BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King Gyanendra accepts credentials from new chainese Ambassador Wu Cong Yong

AN OPPOSITION LAWMAKER has said the Nepal-India Trade Treaty of 1996 should be modeled after the South Asia Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA). Taking part in an interaction organized jointly by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI), UML lawmaker Dr. Dilli Raj Khanal said the Nepal-India trade treaty should be in line with the concept of economic liberalization, SAPTA and attention should be paid to reducing the Rs 23 billion trade deficit with India. FNCCI President Ravi Bhakta Shrestha said the trade treaty should be renewed to promote trade, investment and tourism between the two countries.

SEVENTEEN MORE PEOPLE were killed in landslides in Arghakhanchi and Gulmi districts in western Nepal. Six people from the same family died when the house of Tej Bahadur B. K. at Arghatosh village development committee in Arghakhanchi was buried. A rescue team has been dispatched to the site, officials said. In a separate incident, 11 people died when a number of houses were buried under massive landslide that occurred following heavy downpour at three different places in Gulmi district Tuesday night. Hundreds of people have been killed in different parts of the country due to flood and landslides after the advent of monsoon this year.

THE UNDP’S SUB-regional resource facility (SURF) office was formally launched in the Nepalese capital Tuesday. The SURF has been recently set up in Kathmandu to strengthen UNDP’s position as a provider of high-quality advisory services to countries in South and West Asia. The SURF Kathmandu office will support nine UNDP country offices stationed in SAARC countries along with Afghanistan and Iran. Addressing the function, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat said the SURF system would further enhance the quality and timeliness of UNDP support and benefit directly to the countries of the region. The Assistant Administrator for the UNDP programs in Asia and the Pacific, Dr. Hafiz Pasha, said the SURF will serve as an in-house consultancy unit to backstop a cluster country offices, and through country offices to their host governments within UNDP’s focus areas of democratic governance, poverty eradication, environment and sustainable energy, among others.

THE GOVERNMENT OF the French Republic has agreed to provide 4,000 tonnes of soft wheat to Nepalese government under grant aid. Under the agreement, 25 percent of the proceeds from the sale of wheat in the domestic market will be used to cover the cost of internal transportation. The remainder will be used to finance projects designed to strengthen food security agreed by the two governments. Finance Secretary Dr. Bimal Koirala and French Ambassador to Nepal Claude Ambrosini signed the agreement on behalf of their governments last week.

PRIME MINISTER SHER Bahadur Deuba has said that the government would send a high-level team within three days to inspect the situation of former kamaiyas (landless laborers). He was talking to a delegation of pro-kamaiya activists who had gone to see him Sunday about the plight of the former kamaiyas. Saturday’s Kantipur daily had quoted chairman of the Backward Society Education (BASE) and a rights activist, Dilli Chaudhary, as saying that up to 200 former kamaiyas, most of them children and women, had died due to lack of treatment since the advent of monsoon this year. The activists have blamed the government for not making proper arrangements for the rehabilitation of the former landless laborers despite announcing the abolition of the system more than a year ago.

PRIME MINISTER SHER Bahadur Deuba has announced that the government would first solve the issue of citizenship certificates before distributing land recovered after imposing new ceilings. Addressing the House of Representatives amid sloganeering by the opposition Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Nepal Sadbhavana Party lawmakers Sunday, the premier said no Nepali citizen would be deprived of the advantage of land distribution because of lack of citizenship papers. He said the government would give priority to the local landless, downtrodden, ethnic and nationality groups while implementing the ‘revolutionary’ land reforms program. The opposition parties are protesting against the government’s decision, saying that a ceiling should also be imposed on all forms of property. In his address, the premier made it clear that the government would never implement any such proposal.

THE BUDGET DEFICIT SOARED in fiscal year 2000/01 due to lower growth in resource mobilization in comparison to expenditure growth, said a report published by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). According to the report, on the fiscal front, government expenditure increased by 20 percent amounting to Rs 67,836.6 million during the review year compared to 11.4 percent growth in the previous year. Of the total expenditure, regular expenditure increased by 22.6 percent, development expenditure by 16.3 percent and freeze expenditure by 10.8 percent. The national urban consumer price index recorded an annual average rise of 2.4 percent last year compared to a rise of 3.5 percent the previous year. On the external front, exports registered a lower growth of 14.9 percent to Rs 57,244.7 million during the review period compared to a growth of 39.7 percent the previous year. Similarly, imports grew by 4.5 percent only amounting to Rs 113,386.3 million as against a growth of 24 percent the preceding year. Foreign exchange holding of the banking system increased by 12 percent to Rs 105,168 million, the central bank said.

THE ROAD LINK TO CAPITAL with the eastern and western parts of the country was cut off Saturday due to landslide and erosion at Dahkikhola of Mugling-Naubise section because of incessant rain, reports said. Outbound traffic from Kathmandu has been diverted via Tribhuvan Rajpath. The Department of Roads has urged commuters not to use the dilapidated road for a couple of days until maintenance is completed. Meanwhile, RSS news agency reported Saturday that transport services have been disrupted along Arniko highway since August 17 because of landslides at different places along the Barhabise-Tatopani portion of the highway.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY of Nepal (Unity Center) has extended its support to the demands put forward by the underground CPN (Maoist) — the setting up of an interim government, formulating a new constitution and making Nepal a republic state — during talks with the government last week. In a statement issued Saturday, the ultra-left party warned the government that it would be held responsible for the ‘civil war’ that is bound to take place if the talks failed. The CPN (Unity Center) is the only communist party in the country to extend support to the Maoist demands.

MINISTER FOR LABOR and Transport Management, Palten Gurung, told the 13th Asia-Pacific Regional meeting of the International Labor Organization held in Bangkok last week that the government was developing a national master plan to eliminate all kinds of child labor within the next ten years and the worst forms of child labor within the next five years. He said a time-bound program had already been prepared for the purpose.

THE DEMAND FOR INDIAN currency doubled in towns in the Terai last week, reports said. Kantipur daily quoted Chandra Shekhar Karki, manager at the Nepal Rastra Bank, Birgunj branch, as saying that the demand for Indian currency has soared to Rs 15 million per day as against the average daily demand of around Rs 8 million only a week back. Karki hoped that the phenomenon would be temporary. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat told reporters Friday that the government was not considering revising the exchange rate between Nepalese and Indian rupees.