deficit of about Rs. 5 billion, despite sharp increase of 23.7 per cent in transfer net. Lower inflow of both official capital net and miscellaneous capital net could not meet the current account deficit.

As a result, overall balance of payments remained negative by almost one billion rupees from the surplus level of Rs. 5.22 billion in the same period last year.

Consequently, foreign exchange holdings of the banking system declined by 3.5 per cent to Rs. 102.26 billion as at mid-February 2002 compared to the same period last year and this has declined by 2.8 per cent from the level of mid-July 2001. Of the total reserves, the share of convertible currencies stood at 73.8 per cent, while that of non-convertible currency was 26.2 per cent.

Discharge duties without fear: Upadhyaya

Kathmandu, Mar. 29 (RSS): Chief Justice and chairman of the Judicial Council Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya has stressed the need for the judges to discharge their duties by being service and people-oriented.

Inaugurating the second phase training programme of the judges of the district courts organised by the Judicial Council secretariat here today, Chief Justice Upadhyaya said as it is the duty of the judges to carry out their works in accordance with the wishes of the people, the judges should dedicate themselves to studies and discharge their duties without any fear.

Secretary of the Judicial Council Kashiraj Dahal said that the Judicial Council is committed enliven independent and efficient judicial system as well as maintaining the independence and discipline of the judiciary.

The three-day training programme is being participated in by judges from 43 districts.

During the three-day training of district court judges, Chief Justice Upadhyaya, Supreme Court Justices Laxman Prasad Aryal, Kedarnath Upadhyaya, Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, Govinda Bahadur Shrestha, Hari Prasad Sharma and Min Bahadur Rayamajhi will present working papers on "Judicial Discipline," "Children Justice Administration," "Court Management and Bar Bench Relations," "Contractual and Institutional Responsibility," "Orders and Decisions in Connection with Cases," "Implementation of the Decisions of the Mediator" and "Criminal Justice: Statement, Oral Statement and Suggestion of Experts" respectively.

Students, parents demand withdrawal of Nepal bandh

Kathmandu, Mar. 29 (RSS): Major student organisation leaders of the country have said that the so called Nepal Bandh is frivolous and an anti-national act on the part of the Maoist terrorists as it has affected the SLC examinations to be taken by hundreds of thousands of students.

Talking to RSS, the student leaders called on the Maoists to withdraw the Nepal bandh and not violate the inherent right of students who have put in years of hard work.

It is anarchic and impractical on the part of the Maoists to call a bandh at a sensitive moment like the SLC examination which is the last link in school level education, they said.

Rajendra Rai of ANNFSU said it is objectionable and anti-guardian on the part of those who think that they are working for the people to call the bandh on the eve of the examination.

It seems frivolous of them to call the bandh even though there were other options.

General secretary of NSU Yadav Pandit said it is a grave crime against the nation to disturb the SLC examination.

He also called on transport entrepreneurs, security personnel and parents to exert pressure for the sake of the examinations.

General secretary of ANNFSU sixth Krishna Sharma said this act of the Maoists has pushed the country towards regression.

Vice chairman of ANNFSU 2022 Jiwan Gautam said the students should not be the victims of political dispute.

Acting president of the national democratic students organisation Bhim Bahadur Bista urged the Maoists not to prevent the students from sitting for the examinations.

The Parents' Association Nepal central committee also today made an earnest appeal to the concerned body to withdraw the Nepal bandh call to let the forthcoming SLC examinations take place smoothly.

A press release issued by the committee stated that as the bandh call coinciding with the SLC exams may affect students both mentally as well as physically, it is the duty of all Nepali citizens, including political parties, intellectuals, mediapersons, parents, teachers and human rights activists to create an atmosphere under which the students can sit for the exams.

Meanwhile, in Sindhuli, the two School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination centres origionally located at Bhiman of Kamalamai Municipality have been relocated to Sindhuli campus at the district headquarters due to security reasons.

A meeting of the district SLC coordination committee held at the district education office Wednesday decided to move the SLC centre which was earlier located at Jana Jagriti Secondary School at Bhiman to the district headquarters, according to district education officer Bishnu Dev Shaha.

Some 469 regular candidates from l0 secondary schools of the eastern part of the district will sit for their examinations from the Sindhuli Campus SLC centre.

Altogether l0 SLC exam centres have been allocated for the district headquarters for this year's SLC examinations. A total of 2,142 candidates from 49 secondary schools across the district will write their SLC examinations at these centres.

NA proceedings stalled over Army Chief's statement

Kathmandu, Mar. 29 (RSS): Regular proceedings could not move ahead at the meeting of the National Assembly today as the opposition parties boycotted the house. They said the House should not take up its regular business until the Prime Minister, who is also handling the Defence portfolio, gives a clear explanation regarding the remarks expressed at a programme last Wednesday by the Chief of Army Staff.

MPs from the ruling and opposition benches, seeking time from chairman Dr. Mohammad Mohsin at the outset of the meeting of the National Assembly today, argued that the views expressed by the army chief under the present circumstances have raised serious questions and wondered whether he could express such remarks. They demanded that the Prime Minister clarify the matter to the House, otherwise the House proceedings would not be allowed to move ahead.

CPN-UML's Surendra Pandey complained, "Neither directives have been issued to regulate the state of emergency nor the Prime Minister himself has lived up to his promises. And on top of it all come the army chief's remarks that save for the Prime Minister and some ministers, others, including the political parties, are not cooperating in the state of emergency." Terming all these developments as serious matters, he guestioned how can the proceedings go ahead without the Prime Minister first informing the House on these pertinent issues?

Balaram Gharti Magar of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) blamed the Chief of Army Staff for creating another confusion in the country by his controversial remarks at a time when incidents of killings and violence were increasing by the day.

He said the House proceedings should not be conducted unless the Prime Minister explains why such a situation has come about and why the army chief had to make such objectionable remarks.

CPN-UML's Bachaspati Devkota said in spite of the Royal Nepal Army being an organisation which is responsible for protecting national sovereignty and ensuring the security of the people, it does not bode well for the Chief of Army Staff to engage in accusations and counter-accusations like a political leader.

He said the Chief of Army Staff's remarks that the state of emergency was an outcome of bad-governance, that the army was not getting the required cooperation and the remark that only some ministers have cooperated with the army were an oblique diatribe against the present dispensation.

Sukra Raj Sharma of the Nepali Congress opined that the statement given by the Chief of Army Staff on March 27 posed a serious question mark on the 12 year old parliamentary system itself.

CPN-UML's Kashinath Adhikari accused the army chief of making unnecessary accusations through his remarks that the people's representatives have not cooperated with the army. The people's representatives have endorsed the state of emergency and fully cooperated with the army, he said.

Ganga Datta Joshi of the Nepali Congress said that the country should not be unnecessarily burdened with more problems under the present situation, and called for a debate on the issues raised in the Chief of Army Staff's statement.

CPN-UML's Urba Datta Pant pointed out that house proceedings should not be allowed unless the Prime Minister allays the suspicions raised by the controversial remarks the Chief of Army Staff.

Ram Chandra Bhattarai of the same party said that although the army has been mobilised by clamping a state of emergency, the state of emergency itself has been in crisis and its motives have come under question.

Lal Bahadur Bishwakarma, also of the CPN-UML, demanded that the House proceedings be started only after the Prime Minister makes his views on the army chief's remarks clear to the house.

The National Assembly will meet again at 1 p.m. on April 1, Monday.

251,291 students sitting for SLC examination

Kathmandu, Mar. 29 (RSS): A total of 254,291 students, 200,866 of them in regular group, 41,660 in the old group of new curriculum and 11,765 in the group of old curriculum, are sitting for the April 2-10 SLC examinations, the Ministry of Education and Sports said here today.

Examination centres have been put up at 383 places and His Majesty's Government has made every preparation for conducting the examination in a peaceful and dignified manner. Since students can have access to higher education only after getting through the SLC exams, it is important for generating manpower needed for the development of the country, the Ministry said.

As it is the responsibility of all politicians, social workers, intellectuals and ordinary people to help conduct SLC exams in a peaceful and dignified way, the ministry has expected cooperation from all quarters as before in this regard.

Stating that if attempts are made from any quarters to disrupt the exams which, in fact, is linked with the future of the nation, such attempts should be condemned, the ministry appealed to one and all to help ensure smooth operation of the exams and has already issued necessary directives to form all party and parents cooperation committees to see to it that there would be no hindrances.

12 terrorists killed in army action

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, March 29: Twelve armed terrorists were killed in army action in Kalikot, Myagdi, Lamjung, Gorkha and Dhading districts during their latest search and patrolling operations until this morning.

Security personnel gunned down five terrorists in Bisauna Mirul and Tutu Mirul of Kalikot yesterday. The terrorists are learnt to have been involved in incidents that occurred in Dang and Achham in the past.

Likewise, two terrorists named "Mukti" and "Prad" were killed in Phalewas of Myagdi and one each in Ramchukhola of Lamjung and Chitre of Gorkha. The terrorist killed in Chitre, named "Nirmal" was involved in setting up an electric ambush aimed at a patrolling team of the security forces.

Three terrorists, named "Sarala," "Astha" and "Akash," were killed in Murali Bhanjyang of Dhading this morning during security operations.

The security forces defused ready-to-go bucket and jug bombs containing 15 kilograms of explosives at Chitre. Weapons, ambush-operating tools, combat dresses, large bags, Rs. 1,752 in cash receipt and documents have been recovered from the site.

Meanwhile, one Arun Shrestha of Chagal of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward No. 15 succumbed to injuries he sustained when a small team of security personnel, who were attacked by a group of young hooligans yesterday, fired at him. Shrestha was taken to Birendra Military Hospital for treatment where he died of excessive bleeding, the Defence Ministry stated. Investigation on the incident is underway.

Similarly, three security personnel patrolling the Tankeswori area near Kalimati of Kathmandu and 24 others, including innocent children, were injured this morning when a bomb placed by the terrorists in the area exploded. The injured are undergoing treatment at Birendra Military Hospital and TU’s Teaching Hospital. Extensive search is underway for the terrorists involved in the heinous act.

Meanwhile, the local people of Makawanpur and Dhanusha districts separately collected three guns each and handed them over to the security forces.

Meanwhile RSS adds: in Chautara, a group of about 15 Maoist terrorists torched nine government offices including two offices located at the district headquarters of Sindhupalchowk district last night causing loss of property worth millions of rupees.

The Maoist terrorists had poured kerosene in the go down of the Drinking Water Office located at Chautara and set it ablaze at a round 8:00 p.m. and exploded a bomb at the District Irrigation Office located about 500 meters away.

The terrorists fled after the security forces fired on them, according to peon Arjun Prasad Neupane.

The bomb explosion destroyed one room of the District Irrigation Office and cash and goods worth about Rs 200,000 belonging to the employee on duty.

The security forces defused a pressure cooker bomb left behind by the terrorists, according to DSP Ganesh Bahadur Aire.

The fire at the district drinking water supply office was brought under control by the peons of the office.

Likewise, the Maoist terrorists set ablaze the Jalbire and Dandapakhar post offices, the range post offices at Jalbire, Dandapakhar and Sukute, the road site office at Jathel and customs mobile office at Andheri and damaged a motorcycle, furnitures and official documents, according to the police.

Similarly in Charikot, Maoist terrorists yesterday set on fire local office of Nepal Electricity Authority, Soil Conservation Office and the District Post Office in Dolakha.

The terrorists set ablaze the Soil Conservation Office around 10:30 am today and completely destroyed a personal house housing the NEA office.

Twelve transformers, documents, cash of Rs 50,000, two vehicles of the NEA were also damaged on the occasion.

Similarly, they also burned down some furniture belonging to the District Post Office and two bulldozers at the mode-boramba section of the road.