BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King Briendra and Queen Aishwarya at a USAID reception

THE LUMBINI SUGAR FACTORY (LSF) is trying hard to overcome losses it has been incurring over the last few years. The factory, with can crush 120,000 quintals of sugarcanes per day, is operating well below capacity because of inadequate supply of the raw material. The company suffered a loss of Rs 80 million in 1998-99. "The performance of the factory could be improved significantly with the supply of adequate sugarcane," said general manager Mohan Gurung. The factory is suffering from over-staffing, mismanagement and irregularities, reports said.

THE PAKISTAN EMBASSY IN KATHMANDU has denied reports published in some newspapers that the Nepalese government had expelled an embassy employee, declaring him as ‘persona non-grata,’ Nepal Samacharpatra daily reported Sunday. In a statement issued Friday, the embassy denied reports that the embassy had sent back Mohammed Sakhtar for allegedly supplying explosives to a Nepalese national, Rishi Ram Chalise. Police had arrested Chalise in New Delhi on the eve of India’s Republic Day.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS INTRODUCED a new policy related to primary education in five of the 75 districts of the country, officials said. Spokesman at the Education Ministry, Sundar Prasad Shrestha, said the new policy will free young students from taking regular examinations and there would be no relation between passing the examination and entering a higher grade. Jaya Prasad Lamsal of the Curriculum Development Center said the new policy would be introduced on an experimental basis for the next three years. "If we could make a policy to discourage the children’s repeating the same class and the tendency of dropping-out, primary education could be within everybody’s reach," he said. Critics, however, said the government was introducing such policies without proper study.

THE MINISTRY OF WATER Resources has said an additional technical study is being conducted at Rupaligarh and Purnagiri of Dadeldhura district only for constructing a re-regulation dam, not a main dam, under the Pancheswore multipurpose project. Whether the re-regulation dam will be constructed at Rupaligarh or Purnagiri will be determined by various technical and financial factors, the ministry clarified. Meanwhile, in a press statement, a dozen UML lawmakers have asked the government to stop what they called the Indian government’s unilateral construction of the Purnagiri dam in Dadeldhura district. They claimed the Indian action violated the agreement reached between the two countries on the Mahakali Treaty, including the Pancheswore High Dam Project, in September 1996.

SENIOR NEPALESE AND INDIAN OFFICIALS held talks in New Delhi on reviewing the five-decade-old peace and friendship treaty between the two countries and other matters. The foreign secretaries of the two countries agreed to meet at the earliest to continue discussions on reviewing the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty keeping in mind the concerns and interests of both sides, RSS news agency said quoting a statement issued by the Royal Nepal Embassy in the Indian capital. During their meeting in New Delhi last year, the Nepalese and Indian prime ministers had agreed to start official-level discussions on the issue. The officials also discussed issues relating to bilateral trade and investment, economic cooperation, border management and matters of mutual concern during their meeting. Foreign Secretary Narayan Shumsher Thapa and Indian Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh led their respective delegations in talks.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS DECIDED to extend a token relief assistance of Nepalese Rs10 million to victims of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat state of India. The government said it would also dispatch a team comprising 10 doctors to the quake-hit areas in India to provide medical assistance to the victims, RSS news agency reported. Indian authorities have said at least 20,000 people were killed in the quake on its Republic Day (January 26) with its epicenter at Bhuj in Gujarat. Several Nepalese migrant laborers working in the area are also believed to have perished in the earthquake.

THE US GOVERNMENT WILL provide aid worth US$1 million to Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, reports said. According to Robert Kerr, director of the American Center in Kathmandu, the amount comes from the $22 million sanctioned by outgoing President Bill Clinton. The rest would go to refugees in Balkans. Nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees are languishing in refugee camps maintained by the UNHCR in eastern Nepal for the last decade.

THE DEVELOPMENT CREDIT BANK Limited (DCBL) has become the second development bank to start operations in the country. The bank, said to have been set up to make productive investments in agriculture, industry and service sector, among others, has Rs 320 million in authorized capital and Rs 160 million in paid-up capital. The bank, promoted by industrialists, businessmen and professionals, has been set up under the Development Bank Act 2052 B.S.

TRANSACTIONS AT THE STOCK exchange witnessed a fall of nearly four points during the week ending February 2, the Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd. (NEPSE) said. According to NEPSE, the NEPSE index that stood at 468.41 on January 29 fell to 465.39 as trading closed last Friday. There was a sharp fall in the volume of trade despite a rise in the number of transactions. A total of 35,622 units of shares belonging to 40 enlisted companies were traded for Rs 26.9 million during the last week. The stock market has been fluctuating since late last year.