Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

CROWN PRINCE PARAS BIR BIKRAM Shah Dev formally opened the World Environment Day celebrations on Wednesday as government and NGO representatives and school children congregated to honor grass-root workers, who have done a commendable job to protect the country's fragile environment. Crown Prince Paras, who is also the Chairman of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), opened the celebrations at Birendra International Convention Center and gave away this year's environment awards, instituted by the Ministry of Population and Environment (MoPE) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to various grass-root level workers and organizations from around the country. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba addressed the function. He said the government was not able to give more priority to environment preservation because of its pre-occupation with the war on terrorism.

THE NATIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION (NPC) has requested government offices to furnish details on the destruction of their physical property inflicted by terrorists so that resources could be allocated for their reconstruction in the budget of the forthcoming fiscal year 2002/2003. The NPC has asked the offices to submit reports detailing the extent of destruction based on which resources would be allocated. The district levels offices of district administration, irrigation, drinking water, forest and so on have been destroyed or damaged at several places across the country by the rebels.

THE OFFICIALS FROM NEPAL AND THE United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on operation of air services in Kathmandu on Friday. As per the understanding reached between the two countries, the number of weekly flights of designated airlines of the two countries would be increased from present eight flights to 12 per week. As per the understanding, RNAC has been designated as the sole recognized airlines on behalf of Nepal, while the Gulf Air and Emirates Air have been designated as the recognized airlines companies for the UAE. RNAC, the national flag carrier will resume its suspended Dubai flights from June 18.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS introduced Immediate Action Plan (IAP) to expedite reforms and to introduce new strategies to tackle the deepening fiscal crisis resulting from shrinking revenue and soaring security-fueled regular expenditures. The IAP specifies time-framed actions and expected outcomes. The IAP, which consists of core elements of the Tenth Five Year Plan and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, includes prioritizing public expenditures, enhancing public service delivery and promoting good governance through special focus on prioritization, implementation and accountability.

TWO NURSES DIED OF MALARIA and four others of typhoid in an outbreak of the diseases in Chitwan district. According to reports, more than thousand persons have been admitted to Bharatpur medical college and Bharatpur district hospital of which five percent were diagnosed as suffering from typhoid. There are no data, however, on the extent of malarial infection.

THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS Commission (NHRC) has criticized both the government and Maoists for violations of human rights. The commission has accused the government of violating national and international laws through arbitrary arrests of civilians and not providing information about those taken into custody. The commission had recently completed on-the-spot inquiry of human rights situation in Maoist-hit districts like Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Jajarkot since the imposition of emergency. According to NHRC chairman Nayan Bahadur Khatri, the commission has forwarded a copy of its report to His Majesty King Gyanendra. He also revealed that the commission would soon release 'human rights status report'. The officials of the commission also lambasted Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for applying double standard. "During his foreign visit, he remarked quite often that NHRC was monitoring the situation but upon his arrival back home, he remained quiet, not responding to our plea," said the officials. The NHRC received 470 complaints, related to the violation of civil and political rights following the imposition of emergency. Many complaints are of unlawful arrest and murder while only 10 percent of them relate to violation of social, economic and cultural rights.

THE SINGLE BENCH OF CHIEF JUSTICE Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya issued a show cause notice to the government in response to the petition filed by 61 ex MPs demanding reinstatement of the House of Representatives. The court has asked the government to furnish its reply within June 17. The court, however, denied the interim stay order as demanded by the petitioners.

IN A MAJOR ENCOUNTER NEAR Kathmandu, security forces gunned down six Maoist rebels during a search operation carried out in Changu Narayan are in Bhaktapur district on Tuesday morning, said the Ministry of Defense. This is the biggest casualty suffered by the Maoists in the Kathmandu Valley since they launched bloody insurgency in 1996. Those killed by the army are believed to be members of the rebel outfit, who had been terrorizing the locals in Kavre and Bhaktapur districts for quite some time. These rebels are known to have set off explosions at various business and administrative units in the districts in the past. Security forces have also recovered weapons, bombs, and items used in land mine from the site of the incident.