BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

NEPAL HAS BEEN ELECTED vice chair for the 56th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Foreign Ministry said. Besides Nepal, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Saudi Arabia have also been elected vice chair from Asia. A total of 21 vice chair are being elected for the ongoing session of the UNGA.

THE UNITED STATES has agreed to provide a grant assistance of $18.7 million (approximately Rs 1400 million) to Nepal to implement two programs. Out of the amount, $10 million will be used to support increased private-sector participation in environmentally and socially sustainable hydropower development. The remainder would be used for strengthening governance of natural resources and selected institutions in Nepal. Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at the Finance Ministry, and charge d’affaires at the US Embassy Larry M. Dinger and Joseph C Williams, acting director of USAID, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments and exchanged the notes Friday.

THE 15TH COMMERCIAL bank in the country, Kumari Bank Limited, formally launched its operations last week. Chief executive of the bank, Surendra Bhandari, said the bank has collected Rs 600 million and made a total investment of Rs 580 million over the past five months. The bank is going to introduce tele-banking, ATM and Internet banking facilities in the near future. Inaugurating the bank, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba urged bankers to invest in big projects in hydroelectricity, tourism and agriculture. Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Tilak Rawal, brushed aside rumors that the authorities were considering devaluation of the Nepalese currency vis-à-vis the Indian currency. "The current peg is perfect," he claimed. He said Nepalese commercial banks had a total deposit of Rs 176 billion and total investment of Rs 110 billion at present.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES on Thursday ratified the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 29 concerning forced or compulsory labor and Convention 182 concerning elimination of the worst forms of child labor. Earlier, presenting a proposal in the house, Minister for Labor and Transport Management Palten Gurung said, as a member of the ILO, ratification of the conventions was essential to indicate Nepal’s strong commitment to human rights. Saying that Nepal has been selected as a model in terms of abolition of child labor in South Asia, Minister Gurung said the government was committed to abolishing the worst forms of child labor within the next five years and all kinds of child labor within the next 10 years. Members taking part in the discussion had drawn the government’s attention toward weak implementation of several such UN conventions ratified by the government.

LAWMAKERS HAVE DEMANDED clarification from the government regarding news reports that the government of India had decided to deploy a 70,000-strong elite paramilitary force along the Indo-Nepal border within a month. Speaking in the House of Representatives Monday, UML lawmaker Ananda Prasad Pokhrel said India might be trying to intervene in Nepali territory in the name of controlling Maoist activities. Lawmakers from different parties asked the government to furnish details about the reports of deployment of the Indian paramilitary force. Nepali Congress lawmaker Rajendra Kharel claimed that Maoist leaders had decided to hold talks with the government after realizing that India was trying to use them by providing them shelter.

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives has given the ‘go ahead’ to the government’s proposal to buy two MI-17 Russian helicopters for the Royal Nepalese Army. PAC chairman Subash Nemwang said Monday that after investigations they found the proposed deal in accordance with financial regulations. The army has proposed to buy the choppers, complete with night vision and other equipment, at Rs 202.69 million apiece.

A NEW UNDERGROUND party named Communist Center of Nepal (Maoist) has been formed to launch an armed struggle based on the ideology formulated by Comrade Mao Zedong. Accusing the CPN-Maoist of heading in a corrupt way and suffering from individualist tendencies, the new party has called on all communists to move ahead in the path of armed rebellion. Meanwhile, 24 guerrillas including a local Maoist commander, Comrade Firoz, in the Terai district of Rautahat have left the CPN-Maoist, accusing the party leadership of ignoring their call for taking action against Maoist cadres involved in financial irregularities, reports said.

THE MAIN OPPOSITION Unified Marxist-Leninist party has disowned recent statements made by its top leaders. In a statement issued Sunday, party spokesman Pradip Nepal said the party did not own party general secretary Madhav Nepal and senior leader K. P. Sharma Oli’s statement for forming an interim government and recruiting Maoist guerrillas in the Royal Nepalese Army and Armed Police Force.

SEVERAL POLITICAL organizations and human rights groups have flayed the government’s decision to impose a ban on mass meetings, rallies, seminar, etc., for a month in the capital, saying the move infringed upon the people’s fundamental rights to organize peaceful meetings. The local administration did not allow a couple of meetings, including one advocating peaceful resolution of the Maoist insurgency, to take place in the capital Sunday.

NEPAL RASTRA BANK (NRB) — the central bank in the country — has given Letters of Intent to set up three more commercial banks in the country. The banks receiving primary approval include the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank promoted by the Vishal Group of Industries, Laxmi Bank promoted by the Khetan Group and Siddhartha Bank Limited promoted by different professional organizations. Despite the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the country, nearly 50 applications are pending in the central bank to open commercial and development banks in the country. Officials said the growing attraction toward setting up of banks is because of good profits being made by the commercial banks. n