BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King Gyanendra receving Rakshya Bandan ( Sacred thread) at Narayanhiti Royal Palace.

PRIME MINISTER SHER BAHADUR Deuba, who also holds the Land Reforms and Management portfolio, presented the bill for the prohibition of kamaiya (bonded laborers) practice in parliament Tuesday. The bill, tabled in the House of Representatives in the last session, could not come up for discussion because of disruption in parliamentary proceedings. The bill will now go to a parliamentary committee for discussion. The government had abolished the kamaiya system through a cabinet decision in mid-July, last year but remained to formulate a law.

SEVEN PEOPLE TRAVELING in a truck en route to Dipayal in far-western Nepal died when the truck fell nearly 500 meters off the road at Bhasu along the Dhangadhi-Dadeldhura highway on Monday night. Hundreds of people die in road accidents in Nepal every year because of human error, bad roads and lack of monitoring.

LANDSLIDE AND FLOOD during this monsoon have already claimed the lives of 174 people, injured 39 others and caused a loss of over Rs. 116 million, a senior cabinet member said. Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka informed the National Assembly Wednesday that 1,396 families have been affected by the natural disasters so far. Meanwhile, nine more people were feared dead after they were swept away by the flood in Kamala River in Sindhuli district. Minister Khadka said the government had ordered relief measures with urgency in the affected areas.

THE STATE-OWNED ROYAL Nepal Airlines Corporation has terminated its aircraft lease agreement with China South West Airlines with mutual understanding with effect from Tuesday, Kantipur daily reported Wednesday. The agreement was valid until September 27, 2001. Director of publicity at the RNAC, Mohan P. Khanal, has said some of the international sectors operated by the national flag carrier would be affected due to the termination of the contract. He said the routes that would be affected would be finalized in a week. Meanwhile, Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) has denounced the RNAC’s decision to terminate the lease deal with the CSWA. The HAN said hotels in Nepal would be forced to close down if the flights to Europe were cancelled at the beginning of the tourist season.

A TOTAL OF 5,622 hectares of government-owned forests lying in sub-watershed areas in six districts including Kathmandu have been handed over to 85 community forest user groups at the initiative of the Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Project during the last fiscal year, RSS news agency reported quoting officials. According to the project, about 7,000 households have benefited from the transfer of government forests to the local communities. The community forestry user groups have sizeable number of women members represented in their executive committees.

A TOTAL OF 127,175 Nepalese people are working in 44 different countries individually or through manpower agencies, RSS news agency reported. Minister for Labor and Transport Management Palten Gurung informed the House of Representatives Thursday that over the last one decade, Saudi Arabia had the highest number of Nepalese workers (60,915) followed by UAE (33,998), 5280 in Malaysia, 2988 in South Korea and 2401 in Bahrain, among others. Industry sources, however, said the actual number of Nepalese working abroad could be much higher than that.

THE UNDERGROUND CPN (Maoist) party cadres have freed Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya, engineer at the District Irrigation Office, in the mid-western district of Dailekh whom they had kidnapped on July 23, RSS news agency reported Saturday. Upon reaching the district headquarters, Upadhyaya said the Maoists did not mete out any physical or mental torture on him. Meanwhile, the district administration in Kapilvastu has released two members of the underground NCP (Maoist) party, imprisoned under the Public Security Act. Those released include Dinesh Chapagain, 20, Kamal Kumar Shahi, 19.

THE `REVOLUTIONARY’ COMMUNIST parties around the world have advised the Nepalese Maoists not to join for peace talks with the government "at a time when they are making one military victory after other," Kantipur daily reported last Saturday. Revolutionary Communist Parties from the US, Italy, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Tunisia and Iran have sent secret e-mails to the Maoist leadership and have drawn its attention to the long-drawn talks between the Philippines government and Philippines communist party that have failed to yield results. These all outfits are members of RIM (Revolutionary International Movement) including the Nepalese Maoists. The Maoist leadership, in its response, has replied that talks too are part of the battle. "In China, Mao had moved forward by holding talks with Chiang Kai-shek in 1945. So, its appropriate here too," the reply said.

THE INSURANCE BOARD — a regulating body — has granted permission to American Life and Insurance Company (ALICO) to run life insurance business in the country. ALICO has thus become the first foreign company to run the lucrative life insurance business. Two other companies, the state-owned Rastriya Beema Sansthan and Nepal General and Life Insurance Company are the only two companies operating life insurance business in the country. A total of 16 insurance companies offer different insurance related services in the country.