Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

Crown Prince Paras observes the Mountain Exhibition.

IN ORDER TO INCLUDE ALL ETHNIC COMMUNITIES and groups in the civil administration, the government is preparing to provide reservations for women, Dalit and indigenous people. Likewise, within next six months, the government is also preparing to have at least one woman joint secretary at each and every ministry. According to sources, these agenda are included in the government’s ‘roadman for governance reforms’. The roadmap, which has been prepared by the Ministry of General Administration, has been submitted, for discussion, to the Administration Reforms Commission. The source claims that within one month, the roadmap will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for final decision. The roadmap proposes setting aside 20 percent of all positions in the civil administration for women. Ten percent has been proposed for Dalit and five for indigenous people. Currently, women occupy only 8 percent of the civil service force, where people are chosen by the Public Service Commission based on open competition.

NEPAL HAS SIGNED THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION Against Corruption, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly. Surya Nath Upadhyaya, chief commissioner at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), signed the convention at the UN’s conference against corruption at Mexico.

KARNA DHOJ ADHIKARY, THE FORMER CHIEF SECRETARY, has been appointed as the new Royal Nepalese Ambassador to Republic of India, by King Gyanendra. Adhikary’s appointment to the post comes after Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa completed his tenure in New Delhi. Dr. Thapa is currently the ambassador-at-large.

THE TWO INDIAN-INVESTED COMPANIES have asked for security from the Nepalese government through diplomatic channels after they were asked for donations by the Maoists. The two companies are Dabur Nepal (P) Ltd. and Surya Nepal (P) Ltd. They have informed the Nepalese government about the Maoist demand by writing a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Likewise, they have also informed the Indian Embassy about the incident. The Maoists have asked for donations of Rs 10 million from Dabur and Rs 5 million from Surya Nepal.

THE GOVERNMENT IS PREPARING TO HOLD THE MEETING of the Nepal Development Forum (NDF) in April next year. The forum is the meeting of all major donor countries and agencies where they discuss on ways to help Nepal. Generally, the NDF meeting takes palace every one and a half year. This time, the meeting is already overdue by eight months. The National Planning Commission (NPC) and the Finance Ministry are currently engaged in the preparations for the meet. The upcoming NDF meet is going to take place at a time when many donor countries and agencies have been expressing concern over the lack of elected representatives and insecurity.

AMONG THE POLICE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE CRIMES committed in Kathmandu valley, only one-third have been successfully completed. Out of the total 471 criminal incidents in the last 14 months, the police successfully wrapped up only 195 of them. Many crimes like thefts, murder, robbery and other social crimes have gone unsolved. Although the police arrested 634 persons who committed different crimes, a double of that number of criminals are still at large, according to an internal report. Superintendent of Police at the Investigation Department Binod Singh claims that police has been successful in solving 85 percent of the big criminal cases. He, however, concedes the low success rate in solving petty crimes like thefts, pick-pocketing, frauds and so on. He said there is a severe lack in manpower in dealing with such cases.

THE KATHMANDU METROPOLITAN CORPORATION (KMC) has issued ‘Citizens Charter’ with the objective of providing fast and convenient service to its citizens. The charter includes details like whom to meet for what purposes and it also gives tentative time taken to carry out particular service. The charter was issued by the KMC board on Tuesday. Mayor Keshav Sthapit said that although the present charter may not be adequate, it is a beginning. Meanwhile, the KMC has decided provided all of its ward chairmen with mobile phone sets.

THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK HAS AGREED TO provide a concessional credit equivalent to Rs 1.77 billion (US$ 17.2 million), under the Special Drawing Rights, to Nepal for the implementation of the water supply and sanitation project. The total estimated cost of the projects is US$ 35.5 million. As per the agreement, the bank will finance about 68 percent of the total cost while the rest 32 percent or US$ 11.5 million will be shared by the government, local bodies and beneficiaries. The government will bear US$ 7.7 million, local bodies US$ 0.3 million and beneficiaries US$ 3.5 million respectively. The project will be implemented over six years between 2004 and 2009 and will benefit 1200 communities in 21 districts, states the press release. The project also aims at institutional strengthening of the DDCs and VDCs regarding the water supply and sanitation.

THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION has done away with the provision of requirement of license to import and sell cellular mobile phone sets. The provision was scrapped after the traders said the process was very tedious and useless. Meanwhile, the government is working towards imposing the provision whereupon customers will have to show the Value Added Tax (VAT) bill (of their mobile sets) before getting SIM card from the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC). The authorities believe that this move will stop revenue leakage.