BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

Ministers and officials seeing off Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at TIA visit to India

Japanese PM To Visit Nepal

For the first time since Nepal and Japan established diplomatic relations, Prime Minister of Japan is making an official visit to Nepal. Japanese PM Yoshiro Mori is visiting Nepal on August 25. As a part of his tour to South Asian countries, Mori will pay a brief 12 hour visit to Nepal. Apart from Nepal, Mori will also visit India and Bangladesh. Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Nepal is significant especially as Japan is the largest donor country to Nepal. Meanwhile, according to the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu, the high level talks that will be held during Mori's visit is yet to be finalized. The visit is expected to strengthen the bilateral ties and increase Japanese cooperation to Nepal.

JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER Yoshiro Mori is to visit Nepal on August 25 this year, the Foreign Ministry announced here on Friday. Mori will be the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit Nepal during the 44-year-old diplomatic relations between the two countries. Mori will be visiting Nepal as part of his visit to South Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Three former Prime Ministers had visited Nepal during this period. Japan is the top bilateral donor to Nepal.

The government on Friday agreed to withdraw the controversial bill introduced in the Parliament to amend some Nepal Acts amidst protests from the opposition parties. Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Mahantha Thakur withdrew the bill saying that the government had no objection in sending the bill to the concerned parliamentary committee for discussion and necessary amendments All the opposition parties had boycotted the House proceedings on Thursday saying that the bill be sent to the concerned parliamentary committee before discussing it in the full House. Speaker Taranath Ranabhat announced that the bill would be sent to the State Affairs Committee for further discussions.

The government has made it clear that the amount being received by the civil servants will not be reduced once the scale of new salaries come into force. According to highly placed source at the Ministry of Finance, the amount being received will be more than the proposed salaries in the public corporations, adding that the government has no intention of reducing the amount received monthly and that it has been adjusted in the pay scale so that the amount received will not be reduced.

The third meeting of the high level investment promotion steering commission held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister G. P. Koirala on Friday has directed concerned Ministries to invite proposals for building a regional airport in Pokhara, for building another Ring Road in Kathmandu, for operating trolley bus services along the Dharan-Biratnagar route and advance works relating to the Kathmandu-Hetauda tunnel linking Kathmandu with the Mahendra highway. Officials at the meeting informed that a Memorandum of Understanding has already been signed for preparing a detailed study report for building a regional airport in Pokhara and for constructing MPs' quarters under BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) basis.

The Western Regional Rural Development Bank (WRRDB) has denounced the activities of some unidentified persons to snatch away installment money collected by its staff from the houses of local people. Talking to reporters at its headquarters in Butwal on Thursday, executive director of the Bank, Dhruva Khatri, said such acts were being committed in the name of underground Maoist party for the last four months. He said the hooligans even physically abused the bank staff. He, however, did not divulge the total sum of money looted by alleged Maoists. Khatri demanded immediate action against the culprits after identifying them.

The shares of Nepal Industrial and Commercial (NIC) Bank continue to dominate Nepali stock market for the last five weeks. According to the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Ltd., a total of 18,000 shares amounting to Rs 8.82 million were traded through 318 transactions last week. During the week (July 24-28), the volume of transactions decreased by Rs 11.724 million in comparison to the previous week. The weekly NEPSE index in comparison to the opening hour of the weekend has witnessed a slight increment by 1.63 points to 356.44. On the basis of transactions, commercial banks are still far ahead than sectors like manufacturing, hotel and insurance, the Stock Exchange said.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and leader of the main opposition, CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal shared same views regarding the controversial issue of inheritance of paternal property to their offspring. Both of these leaders said on Wednesday that the inheritance should be based on 'will system' as is widely practiced in western countries. "The concept of will system must be introduced in our country just as in the west," said Koirala at a workshop on gender equality organized by UNDP in cooperation with parliament secretariat. The opposition leader, Nepal, too, advocated that the " inheritance right of parental property should be based entirely on personal will. They, however, said the views were personal and needed more discussion within their respective parties and parliament.

Forest guards in Jhilamila area of Shukla Phanta wildlife reserves in far-western district of Kanchanpur district opened fire at a group of poachers on Tuesday night killing an Indian national and injuring other three. Chief warden at the Reserves, Yuba Raj Regmi said the poachers were spotted by the Royal Nepali army personnel posted at reserves near the Indo-Nepal border area. Regmi claimed that the guards had opened fire in self-defense after the poachers fired at them. The poacher had sneaked into the protected forest area after crossing the Chaudhary River on a boat and had already killed a deer.

Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), a non-governmental organization, has amended royalty rates for 12 peaks with effect from January 2001. According to the Association, 1-4 member team will have to now pay 350 US Dollars, 5-8 member team will pay 40 US Dollars per person and 9-12 member team will have to pay US Dollars 25 per person. The Association has classified Hiunchuli, Singchuli, Mera, Kusum Kangru, Kwangde, Chulu West, Chulu East, Island, Farmacho, Lobuje, Ramdung and Pisang in Group A whereas Tharpuchuli, Khongmatse, Ganjala Chuli, Pokhalde, Mardi Himal and Maldor are in Group B. The Association said the increase in royalty had to be made to support International Mountaineering Museum in Pokhara, the Kankai Mountaineering Memorial Garden in Kakani, the welfare work for professional mountaineers and the cleaning up of Himalayas, among others. The government has authorized NMA to collect royalty for selected peaks.

The shares issued by Hotel Radisson to the general public has been oversubscribed on the second day of the issue, a record in itself, reports said. General Manager with the NIDC Capital Markets, that is managing the public issue of the five-star hotel, said they received applications for 1.25 million shares on the second day of the opening. A total of 1.25 million shares were floated quoting 100 rupees for each share on Tuesday. The hotel, managed by Oriental Hotels Limited had gone public on Tuesday.

The central working committee (CWC) of Green Nepal Party, met recently to discuss the prominent issues facing the country including that of the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's visit to India. The CWC meeting asked Prime Minister not to tremble while raising issues of removing Indian military presence from Kalapani, seeking Indian mediation in resolving Bhutanese refugees problem, reviewing the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, implementing DPR of Mahakali Treaty and seeking permanent solution to problems of flood in bordering areas including that in Laxmanpur and Gaur during the talks with his Indian counterpart The meeting also discussed the bill to amend Citizenship Act, which was passed unanimously by the Lower House but returned by the Upper House. The Green Nepal Party has welcomed the agreement to enforce the system of warranting identity cards with photos for air travelers between Nepal and India and has asked the respective governments to follow the suit in land travel as well. The party has welcomed the government's decision of abolishing the system of Kamaiya saying that the decision should have been taken immediately after the restoration of democracy. The meeting also termed as baseless the rumors that HNP President Kuber Sharma was planning to enter Nepali Congress. As HNP has already become a member of worldwide green community, there is no possibility of its merging with other parties.

A few days back a young working girl Sarita Rimal aged 14 was alleged to have been raped and murdered at the residence of Bhairab Prasad Lamsal, a sitting judge at the Supreme Court of Nepal. The police is investigating the incident. Meanwhile, interested political parties have tried to politicize the crime. It is also reported that the political party is trying to take revenge on the judge for some adverse decisions against it. Judge Lamsal when contacted told this reporter that the law will take its course and nobody is above law. "It is a pity that some political party is trying to involve me unnecessarily trying to assassinate my character," said Lamsal.