BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

PRODUCTIONS AT THE HIMAL CEMENT have come to a halt for the last one week after the angry local people cut-off water supply to the Factory at Chovar, at the outskirts of the capital, Kathmandu. The local people took the drastic step after the Factory management reportedly did not agree to fulfil their four-point demands. The demands included emission control and compensation to local people after carrying a study of damage to the local environment. The factory was built with German assistance in the seventies.

Queen Aishwarya visits the temple of pashupatinath on the occasion of "Teej " festival

THE GOVERNMENT HAS SHIFTED ITS post mortem unit from Bir Hospital to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH). The new unit will start functioning from Friday. In a decision reached two months ago, the Home Ministry decided that modern facilities at TUTH was more desirable than the cramped quarters of Bir Hospital, at the city centre. That decision was carried out recently, to the relief of many at Bir Hospital.. "We will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and any case we get between then, we will try to conduct the autopsy as soon as possible," said Pramod Kumar Shrestha, chief of the Forensic Medicine Unit that will administer the post mortem unit. He said that the new unit could hold upto 22 dead bodies in modern refrigerated cabinets.

THE RASTRIYA PRAJATANTRA PARTY (RPP) has said it will present a non-government bill seeking amendment to the Citizenship Bill passed by the recently concluded session of the parliament. The central committee meeting of the party on Sunday took this decision saying that the said bill was against the country's national interest. Parliament passed the Citizenship Bill by majority despite protests by all the opposition parties in the parliament. Interestingly, all the political parties, including RPP had, unanimously voted in favor of the bill in the House of Representatives. Later, the National Assembly rejected the bill by majority and sent it back to the Lower House. Only then the opposition parties changed their stand and boycotted the House proceedings that passed the bill.

EARTHQUAKE HITS NORTH OF KATHMANDUTremblor Rocks Kathmandu, Nuwakot An earthquake rocked Kathmandu and its vicinity at 10.06 AM Saturday. The epicenter of the quake was around Ghalsa village in Nuwakot district 90 kms northwest of the Nepali capital, the National Earthquake Monitoring Center said. Any damage by the earthquake has not been reported.

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE (PAC) of the House of Representatives has directed the government to complete the Kali Gandaki A hydropower project as per the pre-determined schedule. The PAC meeting on Saturday also asked the government to carry out thorough investigation into alleged irregularities in the multi-million dollar project. Officials with the 144 MW project-what would be the largest hydropower project in the country-said only 65 percent of the project works had been completed so far and it could be completed by 2002 only. Earlier, the project was scheduled to be completed within this year. In the meantime, the cost of the project have also escalated from US$ 330 million to more than 400 million dollars, officials said. The project is being constructed by the government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority through loans from Asian Development Bank and assistance from other donors.

ALTOGETHER 92,356 SHARES WORTH Rs.77.62 million were traded at the Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) trading floor during the week ending September 1 in comparison to 90,561 shares worth Rs.63.15 million traded the previous week. According to NEPSE, the market this week was again dominated by trading in commercial bank shares. Nepal Industrial and Commercial (NIC) Bank and the Bank of Kathmandu led the trading. NIC Bank shares traded at Rs.586 per share; 24,760 NIC Bank shares were traded through 365 transactions. Trading has gained momentum with declining interest on bank deposits and excess liquidity, analysts said. The weekly NEPSE index, however, fell slightly from 421.11 to 419.86 points at the end of the weekly trading.

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE (PAC) summoned Secretaries of 21 government ministries at its office last week to inquire about millions of rupees that is still missing. This year's report by the Auditor General's Office (AGO) said over Rs 50 billion in public funds were still unaccounted for, an increase of more than 7 percent in comparison to the last year. PAC had directed all the government ministries and departments to settle such accounts before, but no improvement were seen. Most of the Secretaries said the funds remained `unaccounted for' because money was given out to office workers in advance to complete specific assignments. For example, in the last fiscal year, Rs 2.4 billion was paid out as advance. Of that only Rs 1.92 billion was settled, and the rest was labeled as "unaccounted for.

THE FINANCE COMMITTEE OF THE House of Representatives has asked the government to review conditions and agreements with Khimti, Bhotekoshi and Indrawati hydropower projects. According to KANTIPUR daily, the Committee's meeting on Sunday has asked the Water Resources Ministry to prepare a detailed basis for dialogue with the concerned parties so as not to incur additional burden on the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The NEA has entered into separate power purchase agreements with Norwegian investors of 60 MW Khimti and US-Nepali investors of 36 MW Bhotekoshi projects to procure per unit power at 7 US cents and make payments in US dollars. Critics say the NEA will incur huge losses if it buys power from private power producers by paying foreign currency and sell it to local consumers against Nepali currency.

THE INLAND CONTAINTER DEPOT (ICD),' also known as 'Dry Port,' has started its operations at southern terai town of Bhairahawa bordering India from last week. According to KANTIPUR daily, Bhairahawa ICD is the second depot to come under operation in Nepal after Biratnagar ICD. The Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board, that is operating both the ICDs, is going to hand over the management of the ICDs to private sector in the future, officials said. The third and the largest ICD at Birgunj, Nepal's main gateway for foreign trade, is still under construction. The three ICDs are being constructed at the total project cost of US dollars 28.5 million out of which 23.5 million dollars comes from the World Bank loan and the rest from the government.

THE MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY, Commerce and Supplies has said there is enough stock of sugar within the country to meet the demands of consumers. There is no situation for increasing its price under the pretext of scarcity, the Ministry said. The government is determined to take action against any person or firm that harass people by creating any artificial scarcity. The state-owned National Trading Limited is now distributing sugar in different parts of the country including Kathmandu valley, the Ministry said.

THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE, TOURISM and Civil Aviation has granted permission to 34 teams from 15 countries to climb 20 peaks in Nepal during this autumn season (Sept. 1 till Nov. 15, 2000). Out of the 34 teams, two from the Republic of Korea and one from Slovenia are permitted to climb Mt. Sagarmatha-- the highest peak in the world. Similarly, four teams are permitted to climb Mt. Baruntse (7129 m), 3 teams each to Mt. Ama Dablam (6812 m) and Lhotse (8516 m). Out of 34 teams, 7 are from Republic of Korea, six teams are from Slovenia, five are from Japan, 3 from Germany, two each from France, Russia and Spain, and one team each from Canada, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Uzbekistan. Four teams are jointly participated by Nepalese.

A SENIOR NEPAL RASTRA BANK official has said the central bank will play apromotional role to push ahead the micro-credit schemes effectively. Addressing a meeting here on Friday, newly appointed Governor at the NRB, Dipendra Purush Dhakal, said the central bank has a vision to grant autonomy to micro-finance providers while it will play a role of a monitoring authority. "As cooperative and rural credit schemes are still in a growing stage in Nepal, we can learn a lot from India and Sri Lanka," he said. Credit can play a crucial role in fighting poverty but means little to the poor people if it is beyond their reach and is unaffordable, said Dhakal.

NEARLY 1,000 FORMER KAMAIYAS (bonded laborers) of Bardiya district organized a demonstration last week against, what they said, continued oppression by landlords and government's apathy toward rehabilitating them. The demonstration was held under the aegis of Kamaiya liberation movement coordination committee. Addressing a mass meeting, held 10 km from the district headquarters of Gularia, Dinesh Shrestha, the coordinator of KLMCC, said similar other demonstrations would follow to pressurize the government. The government had announced last month that all the Kamaiyas had been made free and those employing them would be punished. Activists say the government has failed to come up with any concrete rehabilitation program for the freed kamaiyas.