Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

King Gyanendra administering oath of office and secrecy to newly appointed ministers

'THE THREE-DAY NATIONWIDE shutdown strike, Nepal Bandh, (Nov. 11-13) assed off largely peacefully amid reports of sporadic violence. Meanwhile, security personnel shot dead a suspected Maoist rebel as he was attempting to plant a bomb in front of the official residence of chairman of the Rajparisad Standing Committee, Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, at the capital's Baluwatar early Wednesday. Meanwhile, a suspected Maoist rebel. The suspected rebel was trying to escape after throwing away a bag. The bomb disposal squad later defused the bomb successfully. Dr. Rayamajhi, who was residing within the house when the incident took place, did not want to comment on the incident. The underground party, however, claimed that it was not involved in the incident.

DURING AN INTERACTION with King Gyanendra Wednesday, a senior UML leader, K. P. Sharma Oli, has expressed his views that the monarch should work jointly with the political parties. "The consultation focused on giving a logical conclusion to the on-going political chaos in the country," Oli told KANTIPUR after the audience. "The issue of whether joining the government has become irrelevant now," he said. King Gyanendra is expected to grant audience to more leaders of the major political parties, reports said.

TALKING TO A DELEGATION OF Upper House members who are lobbying for summoning session of the parliament as per the constitutional provisions, Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand said Monday that he was positive towards the proposition. He said a decision would be taken in consultation with chairman of the National Assembly. Meanhwile, chairman of the Upper House, Dr. Mohammed Mohsin, has also said that a decision in this regard will be taken in a few days. As per the constitution, there should not be a gap of more than six months between two House sessions. As then premier Sher Bahadur Deuba had dissolved the lower house of the parliament in June this year, elders have demanded that the Upper House be convened to discuss issues of national importance immediately.

DESPITE ON-GOING MAOIST disturbances, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nepal during the first three months of the present fiscal year has declined marginally by 8 per cent, officials said. According to the Department of Industry (DoI), the total FDI inflow during the period stood worth Rs 717 million, down from Rs 779 million during the same period last year, Kantipur daily reported. The DoI had approved 26 FDI foreign investment projects in the first three months last year while the number came down to only 16 over the same period this year. Of 26 total foreign investment projects approved by the department last year, the total projects cost and total fixed investment were Rs 1.89 billion and Rs 521.92 million respectively. Those projects created jobs for additional 1,123 people. "The declining trend is obvious, as the government has failed to inculcate a sense of security and proper investment environment and amend the policies and legislation," said Dr Bishwombhar Pyakuryal, an economist. The governments in recent years have been pledging changes in labour legislation and simplifying the investment procedures as measures to create investment friendly environment. "Given the current trend of investment inflow, Nepal is likely to be an exception among the Least Developed Countries and the South Asian countries, as it is being deprived of the fruits of developed world's commitment like technology transfer and FDI inflow and market access," he added.

THE MINISTRY OF PHYSICAL Planning and Works has issued various directives to organizations under it for effective enforcement of His Majesty's Government's directive to provide public services in a quick and efficient manner and to maintain transparency in all activities, RSS news agency reported. The Ministry said last Tuesday that all bodies under the Ministry have been asked to make necessary arrangements for the services they are to provide as well as the time period for the same, inform the monitoring unit at the Ministry about this and then display all related information at the offices where it is visible to everybody. No kind of construction or purchasing work under the Ministry should be carried out without approving the cost estimate, purchases or construction through quotation should be verified. Similarly, pre-qualification and post-qualification should be carried out through proper and healthy competition, the changing the contract periods, and the quality and work results in the case of construction work should be checked, variation should be considered only if it places low financial responsibility on the government, employees or consultants indulging in design of unwanted variations should be punished and the concerned project chief should monitor to discourage variations. Efforts should be made to complete projects within the stipulated time period and in case of time overruns the department concerned and the monitoring unit of the Ministry should be informed beforehand, the Ministry said.