BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

THE SECOND POLICY DIALOGUE on poverty eradication in South Asian nations concluded here on
Friday. Organized jointly by National Planning Commission, SAPNA of Sri Lanka and SAPPROS Nepal, the program aimed at exchanging views on poverty eradication and working out future strategies. Poverty eradication programs are now in operation in the SAARC countries mobilizing local governmental and non-governmental organizations for poverty eradication. A total of 45 persons from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the two-day seminar.

THE EVEREST BANK LTD, A JOINT VENTURE bank, has gone up by 50 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal year in comparison to the same period last year. The bank's operating profit stood at Rs 38.81 million over this period. The deposits and advances of the Bank grew by 84 and 75 percent respectively as compared to the corresponding period last year. Recently, the Bank has opened its tenth branch at Teku in the capital.

JAPAN BUDDHIST FOUNDATION has agreed to assist the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) for the repair and preservation of the Mayadevi temple based in Lumbini — the birth place of Lord Buddha. As per the agreement, the repair and preservation works will be carried out under the direct leadership of Nepal. Mayadevi was the mother of Lord Buddha. An agreement to this effect was signed here on Wednesday. Earlier, the Nepal government had said that it will renovate the temple on its own.

THE TREKKING AGENTS ASSOCIATION of Nepal (TAAN) and Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) have called upon the government to approach the Indian government and the Indian Airlines (IA) about resumption of the IA flights to Nepal. The IA had cancelled all its flights to Nepal immediately after its IC814 flight on the way from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked in December, last year. "Although much time has passed since the suspension of IA flights to Kathmandu following the plane hijack, no concrete step has been taken to tackle the adverse impact that this had had on tourism in Nepal," the agencies said.

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS HAVE have called upon both the government and Maoist rebels to stop the violence and murder and resort to peaceful ways. Participating at an interaction program organized by high level committee formed to find ways to resolve the four-year-old Maoist problem, the activists have urged both the sides to open dialogue. They also demanded that the government should immediately constitute the Human Rights Commission. The officials also agreed to make a public call upon the rebels for a dialogue. According to official statistics, nearly 1100 people have lost their lives in the violent "peopleís war" launched by the underground Maoists.

TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAVE been allegedly misusing the fund set up at the Home Ministry to "buy" information related to security, Kantipur daily reported today. The documents sent by the Home Ministry to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament showed that a total of Rs 16 million was spent during the last fiscal year, up from Rs 14 million the previous year. The secret fund, known as "secret expenses related to peace and security" is supposed to be used for security purposes. PAC officials have, however, suspected that the fund is being misused for political purposes as the expenses from the fund are not subject to auditing.

THE FOREIGN AID COMMITMENT to Nepal has doubled by almost two-folds in the first six months of the current fiscal year 1999/2000, Kantipur daily reported. According to official sources at the Finance Ministry, foreign aid commitment touched 11.21 billion rupee in the first half of this fiscal year, up from Rs 5.71 billion over the same period last year. Out of the committed aid in the last six months, the amount of grant (Rs 7.4 billion) exceeded that of the loan (Rs. 4.06 billion). According to officials, the grant will be utilized for the construction of Sindhuli-Bardibas road and expansion of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), among others.

A GROUP OF SUSPECTED MAOIST rebels looted a tourist bus carrying 15 Polish tourists and five Nepali nationals at Maligaon in Dolakha district on Sunday afternoon. The rebels looted cash worth Rs 200,000. and goods worth Rs 100,000. There were no reports of any assault on the passengers.