NEWS NOTES (Spotlight Weelky)

Congress Imposes Ban On Its Lawmaker

The ruling Nepali Congress parliamentary party (NCPP) has banned its lawmaker, Surendra Prasad Chaudhari, from speaking in House of Representatives proceedings throughout the ongoing 20th session of parliament for his alleged remarks against the party’s and government’s policy. Chief whip of the NCPP, Tek Bahadur Chokhyal, registered a notice to this effect at the parliament secretariat Thursday. He later told reporters that the NCPP had taken the decision as "Mr. Chaudhary had violated the parliamentary norms by speaking in the house against the government’s land reforms program." The former science and technology minister and a supporter of party president, Girija Prasad Koirala, Mr. Chaudhary said the NCPP’s decision was ‘illegal’ and against the principles of parliamentary democracy. This is the first time since the restoration of democracy 12 years that a political party has prohibited its legislator from speaking in the house. Himalaya Times Sep. 14

Nepali Businesses Likely To Suffer

As the biggest economy in the world is yet to overcome the shocks from the fierce attacks at its key installations last week, Nepal’s economy, too, could suffer from the resultant uncertainty, a newspaper report said. According to the report, the United States is the single largest overseas market for Nepalese exports, consuming goods worth Rs 13.67 billion in the year 2056/57 B.S. Nepal’s major exports to the United States include readymade garments, carpet, cotton towels, handicrafts, paper and leather goods, among other things. First Vice President of Nepal Overseas Trade Association, Akhil Kumar Chapagain, said the recent tragedy in the United States could hamper Nepal’s foreign trade over the long run. As Nepal’s major trade partners — India, China, Japan and South Korea — also depended on the health of the US economy, the terrorist attacks could also have compound effects on the Nepalese economy, he said. "Nepal can’t remain aloof from global trends like shortage of petroleum products, recession in the capital market, inflation, etc.," he said. Himalaya Times Sep. 14 (Photo)

Telephone Distribution Hampered

The withdrawal of US multinational company Titan Wireless from its operations in eastern Nepal citing ‘security reasons’ has left in the lurch an ongoing project to expand telephone services using Wireless Local Loop (WLL) system in 537 village development committees in eastern Nepal, a newspaper reported. According to the report, the American company decided to pull out of the project following a letter issued by the US Embassy in Kathmandu in June this year saying that there were threats to the safety of the US citizens in Nepal. Officiating Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications told the Development Committee of the House of Representatives Tuesday that the project — that aimed to expand telephone services in all the VDCs in the eastern region — would be delayed by up to two years due to withdrawal of the US company. The project was launched in accordance with an agreement between the government and World Bank under which the government had agreed to provide a grant of US$12 million to the construction company out of the total project cost of US$ 70 million. Space Time Sep. 12

Himalayan Distillery Issues Shares

The recent anti-liquor campaign by an ultra-left outfit could not deter a new company from going public. Himalayan Distillery Limited (HDL) announced it was going to issue public shares worth over Rs 173 million from Sep. 13. The company is issuing 42 percent of its shares, that is 1.73 million units of shares, with a face value of Rs 100 to the general public. Set up with an authorized capital of Rs 900 million and issued capital of Rs 413 million, the distillery is licensed to produce 20,000 liters of alcohol and ENA spirit per day. Its two plants can produce 110 and 60 bottles of products per minute. Company officials said they have eyed India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Tibet autonomous region of China as well as overseas countries, besides Nepal, as their market. The public shares of what has been described as the biggest and most modern alcohol plant in the country will remain open for sale until September 21. Compiled from reports Sep. 13

Maoist Take Journalists Hostage

Human rights and media organizations have condemned the Maoist rebels for taking hostage half a dozen media persons and a human rights activist last week. According to Tuesday’s Kantipur daily, five journalists — Yagya Bikram Shahi and Kashi Ram Dangi of Kantipur daily, Sudhir Sharma of Himal Khabarpatrika, Rajaram Gautam and photojournalist Nischal Chapagain of Nepal fortnightly — and an INSEC representative from Rolpa were taken hostage for three days. They were traveling in the Maoist stronghold to cover news about the reported meeting of the Maoist politburo in the remote hilly district. They were released later. The father of Himal reporter Sudhir Sharma collapsed after reading the news about his son in eastern district of Jhapa Tuesday and passed away while undergoing treatment. Kantipur Sep. 11

Maoists Stop Transmission Of Electricity

The Maoist rebels have prohibited transmission of power to Manma, district headquarters of remote Kalikot district, from the nearby village development committee of Sannigaon, a daily reported this week. The daily quoted chief of the Sannigaon micro-hydro project, Tripta Lal Chaudhari, as saying the project planned to transmit power from 150 KW power station to Manma. He said the rebels would not allow the power to be distributed in the district headquarters unless it is made available to surrounding 13 VDCs. "It would take up to Rs 70 million to distribute power to all these VDCs, but this year we have been granted the budget of Rs 4 million only," said Chaudhary. Space Time Sep. 9

`Tenth Plan To Focus On Poverty Alleviation’

Officials have said the forthcoming Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07), too, would accord top priority to poverty alleviation in the country through more concrete programs. Addressing a workshop organized here Monday, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Prithvi Raj Ligal said the Tenth Plan would be much more broad based, goal oriented and more focused on areas like good governance and decentralization. Presenting the concept paper, NPC member Dr. Shanker Sharma said the plan has been targeted to achieve 6.5 percent of GDP growth and to reduce the level of poverty to 30 percent from an estimated 38 percent of the total population by the end of the Ninth Plan. Assessing the Ninth Plan, Dr. Sharma said the achievements were mixed. Some targets were too ambitious, priorities were weak, objectives and strategies were weakly linked and monitoring system was inadequate. Compiled from reports Sep. 12

Maoists Seize 2,000 Guns

Since the beginning of their `people’s war’ nearly six years ago, the Maoist rebels have snatched away more than 2,000 out of 29,000 guns possessed by Nepal Police and have raised more than Rs 6 billion prior to the announcement of `cease fire’, a newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting highly placed police officials. According to the report, the rebels have looted more than 62,000 rounds of bullets and several communication sets during raids on police posts in different parts of the country. An officer at the anti-terrorism cell at Nepal Police said the Maoists have been getting arms from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states of India. "The Maoists could spend billions of rupees that they have collected to procure arms from other South Asian markets," the officer said. The rebels have continued their campaign to collect ‘donations’ even after the cease-fire. Rajdhani Sep. 11

Govt. Cancels BPC’s Bid

Attempts to expedite what would be the biggest privatization offer received a setback Monday as a high-level panel recommended the government to initiate the process of re-tendering for privatization of the Butwal Power Company (BPC), reports said Tuesday. The Privatization Committee made the recommendation after it found that the bid of Interkraft Nepal — a consortium of seven Nepali investors and a Norwegian company — too low, said UML lawmaker Dilli Raj Khanal, who is one of the committee members. The sole bidder for the financial bid, Interkraft Nepal had offered Rs 730 million to buy 75 percent shares of the BPC — presently valued at Rs 1 billion. The government had opened the bid of Interkraft Nepal last month after the Finance Ministry disqualified the technical bid of the Chaudhary Group. One of the promoters of Interkraft Nepal, Gyanendra Pradhan, criticized the government’s decision, saying they were not given any chance to clarify their position. Kantipur Sep. 11